And so it begins…

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

St Pauls Cabot Circus residency.

I’ve decided to do my residency in two adjacent but culturally disparate areas of Bristol. St Pauls (where I live) is a much maligned district. There always seems to be a negative connotation underlying any reference to the place. Sensationalist hyperbole about drugs, gun crime, riots and muggings is, in my mind, as dangerous to the community as the (often exaggerated) problems it alludes to.

You can buy four giant plantains for a quid at my local shop; they never mention that in the local press. Or the fact that not far from my front door some of the most amazing graffiti in the country mocks the crumbling opulence of walls built from the bloody plunder of the slave trade. Or last but not least, the fact that its home to the Star and Garter, the best reggae pub in the known and unknown universe. That probably seems like an impossible boast, what with the quality of reggae pubs in the unknown universe being inherently unquantifiable. But until someone says they know a place on Andromeda Two where you can listen to an eighty year old man spin Tenor Saw whilst you spill cheap rum and flat coke down your top, I stand by my claim.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a romanticised view of the place; it has serious issues, mostly related to poverty and cultural isolation. I just feel that negativity breeds negativity, especially when it’s the product of an ill informed perspective.

The second part of my residency will take place at Cabot Circus, a shimmering citadel of insistent prosperity. I haven’t spent much time there yet, but if you’d like to know my first impressions read my previous posts.

At this stage I can’t predict which elements I’m going to derive the most inspiration from so I’d like to keep things pretty loose in terms of research and development.

I’ll primarily be observing how people interact with each respective location, focusing on societal pressures and how these affect mood and behaviour. I want to look at how people use each location. Why they’re there and what motivates their activity. I also want to look at how each environment is perceived and whether this perception bares any correlation with reality. Ultimately I hope to compare the two places, juxtaposing them and perhaps even looking at where parallels can be drawn.

So basically I’m poetry Poirot for the next few weeks. I’ll be mooching around, chatting to residents and workers and hopefully getting an angle on how they feel their lives are impacted upon by the social, architectural and fiscal composition of each landscape.

Ego dictates that ultimately I’ll be relating all this scrutiny to my own experiences. The plan is to create a collection of observational writings with an emphasis on the minutia that influences people’s lives. I want to consider the little things that shape our day emotionally and explore how it’s often the debris from larger socio-political and economic factors that manipulates our thoughts and actions. Ultimately, I think I’ll be focusing more on how environments shape people, rather than how people shape environments.

Anyhow, thems the nuts and bolts.

Be lucky xx

St Pauls: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pauls,_Bristol

Cabot Circus: http://www.cabotcircus.com/website/default.aspx

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