Exploring Tea with Stangers

This concept is to have people grab a stranger off the street and invite them to have afternoon (or morning) tea with them.  This is to encourage people to talk to someone new and be social with people who they wouldn't normally talk to.  An explaination of the thesis could be placed on the table - hopefully resulting in coversations.

This idea feels a little bit derivite of the concept tha twas showen to us during our prac - the one with people taking a picture next to each other with their arms around each other for free coffee.  This makes it less appealing for a final idea.

Additionally the costs involved in setting up this idea don't appeal.  Having to source tables and chairs as well as the food and drink makes this idea less feasible.  Because of this, even though this concept has been identified as social, public, and physical, we've elected not to use this idea.

Exploring "Internet is Public Space"

The Internet is Public Idea is exploring the idea that our public spaces are now on the internet and showing this by taking the internet public space and putting it in physical - more traditional - public spaces.  The idea is to get people thinking about how we are still a very social species but the way that we socalise has now changed.

The idea can be taken in an additional direction by having two locations set up and what people write on one location appears at the other.  If the sites are in the same park a person might write something at one location and then go to the other and find their post on that wall then it might get people thinking about just how social and public that the internet really is.  How you think that you are just putting something up in once space, but then it also appears somewhere else.  Doing this will add an additional aspect to the thesis and might distract from the original point, or add to it.

This idea is appealling because of the feasibility.  The materials are simple - pens, paper, instructional posters, and maybe post-its.  The main concern for this project is going to be selecting the right space.  There needs to be a lot of people walking by, but they need to have the time to stop and explore the installation.  A site like South Bank would probably be the best place to install this installation - lots of people who aren't in much of a hurry.

Public Spaces are Anti-social

Thesis:  Utopian or dystopian interpretation of “Public spaces are anti-social spaces.”

Used to be that people grew up within 20/30 miles of where they were born.  They knew the whole community - literally - because those were the people they spent their whole lives with.  Now people move around more and don't know their immediate neighbours, interacting only with people with the same interests or traits as themselves.

To get people having meaningful interactions they have to be in a space they wanted to go to and want to stay in.

http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/phsyical-social-environment/places-for-interaction/main

There is a trend in modern times to have a reduction of the number of public spaces - many of them becoming privatised.  Public spaces are being used less.  The distribution of public spaces is also unequal (wealthy suburbs get more greenspace).

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01944360108976352

Face-to-face interpersonal communication - has been altered by media consumption.  

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1991.tb00022.x/abstract

What constitutes a public space?  Why do people go there?  For example a train station could be considered a public space, but people only pass through so little social interaction occurs there.  A park is a public space and people go there with friends and family to talk and interact with each other, but you rarely interact with strangers in a park - we actively discourage children from interacting with strangers (particularly adults) in parks - is it any wonder we don’t meet new people in parks.

Idea:  Serve tea (actual tea) and have people sit at tables with other people whom they don’t know, encouraging communication with strangers.