Why are things this way? is a collaborative artwork exploring the cost of living crisis.
Over a two month period in 2023, six residents of Hackney, East London came together with artist Andy Sewell and an LSE researcher to take photos in response to a series of open-ended prompts. In this exhibition, a selection of these photographs is presented alongside fragments of text drawn from transcripts of group meetings and individual conversations. The artwork captures and transcends the cost of living crisis, exploring the many intersecting challenges people face, interrogating the systems around which our society is structured, and asking what is needed to live a better life. It voices calls for another - more humane - way of thinking about and organising our society.
Building on a tradition of LSE engagement with London communities, Why are things this way? is the creative output of a participatory research project funded by the LSE Research Impact Support Fund and supported by the LSE Department of Methodology.
More about this exhibition
Hear Eileen Alexander speak about Why are things this way? in an LSE Research Showcase linked here. In this talk, she explore how the creation of artwork in social policy research offers participants alternative forms of expression, makes ideas accessible to a wider audience, and deepens our understanding of lived experience.
The LSE Department of Methodology (@MethodologyLSE) is an international centre of excellence in social science methodology interested in work across disciplines including sociology, political science, international relations, anthropology, economics, psychology, criminology, and statistics.
For more information, please contact Dr Eileen Alexander
Header photo by K
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEArts