Aiming to document the demography of megalopolis in continuous expansion such as London by observing the commuters’ common behaviour of taking a nap, #TheGreatYawn ends up taking the shape of a cross section of the social makeup of the London tube.
Many people travel daily to work a long way from their own town. Commuting is in fact part of the essence of the industrialised societies. It has had a large impact on modern life by allowing cities to grow in disproportion, with the consequent increased number of suburbs.
The frantic expansion of cities pushes citizens farther away from central business districts. New businesses moreover appear in the urban outskirts causing the develop of the reverse commuting phenomenon: people who live in a core city but work in the suburbs.
Travelling long distances implies a dramatic change in the daily habits, taking quite often to the deprivation of sleep, which considerably affects commuters health. The rhythm of the industrialisation, and the widespread presence of technology in the everyday life have led to a sleepless urbanisation featured by productivity cycles 24/7. In this scenario commuters play an “active” role by being part of alienating working shifts in order to fulfil the consumerism needs.
The whole body of work is composed by more than hundred shoots published initially in the form of blog posts.
The use of a mobile - the instant camera of the current age - and the presence of WiFi access points in the underground stations have helped out to send the images taken right away over the Internet. That broaden and reconsider the concept of immediacy of a snapshot by looking at it under the influence of high speed networks.
Furthermore by taking and publishing the image on-line makes room to a thought-provoking critique to the-sometimes-phobic use of video security controls, leaving the viewer with the feeling of being constantly watched even during the accomplishment of common activities.
