Live - CIJ Project
1 month
Our research has found a recent contract from the PFI renewing roads and street furniture in the borough of Hounslow.
We went to the location expecting to find differences between Hounslow and neighbouring boroughs but the border was impossible to locate. So we made it an aim to make the border visible and to do this we needed a contraption. [Image on the left] The contraption is the communication tool that forces us to go directly to residence houses and its exposure made pedestrians come to us. The contraption requires water for it to perform and to do that, we go directly to residence homes from neighbouring boroughs and ask them for water. Using 2 containers, one for Hounslow and the other for neighbouring boroughs, can fill up to 2 litres of water and becomes an interaction tool to engage with residences. When containers are filled with water, they are secured onto the platform then water travels down through the tubes and flow together to draw the water line. The red represents the privatise Hounslow borough and the white represents the neighbouring boroughs, this is to visualise the split boroughs and we mark the split with water. The two hivis disguises us to look a little more official and a little less intimidating. |
Our intentions was to approach/be approached pedestrians and knocking on residence houses and a lot of the time, the pedestrian will approach with curiosity and the residence will just be pleased with giving out water.
With this, locating the border became part of the act of getting people to talk to us. We will intentionally ask people questions we already know the answer to just to communicate our knowledge about the PFI to them.
With this, locating the border became part of the act of getting people to talk to us. We will intentionally ask people questions we already know the answer to just to communicate our knowledge about the PFI to them.
The device becomes the subject for conversation to start and we inform them of PFI intentions, the People vs PFI organisation and the NHS hospitals closure if they stick around.
We got different emotional responses from people we talked to and we sparked some emotional outrage from a few residence.
One of them lasted about 40 minutes. She is a residence in Hounslow borough and expressed her disgust about the PFI.
We got some interest pedestrians and with them, we let them know about the organisation “People vs PFI”
An elderly couple approached us and pressured us about the contraption and our purpose for being there.
They did not seem pleased until they told us they are residence of Hounslow and they had knowledge about PFI and the contract. They did not seem to care.
Children were attracted to the contraption the most but they were the most difficult to talk to, but because they accompanied by an adult, we inform the adults about privatisation and what the contraption does and that was the moment the children learnt something.
Members and photography: Mithi Nguyen, Valerya.Z and Claire.L