safety | free from harm?…The complete project

 












This project began as a large group project for our Process module. Initially a group of 10 of us were put together and assigned two different, juxtaposing locations in London. The aim being to observe, record and assess each area, finding ways to link them together and come up with concepts from them which we could further develop into a project. The two locations we researched were Tolworth roundabout and Chessington world of adventures. After all the initial research stage of the project we came up with some initial concepts which we went on to develop. They included safety, escape, entrapment and general well-being. The project went through some experimental stages and divided into smaller groups as different concepts and ideas came together. I formed a group with Susanna Kingston and we focused on the questioning of the term safety. The idea that what some people consider to be safety can seem to others seem a form of entrapment. We wanted to create an experimental, sensory piece of work that involved the participation and interaction of other people to succeed. For our exhibition we created an elastic cage and placed it in the very public location of the university canteen, a place that is so busy at certain times of day that it would hopefully force people to sit inside it. We wanted to determine peoples perception of this space/object, whether it would be positive or negative and whether the people who sat inside it experienced a feeling of safety or entrapment. The results were surprising in that we expected a lot of negativity but instead got mostly curiosity and positivity. People sat inside it and experimented with it at busy times but also at very quiet times when they would have been able to sit anywhere else. The project was extremely informative regarding peoples behaviour and reactions. By secretly video documenting the cage we were able to observe the behaviours and reactions of people in a truthful way.