Care and Repair

Care. Care for materials, care for people, care for each other.

To be even more specific, I chose the act of repairing through which care could be translated with one another.

It was time for me to again reframe my research question.

Primary question was “Within a micro-community, how does one care for the things around them and for each other?”

secondary questions where

“What are the materials that connected people who interact with them in a household, and how?”

“How does care manifest in nascent micro-communities through the common materials that they share?”

I did a directed storytelling with one of the head chefs Baroudi from Algeria. The highlight was that he saves the heels of the bread and a few pieces of lettuce to feed it to the ducks on the way to his home after a tiring shift. Initially I thought he was preventing food waste but turns out that this was his means of connecting with the birds.

To see other examples, I interviewed a maintenance man from my building called Vasil. He is originally from Bulgaria and came to London 21 years ago seeking a job. He learnt his skills here. I saw that he sometimes used to go out of his way to help residents with any issue. Upon having a conversation with him, he says that it is in his DNA to help people and no one asked him or taught him to do so.

Blue bag on the shelf containing bread heel and lettuce

All these people that I chose to interview were picked for a reason and not randomly. I have had personal interactions with them and they are people who care for others mainly through action.

Shadowing

To study how culture has transferred into the bonds that are formed here in London I studied the student residents of a house near my college. It was important for me to know that these people had a existing bond that was evident enough in the mixture of things that they had used together. It was also important that they are comfortable with me observing them moving around the house doing their everyday activity.

At times even I participated in their daily ritual and be immersed in their ecosystem (shadowing). Following the observations, I sat down with each of them individually to ask them questions trying to direct them to talk about how they care for each other through the materials not necessarily repair. But through making, sharing and disposing.

I was frustrated that I didn’t achieve the expected results for the interview. Therefore I decided to stay a little longer and observe the things around the house by myself.