Pears, flags and canaries. The importance of relationships in Keep Forget’s design process.

Written by Katrien Dreesen, Selina Schepers and Andrea Wilkinson, LUCA School of Arts, campus Genk. Social Spaces Research Group, Inter–actions.

One ordinary day your colleague Andrea asks you if you don’t happen to have time to go and pick up a lot of yellow plexiglass sheets for her so she can make canaries. Plexiglass and canaries, huh? What’s nice is that Andrea, a born storyteller, answered all of the questions through telling a nice story. The strange questions and obscure packages created a sea of mystery about her project Keep Forget, that only after three years (originally two!) began to take shape when we started seeing yellow canaries show up in the trees and front yards of Winterslag.

Pears: from story to artefact

The canaries are only one of the results that have come out of the project Keep Forget, an artistic research project that looked to transform location-based memories and stories into tangible objects. In academic literature, these are often called artefacts; designed objects or systems, which are made during or as a result of a design process. During the project (which ran from 2013 to 2016) the residents of the neighborhood Winterslag in Genk, Belgium functioned like other local stakeholders (city, local organizations, etc.) who were all involved in sharing their stories and (individual) memories of the neighborhood. They were asked to, together with Andrea and the other researchers involved in the project, to visualise and discuss the meaning that had these memories had not only for themselves as individuals but also for their community. Together with the story, this meaning was translated into physical mementos or souvenirs that could be acknowledged privately (the personal story of someone) and shared publicly (a story that resonated for the community) in the form of 'exhibitions' in the neighbourhood. A particular focus was constantly on how these artifacts could in turn generate new stories.

The packets of yellow plexiglass were used in to make an artefact that related to the memories that mostly older residents of Winterslag had in Genk of the former mine Winterslag, yet referenced the contemporary mobility and potential that the children and grandchildren of mineworkers possess. Previously canaries went along with the mineworkers to warn of gas. If they (literally) fell from their perch, the miners knew they had to leave the mine, as there was a gas leak. fast from the feet. during the years the Winterslag mine closed eighties and now that they no longer have to work underground, have also found another canaries (above ground) future. In their plexiglass form they now live on in various places in Winterslag, in order to commemorate the story of the mine in Winterslag. Nearly 200 canaries were distributed to people and organizations who, in turn, a place provided for: in their front yard, in their backyard, the window, etc. For example, the canaries were visible to a large audience.. Also, people could do a canary gift to friends and family. In this way, the canaries are all flown from the mines to various opencast sites in Winterslag and the world. The stories from the mine are passed on to younger generations, who will get a better sense of what it meant to work underground.

Keep Forget began from the position that every location contains stories that are both personal and collective histories. For those involved, these histories all contribute to a sense of place and a sense of community and such stories are inextricably linked to the identity of a location or city. Although these stories share a common reference point (ie, the location), to others they often remain inaccessible or hidden and if not referred to or referenced through the sharing of the story, they threaten to disappear. Looking to preserve our history and cultural heritage, we constantly choose which of these collective or personal stories we want to preserve and great effort is made to preserve sites that are considered 'important'. Often these locations have a special architectural and/or historical value and often there is effort invested in collecting and maintaining the relevant artifacts that support these locations. An example of this is in an alcove in front of the former mining building of C-Mine where a small image of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners, welcomes visitors to the site. Artefacts collected often reflect the function of such a site which means that the "personal" that is found in such collections is limited to a few stories which attempt to be representative. Therefore many stories are outside the margins of documented history and cultural heritage. Keep Forget wanted to focus specifically on these undocumented stories which are not being heavily invested in in terms of archival, but reflect the identity of the community.

