Part Three: visual sociology

The Visual Dimensions of social life

Returning to Henri Lefebvre’s three fields of space and the unity of these therein, the Physical, the Mental and the Social (action), visual sociology encompasses all too varying degrees. The physical space to be used as our canvas to build our stories, whether it is accidental action, deliberate marking or the passage of time. Mental being the causes and reasons for our actions; why mark “Everything is everything” on a wall? What state was their mind in, were they under an influence of a drug or are they just a very literal human being? Finally, the social responds to the social climate of the time, what issues affect today’s society, such as Brexit, austerity, the wars in Syria and the Refugee crises, not alone the issue of the negative branding in the media of these refugees as ‘migrants’, implying that they have a choice in where they are travelling to. Socially, you know which physical space you’re in when you have fully ‘read’ the space, you know how to behave and act, and what is expected of you. What happens then, when we interrupt this space with out-of-the-norm actions? Say walking up the escalator in the wrong direction. What is the wrong direction? And why is it wrong, who was the first person to tell you that you should conform with the flow and not try to run upstairs whilst standing still?

It is the mental barriers conditioned over our lives which withhold most of us from truly taking ownership of public space. In a world where we bow down to the car, shouldn’t pedestrian life react? The same can be taken to the outside street in Rotterdam for example, art is rife throughout the streets due to a collective movement to reinvigorate the city after the financial crash of 2008 called ‘Rewriters’. An art line was created with murals and installations, composed of different art styles and cultures throughout the city. The aim: “We want the public to ‘adopt’ this artwork and make them think that this really is their wall in town” (Anon. N. 2016) To attract a feeling of belonging and pride in their city as well as spurring projects like the crowdfunded Luchtsingel bridge, connecting Rotterdam North to its centre and infecting sprung up community projects along its axis; such as Park Pompenburg, originally a storage area it is now an area for urban agriculture, recreation and a cooperative quarter. It is now a “pivoting point within a larger network of public green” (“Luchtsingel”). In the streets of London however, unless commissioned (which it seems is a lot rarer than in our continental Netherlands partner) the artist must be quick and hurried, they must take extraneous means in order to carry out their work in making the street ‘beautiful’. We English do not seem to see the relevance of ‘extraneous art’ “Wot for?” Instead artists are kept to the ‘unseen’ areas, away from surveillance cameras along canal paths, alleyways or stairwells. All places seen to be travelled through, not to linger.