It took Stephanie and I about two weeks and a huge amount of leg work to finally accomplish our one and only Flash Job. After so much effort we were both extremely pleased to see our Flash Job completed on Friday afternoon at 4pm in the wonderful garden that belonged to Vera, who is a friend of our friend Woody. The path to this job's completion was quite tricky with one intervention leading to another.
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_01
Stephanie and I went out the day after the Turkish shop owner turned us away. We arrived in Neukolln at around noon and started looking for teenagers for the garden job. At this time on a weekday we were relatively certain that any teenagers we encountered would be skipping school. After walking around for about a half hour we came across a group of three teenage boys on side street off of Karl Marx Strasse. We instantly decided to approach them and give our pitch for the Flash Job Campaign. Of course Steffi will have to do all the talking and I will support her by talking photos and making video of the intervention plus I will observe, its our usual formula. Steffi always introduces me and explains I am from New York before she sail into the Flash Job pitch.
Of the three teenagers, one boy appears to be interested and pays very close attention to Steffi. His eyes are always on her while she speaks. He appears to have a pleasant disposition. Contrary to this boy there is a second one who is the opposite. A little smaller than the other two, he appears impatient and agitated. His eyes are moving everywhere and he appears distracted. Steffi and I later agree that this boy is the leader of the three. The third boy simply appears bored by us.
We invite the boys to sit with us on some chairs in front of a secondhand shop. The shop owner pokes his head out and shows some interest in what we are up to. He brings Steffi a chair and hangs out on the edge of our conversation, listening in, very curious. I sense he might know these kids. Steffi tells me later a couple interesting things the boys mentioned early on in the intervention:
1. They somehow own this particular block that we are on.
2. When asked whether they could speak English they laughed at us and joked in a way that demonstrated a complete non interest in school, which then explained their presence in the streets at this time, skipping school.
It didn't take long from the moment we sat down with these kids and started talking to them for our intervention to go downhill. Steffi ask if I could photograph them and the little leader immediately demanded 20 euros for taking his picture, so sorry...I was too cheap and no photos exist of these guys. The Flash job we offered in the garden was just a joke to them, the part about the garden really seemed lame to them. They burst out laughing at the idea of working in a garden, which kind of pissed me off. The leader then tried to double the pay from 5 euros for an hour to 10. Steffi politely explained it was not possible and a second later this kid just got up and walked off leaving Steffi in mid sentence. So rude, just got up and off he went like we were such waste of his time. That made me quite mad, I must admit. The nice attentive kid watched his leader walk off with the same surprise that Steffie and I did. He appeared torn for a few seconds as to what to do himself and I watched him curiously to see what his next move would be. I felt that he wanted to hear more from us and that he liked the attention from Steffi but of course after a few seconds he caved in and was up and out and the third kid went right along with him. The group dynamic is too strong for us. We are no match for its pull.
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_02
Why is the leader often the smaller mean kid?
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_01
After the kids were gone Steffi and I sat in our chairs wondering what just happened. We discussed where exactly we lost the kids and the jerky little teenage leader, when the shop owner approached and asked us what we were up to. He appeared concerned and uneasy about those three kids, maybe they were bad kids and he knew them or something. We told him what we were up to in Neukolln with the Flash Job Campaign and everything and so he sat down and told us his story, which was quite sad. Quickly, here is what happened:
His brother recently murdered someone on behalf of a gang he belonged to. The shop owner found this out and turned his brother in to the police and explained to them that the gang made him commit this murder, I think it was by force, and the shop owner even went so far as to identify the leader of this gang, which resulted in this gang leader's arrest. Now the shop owner fears for his life since this guy has family in Berlin.
He explained to us that the family often knows what their kids are up to, especially if they are up to no good, but they will never go to the authorities. Instead everything is hidden, which for him is a huge problem. He, himself took a huge step by handing over his brother. Steffi and I found his informative and shocking.
