THE POWER OF CUTE

BABIES OF THE BOROUGH. Cannes Gold

After the London Riots of 2011, anti-social behaviour persisted in the Greenwich area.
Greenwich Council asked us to help find a way to stop the problem minority from
destroying their community.

The metal security shutters on the shops were being vandalised, they seemed to alienate
people and invite crime. We thought these faceless, inhuman sheets of metal could be part
of the problem. We wanted to conduct a social experiment: could we turn the very shutters
that were being ripped from their runners into part of the solution.
In 2009 research from the University of Pennyslvannia told us that images of babies faces
triggers caring and nurturing behaviour in adults.

We decided to use the metal shutters as our media, turning them into giant portraits of babies
from the local area. As the shops shut at night the metal shutters came down to reveal the babies.
One year on and crime rates in the area are down by 18%, the shutters remain untouched by
vandalism and the residents say their community feels much safer.

And it didn’t take thousands of pounds spent on hundreds of police,
just some paint and an understanding of human behaviour.