An example of such a non–documented, location–related story is that of ‘bengelen’, a Dutch word which in local dialect referrs to the action of throwing a stick into a Chestnut tree with the hopes of knocking out a chestnut. In Winterslag the perfect place for this used to be the Margarethalaan, which was lined with chestnut trees. In the 50s and 60s, this was a popular pastime for kids and teens. In the 1980s, however, a disease in the chestnut trees resulted in the felling of all of the chestnut trees. One of the Keep Forget projects resulted in artifacts (both in form and in color) placed in the trees that now line the Margarethalaan. As a result of this, the action of ‘bengelen’ can again be carried out and the stories about it can be retold and shared.

Although they are closely related to memories, the stories that Keep Forget targeted was not always descriptions of past events. After all, what really happened is not always necessary or interesting; sometimes it's more important how something is remembered. Keep Forget therefore focused on the personal stories in Winterslag, Genk (Belgium). Winterslag being one of three former mining centers in Genk and known for its multicultural population which represents the three waves of migration of people who went to work in the mines of Genk: Eastern Europe in the 20s, Italians, Greeks, Spaniards and Portuguese in the 40s and finally the Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the 60s.

In a garden behind the Vennestraat Jean, the husband of Betty, grafted the limbs of other pear trees on his pear tree until eventually he had a pear tree with 21 different types of pear. All the branches came from different places, flowered at different times and the pears tasted and also looked different. One thing they all had in common, however, was that they were all a part of that one tree in the garden, and that tree was rooted in Winterslag. The project Keep Forget resulted in a wall mural on the garden wall. In it a poem describes the pear tree as a metaphor for Winterslag; different nationalities and cultures who all have found a home in the same place and a deep connection with Winterslag.

This project builds upon a previous project called Keep Delete. That project took place in 2012 and was based on the idea of digital messages or even scribbled notes that were doomed to disappear or be forgotten. An example would be of a text message from a father to his daughter, a love note between spouses or simply a shopping list, which on reflection was important; a desire to keep it for a particular reason; messages such as these often being linked to particular persons or times in our lives and often these messages disappear. As part of a residency at the Frans Masereel Centre (in Kasterlee, Belgium), Andrea encouraged international designers to translate digital messages into something tangible; physical artifact meant to be kept. In the summer of 2012 this also took place in Bilzen. An example from Bilzen was a son who, after his mother had passed away, found a little box of letters his mother had exchanged with a childhood friend. One hand-written note on the margins of a prayer card was taken and made into a woven blanket. In November of 2012, this project Keep Delete resulted in a book that featured more than one hundred of these artifacts (in various media was used such as printing paper, fabric, typography, etc.).

Text messages between family members or friends was also a recurring topic of conversations within Keep Forget. Every summer, when the days start to become longer and warmer, something strange happens in Winterslag. Families begin filling their cars and vans with all sorts of gifts for their friends and family abroad. Parents take children to where their extended family live, or to where their grandparents were born. On their trip they send text messages with updates to their friends and family "Just reached Spain ...” and a few hours later, “Now on the boat on our way to Tangier!" They take chocolates for great aunts, and cookies for a cousin. Families go to Greece where they chat late into the night with family, while enjoying a bottle of Ouzo. There is talk about grandma and grandpa, over the rest of the family, about how it used to be but also what the future will bring. In the summer, everyone heads to what sometimes feels like a second home, but for the rest of the year they are at home in Winterslag.

Flags: from artifacts to a project

Originally, Keep Forget had a very clear timetable, with clearly defined work packages that overlapped neatly and built on each other, resulting in a clear and concrete outcome. Andrea and the other researchers initially involved had worked out a to-the-point scenario of how the project would develop: workshops, home visits, interviews with youth and youth workers, neighbors, social workers, etc. Everyone was part of the scenario. The initial steps were (1) preparation research and the building of a methodological framework; (2) collection of stories; (3) the transformation of stories; (4) the generation of artifacts; and (5), the valorisation and dissemination of artifacts and methods. The researchers and designers started with great enthusiasm and naivety, but quickly faced a first difficult hurdle.

