Kinships refer to the bonds and relationships between individuals who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption. These connections typically form within families and are characterised by a shared history, genetic ties, and mutual support. Communities, on the other hand, are groups of people who share common interests, values, or geographical locations. They can range from small, tightly-knit neighbourhoods to larger social networks, and they often provide a sense of belonging, support, and identity to their members. Our Care for Carer project is part of a greater theme of kinship & communities whereby the carers are the community we are focussing on.
Something that we all had in common was our use of public transport. We all felt strongly about advertising the use of it and saw it as a positive system in London. However, as much as the transport for the London system is inclusive, we felt that a key demographic was overlooked - carers. Paid or unpaid. So we started this project by defining what a carer/companion is and what they might look like:
What carers/companions look like:
Carers: Unpaid (family & friends), Paid (family nurse, caregivers, babysitter...)
Companions: Family, friends, guide dog / Emotional support animal.
As we are familiar with the signage of priority seating, we felt that carers were left out of that signage. We saw that parents often had to stand next to their buggies on busy buses. Noticed the annoyance on people’s faces when buggies were trying to get on the tube during rush hour. Saw that companions/caretakers of wheelchair users sometimes could not sit together on the bus. We saw this as a problem area and wanted to document this in London on our day-to-day commutes.
In response to this, we wanted to give more attention to carers & companions, paid or unpaid and the way they commute in London using public transport. Because it should be a human right to be able to use it effortlessly under any circumstances. We realised that the London transport system makes use of signage and badges very effectively. The badges are a positive way of making it noticeable that you would like or need a seat. For this reason, we created a new badge system to reflect a care-taker or companion on public transport.
