Fine Art Student looking at Social Interaction between the homeless and the public

I'm a second year Fine Art student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design developing my art in every way possible before the serious 3rd and 4th year work starts! This project is my final project this year and I have been focusing on social interaction in Dundee and have taken a slightly different approach than I would have normally. By this I mean I have been less selfish about my subject matter  and have encouraged participation from the public. Within a couple of weeks I realised the people who I most wanted to work with were the homeless as they are engulfed by a stereotype that they are not 'human' enough. The majority of people won't even glance at a homeless person sitting on the ground and immediately they are dehumanised and not given a voice which is what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to hear the truth about them. Working with the homeless was an eye-opening experience. I first started working with the homeless at a soup kitchen in Dundee. Within the first day of working with them I learnt that they have the same issues that we all face in society. 

From here I created two installations. One film and One Audio piece. 

The film piece is representational of the original attitude shared by the public about the homeless. It is the creation of a homeless home aka cardboard on the ground. Combined with audio from the film Dark Days by Marc Singer (a film about the underground homeless scene in New York underground and how the people have adapted to living in the abandoned subway) and 'Howl' by Allen Ginsburg (a poem about the freedom of people) I have created a film where I rein act the making of a 'home'.

The audio piece was created after I met the homeless people of Dundee at a soup kitchen one night. The one way conversations heard are truthful of those told to me by the homeless but have been recorded by an actor. 

I have started this blog to record a new challenge I will undergo for this project. It is a spin off the challenge 'Live Below the Line' achieved by many charities where you live off a pound a day in meals for five days. I am using this challenge to understand what the homeless have to go through on a daily basis and by creating this blog I hope to educate the public in some way.