Database (e)State
Project website: www.db-estate.co.uk
An artist and activist led PhD research project that explores how relational databases are complicit in the displacement of communities and demolition of social housing in the UK. Through multiple acts of making, programming, writing, and activism, I elucidate the technical, political, historical, and interpersonal entanglements of governmental databases within processes of urban regeneration.
The project focuses on Cressingham Gardens Estate in South West London where I have lived since 2006. Lambeth Council propose to demolish Cressingham as part of their borough-wide regeneration programme. The @savecressingham campaign consists of Cressingham residents, such as myself, who continue to thwart Lambeth’s attempts at demolition.
This research has been informed by an extraordinary level of expertise that emerged from the @savecressingham campaign and my fellow residents of Cressingham - thank you to everybody involved. The PhD is supervised by Alex Wilkie, and Graham Harwood and is hosted by the department of design within Goldsmiths University of London. Database (e)State is funded by the AHRC as part of the Design Star Centre for Doctoral Training.