Steffi told him about the Flash Job Campaign and what we were up to. I noticed another man sitting nearby listening attentively to our conversation. Steffi invited to join us and after hearing all about the Flash Job Campaign he suggested that his son and perhaps a friend of his son's do this garden job which was after all just a few blocks from where we were sitting.
We exchanged phone numbers and made some tentative plans. We finally found the kids to do our garden job.
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_02
Is it better to approach parents instead of the kids?
Fedele_TheDeal_story_01
Once we concluded our intervention and have the father's cooperation, Steffi and I decided to to contact Vera, the garden lady, and tell her the good news. Steffi called and spoke with her but I could sense that the conversation was not going so well. Afterwards Steffi told me that the old woman was having a bad day, and that she was in a bad mood. Our ideas of bringing more than one kid freaked her out and she became agitated on the phone. The conversation ended with Steffi telling the woman that she should think about what she wants to do about the job and that they would talk again tomorrow.
The conversation bummed us both out. It looked like Vera was backing away. Another twist. Now the Job appears to be collapsing
Fedele_TheDeal_FAQ_02
Did we make a mistake by adding more teenagers to the job?
Is our enthusiasm towards bringing more kids into this job a mistake?
Does the time that passes between our securing this job and then finding a teenager to do it erode the chances of the Flash Job Campaign succeeding? (it has already been several days that we have had this job in our hands...)
Direct Link to this Post:
WEDNESDAY - JUNE 11, 2008 - 02:47:04 PM
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_05
The hustle never ends with some of these teenagers.
I have a wide range of experiences with the teens of Neukölln and some have very good, some have been very weird, none of them have been really bad (some are frustrating or even discouraging) but all have been interesting for sure.
Today Kristin and I met for coffee to discuss the Flash Job Campaign and the different things we want to try in the remaining days of the campaign. We decided to spend the afternoon in Neukölln getting video footage and photographs and just see who we can encounter.
We were walking in a side street near Karl Marx Strasse in Neukölln when Kristin noticed a funny door covered in crude grafitti. Someone had written Du Bist Tott, which she told me means You Are Dead. She thought it was a funny or interesting thing to have on a door so I decided to take a photograph of her in front of this door. Within a minute we were approached by two male teenagers wanted to know what was up and they told us that this door belonged to them and they wanted 20 euros from us for photographing it. They told us they would even call the police on us for photographing the doo and so on. It was clear that these guys were interested grabbing some easy money off of us so they try to scare us, I guess, that was the game. Their whole effort was quite laughable to me since they were quite small kids and so giving them 20 euros from my pocket for shooting a picture in front of this weird door just wasn't going to happen. They offered to bring us to a place in the nearby park where we could photograph some really cool graffiti, if we wanted thay could show us, but who knows how much money they would ask from us for this. A neverending hustle and some of these teens start it at such a young age.
Our campaign runs into this kind of obstacle so often with some teens. They either want some money upfront or they just want bigger sums for photographing them.
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_01:
How can you convince some teenagers to do one of our jobs when they are so interested in catching some quick money by simple exhortions like this?
Direct Link to this Post:
TUESDAY - JUNE 10, 2008 - 04:04:27 PM
Fedele_TheDeal_story_01:
Steffanie and I have found job through a new friend of ours named Woody. A very nice lady named Vera that lives in the same building as Woody has a very lovely garden. Steffanie and I sat down with her in her beautiful garden and Steffanie explained the Flash Job Campaign. She seems to undersatnd what we are doing and she needs help in the garden so things look good. She can offer 5 euros for the job, with the possiblility for more if the job is done well and it should not thake more than an hour. Woody showed me a tree in the garden where a fox is sometimes sleeping.
