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London’s canals and rivers host an estimated 4,000 boats.Ìý

This nomadic community, living on the rivers and canals of the capital, form part of a network of over 15,000 boat-dwellers across the UK, and a lifestyle stretching back to the 1700s. Today, boaters living in London struggle to access a range of services whilst keeping on the move. From voting in elections, to getting your child into a school, getting recorded on the census to qualifying for benefits, a lack of address makes things tougher.Ìý

Beginning asÌýa research project led by Joseph Cook and Nura Ali from UCL Anthropology and the UCLÌýInstitute for Global Prosperity, theÌý'Navigating the System'Ìýexhibition tells a story of how boaters navigate their way through both London’s waterways, and the UK’s bureaucratic healthcare systems.

The stories of boat-dwellers reveal an intimate perspective from a variety of individuals and their experiences shed light on the systematic failure to reconcile transient ways of living with the universal right to health.ÌýThe exhibition features the photography of ÌýalsoÌýa boater, alongside quotes and data from the research.

This exhibition was first hosted at the UCL Urban Room,Ìýpart of the School for Creative and Cultural Industries and a practice-based teaching, research and public exhibitionÌýspace at the UCL East campus,Ìýdedicated to debate and engagement around future living andÌýurbanism.Ìý

Following a UCL EastÌývisit to , a new social sciences campus in northern Paris, the team have been invited to show the exhibition again, now retitled ‘Naviguer le Système’, as part of Campus Condorcet’s first Spring Festival of the Humanities - .ÌýThe festival itself will take place 21-23 March 2024, and the exhibition will then stay open to the public until 30 April 2024.

We look forward to following the lasting legacy of this important work, as it develops and engages new audiences.

Find out more about the exhibition and the research behind it on the . You can also explore a .