Over a two-week period in 2007, UK Graphic Designer Chris Clarke worked with the residents of Gathorne Road in Bristol, UK. In the interest of his mantra 'Common Unity', "Inside/Outside" was a project that aimed to enable a local community group to gain a collective experience through design. 

To mediate conversation between remote neighbours, a disposable camera was passed along the street and each participant asked to photograph a view of their local environment. “The resultant photographs captured a truthful remark on communal façade, displaying best the authentic rather then an imagined construct of stereotype and visual representation.” Chris comments. The photographs were then displayed in public locations along the street, for everyone to see a glimpse as to how their fellow residents viewed the shared environment.

To capture to project and share the community insights, Chris collated the images into a postcard series and gave a set out to everyone who participated!

“The idea that ideal communities are built upon relationships that require being in the same place at the same time is denied by the complexities of contemporary urban life and the need to extend outside of small independent units. City life encounters diversity and conflict as well as commonality; where small social groupings do exist they tend not to relate beyond themselves and engage with dwellers whom they stay strangers. It therefore becomes increasingly difficult to mediate a decentralized equality where social relations can form and community’s can develop.” (Chris Clarke)