Writing the City The Role of Design Activism and Language in Building Communities
MA THESIS BRIEF. Juan Camilo Torres Jimenez SUPERVISORS Prof. Carolin Hรถfler Prof. Michael Gais MA Integrated Design 2017 - 2019
Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because and only when they are created by everybody Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities
abstract By the year 2050, it is expected that cities population reach up to 6.4 billion people. People move to cities looking for financial, social and/or political stability. Making of the city space a hub for different generations, cultures and beliefs. Although the definition of -The City- goes beyond its physical infrastructure to the networks created by the people who inhabit them, the potential that lies in its diversity is getting lost due to the increasing insular lifestyle that is becoming more common in western societies and which affects people´s physical and mental health. This research relies on the theories of Design Activism and Storytelling to make evident the role of citizens as active actors in the construction of their space. Through different experiments, I aim to test the disruption possibilities of typography and written language as tools to trigger communities interaction and creation and to explore a new perspective on the concepts of design and belonging.
Keywords: city, civic engagement, storytelling, design activism, diversity, typography.
MA THESIS BRIEF. Juan Camilo Torres Jimenez SUPERVISORS Prof. Carolin Hรถfler Prof. Michael Gais MA Integrated Design 2017 - 2019
content topic
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introduction
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background
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concepts
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research question
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hypothesis
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objectives
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time frame
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bibliography
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Liebe deine Stadt. Merlin Bauer. 2009
Liebe Deine Stadt Project by...
topic
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Writing the City - Urban Typography Sense of Belonging through Design + Activism + Storytelling + Urbanism
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Hohenzollern Bridge. Cologne. CC 2011
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introduction from the other side of the river Few days after arriving in Cologne I took a guided tour through the city, while walking close to the Cathedral the guide´s phrase was.. “we will only walk on this part of the river, the other side is not the city�. By the second week I listened to the phrase again, this time in a university guided tour, and nine months after living and studying here I keep on listening to the same expression. This idea raised an initial question for me. Why do people think or feel that? What is the meaning of the other side of the city? and what is the story behind it?.
04 05 06 07 Going deeper through these questions I started connecting this sense of distance and difference with other life experiences, and recognized the river as a metaphor of how we perceive and read this city, or maybe cities.
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Beyond being a physical frontier in the case of Cologne, the river also represents a barrier that is becoming common in western societies, it represents the disconnection to the other, a rejection to what is lying just there, and a distance we keep on taking from the other, from the neighbour.
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i1. Medieval Monsters. Kempf Damien. Ed Gilbert 2015
background bigger cities do not mean better cities The metaphor of the river as a border and our idea of what awaits us at the other side can be traced back to the Middle Ages and to the XIV century (i1). Before stumbling upon a new continent the collective thought was engaged with the idea of the dangers that could be caused by the one footed, single-eyed men-eaters creatures and monsters which happened to exist on the other side.
Back then the "river" was a vast ocean to cross within months or years of travelling, today this “river” stills exist but the vast ocean it represents lies just next to us between doors and neighbourhoods. All along western societies, this problem persists, we do not know the other, we do not know our neighbours. The vital data survey shows that more than 30% of Canadians feel disconnected to their communities¹, half of USA population do not know the names of the people living next door², in Queensland Australia, people hesitate before intruding even in emergency cases to their neighbours³ and 40% of Great Britain population declare that they do not trust people who lives next door 4.
Human beings health depends also on social interaction, our minds are designed for that reciprocal interplay with others. According to the psychologyst Susan Pinkerman, throughout our growth as social beings we develop three rings of interaction (i2), the inner circle created by our family and close friends, the middle ring formed by our sense of community and the outer ring as a permeable layer comprised by our long distance and often online-based social interactions. The three circles combined create what is known as the social immune tissue, a layer that helps us live our lives as healthy individuals.
The second ring is vanishing, and besides having an effect on our mental and physical health it is also playing a role in the way our societies grow and develop. The same way our bodies get healthier by being exposed to different environments, our communities strengthen when we have the chance to experience different points of views and opinions. The second circle is important because in here relations are created by persistence, people don´t always like or decide who lives next door, and getting to cross that barrier can trigger a sense of trust and compromise in both ways.
