Intervention 1 the Derive by Koops and Sophie

Intervention 1The Derive

By Sophie and William

Sunday 8th October 2013 - in itself out of place for Will because of faith and the fact that Sundays are usually family time.

61 bus into town and then 82 to bearwood, neither of us had ever been here.

Choose 3 places we wanted to visit, this was based on Koops’ knowledge of living in the city.

The Journey

•   busy main road• Ethnic shops and very much

orientated around home owners and consumers.

• Very ethnic orientated • Not made for us in mind• uncomfortable• Quite quiet on 1st visit due to timing• Definitely felt out of place and out of

our comfort zone• We revisited this area later and had

different views. • In the minority by way of clothing

Site one Damstr but actually Dudley street

 accessed by a small alley way which was ok in day light but we both would have avoided it at night.-residential units felt more like Selly Oak – so not out of place but almost intimidate place, not home but not foreign.- group of boys on bikes -bit intimidating and not just to us as others diverted paths due to them.- bit uncomfortable - weird looks as writing

Still in the minority by what we were wearing and doing.

We were given interesting looks by passers by as if they were surprised to see us here. And perhaps they viewed us as out of place.

Koffie house well actually Dorset Road

very nice houses here 2 sides of the road differed Left hand side was where we felt at home as

there were larger houses with more familiar facilities such as gates and gardens ( and solar panels) but the right was more working class still pleasant but more cluttered and less open.

We felt safer on the left than on the right as maybe it reminded us of being students and the dangers that come with that and student housing areas.

We felt at home and in place here as passers by smiled at us and engaged with us particularly when there was a humorous event of a man jumping away from a bee!

Being a white man dressed in jeans and a smart jumper certainly was not out of place here.

This felt more like a smart suburban area.

Hash Museum well actually Portland Road

It was now much busier here and we were more out of place than before.

The girl in the group was immediately wolf whistled at and the gentleman felt obliged to offer her protection.

When passers by looked at us they assumed we were together and made jeering comments making the woman feel like an object.

we were confronted when people saw us taking photos. Many more people were about and the fact that we were

white and not wearing the Muslims clothing was noticed, the only white people about were those who had a purpose to be there such as builders to onlookers we were tourists with no reason to be there.

Shop keepers did not even try to engage with us, perhaps showing they believed we would not even think of buying their groceries which were geared at the Caribbean and Indian groups living there.

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