Critical Friends: Public ‘survey’ at Peckham Space (PS) and square (Sunday 26 August)
Aim: to find out what people really think about PS and art; what they think the role of an art space in Peckham should be; publicise PS current/future programme.
How: using a framework of four pre-agreed questions, we paired-up and strategically positioned ourselves to catch all passers-by on the square – recording with an I-phone, Dictaphone, notes on paper, post-its. The same four questions were also presented on A3 sheets on the inside and outside wall of PS – along with a good supply of post-its and pens for people to add their responses.
What happened: it was so interesting to hear people’s views! So many people had strong opinions about what they wanted in their community: family events, a space for teenagers to hang out, activities to connect people in the community, art for people of all ages and abilities etc. So many people had never been inside the building, despite walking past it regularly: a valuable piece of information for PS to work with. Inviting people to go inside and maybe contribute to the Peace Blanket, or have a cup of tea, became a meaningful way to end the chats. And I’d like to think that all the people we spoke to now have a (positive) relationship with the space; it’s now a reality in their personal experience and something that has currency for future encounters or when they next hear something about PS. All the encounters were positive! Everyone was friendly – even people who were busy and couldn’t stop. Maybe it’s something to do with the generous gift of listening. Hopefully we’ll be able to use this information meaningfully, and act in response to comments, and create more opportunities for dialogue.
I was curious to see how this event compared with similar public interviews I helped with at InIVA in East London, as part of the Social Archive (see blog entry # 3 [9 July 2012]) a three-year project. I held this romantic view (now proved to be wrong – thankfully) that people in East London had more to say and were more informed. Maybe the negative media coverage about Peckham is hard to shift, unless made conscious and openly addressed and counterbalanced by real-time positive experiences.
It was surprisingly easy to do – and so enjoyable to connect. I see this as one of the benefits of working as part of a collective. I think I’d get too serious and bogged-down in planning detail and ‘what if’ scenarios if I was doing this alone. Also, the freedom of working with a smaller gallery, rather than a big institution, allows for spontaneity and the individual approach. Although I was very impressed by the ‘feedback boards’ at the entrance to Tate Tanks: they were crammed full every day with comments and an open-faced gallery assistant armed with a clipboard was chatting to passers-by (or was she censoring the comments?).
