Intervention write-up

Hi guys, so I chose St Pancras International for my observation+intervention.

leaflet:

poster:

I think it came together quite well. One thing that I wasn't expecting was just how much like a criminal I'd feel... just after putting a few posters up and scattering some leaflets, it felt like everyone was watching me and I couldn't help thinking the CCTV cameras were trained on me (panopticism in practice...) Of course, nothing happened, and it was a genuinely empowering experience, not something I would have considered doing before 'just in case.' One of the posters was stuck next to an escalator, and had a constant stream of people tearing past it to either get on the tube or exit the building. The leaflets made people look twice, too... as they went to sit down.

These huge buildings that make up the city have what I suppose you could argue is an intense feeling of 'non-place' (Augé) they have no history, and their 'character' really resides only in a lack of anything notable, exciting. People like them because they are predictable, safe.

This is easily demonstrable in just how 'out of place' my posters/leaflets look against the normal great swathes of monotonous glass/brick/steel etc. It was nice to subvert that a little, but if the level of cleaning that went on at 2:00am this morning is anything to go by, I don't think any of my print-outs will last very long...