A first workshop was organized in the school and included some of the more involved members of the community. This workshop didn’t go as planned and led to a multitude of authentic, emotional and honest questions: (1) why is money being spent on something that the community did not ask for? (Elitism!); (2) is this is yet another ‘art’ project (there have been so many), which will end with an exhibition or an expensive book, but not leave anything substantial? (Temporarily!); (3) why should we help you in contacting people that we – after a long time and much effort – have invested in and built up a good relationship with? (Too easy!). Furthermore (4) a quite critical consideration was suggested that the school constantly ‘used’ people in the community as "potential users" without ever giving anything concrete to in return and without investing in building longer-term relationships with the neighborhood (using the people!). In addition, (5) one participant in particular shared his feelings by saying, "I know that a flag was designed in a different project, but we never got the flag" (too theoretical!).

Days of preparation had gone into the workshop and although this did not proceed as planned, it offered a very important lesson. The workshop made it clear to Andrea and the other researchers and designers that relationships were important and should be invested in. Although the purpose of the project remained the same – namely to produce location–based artifacts – the efforts of Keep Forget shifted to the development of authentic relationships. This also meant that the researchers had to invest time in the community and make the project tangible instead of abstract. As a project that is now complete, it has gone far beyond the original plans. Instead of a predetermined number of meetings, with each having a specific purpose, the researchers and designers wanted to become an accepted part of the neighbourhood. Shortly after this first, turbulent workshop it was decided to not collect a lot of stories, but to focus on a handful of personal stories that were potentially representative of the larger community. These would be collected by simply meeting people from the neighborhood and carrying out conversations; going to community events, hanging out on the shopping street, becoming a ‘regular’ face in the crowd. Retelling this handful of stories during these moments would then lead to the uncovering of new or related stories. Andrea and her colleagues were looking for specific locations in the neighborhood that were important to the residents, so they collected the stories attached to these locations; any prejudices and ideas that the researchers and designers had of how research should be conducted, had to be let go.

The school that initiated Keep Forget and financed the project is located in a new building on the fully renovated site of the former coal mine of Winterslag. The school is adjacent to what is now a cultural center; housed in a renovated building that was once essential to the mining in Winterslag but now is home theater events and exhibitions. On the site are other creative initiatives, several restaurants and a movie theater. Although this location is iconic, with its converted and restored mining architecture, the site is loaded with the personal history of those who live nearby, but except for the architectural artefacts, this personal history is no longer present on the site itself. Few of the students who attend the school come from the neighborhood or even from Genk. The site is a tourist attraction, but also embodies the disconnection of the local historical narrative. For many people living in Winterslag, the site still has meaning related to hard work, camaraderie, the past, etc. It was once theirs, but for many it doesn’t feel like the mine is theirs anymore.

Canaries: from a project to relationships

Keep Forget thus experienced a turbulent start. Although the results of the project no longer fully corresponded to the original proposal, the project Keep Forget did arrive at important insights and very meaningful results. Instead of objects, concepts and reports, the insights and results generated took the form of relationships and contacts. Keep Forget illustrates an important competence for researchers and designers, the designing, building and maintaining of professional and personal relationships. These relationships fundamentally affect the appropriation and sustainability of a design and the artifacts arising from it. It is important that when a designer or researcher develops together with stakeholders – in this case, the residents of Winterslag – they make it possible to talk in a constructive way about the different views and objectives of all stakeholders. The relationships and the results arising from a project like Keep Forget should be valuable for all parties involved. To accomplish this, a researcher or designer should not only deal with issues such as organising workshops, designing artifacts and inventing methods but also be involved with things that do not seem to be immediately part of the job of a designer or researcher like having coffee with stakeholders (who are not called stakeholders, but are people), organising bicycle tours, etc.

