This Is Why We Meet

Home to one of London’s most eclectic mix of people, there can be few better places than the vibrant Brick Lane area to instigate a bit of anthropological research. This summer it is the setting of an ambitious partnership between the University of the Arts and independent curators Pat and Trevor, exploring and challenging the complex ways that we communicate with one another.

Over a course of six weeks, each of the university’s colleges will seize control of two windows of international advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy, creating often wacky and interactive displays that demand the attention of passersby.

Joe Coppard and Jimmy Merris of Pat and Trevor, both former graduates of the London College of Communication, were approached by Wieden and Kennedy curator Laura Vent last December.

‘We wanted to instigate the first ever collaboration between all six colleges,’ says Pat and Trevor. ‘A different college is given the same brief each week – to use the two opposing windows of the agency and link them in an interactive way, utilising the space in between and the involvement of the public.’

Week five of this innovative experiment featured the London College of Communication who have stationed two mannequins named Joseph and Emma outside the window. Their voices are controlled from behind the blacked out window by the participants who are able to speak through the mannequins to the crowds outside.

The twist is that people can also use skype to control these rather sinister, expressionless characters. Inquisitive minds from as far away as Texas have therefore been able to inhabit the personas of the dapper Joseph and glamorous Emma.

The exercise shatters our pre-conceptions about image and boundaries – geographical and psychological. There is something truly invigorating, but also unnerving about being able to say anything to a stranger when they cannot see your real face. It prompts us to question the value of our usual inhibitions.

‘Seeing how people respond when Joseph or Emma speak to them is bizarre. Some people simply walk away while others come and have prolonged conversations with them,’ explains Yana Naidenov, one of group from the London College of Communication. ‘The models act as a link between people and individuals will confide all sorts of unexpected things in them.’

The fascinating research continues On Monday 17 August with a new installation by Wimbledon College of Art who will be setting up a fake company called The Personality and Conditioning Corporation. A vending machine will sell ‘personality enhancing’ objects for a pound.

Mirroring the seven days of creation, a different contraption will be available each day. These range from a 'smile uplifter’ – a menacing wire mechanism which creases a face into a vision of insincere joy, to a ‘compatibility connector’ – a plastic device stuck on to two people’s foreheads.

Each purchase comes with a catchphrase aiming to debunk clichés. Public reactions will be recorded and displayed on video screens in what promises to be a blistering comment on consumer culture.

‘This has been a very intense process,’ says Pat and Trevor. ‘It has been difficult to come to any conclusions, but it has been endlessly fascinating, diverse and often shocking to see the way people engage with one another. It really has confounded our expectations.’

With the next college promising a surprise for the end of next week, there is still time to saunter over to Brick Lane and forge some daring, if unconventional new relationships!

This Is Why We Meet, Wieden and Kennedy, 16, Hanbury Street, E1 6QR, until 30 August