Laura Marie Judge
Our project began with the forced inspiration from two key words : ‘ crime ’ and ‘ engines .’ We discussed , as a group , the possibilities of an artistic intervention related to such a potentially controversial topic as crime — especially considering many of us were quite new to the city of Budapest and knew not of the various criminal activities that take place throughout the city . Thus , we decided to focus on a larger topic related to crime , its instigation , and then applied this lens to our local context of Budapest . With consideration to the use of the word ‘ engines ,’ we began to think about how space / place may offer specific opportunity , may instigate or act as an engine for criminal behavior . We spoke of crimes of opportunity , being those that take place due to the surrounding circumstance and are not pre-planned but rather spontaneously acted out in response to a specifically opportune situation . For this reason , we chose to investigate city spaces where public crimes had reportedly not taken place with what we perceived to be a direct connection to the institutional surroundings of each location . In other words , each location we chose ( 4 throughout the city ) was located near to either an embassy , a place of worship , a hospital , or a government building which may have influenced one ’ s resistance to committing a crime nearby .
We settled on this idea after much deliberation partially out of necessity due to time constraints which is not often the best way to begin a project , but we all felt the idea had great potential . Over the next three days we travelled to various locations throughout the city to mark crime free zones with rendőrség ( police ) tape signifying to passersby that a crime or some misconduct had taken place at this usually crime free location . We then photographed passersby ’ s responses to the police tape interventions .
In retrospect , the project would have been more effective if we had laid the tape during the early hours of the morning and returned to the locations to document response rather than having put the tape out and immediately photographing passersby as there was then a visual connection between us and the project . I had the feeling that passersby were , therefore , more interested in the students standing around with cameras than in the police tape itself .
Additionally , I felt that it was quite difficult to work in a group and develop meaningful bonds over such a short amount of time . Not everyone in the group put forth the same amount of energy and effort as the others what caused some rifts and divisions between members . Nonetheless , the project was an interesting exercise in small public demonstrations and allowed us to travel to commonly unvisited areas of the city .
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