When I first arrived at The Margate School, I began to write provocations on walls around the building. This was an attempt to get people to respond, or to get annoyed with me, or whatever else might be prompted. These had limited success in the short term with only a few (albeit great) replies.
However, these things take time.
At the end of November, I was chatting to Uwe (TMS Director) and based on my provocations, a few people had been discussing ways to make the School’s engagement in the community more direct. So Uwe asked me if I would like to work with the students on something more publicly provocative.
In January I will be collaborating with the students on the MA course who are studying typography and data visualisation to create seven billboards for the side of the TMS building. These will use the latest data on things like child poverty in Thanet, numbers of empty houses or Airbnbs set against homelessness, etc. to create something visually and politically striking. The exact content will be decided as we work on this.
What is exciting about this collaboration is not just the kind of public sociology approach I’ve been hoping to develop here, but also that it emerged out of a slow-burn series of reactions to things I’m doing, and through me just being present in the space. It sets an interesting precedent for what can come out of having deliberately loose plans, no specific outcomes required, and plenty of conversation.