MAKEshift is a process offering a step-by-step guide to facilitate community-building projects. It aims to bring together local groups of people through socially-engaged artistic practice.

For more information see the MAKEshift website.



Behind MAKEshift : the research and design process
As part of the 2012 Olympics, the Bromley-by-Bow area is undergoing regeneration. Consultation work and community engagement are two key elements that need to happen to ensure the community take ownership of their new buildings and public spaces. Field research in the community showed that there was a gap between the channels used to communicate information about the new developments and local people’s understanding and knowledge of the changes.

MAKEshift was created as a response to this communication gap, with the intention to develop a methodology for community engagement. As a starting point, the methodology acknowledged the connection between people and the spaces they inhabit, and strove to determine what people need to become aware of this relationship to enable community groups to work together to help shape the quality of their environment.

The methodology was established as a result of a community project that took place during October 2008 – March 2009 in the Bromley-by-By ward, East-London, Tower of Hamlets. The methodology can be used for pre-consultation or community building events and draws on art, making and participation to get the audience to engage in the process.



MAKEshift is a methodology (thing) that allows engagement (interaction flows) within a space (space) between the community (participants 1) and the stakeholders (participants 2).



Nina Honiball (MAKEshift):“I have two different sets of participants, the stakeholders and the community, and both their needs have to be addressed.” The ecology model shown above illustrates how MAKEshift allows the community participants to utilise the tools with which to engage the stakeholder participants.

Narrative Ecology: What would challenge your ecosystem?
Nina Honiball (MAKEshift):“ Economic change, such as budget cuts from governments and non-profit organisations, shifts of government focus and changes in policies, where it’s not about people anymore. Belief systems of the community, like how will ‘MAKEshift’ apply in an area where the community has never experienced the value of change? and for example, a series of damaging experiences with the council. And finally, human bridges that don’t commit, -if there are no key local residents who are willing to commit to participating in a project.”



Narrative Ecology: Does your project have an ongoing life?
Nina Honiball (MAKEshift):“Yes, the methodology has been flexibly designed to be repeated in different space areas.”

Narrative Ecology: How has it been set up so that it has potential to grow?
Nina Honiball (MAKEshift): “The methodology has been designed to be dynamically executed (using a variety of methods & activities of engagement) and can adapt to the different needs of user groups.”



ACTOR STORIES.

Narrative Ecology: How did you use your actor stories?
Nina Honiball (MAKEshift):
“I used a fictional story as the format to convey information and to start discussion with my audience, by taking them on a guided, narrative story-walk. I collaborated with a writer, who wrote the fictional story, which was based on personal stories that the community had told me during a series of one-to-one walks. Our guide on the story-walk, a local resident of the area, acted out the script at various landmarks in the area.”

Narrative Ecology: In what way did the actor stories enable communication?
Nina Honiball (MAKEshift):“The actor stories made the community aware of the stories that themselves and their spaces held and enabled engagement in a participatory, creative activity that helped the community suggest interesting solutions in an non-threatening environment.

Actor stories enable the community to take part in these stories and the facilitator to use the stories as a starting point for community-building activities.”

ACTOR STORIES: Script example.

Intro to Bob’s Park.
Betty and Bob ruled this part of the earth for many years. We don’t really know much about them, but there is a lot we can assume, based on what they left behind. The legend says Betty and Bob were the greatest rulers the world has ever seen. Greater than Alexander the Great, Ronald Reagan and Nicolas Sarkozi combined. You see, back then in the early thousands, people really needed someone to tell them what to do. It is not like today that each individual is empowered and liberated from needless wishes and fears. But Betty and Bob never took advantage of their power and, in return, people loved them. Historians agree that Bob would come here, to this park, whenever he had something crucial to think about, that is why we call it Bob’s Park.
It is great to live in the present, but if I could live in the past, I would choose to live here, under Betty’s and Bob’s reign.

The Grass in front of the House and the Football Pitch.
How come the grass is over there and the football pitch is over here? Shouldn’t they be together? They seem like a couple who had a fight. And, we believe, this is exactly what happened. Bob’s relationship with Betty was a very passionate one, indeed. Bob surely was a great leader, as you will soon recognize, but also a very jealous man. Betty had a weakness, too. She was a big football fan, supporter of a mysterious club named Bromley-by-Bow we know nothing of. She created 8 football pitches in the area for her people to enjoy. One day Bob and Betty had a fight and he ordered his personal army to destroy all the football fields but one. He took the grass off the last field and moved it over there, in front of that house, which is still in place today.
Then, he put a fence around it so that people could only see, but not touch it!

Should we bring the fence down?

Stroudley Walk.
As one would expect, Betty became furious and threw Bob out of their Palace. Back then they were living at the Old Palace. It later became an elementary school, because Betty believed that education was a key ingredient for prosperity. Betty used to say: “If you want society to flourish, all you need to do is educate people, create and divide wealth, and help people to develop the social environment as they consider fit. You cannot fail if you do these basic things”. When Bob became King, many people had no qualifications, no tools to go through what was then considered to be “the modern life”. Many people were spending their time walking up and down that walk, just like we do now.

But it was Bob who betrayed his own words by changing the social environment that people wanted. Those football pitches were more than simple practice grounds. They were a symbol of progress and social cohesion. And Bob took that away from his people. Trust to his judgement was removed alongside those fields. He soon regretted what he did, but he could not reverse the order because he would look weak. He spent many hours at Bob’s Park, thinking about what he could do to win back the hearts and minds of Betty and his people. He would walk up and down this walk feeling lonely and scared. People were throwing garbage at him. Swearing and pushing him around. Bob was lost and only a miraculous idea could win back the respect of his people.

Do we shape the social environment or is the social environment
 shaping us?


Marner Centre & the Underpass.
Long before the great flood, Bob visited the oldest citizen of his Kingdom. She was 97 years old and lived at the Marner House. Bob believed that since she was so old, she must have a wise view regarding life and its complexities. The old woman took Bob into her house (Marner Centre) and talked to him for hours. She told him about exotic places and mysterious people. Adventures she had all around the beautiful world. Secrets she unveiled and great emotions that conquered her heart.

At the end she said: “I have never actually seen or lived any of these things, but they all exist and prosper in my mind, every day. The truth is I have never passed the Underpass. I am too scared. If you want to become a King again, you need to pass the Underpass and become one with the world. You need to go to places and meet people. Then, you will know what to do. I believe in you. I know that you can do it.”. Bob took her advice. He always considered the entrance of the Underpass to be the border of his Kingdom. The stories and legends about the “other side” haunted the minds of people.

Bob was scared of the Underpass, just like everyone else, but he was their King. He had to overcome his fears and pass the Underpass. He decided to do it at night so that he could start his journey by confronting his greatest nightmare. Bob left the Marner House thinking about the Kingdom he wanted to create in the future. It should be a Kingdom of free people. Free from fear. And it will be knowledge that will liberate people from their fears. Freedom from the fear of the Underpass, the darkness, the unsolved mysteries of life.

What kind of knowledge do people “without qualifications” need?
 Is our link with the other side of the A12 actual or merely practical?

See here for a more detailed explanation on how to write Actor Stories.