Michael Godsall
Our project for the ‘ Mapping the Local ’ block seminar was conceived and executed over three days . It started of with our inspiration from two random words picked out of a box ; crime engines .
The small amount of time ; only 3 days meant we forced ourselves on the first day to settle on an idea . In retrospect this was a very good idea but at the time , it felt really difficult and that we were forcing out something quite artificial .
On the evening of the first day , we eventually combined a number of ideas and thoughts into one project ; demarcate . We would cordon off certain areas of the street in Budapest with ‘ rendorseg ’ ( police ) to record the crime committed in the space . Lastly we had to decide whether this would take place in a place like Rakozci ter , a poorer area with a higher rate of crime recorded , where we had spent time conceiving the idea whilst being confronted by innumerable rough sleepers making a home for themselves amongst the street furnishings , or a place like Rómer Flóris utca in the 2nd district on Buda side , with one the lowest recorded levels of crime in Budapest .
We decided on the latter , could these spaces also be engines for crime ? How would people react to the police tape ?
Working in a group at times was very challenging and I found at times that 1 or 2 people were carrying the rest of the group . However having finished the project within a few days , I thought the outcome was very good . It was thought — provoking public intervention exploring a contentious topic within the city of Budapest . It was particularly interesting to see how people reacted along the way , bringing out the biases and prejudices of passers-by to certain areas of the city . At times , our intervention went completely unnoticed , and at times people were completely perplexed to see police tape in such a place .
110