I have posted this as it illustrates perfectly what I wish to avoid within my project. I have made a few hard but necessary decisions during the past few days about which direction I feel my project should veer. I have been thinking about the potential for the design of interventions, environments, infrastructures, systems that focus on food, cooking and growing within the realms of poorer, often neglected environments. Not necessarily estates but areas that are infested with social illness, perhaps paying particular interest to the disenfranchised youths that have limited avenues out of their current situations.
I feel a compulsion, an innate impulse to operate within this context, it stems from a belief that enterprise, education, creativity and inspiration are key factors in elevating these socio groups from their particular current circumstances. Many disciplines could be regarded applicable in terms of a their process for elevation but personally, food is my penchant which as an area is vast and encompasses an array of factors from the practical side, cooking, preparation, organization, communication, management, self-discipline to the other factors, agriculture, provenance, sourcing, origin.
Already a thought of my own but more eloquently penned by Carolyn Steel in her book 'Hungry City', food generally speaking and the channels by which it travels logistically through the city have virtually all but vanished over time, simultaneously removing many of its benefits. These include visibility of food and systems informing decision making, numerous social dynamics alongside the more sensoral qualities of touch and olfactory. My previous brief documentary, ‘Material Economies’ highlighted the issue that a large percentage of people have little idea about where what they eat comes from or how it is made, with a startling number believing Sainsbury’s actually manufacture in store.
Food, cooking and education has many documented benefits within society, it shapes attitudes, forms manners and attitudes to life, compare the Morelys chicken eater to the organic bean sprout shopper, both socio groups are imbued with deep seated traits over their food choices .
Having spent two weeks on the Doddington and Rollo council estate in Battersea, I feel that the potential for a food centered intervention is valid and could potentially be something that could be rolled out across the city, however it makes it self manifest.
One final point, with the council estate exercise, interviews with residents and shop keeps, children and adults revealed a somewhat sinister attitude the council housed towards the estate as a whole. Most of the estate 3 parks were closed permanently according to a number of residents, the lights around the estate were switched off the moment night descended in order to prevent the estates youths expending their energy constructively. Why?
What not to do…
In this documentary for ITV, the Duchess of York descended her royal prowess on to a housing estate in Manchester for 10 days to attempt to assess and potentially regenerate this example of 'Broken Britain'. Talks with residents, shop keepers, locals and people surrounding the estate were undertaken, and as expected, manipulated by the producers of this ITV documentary to conjure up an image not unlike the that portrayed in Shameless, the sitcom which is shot not too far from this location. The residents were understandably furious as is evident from the imagery and footage above. Fair enough though, £40,000 was raised and ploughed in to a 'prosaic' community centre, but in the grand scheme of the estate of 66,000 people the efforts were acknowledged but deemed somewhat hollow. This is something I wish to avoid with my project; I want to implement something on a realistic scale that will have some impact. My target age group has been identified and so from now in I need to investigate realistic channels to further my quest.
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/theduchessontheestate/ep1wk34/default.html
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