For handing out the yellow canaries, Keep Forget organised a bike ride. The canary project worked in this format. At a few community ‘moments’, canaries would be given to those who wanted them, with the provision that in order to get a canary they also had to gift a canary to someone else. After an initial passing out of canaries, Andrea had 15 addresses of people who were being gifted a canary. The intention on the night of the bike ride was to go to 15 houses, knock on the door or ring the bell, briefly give some information about the project, give a canary and go to the next house. In reality, this approach proved impossible. A project like Keep Forget is about stories, and this takes time: telling, sharing, listening, ... Sometimes these stories were told in a different language, with smiling faces and gestures and translated by a grandchild. Sometimes they were told in broken Dutch. At every house they were invited in to have a drink, eat something and sit. When they left the last house, they were full!

This focus on building relationships translated into different activities. The formal meetings in dusty meeting rooms were replaced by informal meetings in the neighborhood, with pasta and pizza. To facilitate discussions with local residents, they developed a 'touring bus' method that enabled the researchers and designers to ask the locals in an informal way: (1) If you were going to lead a tourist around the neighborhood, where would you then go?; and (2) if your family is visiting, where do you take them? In addition, there was a Keep Forget stand at various neighborhood events such as the annual Christmas Festival and the bi-annual Winterslag Party. During these moments, the researchers offered up first drafts of artifacts based on stories they had found. Although the purpose may have been to discuss the artefacts, participation in such community events meant handing out balloons, or mailing out 'I love Winterslag' postcards for free or setting up a photo corner where people could celebrate their love for their neighbourhood.

One of the most striking aspects of Keep Forget was the warmth of the people in Winterslag: for each other, for the neighborhood, for a language, culture, garden, family, their favorite food (made by grandma) for their beliefs, their history... With the help of people from the neighborhood, Keep Forget designed a logo for Winterslag: a ‘W’ that is encircled by a heart'. At the annual flea market and Christmas Festival, friends, moms and dads, relatives and neighborhood children took pictures with elements of the logo, and this collection of photographs was shared on Facebook. This logo is not something that will disappear after the end of the project, but it has been shared with local organizations so they can use it. The logo has also been integrated into the visual style of the Winterslag Party, thus has become (and will continute to be) an integral part of the neighborhood. Finally, as requested in the first workshop, it has also been developed into a flag!

A look back at the process Keep Forget went through as a project reveals that the project was strongly influenced by the questions and conflicts from that first turbulent workshop. Those were the questions and conflicts which ultimately shaped the project. First, by focusing on the stories of the neighborhood, the focus shifted from what the designers and researchers ‘wanted from the residents' towards a project that facilitated the preservation of stories from Winterslag. Secondly, the project did not want to end with something temporary, but instead focused on creating artefacts that were sustainable and able to remain there for years. Thirdly, through the genuine engagement of the designer and researchers, meaningful and lasting relationships were built with different community partners. Fourthly authentic relationships were forged between researchers and designers, the school and the neighborhood. And these relationships are meaningful and valuable by both parties. Finally, the participant who wanted a flag got his flag! For those involved, Keep Forget illustrates the importance of authentic and meaningful relationships, especially in working with real stakeholders. Is it necessary to do such activities as befriending 'external colleagues' on Facebook, lunch meetings in the neighborhood or attending events that start much later than 17.00? Maybe/maybe not, but building relationships takes time. And for Keep Forget this was time well spent.

And how does one say goodbye to such a project? How can sustainable bridges between schools or research and the neighborhood be built? How do you leave a legacy of artifacts and relationships behind that is both evident and permanent? Andrea and the other researchers involved do not want to let these relationships fall silent once the project is completed. Appointments with neighbourhood community managers Inge and Annelies will be missed indeed. The regular consultations on Tuesday with Thomas will disappear from the agenda. But now Andrea doesn't just work in Winterslag, she is also part of Winterslag. And she will make sure that the Keep Forget team will be present at the Winterslag party without a reason to be there. They will only be there simply because they have realized that they too are part of this community and they want to stay.

The artifacts are made. The project is completed. But the relationships fostered during Keep Forget will remain.