After our meeting with Vera Steffanie and I are full of energy and enthusiasm. Our job is quite a good one and the Vera is very nice. We have a thought-- it would be perfect to go back to the Turkish shop owner and convince him to let one of his kids do our garden job. after all he likes gardens and we know that some cruel teenagers already destoyed the one he made in front of his shop so we can work the garden angle on him. This can be our chance to really show him the magic of the Flash Job Campaign. Maybe he is too suspicious to offer a job to a teenager, but now we can show him what it can mean for one of his kids to do a cool and interesting job with Vera, the garden lady. Anyone should be happy to work in such a lovely garden where our job will take place. I am even considering doing this job myself just to spend more time in the garden.
Fedele_TheDeal_story_02:
The next day Steffanie and I went back to the Turkish shop owner and told hÃm about our job in the garden and see if he wants it for his son or daughter. After some talking I came to realize that he still was not interested. He expalined that his kids are way too busy with other things to do anything with us. That was that. We feel at this time we might be annoying him with our Flash Job Campaign. He is just not interested in anything other than complaining about the problems around him. We did the best we could do with him but no result.
Steffanie and I are quite disappointed. We thought this was going to be such a sure thing with this guy. It made such perfect sense. Suddenly all our energy and enthusiasm is gone. The collaspe of our deal with the Turkish shop owner also creates a tension between Steffeanie and I and we begin to argue on how to proceed. We finally decide its enough for today and try to go home to Alexanderplatz to chill out. We are so flustered and upset over our perfect Flash Job collapsing that we accidently make two mistakes on the subway and add almost an hour to our ride home. This causes tensions to grow even more.
Tomorrow we will look for new teenagers.
Fedele_TheDeal_FAQ_01:
Will the frustration from this collapse in our deal make us work harder or discourage us?
Direct Link to this Post:
MONDAY - JUNE 9, 2008 - 04:25:37 PM
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_03
Kristin and I decided to go out together and see if we could encounter some teenagers for a possible intervention. We met for lunch in Neukoölln and afterward started walking around near some parks that are sort of close to the Kreuzberg. We were walking towards the entrance of some park when we noticed these two enormous and incredibly weird scupltures of some froglike creatures. We were both amazed by these giant frogs and wondered they were doing there when we noticed three teenagers hanging out in front of the frog to our right. We instantly decided to make an intervention. These kids looked like the ones everyone we had spoken to seemed to be was afraid of. They were about 17, maybe 18 years old.
I was very curious to see what they would think of the Flash Job Campaign.
Kristin and I cooked up a scheme where we told them that I was from New York and that I was interested in making a couple photos of these strange frogs and if it would alright if they (the kids) would be in the photo. They heard us out and agreed but one of the teenagers jokingly opened up his pants and we kind of laughed uncomfortably at his joke and went along with our intervention.
Kristin did all the talking with I shot photos and did a little filming and of course just observed. Kristin explained the Flash Job Campaign in her enthusiastic and open way and there was some talk back and forth. To me the kids appeared to be interested, but I could also sense that they were entertaining themselves by goofing around with us and our weird Flash Job Campaign. On the surface, without understanding German, my impression was that things were going well. We were interacting with them and the seemed to be listening to what we had to say. Kristin gave them her business card and two of the boys wrote down their phone numbers for us. Kristin asked me if we had any job at the moment so I thought to myself, great. It all appeared to be working.
After about three or four minutes a second group of boys came out of the park to see what was going. Suddenly we were surrounded by six new teenagers, and not particularly friendly ones. The feeling was that they wanted to know what was up with us and the mood of the scene shifted. The changed was quite apparent. It went from a friendly chat to what are these two strangers doing here.
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_01:
How can an intervention be adapted to work in a group? Should it never be tried in a group? Are the dynamics of a group of teenage boys to strong for an intervention?
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_04
Kristin explained the Flash Job Campaign to these new kids but the dynamics of our intervention had changed.
