While looking at the footage of the event we did in november at Lowry house in London: “shared spaces across ages” Ines came across a moment when Joy was talking about the communal living room and expressing her concerns. “Have you ever seen a brown ceiling, they have been saying for a long time that they were going to repaint the room and change the curtains but I am pretty sure this won’t happen before I die.” We wondered if we should put it into the video as Joy passed away a few months later, at the same time we felt it might be a way to pay tribute to this strong headed but always kind woman. As she predicted nothing has changed in the communal living room.
This event: “shared spaces across ages” was organised by El Warcha at Lowry House, a shelter home in Tottenham (retirement home) where we have weekly workshops. Age segregation tends to exist across many levels; different age groups have different time-schedules, people live in different spaces, and access different services. However it seems critical to work toward spaces that integrate different generations; and programmes that aim at breaking isolation in favour of dialogues across the generations. This networking event and conversation was an opportunity to explore how creative practices can inspire an age diverse environment and how to address the challenges at stake.
The discussion started with presentations by artists and academics and was followed by a discussion where everyone in the room could engage. The atmosphere was layed back, most of us had a glass of wine and were seated in a circle, we also had some nice home made quiche to nibble on. Sophie Handler, urban researcher presented her Alternative Age-friendly Handbook; Mike Jenn told us about the Man’s Shed; and Alice Theobald, video-artist presented her film ”we may believe or we will never know” on her experience of working jointly with teenagers and elderly people.
At some point during the discussion some of the residents from the home started to voice their discontent regarding the way the shelter home was run. While the discussion had been quite general with a mix of theory and practice, the way they addressed everyone was really specific and to the point. There were no representatives of the local authority around but Peggy and Costa had a clear message to whoever was listening. In our mind bringing artists, practitioners and academics to have a discussion was an opportunity to have a public debate, to inspire people and be creative. What we may have overlooked was how much this format actually resembled a council meeting. We were all seated listening to knowledgeable speakers and people had to wait their turn to share their views.
Mike who presented the Men’s Shed however made quite an impression on everyone. Mike is in his late seventies and one of the founders of the shed in the Uk, a workshop for elderly men to get together with now more than 400 groups across the country, a sort of modern version of the working men’s club of the 19th century. His presentation was really simple and down to earth, talking about the benefits of being active and getting together to build things. But perhaps more importantly he was the living proof of what he was preaching, having cycled all the way from Camden to Tottenham and showing a lot of passion in his talk. Peggy joked about the fact that he was probably one of those “vegans”. Point being Mike didn’t try to mix politics, art and culture, his message was simple and relatable.
Reflecting on this event with Ines we realised that, while the evening discussion was centred around the age differences and the idea of shared spaces, what was really at play was the issue of agency. Can one still be an actor of change in his or her environment past a certain age and what would be the tools needed to support people in that process. It is something that is mentioned by Sophie Handler, in the video when she talks about active citizenship. Our idea of starting a design studio in a shelter home was to give residents the tools and space to come together and eventually start making small changes to the spaces they inhabit. The context of the council run shelter home was an ideal environment to test new approaches. Over a year we tried different types of activities. The format was quite simple, a drop in sessions every monday where people came together, had a cup of tea and eventually made something together. Eventually our workshop was understood by most residents as a form of social activity, something to pass the time and not necessarily as we hoped for initially, as a vector of change. Some of the furniture we had made together for the communal living room or even the artwork on the wall was regularly criticized and change was not always welcome. It seemed that people were a lot more interested in making things for themselves, Gloria wanted a table for her sewing machine, Costa needed a shelf, but making things for the communal lounge was not a priority, maybe more importantly it was the responsibility of the council and not themselves. Also keeping people interested was a real challenge and no matter how much we tried different activities we still had difficulty to gather people around.
As I was talking to Martin, one of the participants and local artist, on the phone about this and our role in Lowry house he got a bit frustrated at what he described as a dull and uneventful environment. While we reflected on why some people seemed uninterested, Martin argued: “People don’t get the full picture of what retirement means in this country, people who are no longer working have a low social status. They are not the ones trying new recipes, they are not making any of the products you might buy, they are not the ones who are going to get you a drink on a friday night, you are not going to date one of them. In the end they give up fighting, they don’t even compete among themselves. The only thing to do is to watch the telly.”
Martin went on to talk about soap opera, his dad was from Manchester and even though he had a day job in a factory he would also do creative projects on the side, he was a poet and a writer. In the 70s he was asked to do some script writing for Coronation Street (the most famous british Soap opera of all time set in Manchester), eventually he helped create two famous characters. He helped develop Hilda Ogden and Elsie Tanner, two strong headed women. As Wikipedia puts it Elsie is “feisty and bolshy” she is dubbed as the "siren of the street throughout the 1960s". Hilda’s name in the meantime is synonymous with a classic hard-working Northern working-class woman. Those women are the old strong headed icons of the working class, they are loud and have a big say in the community. “You don’t see these types of characters on TV anymore. Elderly people are not at all represented in the media, what do you think it does to you when you are watching TV all day? The only person they can relate to is the queen, at least it is someone their age. It is one of the rare superstars over 90 that you can still see on tv.”
While the fictional characters from Coronation Street are strong reminders that our understanding of growing old and being part of a community has radically changed over the years. It also shows that the artists and the poets (script writers) may have a role to play in shaping our imagination and broadening our views on what it could look like. We felt after the event that maybe our attempt of mixing creative practices and certain community issues had not been entirely successful. However we realised that communication was not a straightforward process. As Alice mentioned maybe this is where “Imagination can be used as, the most important tool for empathy”.
by Ben & Ines