Public Xmas Cards in Windows: Experiments in Place Making

Richard Ing, 2012: Experiments in Place Making. London: RSA.
http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/581451/Experiments-in-place-making-case-studies.pdf

"Arts & Social Change is a project that belongs to the Citizen Power Peterborough programme. Citizen Power Peterborough (CPP) is a two-year programme of action supported by Peterborough City Council and RSA. The aim of CPP is to build connections between people and communities, get people more involved in public life and encourage active citizenship."

"Arts and Social Change looks at the role of arts and imagination in creating new connections between people and where they live in order to strengthen participation in community life in Peterborough.
This programme involves a wide range of projects that place artists at the centre of re-imagining the possibilities of what a place could be and how to create this together."

"The artist has to create a project design that is sensitive to local needs and that offers more than a targeted workshop approach. Ideally, their intervention should act as a catalyst for social and even political engagement. Although each experiment is small scale, it should serve to show how a more lasting change might happen."

EXPERIMENT 1: PUBLIC CHRISTMAS CARD

"On the morning of 15th December 2010, the residents of Crawthorne Street and Monument Street in Peterborough awoke to find a handwritten Christmas card on the doormat. Opening it, they found seasonal greetings from two local artists, a question and a set of five colour-coded cards. The question was: What gift would you most like to give this Christmas? Each of the cards bore a single word in capitals: PEACE, HOPE, GOODWILL, LOVE and COMMUNITY. On the reverse were some instructions: Place this card in your downstairs front window, with the COLOURED side facing out, and leave it there for one week.By Christmas Eve, 31 out of the 81 houses in these two streets had displayed one or more of the cards. Passers-by might not immediately spot what the cards said, as the chosen word was printed unobtrusively, in a lighter tone of the background colour, but the neighbours here would know"

Creative Gathering, #SocialArt by RSA in London

Arts & Social Change, a project of the Citizen Power Peterborough programme, supported by RSA.http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/public-services-arts-social-change/citizen-power/arts-and-social-change

RSA (Royal SOciety for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) is a London NGO established in 1754. Its mission is public Enlightment.

Its programme Citizen Power Peterborough is focused on citizenship connections building.

Creative Gathering is the most important action of Arts & Social Change project.
http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/707162/RSA_Arts_Social_Change-Creative_Gathering.pdf

(a) Short-term goal: space where people can meet, share & learn.  and practise. 
(b) Long-term agenda: better arts community 4 citizenship empowerment.RSA

It promotes "the role of arts and imagination in creating new connections between people and where they live in order to strengthen participation in community life".

It places artists at the centre of re-imagining the possibilities of what a place could be.

"The ‘gathering’ has emerged from a broader trend in community activism that Peter Block, in a paper entitled ‘Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community’, defi nes thus: “ We use the term 'gathering’, because the word has more signifi cance than what we think of as just a ‘meeting’. A  gathering is hosted; it is the product of an act of hospitality. Meetings are called or scheduled. They are intended for production rather than hospitality… They either review the past or embody the belief that better planning, better managing or more measurement and prediction can create an alternative future. In this way they become just talk, not powerful conversation."

André Devambez, the point of view of the highest window

The french painter and illustrator André Devambez was born in Paris, 1867 and died also in 1944, also in Paris. His most famous paintings were social-political scenes of moder street life. Frequently their works were painted from the point of view of the highest window of a building. Through that distance and in the security of his home, a neighbour looked at the dramatic scene -worry but safe-. That perspective is the modern point of view of a lot of citizens which are not involved in social issues but they are eyewitness of dramatic episodes of our urban life.

La Charge (The Police Charge), finished in 1902, is a Musée d'Orsay's painting about a confrontation between police and citizens in a street in Montmartre. Devambez achieved to show the archetype of the street confrontation between policemen and demonstrators. Police forces realize a perfect deployment against people. About these people, the painter didn't want to show their membership nor ideology because it could be anyone. The fierce and effective police prefect Chiappe had this painting in his office for a long time because it reflects perfectly the scene. Most of the features of Devambez style are there: high point of view, crowds without faces, lines face to face, urban borders, distance, risk or empty spaces in contrast with the density of crowds.

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/la-charge-7076.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=509&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=841&cHash=3c9c2d07a8

The Barricade, painted in 1911 shows the Parisian Commune and one of the famous barricade. Barricades are symbols of urban confrontations and demonstrations. Anew crowds and conflict urban borders are present. The paving stone is a relevant component of the painting and an icon of Parisian demonstrations.

http://www.mheu.org/en/timeline/barricade.aspx

1910 (Quai de Metro heure de pointe) Rush Hour Metro reflects the age of crowds and the risky modern life.

The 1915 illustration (Les tranchees) "Trenches" presents the lines of war in the First World War. The land is divided in sets because war and nobody has face: trenches are plenty of crowds. It is interesting to compare "Rush Hour Metro" (1910) and "Trenches" (1915): crowds are waiting, people are passing over the line, risk, anxiety..

In 1928, André Devambez painted the Salle Pleyel. Is it Social Art? The illustrator reflects some of his features: the high angle for the point of view, crowds without faces, distance, lines... Devambez is author of the new age of mass. Distance, division and risk are their worries.