In the few interactions I have had with these kids it is usually quite easy to spot the leader of the group. He is often not the biggest one, sometimes the opposite is the case. I try not to be judgemental in my encounters with anyone, but I have to say that it was pretty clear that in this intervention we were dealling with a group of hoodlums. How can you tell this? They will almost always want to know if we are somehow connected to the police. This question has come up each time we suspected we are interacting with hoodlums. There has been a leader that easy to identify. Thats another way to tell. He generally is the one kicking back behind the others and listening and staring, letting the others do more of the talking, and the most obvious thing about these leaders is that you can actually can get a real threatening vibe from them. Its hard to put into words but you can totally feel it and the group acts differently when this person is present.
Kristin and I both agreed later that we both felt something threatening from this one kid. The only question he asked was if he could have the money upfront, he asked this several times.
I told Kristin that it might be a good idea to ask these kids to tell us what of job they would interested in so we might then have a better idea what would these kind of guys. Kristin asked them and then took out her notebook and gave to one teenager who wanted to make us a list.
One teenager asked Kristin what kind of work she does and she told him she worked as a nurse, to this the teenager replied that he would like to be her patient, but that he would be naked. Kristin replied to this by saying that sometimes its normal for patients to be naked but quickly changed the subject.
The intervention ended when one of the teenagers return the notebook with the list of jobs. Kristin glanced at it and quickly put it in her purse. We then left the scene and the teenager where sqaying something about being in touch.
When Kristin explained what had happened I was quite surprised. She showed me the list which consisted of only vulgar words for various sexual acts.
Kristin seemed concerned that these kids had a telephone number for her. She seemed unhappy by it and did not want to hear from them.
Kristin thought that perhaps the teens had spoken to her in vulgar way and wrote this vile list because of her appearance (bright pink dreadlocks) and her open way of interacting with people in general. She said she felt that in their mind these teens were just thinking "here is some easy German bitch."
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_01:
Do these teenagers behave in this vulgar fashion with the girls I see wearing headscarfs that are coming from their own communitiy? Would that be acceptable to them?
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_02:
Is it better not to give a business card to certian teenagers?
After this invervention I feel I started to make a negative impression of the teenagers of Neukölln. I don't want to but this list and Kristin told me was a real drag on my emotions. I feel I don't want to encounter anymore teenagers for at least one full day. I have included a photo of the list of jobs the teenager wrrote but I don't feel like translating it.
Direct Link to this Post:
SUNDAY - JUNE 8, 2008 - 03:58:40 PM
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_02:
Stephanie and I have decided to make an intervention with a shop owner who happens to be Turkish. He has a little grocery store and also sells fresh vegetables. Stephanie does all the talking and I observe and take pictures.
We find out he has a son and a daughter and he has been operating this shop for the last 15 years. Its just off of Karl Marx Strasse in Neukölln. I can tell by his body language and in some other ways that he is telling Stephanie his horror stories about the teens of Neukölln.
These were bad experiences with teenager:
1. He had built up a little garden in front of his shop. It really wasn't much of a garden really, just a square meter in the sidewalk with soil around a big tree, but he fixed it up very nicely with flowers and it made the sidewalk look nicer. Apparently what happened was a group of terrible teenagers decided to destoy it and they did so right in front of his own eyes. When the shop owner came out and saw what was happening he started yelling at them to stop detroying his little garden and the teenagers in
turn gave him the finger which he then demonstrated by giving us the finger.
2. He told a story about school across the street and a school teacher who was attacked by a male student. The story was not very clear, but apparently a teacher got popped in the face by a student and somehow the teacher was trying to protect the female students in this story, but because of this
incident there are now bodyguards that stand in front of the school.
3. This is another story but it came after Stephanie explained the Flash Job Campaign. He told us that he had once taken in a teenage intern to help him out around the shop. It was somehow organized through a school or somethng like this. The young man came only once and after half an hour this kid
recieved an urgent call on his cellphone and had to immediately leave. Later that day the shop owner found out that a small computer was missing. He blamed the young man, and he said that even though he has no solid proof this kid stole the computer he sees no other possibility. After that he
decided no more jobs for the teenagers of Neukölln.