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1. Vital Signs 2015 National Report. Lee R. Community Foundations of Canada. 2. City Observatory Report 2015. Cortright J. GSS General Social Survey University of Chicago. 3. Harden Up Resilience and Disaster 2017. Queensland Goverment inner circle family and close friends dissapearing second circle social habitat third circle, permeable online relations
4. Neighbouring in contemporary Britain 2010. Rowtree J. The Young Foundation
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In a scale review, this expands to the field of politics, in words of the sociologist Marc Dunkelmann, becoming more insular and ignorant of the other´s way of thinking is also reflected in having everytime more polarized politics. "Our limited time and attention are divided between those dearest to us and those who think like us, the online relationships" this puts aside the possibility to craft an environment, from a bottom-up process, from building, to neighbourhood, to district, to city. “When there’s no habit of compromise, then the very idea of a Congressman reaching across the aisle is apostasy. The politicians who won’t do that are actually responding to their constituents’ wishes.” 5 Three art related projects show the relevance of this topic in different scales. To begin with, video artist Katharina Jej based in Cologne has been projecting since January 7. 2018 video portraits of different people living on Geisselstraße (i3), including those recently arrived at the refugee accommodation located in the same street, altogether with the faces of locals who have been living in the area for a longer period of time.
Open to the public, this display is showing the multiplicity of Geisselstraße through the faces of its inhabitants. Faces that become visible and more familiar. Neighbours who would rarely get in touch with one another, now share the same plot within the video installation, related through time and space proximity on the projected surface. The intervals showing individuals' faces allow walkers and residents to grasp a familiar feeling on every facade, tearing down initial assumptions or stereotypes, about the strangers who live there. According to the artist, the installation supported by the city government (Ministerium fur Familie NRW) is allowing the street to show its true colours.
i3. Wir Leben Hier - Video Projection Katharina Jej. Geisselstraße.Cologne 2018
“Hall 6 Real Encounters in Times of Hyperconnectivity”, is an art installation exhibited since January 26. 2018.
Created by the TAAT collective for the Keine Diziplin Festival in Zürich with the participation of KISD students, is an example of the way architecture and theatre are working with the topic, inside the construction two unknown individuals walk through a maze that provides different experiences. (i4) As they walk forward along the path they recognize that the actions performed in one side of the wall are connected with reactions on the other side, and the thin wall which separates their rooms is actually their way to communicate. At the middle of the way the strangers have the opportunity to share a common room, to talk, see and be seen and somehow acknowledge the presence and proximity of the other as an important part of a common construction.
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5. The Vanishing Neighbor. 2014. Dunkelman M. i4. Hall 6 - Architecture and Theatre Installation TAAT Gesneralle.Zürich 2018
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The third example, 100% City Project by the Berlin-based Group Rimini Protokoll, is a theatre play based on the plurality and composition of a city. (i5)
In the piece, one hundred people are selected to represent the particular demographic data of a chosen city, being on stage allows the participants to portray an image of the population and the audience to acknowledge the diversity of it, the play is never the same as the "actors" create the work according to their interconnections. As stated by the group, the result is a living and breathing portrait of the city, with its citizens at its core, and with their diversity as their common characteristic. In the edition 100% Melbourne, every individual represented 41.000 citizens, but the play created on stage exposed a sense of the city beyond numbers and statistics, a creative way to reunite a wide variety of people, an approach to recognize a city environment through their people and an idea to start building bridges to connect those "rivers" which separates our cities.
i5. 100% Melbourne - Active Theatre Rimini Protokoll. Melbourne 2012
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the first building blocks
concepts
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design
activism
transformational activism
Act of deliberately moving from an existing situation to a preferred one, made by professionals or not, applying design procedures or not*
A way to disrupt existing paradigms of shared meaning to replace them with new ones. From State A to State B*
Activists as change agents. It is the mindset change experienced by those involved, in activism movements
Alastair Fuad-Luke Design Activism 2009
Alastair Fuad-Luke Design Activism 2009
Alastair Fuad-Luke Design Activism 2009
genius loci
city
storytelling
The spirit of the place, the both physical and non physical elements that make a place the place it is. The connections that are created between their different elements.
A Collage City. A post-modern composition of memories, shifted contexts, recycled meanings, metamorphoses. Allowing the city to create itself, to read itself and to form its own meanings from borrowed fragments.
Describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories. As a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Includes plot, characters and narrator point of view
Aldo Rossi Architecture of the City 1966
Rowe - Koetter Collage City 1978
Julia Chaitin Narratives-Storytelling 2003
and then he asked...
research question
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How might design be a tool to show a city can be created from its citizen's diversity and participation?
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But what is the definition of The City?. Beyond its characterization by the number of population or type of infrastructure as stated in the Cambridge Dictionary 6, cities are complex structures created by people, as proposed by Huyssen they work as urban palimpsests condensing several layers of information and interactions at the same time, geographical and historical facts, social interactions, economic interchanges, and evolving narratives.
hypothesis I do believe... According to the Nantucket project and to the Dr. Urbanist Cassidy Jones, by 2050 two thirds of the world's population will be living in a city. Cities grow and they will keep on growing, they cluster services for the population where work, housing, education, health and wealth, become more accessible. Cities are hubs for innovation as they mix different generations, cultures and individuals.
