Reconising community as a cohesion of construct based on traditions within the language of us and them, inside and outside opens up the possibility to understand community in terms of a non cohesive diversity of people actively constructing a contingent picture of themselves as the same, to serve as one protective group. It seems this construct of community provides an excuse for solidarity rather then bringing people together in social action.
The idea that ideal communities are built upon relationships that require being in the same place at the same time is denied by the complexities of contemporary urban life and the need to extend outside of small independent units. City life encounters diversity and conflict as well as commonality; where small social groupings do exist they tend not to relate beyond themselves and engage with dwellers whom they stay strangers. It therefore becomes increasingly difficult to mediate a decentralized equality where social relations can form and community’s can develop.
Residential areas embody the opposing differences of city life within one street. Residents encounter each other daily, often remaining strangers and yet acknowledging their contiguity in living and the contributions each makes to the others lives.
Inside/outside sought to represent a collective way of perceiving a shared space; representative not only of how residents observe there passing world outside there windows, but also how they present a view of there personal spaces to those in there shared community.
The project took place over a two week period in May with the residents of Gathorne Road Bristol. As a resident of Gathorne road, with little communication with my neighbours, its eclectic residents and sporadic housing demonstrated the variation and richness present within city communities, and verified a concentration of communal pretense.
In the interest of common unity Inside/outside asked residents to take part in photographing a moment through their window and passing the camera to a neighbour, in a process that encouraged conversation between residents. The aim was to collate these fragments of time removed from the relentless flow of moments that connect the street and form people’s lives.
Using the disposable camera and pack to mediate conversation between remote neighbours, the camera was passed in order along the street. To avoid the camera staying dormant, participants were asked to pass the camera along in succession, missing out residents who did not wish to participate.
In an attempt to breakdown the imposed barriers presented to us through communal spaces, inside/outside asked for contributions of the street from a stranger who passes it daily. Over a two week period in May 2008 the Postman local to Gathorne Road Bristol was given a disposable camera and asked to record the street the best he could during his thirty minute shift up and down.
The photographs captured a truthful remark on communal façade, displaying best the authentic rather then an imagined construct of stereotype and visual representation.
The collection of photographs was displayed in public locations along the street, accessible to everyone and united in how residents perceive there shared local environment. The images were collated into a postcard series and given to the residents that participated in the hope they might find there way into living rooms of residents in other towns and cities.
Out of the 69 houses in the street 10 households took part in the project. This publication bear’s testimony to photographs contributed reflective of the shared space of Gathorne road and highlights the communal response presented by residents.
_________Inside /Outside
24 page tabloid
Silk screened bronze / digital print
Printed on 80gsm Cyclus offset
Edition of 1
____________Photographs
Residents
Postman
_________Inside / Outside
Postcard set
25 postcards
Digital print
Printed on 250gsm Nautralis
Edition of 10