Intervention 1—-Event—-Spring Jacket
Research question: How can design develop positive connection between homeless people in Islington & society?
After the dialogue & cigarette combined method, I feel struggled for a period about what other possible methods/elements can create changes that has more impact—–allow homeless people become more active and positive to talk to me.
It is friday morning, the sunshine pour down on the earth, coated the floating dust with gold. I walked into common room of the flat, found a Shakespear laying on the ground.
I took the book up, it was the Sonnet of Shakespear. There’s sun in my eyes, every thing become fluid under the spring. Like the very first poetry of the book, provocative:
According to Donald(2004), poets, had long known for the ability of sound to evoke affect and emotions of the listeners of poetry. It has the power to create empathy between people of different background.
Action:
I extracted two phrase of the poetry, put into a small paper, roll up, like cigarettes, dubbed gift of spring.
Put them in to cigarette box, stick on my dark, coarsed jacket.
What happened?
Honestly, I am not feel very comfortable when walking on the street with cigarette pack stick on the jacket——People staring, curious, perplexed. I feel quite itching.
I walked to Kingscross, where homeless people condensed. I approached to one women sitting on side of KFC, Kingscross, and sit down. Her face is full of bumps, with deep sunken eyes, and an outreach big red nose, haggard like a wolf. Nail polish on her finger mottled into oil paint stain. But boy——she mixed Captain Morgan with Yazoo, in such a bright day.
I asked her to look at my jacket, and if is ok to have a cig.
Several people walk pass, puzzled at me. There were two girls literally got stoned, and see what is to come with the situation.
Fortunately, She didn’t feel negative about this. She was impressed after she read the note. “I am depressed at the moment but I feel happy now!” she smiled. She ask me to declaim the poem again, and conversation bubbles up. She told me about her life, and me too.
“What is your aspiration Felix?”, “My aspiration is one day I can be proud of what I did to the community.”
“Tell me what you are learning?”, “I am having my Master in Applied Imagination. It includes three phases, imagination, application, and applied imagination…..”
She is Shawn, she has 28 years of being homeless, since she is 12. I had never met someone who had spend such a large part of time in life being homeless in my previou interview with homelessness. After an one-hour conversation, I find she is the so called “extreme user” or “expert” who think and live differently.
I unpacked her key words into different areas:
Background:
“My dad’s dead, my mothers…. I don’t speak to.” “Very difficult” “I have many step dads, different dads.” “It was quite hard right up” “my mother put me into care. I was abused and she didn’t believe me, so I rebel.”
“My jobs? Cooking and sex….”
Charity, hostel, and “system”:
“They are quite corrupt in way that… they get you to one hostel, promise you a flat, but you stay in system. You move from one hostel to another to another to another, they don’t help you, don’t support you, they made money from you.”
“What do you pay? We pay service charge, we have to pay housing benefit, service charge of the hostel, some are 15, some are 20, some are 30, per week.” “They just need that money, a lot of people need those money isn’t it?”
“I do have a support worker, but she is useless, they are conflicted. I phone and get update, but they never did.”
“What happened is, you delve into drink alcohol and drug, or both, and you end up with mental health, in hostel. I had been in many hostels, I refuse to going to now.”
“Now, I go to public hotels twice or three times a week, so I can shower, talking and get rest.”
“Some in Camden, that are only £18 better, which is cheaper, easier to get the money.”
“Do they care about you when you continue begging on the street? Do they give any support to fighting drug?No, no no, very bad”
Relationship on the street:
“I know a lots of people, but I try… to…stay clear.”
“I don’t feel safe at night.”
“I don’t really meet with other homeless people.” “They focus on drug and alchocol.”
Expectations:
“I dream of studying performance art.”
“I may able to help people, when I have my place.”
“I may have to go back to the system, to get a flat, which is not good to me…”
“It’s a challenge, you have to be a strong person to be able to live this life behind”
“Can you work on design architecture? I hope there is a share zoom for homeless people.”
“It’s nice to talk to you Felix, I haven’t actually think for a long period of time!”
Then, two police and a council man come and have a chat with us. They are acqaintant with Shawn. “What are you drinking Shawn? Vanilla? It’s good isn’t it” They have no offensive at all, they consulted on Shawn’s current situation and gently asked us move.
The council man said to me in a “civilled” way:“Nice to meet you sir! Keeping with people entertained, and interested in conversation which is very important.”
After this experience, I had several findings and new ideas
Firstly, Design and the use of emotive language can potentially be an effective way to engage homeless people. Previously, I think homeless people had loss most of their ability to read and empathise. But this experience prove me wrong: it is all in the mind of beholder. Also, I feel very grateful that Shawn advised me to create a shared space for homeless people. This is a positive sign for my research development and it points out a new direction for me. However, after I test my ideas to several other homeless people and some citizens, it seems that ancient English poems are not very easy for them to interprete directly, which require me to explain further. This is what I need to improve next time, to try to put content that can easily make sense.
Second, to Shawn and a lot of homeless in Islington that I got in touch with, they complained that they had little support from agencies in society. Such as volunteers, charities, experts. From secondary research I conducted previously, I discover this is a problem of this neoliberism society that some people in the society have relative little contact with ‘regimes of the social’—–agencies that provide expert advise to assist or guide people to manage their risk/resources in life. (Carol,2009). Therefore, in order to see some of the actual circumstance of it, I plan to go to work in charities as volunteer
Also, most importantly, many homeless people in Islington rarely have a comfortable space to think, to reflect themself (both mentally and physically), and being creative. It is hard for homeless people to have a on-going constructive dialogue with others. Also, like Shawn, many homeless people are experiencing “duality of stigma”:they have low levels of resources; and they also emotionally negotiating on the edge of what is normal or safe behavior or circumstances: such as humiliation, a sense of being “nothing”( Young, 2006; Buchanan, 2004). Therefore many of them are quite lonely—–they live alone in order to avoid risks.
Reference
Young, J. (2006) Crossing the Borderline: Globalisation and Social Exclusion: The Sociology of Vindictiveness and the Criminology of Transgression, 1ON
Buchanan, J. (2004) ‘Tackling Problem Drug Use: A New Conceptual Framework’, Social Work in Mental Health
Carol. M(2009) Live on the edge: transition through homelessness, Palgrave
Norman, D.A. (2004) Emotional Design. New York: Basic Booksr