This November, arts initiative Peckham Space will open a new contemporary art space in Peckham Square, south London. The structure, designed by Penson Architects, will continue Peckham Space’s programme of location-specific exhibitions, events and installations, which began in 2008 and are continuing until the new venue is completed. The latest project, Limitations Permitted, took place in the Square for one week in June. In keeping with the programme so far, this work engaged new media to produce a site-specific installation that invited further participation from the public.

Limitations Permitted was developed by filmmaker Manu Luksch and artist Neal White. It consisted of two related parts: a ‘kiosk’ in Peckham Square, devised by Neal White and The Office of Experiments, and films by Manu Luksch in collaboration with FLIX, a young person’s film group part of Visual and Performing Arts, (VAPA), Southwark Council Children’s Service arts provision. The title Limitations Permitted refers to the Frequent Accessory Clauses in the 1998 Human Right Act that allow the rights conferred to be restricted under ’specified circumstances’.

Limitations Permitted was a temporary intervention that encouraged people to think about civil liberties within the specific context of Peckham. This project enhanced public debates about surveillance and civil liberties in a densely populated urban area that, like so many others, is now colonised by surveillance technology.

Peter Bradwell from think tank Demos reflects on the project: “Looking like any other security booth, Limitations Permitted was a kiosk outside Peckham Library.  But instead of enforcing rules, it invited you to question them. Instead of making sure you conform to the way space is regulated, it encouraged discussion about how that happens.

Limitations Permitted, was about more than CCTV. It was about what laws govern our behaviour, and the new ways that are available to enforce them.  In the kiosk, members of the public could watch 3D videos made by FLIX with Manu Luksch. The artists researched the by-laws that are active on Peckham Square and invited young people to interpret them while over-laying sign-language reinterpretations of the laws. For instance, sign-language itself was once banned because the dominant medical view was that deaf people should fit in rather than develop their own form of expression – with evident negative effect on the wellbeing of generations of deaf people. This story helps us question who claims to ‘know best’ and who decides how we should behave.

Limitations Permitted showed that there is no escape from the watching – just thoughts and debates about the power and intentions of those doing it. The installation emphasised the distance between the ‘watcher’ and the ‘watched’ in public space. At the moment surveillance seems to be something done to us because we do not know enough about how the rules are made, or how things like CCTV help to enforce them.

The legitimacy of surveillance depends on how much of a say we have over how we are governed – the legitimacy of our democracy.  So the challenge of our society is not really to stop surveillance happening. It is to make sure we recognize when and where the ‘watching’ is happening, who is doing it, and what power it gives them.”

Peckham Space is an arts initiative funded by Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, Southwark Council and Arts Council England, that commissions new multimedia, location-specific projects connecting art, people and place through creative experience. A new state-of-the-art venue designed by architects Penson Group will open on Peckham Square in November 2009.

Emily Druiff is the director of Peckham Space. For further information see www.peckhamspace.com