He also told us that we will have no luck in finding anyone that will offer a job in this neighborhood for our project because no one trust the teenagers and they get worse and worse all the time. His prediction is we will find no one to cooperate with us. He was also always referring to the teenagers that make these troubles as male. The problem is always with male teenagers for him.
He also mentioned that the young people have no respect for the older people. When they walk in the street they don't bother to allow older people the right of way and they are very verbally abusive.
He also told us he would like to move out of Neukölln, possibly to Stuttgart, or even back to Turkey, but his children want to stay in Berlin.
But if he could have it his way he would get out of Neukölln because he sees it as getting worse and worse all the time.
I could sense that it was very important to him to tell these things to us and he was quite enthusiastic and excited in explaining it. The intervention went very well in terms of the complaining aspect of it, but when Stephanie tried to convince him about the Flash Job Campaign his eyes simply glassed
over and it was easy to read his mind which was just saying "no way", and how do get rid of these nuts.
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_01:
How can we convince this shop owner who has had so many bad experiences to trust a teenager from Neukölln and participate in the Flash Job Campaign?
Fedele_TheDeal_story_01:
Stephanie asked him if it could be possible for him to have a positive outcome by having a good experience with a teenager in the Flash Job Campaign. He thought about and said that he could see it, but he was unwilling to try.
Fedele_TheDeal_FAQ_02:
Is getting people to trust the teenagers going to be an impossible obstacle?
Fedele_TheDeal_story_02:
Stephanie offers to be present when a job can take place and supervise everything and nothing will go bad, but the shop owner then says he really has too little work and between himself, his wife and his kids there really isn't enough work and suggests that we try the restaurant next door. Maybe they could use another waiter.
Fedele_TheDeal_FAQ_03:
Can the shop owner even trust Stephanie?
Can we trust some teenager we meet in the street?
Fedele_MyIntervention_FAQ_02:
Will I ever get the chance to speak with anyone?
Direct Link to this Post:
SUNDAY - JUNE 8, 2008 - 02:58:46 PM
Fedele_MyIntervention_story_01:
Stephanie and I have decided to work together as a team in the Flash Job Campaign. Since I cannot speak German she will do the talking, while I observe, take pictures and shoot video. We work together in locating teenagers for our interventions and people who can offer flash jobs. After our actions in Neukölln we spend a long time analyzing what happening and keep a written record of these actions. I have done the same thing with Kristin. We have with a wide variety of adults and teens with a wide range of results. I have also gone into Neukölln on my own and attempted my interactions, which I will also write about
This is our first day out in Neukölln. Monday, June 2nd.
Per had given each of us a different zone in Neukölln explore. We first visited Stephanie's zone which is called Rixdorf and includes Karl Marx Platz. We heard this zone has a bad reputation as being one of the worst parts of Neukolln. We decided to spend this day just observing the area and getting a feeling for it. I was immediately impressed by the diversity. So many woman in head scarfs walking up and down the street shopping and going about their business. Many Turkish restaurants with colorful red storefronts and from the street I could see people preparing exotic looking food in the restaurants.
I was quite happy to be in this neighborhood and my general feeling was positive because I could see such diversity in Berlin and did not feel dangerous to me. I never felt threatened or worried as I thought I might be given the reputation of Neukölln and all I had heard so far about no go
areas, we were in a no go area I believe. I had never heard anything about Neukölln before. I came to Berlin from New York so seeing it this way, without any influence from the media about its bad reputation, my impression was that it is a nice place with many exotic things. It does not look run down. There are people all over the streets and kids running around and alot of activity.
