Story: Dream and Design Workshop

DREAM AND DESIGN WORKSHOP IN MBARE

Dreamtown and House of Arts facilitated Dream and Design workshops in three communities in Harare; Hatcliffe, Hopley and Mbare. The aim was to make the youth design artistic installations in public spaces in each of the communities. The workshop is divided in three phases; Explore, Dream and Design. This is a brief guide to make your own Dream and Design workshop.

EXPLORE challenges and potentials in your community

Go for a walk in your community. Bring along 2-3 friends. Look at the city. Find a public space that means something special to you or to the community as a whole. It can be a space that is used by a lot of people. A central space. A peripheral space. A space that is very safe/unsafe. A space that has a lot of unused potential. Talk about the challenges of the space. Talk about the potentials as well. Talk about the atmosphere, the feeling of being there. What is special about exactly this space? Why? Should it be different than it is? How can it be transformed in to the better? Take five pictures that characterise the entire space and bring them back to the workshop. Present your findings to the group.

DREAM opportunities and visions for your community

Sit down in the same group as you were walking with. Think about the space that you have chosen. Now, it is time to draw. Start by drawing your memories/stories from this space. Then draw your feelings being there. Then draw the challenges that are present in this space. Lastly, draw your dreams for the space or draw your ideal public space. All the drawings have to be on the same paper. Within each theme, you have to draw whatever that comes to your mind. You can also paint, make a collage or make a mix of all the media. The exercise is made individually, but each group has to choose the same space. In the end, present each of your visualisations for the entire workshop group.

DESIGN artistic and public space interventions

Go back to your groups. Find similarities from your dream collection drawings. Did you find the same challenges? Did you share the same dreams? Inspired by your drawings, you have to develop an artistic installation in the chosen public space. Each group makes one installation. Start the design process by writing down all your ideas on post-its. Agree on a topic for your artwork. Draw/illustrate the idea in all the ways you can imagine. Once ready, start to build your design idea with whatever materials you have available. Use Lego, sticks, clay, wood, plastic, whatever you have. You can either build the entire public space or just the artistic installation that you dream of creating.