Heroes Not Zombies

This is a very unusual set of shutters because shutters in this part of France virtually never have any openings in them. When they are closed they are closed, and when they are open they are open. But these ones have little oval windows in them. What do you think they are there for? To let some light in? And/or so the residents can peek through to see out into the street? I think it’s to let some light in actually, because they are very high up, but, then, who knows, the residents might be very tall!

There’s a saying here which goes something like “Pour vivre bien, vivre caché” – “To live well, live hidden”. A common style of property in the Charente includes a high wall around the courtyard or garden and a big arched entrance filled with a solid wooden door. When most of the houses in a street have their shutters closed, a town can seem almost uninhabited.

What fascinates me about this idea of shutters, and high walls, and huge gates, is that the people in this part of the world seem to be amongst the friendliest, most welcoming and sociable people I’ve ever met.

Richard Sennett, who talks about the idea of “open cities”, argues that “integration” is about trying to make everyone the same. In that sense, integration promotes homogeneity, and so reduces us all. He suggests it’s better to learn how to live well together respecting our differences. Living together then becomes a matter of choosing how to relate, how to interact when we meet in our shared spaces, whilst respecting the uniqueness, the values and the choices, which privacy protects in our own homes.

I don’t think any of this is easy, but I’m intrigued by this apparent paradox of separateness and belonging which lies at the heart of all our lives.

I think it also emphasises the contact points we have – the interfaces, or edges where we connect. Look at this door buzzer for example –

What does this contact point say about the person who lives here?

What about your own contact points? Your edges? How do you use art, colour, design or symbols at your boundaries between self and other? Consciously, or otherwise!?

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What does your front door look like?

As I wandered through the streets of Angoulême the other day, I came across this front door.

The house seemed just an ordinary house in an ordinary street, but look what they’ve painted on the door!

This makes me wonder – who painted this? Does the person who painted this live here? Or did they commission this? And, what effect does it have on the people who use this door?

It certainly made me smile. In fact, I’d say it “delighted” me, which made me think having a door like this might just contribute to lightening the state of mind of the person who uses this door.

Isn’t this so uniquely human?

If a door was simply something to secure an entrance way, or something to fill the space of the doorway, then what would be the point of painting this on it? Isn’t this such a human thing to do? To create. To make art. To change the experience of the everyday environment by engaging with it using imagination, using a sense of beauty, of fun and of delight.

We are the co-creators of our lives, not least by the way we use images, symbols, and art.

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