After walking around Karl Marx Strasse we decided to make an attempt at an interaction with a group of four people who were sitting outside of a Turkish restaurant near Karl Marx Platz. One woman in her 30s, one man in his 50s, and two younger men in their early 20s. Stephanie interrupted their conversation to introduce herself and we sat down. Stephanie did all the talking. I was only able to observe the conversation and try to read the body language. At times I sensed that they suspected we might be crazy, because Stephanie asked them things like what they thought about fairness,
or the concept of fairness. They had no idea what we were talking about. We found out that the woman was from Bulgaria and she also revealed that she does not like her job but she has to do it. The same was true for the older man who turned out to be Turkish. No one wanted to reveal the nature of this
work and Stephanie did not press them at all about it. The two younger guys were not interested in us at all. They said they liked living in Neukölln.
There was no real possibility for a Flash Job deal with these people. They did have a question for me which was how is the life like in New York. I told them it was very nice but quite expensive. They were quite amazed at how much I pay in rent for my small apartment.
We then visited my zone, which is further south from Stephanie's zone. We came out of the subway in a suburban area, very quiet and alot of trees, but there were hardly any people outside at this time and there were very few shops. It no longer felt like the city of Berlin. It was quite a contrast from Stephanie's zone which was beaming with action and activity. We walked around for some time and passed a few parks. We finally came to an area where the blocks of apartments were arranged in a circle around a large man made pond. It was very peaceful and still near the pond so we decided to
rest and reflect on our observations. We were suddenly noticed by a large group of frogs living in the pond who began croaking in a loud manner. It grew louder and louder from one moment to the next, a new frog joining in all the time. We decided it would be best to leave my zone.
Direct Link to this Post:
THURSDAY - MAY 29, 2008 - 08:46:50 AM
Hello, I am Fedele Spadafora. I am contributing in the role as a Catalyst in The Flash Job Campaign from June 1st - 15th. Throughout this project I will dedicate my blog to the stories, FAQ's and tips and tricks and I might have. My first contribution is to publish the text I submitted in my application for the project. Among the eleven Catalysts and the two writers (from the Project "Open Dialogues") we agreed to share our application-texts, since this seems like a fair way to start our relationship.
DESCRIBE YOUR REASONS FOR APPLYING, AS WELL AS RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCES (IF ANY)
My painting has a strong sense of social awareness to it. I grew up in a hard industrial neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan (near Detroit), a place that sounds very similar to Berlin Neukölln, and I would have loved something like this to have come to my neighborhood.
DESCRIBE YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Painting, figurative
After the inquiry for more Text, Fedele answered after one hour and was selected:
My thoughts on the project:
I think I understand what the goals of the project are. I have been around "the creative class" in New York and I see them more or less as using the ideas and energy of the youth in parallel neighborhoods to Neukoelln in New York, and use it for profit. I'm not into that at all. I guess what I want to express is my participation and ideas would revolve around ideas like dignity and justice, and most of all opportunity. Not really economic opportunity, but much more importantly social opportunity, creating things that would be impossible without a catalyst.
I, myself, grew up as an immigrant in the United States. My parents came from a Southern Italian village in Calabria and my father worked in the factories in Lansing, Michigan for General Motors making their cars. I grew up in an industrial wasteland. Around the age of nine, I was bussed to an all white school district with a bunch of other foreign kids and black kids. It was the first time this school system saw any foreigners or children of color and they didn't like us too much and were scared of us and segregated us in some ways. The teachers took away opportunities from these kind of kids and they suffered for it. I don't know exactly how to create a job scenario for your project at this moment because that would require seeing what is happening on the street, but I can relate to this neighborhood. A job that generates hope should illustrate that opportunities are possible. So many things felt impossible to me but my way to deal with that was to work even harder and go forward. Thats why I'm in New York and I'm an artist. To demonstrate the possibilities of hope, even to exaggerate the possibility to a ridiculous point with the pretext of some crazy creative job can create the great social opportunity needed to change someone's whole life. I believe that. Making these things happen would need a good catalyst.
I can tell you I can be a great catalyst because I can relate and I can think creatively.
Direct Link to this Post:
This text is replaced by the Flash movie. You can use this to display alternate content for search engine spiders.
