Niki Marathia
Previous
Sonic commons
Week 1 of 2
Team
Sound is political. It announces power, marks territory, and fosters care. It is oppressive whilst also being a force of liberation. Walworth, with its layered histories of migration, markets, demolition, and regeneration, is alive with contested soundscapes. Design and stage a sonic intervention that amplifies, distorts, or reclaims public space in Walworth.

Diya Agrawal
Eric Chen
Nicole Shu
Niki Marathia
Sakshi Pansare
Waleed Malik
Day 1

On the first day of the project, we joined two walking tours led by our partners Rosie and Ronnie. Rosie’s tour covered Walworth’s history, while Ronnie encouraged us to focus on sound. Among the topics Rosie covered was the area’s history of migration, where she mentioned that one of the largest minority communities in Walworth today is the Chinese community. This prompted us to consider whether it could become a focus for our research (Figure 3).

Slide to view

Figure 1. The group’s notes from Rosie’s tour.

Figure 2. Sonic drawings from Ronnie’s tour.

Figure 3. Identifying Walworth’s Chinese community as an area of interest.


Interviews

We decided to speak with members of the Chinese community to hear their perspectives on living and working in Walworth. We headed to East Street Market to do unstructured interviews, so we could allow for natural conversations and participants to bring up what feels important to them (Martin and Hanington, 2012, p. 102). Eric and Nicole led this part of the research, conducting the interviews in Mandarin. There, we spoke to Chen, Leon, and Luna, all of whom reflected on how much simpler life feels in the UK, in contrast to the intense social pressures they face back home.

Figure 4. East Street Market sign at the market entrance.


Chen
Chinese store cashier

He came to the UK mainly for work and holds a visa. He has been in the UK for only three months. Most of his time is spent working or staying home. He does not feel excluded and believes that his interactions with others are generally fine. He says that he still chooses to speak Chinese when communicating with other Chinese people. He feels that life in the UK is free and not restrictive, but he also misses China.

Leon
Chinese store owner

He has lived in the UK for 23 years and holds permanent residency. In his everyday life, he generally feels comfortable and free. In terms of language use, he explains that many of his customers are from Hong Kong and Taiwan, so he mainly communicates with the in Chinese, while also using English with customers who speak English. He does not strongly feel excluded and says that life in the UK feels less pressured than in China, with social relationships being relatively simpler.

He explains that because he has lived in the UK for such a long time, he rarely feels excluded himself. However, many Chinese customers he meets have shared experiences of descrimination with him. He also mentions that even when he does not wish others to know about his Chinese identity, people can often recognise him as Chinese through his skin colour or the way he speaks and behaves.
Luna
Jewellery stall vendor

She has been in the UK for one year and came mainly to earn money, bringing products from China to sell. She feels that life in the UK is less pressured, while life in China is more driven by social relationships and competition. She misses her family and food, but also recognises that the UK offers more opportunities.

She says that because she has only been in the UK for a year, she worries about the possibility of experiencing discrimination, although she has not encountered any so far. She does not feel a strong sense of belonging in the UK and believes that this lack of belonging is not related to language, but rather cultural differences.


Feedback

    We brought these learnings to our tutorial, where we were encouraged to dig deeper into the stories we had uncovered. As a Southwark local, Rosie was excited to learn more about local communities’ experiences and keen to find ways to amplify these stories. Alaistair also introduced the idea of ‘the seams’, or the frictions between cultures, as an area worth investigating. This prompted us to expand the scope of our research to the wider community in East Street Market, rather than a specific minority.

    Adam
    The next day, we returned to the market to pay closer attention to its sounds (Figures 7-9), and to talk to more people. We spoke to Adam, a stall owner who had worked there for 21 years. He told us how the market is experiencing a decline in customers despite being an affordable place to shop, attributing this to the convenience of large supermarkets and online deliveries.


    Figure 5. Ali (left) and Adam (right) at Adam’s fruit and veg stall.


    Figure 6. Fruit and veg at the market.




    Figure 7. Overlooking the market inside a shop.
    Figure 8. Closing time rituals.
    Figure 9. Radio playing behind a clothes rack.

    Training day
    Adam's experience aligned with themes explored by Levine et al. (2009) in The Cluetrain Manifesto. In their work, the authors argue that before big industry took over, ‘markets were conversations’ (Levine et al., 2009, p. 61), places where buyers and sellers had back-and-forth exchanges. What was crucial about this was that when businesses began advertising through mass media people could no longer talk back.

    As we kept returning to East Street Market, we started to see it as more than a research site, but as somewhere where we could learn from the daily friction that still takes place. With this in mind, we asked Adam whether we could train with him behind his stall, to which he miraculously agreed. That’s how we spent two hours helping him and his team serve customers.

    Figure 10. Our training behind Adam’s stall.


    Notes

    It was busy most of the time, we only got a few quiet spells
    People often knew what to do - they expected us to give them a bag so they could start filling it with fruit & veg
    Some customers knew Adam and Ali by name
    A lot of people were squeezing fruit to check it’s fresh which Adam didn’t like
    Customers often asked us if fruit is sweet. We always said yes and they always bought it
    Adam specifically told us to offer people more or other items, especially if they’re only buying one thing
    The music helped us work with a rhythm, it made everything more upbeat
    Interacting with people felt good for business, as if you made them laugh they would remember and come back
    People generally expected quick service, from being noticed, to being given a bag, and paying/receiving their change
    We could see the vendors in the stalls opposite, and in a way it felt like they were colleagues too
    Socialising between vendors builds a community    Coding

    Familiarity
    Rhythm
    Trust
    Self agency
    Expectations
    Community
    Business thinking    Sounds

    coins
    radio
    plastic bags
    greetings & laughter
    trolleys
    vendors
    bargaining
    music
    Themes

    Rhythm, Self agency, Business thinking


    busy spells kept momentum, the music itself was a kind of engine for the stall


    Noise brings business
    Familiarity, Self agency, Expectations


    people squeezing fruit, asking if it's sweet, expecting a bag straight away


    The senses can sell
    Trust, Community, Familiarity


    vendors watching each other across stalls, shared identity, making people laugh


    Social ecosystem

    References
    Levine, R., Locke, C., Searls D. and Weinberger D. (2009) The Cluetrain Manifesto. Basic Books.
    Martin, B. and Hanington, B. (2012) Universal Methods of Design. Rockport Publishers.

    Notes

    1. All East Street Market photos, including the video thumbnails, were taken by Nicole Shu.
    2. Adam’s audio interview was edited by Sakshi Pansare.