Anti-SocialYEAR 2

Doh Kim

Anti-Social Project

Goldsmiths,University of London

BA DesignYEAR 2

Doh Kim

Anti-Social Project

Goldsmiths,University of London

BA DesignYEAR 2

Doh Kim

Do you know where St. James Palace is located?

It is very near Buckingham Palace. Many tourists visit this location to see the guards , especially on weekends. On such visits, there is an invisible anti-social element in the attitude of the Queen’s guards.

Marlborough Road St James’s, London SW1A 1BS

Several incidents were reported in the Daily Mail. In one incident, a Ukrainian student was attacked when he imitated the way in which the guards marched beside one of the guards.

Another incident is accessible through YouTube and shows a guard shouting at a child who touches the barrier. I also observed a disturbing incident by ac-cident. A 70-year-old woman unconsciously crossed the line to take a picture. When she crossed the line, one of the guards immediately shouted at her, “Step Back!” I was afraid that he might shoot at her .

It is crucial that the guards defend the palace, as it is important to many government functions and is a royal residence. However, many tourists visit each year and want to take pictures with the guards on duty. They want to cheer as the guards march and attend to their duties.

However, the guards never reward their fans. To remedy this, I tried to help in the develop-ment of a relationship among the people and the guards.

I had to think carefully about the best mode of intervention since the palace is strictly guarded. I did not want to be arrested. I felt that a static intervention would be the best method to aid in the formation of a better relationship between the guards and their fans.

I decided to make a pop-up post-box.

I made two post-boxes because two guards stand in front of the left and right sentries, although they periodically march up and down.

The boxes were coloured red, blue and white to match the Union Jack.

I asked people to write down messages that they would like to give to the guards and to put them in the appropriate post-box.

I also suggested that they choose the box in which to place their message depending on which guard did better . They wrote down questions ask-ing about the guards’ comfort with the weather and their salaries.

Message came out from Red box

Message came out from Blue box

I placed the boxes in front of the barriers, which attracted their attention. This suggested to me that they were bored of standing in front of the sentries. After all, their actions are limited as they do not speak, they march up and down and they change their bayonet. I think that the pop-up post-box was entertaining to them.

Whenever someone put a postcard into the box, I noticed that the guards glanced at him or her. I think this is because which box the person chose was related to their popularity. I think this might lead to competition between the guards, provid-ing entertainment within an otherwise boring job.

When I checked the boxes , there were 42 post-cards in the red box on the left side and 34 in the blue one on the right side. Thus, I think that the guard on the left was more popular than the one on the right.

I also think that this exercise allowed tourists to feel that they had accomplished something in con-necting with the guards in written form. Even if the guards did not view this exercise in the same man-ner that the tourists or I did, I still think it was enter-taining for them.

In terms of the elements of entertainment, this was an unexpected event for both the guards and the visitors. Before I tried this intervention, I worried about potentially interrupting tourists who wanted to enjoy their visit within London uninterrupted. However, many tourists complain that they would like additional communication with the guards. Thus, allowing them to leave a message in the pop-up box helped them to feel that they could communication with the guards. When they put messages into the box, they appeared curious and delighted simultaneously.

I feel that I have succeeded in providing enter-tainment for the guards and the tourists who visits the grand entrance of the palace. Even though the tourists could not directly communicate with the guards through facial expressions or through speaking, I think that they are communicating with each other through the post-box medium. In that sense, this was a worthwhile intervention because the visitors really enjoyed themselves , especially the children accompanying their parents.

I plan to send the collected postcards to St. James Palace even though I do not know whether I will receive a reply. This will be the end of this project.

5 December 2012

To Whom It May Concern:

Hello. My name is Do Hyun Kim, and I am a student in a design course at Goldsmiths University of Lon-don. I am writing in reference to my school project. I recently performed a social interaction project. As part of this project, I induced people to write messages to the Queen’s guards after I put up a small pop-up post-box in front of the entrance to St. James Palace.

This project was very entertaining for the visitors and allowed them to feel that they had a mode of communicating with the guards. They felt a sense of accomplishment as they left messages for the guard with which they wanted to take a photo-graph. I found that children responded especially well to this project. I have enclosed these messag-es with this letter as a conclusion to my project.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Best Regards,Do Hyun Kim

Doh Kim

Anti-Social Project

POP-UP POST-BOX

Goldsmiths, University of LondonBAD 2 Design

http://dhkay.com

Tel. +44 (0) 07563 361 590kwad88@hotmail.com

Printed in England

12 NOV 2012 -06 DEC 2012