The Big Day

On Sunday I set up my installation at the crouch end town hall and tried to involve the public- luckily it went really well! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm so happy that people took some time out to take part. The main thing I took away from the day was that people in Crouch End are much more willing to try something different or unusual and surrender themselves to a creative concept. Even people who told me they weren't that creative enjoyed responding to their surroundings in alternative ways.

I could tell some people were a bit self concious at the idea of sketching with their eyes closed or doing rubbings of different textures- Paul from the newspaper booth had a go at the 'blind' drawing and said it was "absolutely awful".

I was also quite surprised about how honest people were about the ways they felt in certain areas of Crouch End. Some said that at times they felt "slightly intimidated" or that they were a bit "frustrated". Of course people also revealed how attached they were to the area- the words "home", "comfort" and "familiarity" came up alot.

I started this project because I felt a sense of disassociation towards Crouch End. Alot of the shops were brand new, unfamiliar or part of chains; I also think that going into town every day for college and meeting people from all over London or even all over the world made Crouch seem much smaller and maybe a bit claustrophobic. But, after staging this event I'm starting to see what I loved so much about the area growing up- people chose to visit all sorts of places which I'm sure everyone who's lived in Crouch End have shared memories of. People visited the Library, stayed in the town hall, went to the clocktower, went to their own homes nearby or visited homes they'd had as children. Lots of the places were places that the whole community could visit- particularly the town hall and the library.

Staying in the town hall all day showed me alot about the community activities which still exist. Families came with their children, people came to eat lunch, some people just sat on benches and I had a couple of people come up to me asking if I was part of a demonstration which had been planned for that day.

Now I'm trying to figure out my next step in the project. I want to bring everything I've done together. I'm going to make a film of the day, but I also want to think of a way to display the information that people collected. I liked the way it was presented on the installation, but it was quite chaotic and hard to focus on each individual journey. I might make a small book of peoples findings that could accompany my installation where the information is organised and easy to follow.

Yesterday I laid out all the information that people returned to me (apart from the disposable camera photos, which I picked up this morning) so I could make more sense of what I had.