Cities are readable consequences of the relations of its inhabitants, and according to Lefebvre´s concepts, the space of The City is a social oeuvre. In his theory, the space is formed as an interconnected triad relationship, the spatial practice (the physical paths and relations deciphered by the experience), the representation of the space as (the conceptualized plans of urbanists, architects and engineers) and the representational space (as the dominated space of non-verbal symbols and signs created by our perception of it).
Following this theory, citizens can be considered producers and users of its space. Their relation towards it work in a reciprocal way, as they make changes in one side they also raise new perspectives in the other, they perceive and read their city at the same time they change it. If cities can be read there must be a way to re-write them, but if their core is the people who inhabit them and the networks they create, what types of cities will we craft with someone we do not know or even with those we feel afraid to?. I consider the theory of design activism crucial to trigger this process, as a language with the ability to show the plurality of the city. The concepts of design and activism are useful to understand how space can be perceived as a fluid creation. Aaron Fortner defines -Design as a deliberated act of movement towards the desired situation, stating that design can be made by professionals or not, applying design methodologies or not. In other words, everybody can be an active asset (initiator, participant, actor) when it comes to change something (object, place, experience) we do not like.
By looking at design from this perspective it also creates a connection in the way Activism works. It is a disruption act towards existing paradigms of shared meaning with the intention to shift them into new ones. I propose that knowing the plurality of the city through a design perspective can strengthen bonds of belonging between people and their space and spark the creation of healthy communities. The metaphor of the river as a frontier or division also has a scale representation and can be shifted and “bridged� by acknowledging new stories and finding touchpoints with others, starting by knowing those who live next to us.
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6. Online Cambridge English Dictionary A large town.Many of the world's cities have populations of more than five million.
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the path
objectives
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secondary main Develop a framework for the creation of design activism initiatives to show the diversity of a city through typography and written language.
-Create a matrix that allows comparing different design activism projects involving participation, city, and written language. -Develop interventions in public space as study cases of participatory design activism involving typography and written language. -Use written language and storytelling as design materials to showcase the diversity of a space. -Make a comparison between narrative analysis and spatial readings. -Compare different cities through the Sensing Cities methodology.
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Over the past years, cities around the world have found ways to build their environment and to point out their concerns about space. From reappropriated abandoned houses in New Orleans, to Urban Gardening in Cologne.
timeframe "Change will only come as a result of public awareness, dialogue and involvement. But how do we get people to pay attention?"
In here, Design has been used as a matter of advertisement, as a way to broadcast the message. But it also has the potential to be the seed among these movements and to trigger communities and spaces, they are aesthetic interruptions that force anyone who gets involved to consider something different.
This quote from the Urbanist Protester Magazine Issue of 2017 embraces the relevance of design activism within the city landscape.
BEGINNING
KNOT
READING CITIES
WRITING CITIES
observation I inspiration I testing
creating and testing interventions I
places comparison I innitial matrix
narrative frame I case studies
Sensing Cities Methodology. J Ellias Collage I Situanionist Derive
Storyboard Co - Creation Session
Thesis Brief Presentation
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
Intermediate Presentation
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JUL
The potential of a space and of a city can be effective when it´s diversity is taken into account. For the research, I propose Storytelling as one of the tools to understand the touchpoints among narrative texts and physical spaces as readable narratives. The project will have the following steps: Reading Cities. Exploratory and inspirational process to experiment different methodologies to read a city. And to discover possibilities of written language in public space.
I location finding
Writing Cities. Study cases, conformed by interventions in public space, testing language and typography as design tools to show a space diversity. Bridging Cities. A proposed framework to develop further innitiatives of design activism regarding this topic.
RESOLUTION
STRUCTURE
BRIDGING CITIES
CHAPTERS
propose connection between stakeholders
WHAT
exhibition I framework I stories connection
OUTCOME
Final Presentation
AGO
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WHEN
bibliography Atlas of Transformation Several Authors Book 2011 Walter Benjamin and the Architecture of Modernity Andrew Benjamin-Charles Rice Book 2009 The Image of the City Kevin Lynch Book 1960 Dead and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs Book - 1992 Design Activism Alastair Fuad Luke Book - 2009 Present Past Urban Palimpsest and the Politics of Memory Andreas Huyssen Book - 2003
Disruptive Aesthetics of Design Activism: Enacting Design Between Art and Politics Thomas Markussen Article - 2012 Design for Micro Utopia: Making the Unthinkable Possible John Wood Book - 2007 Designing for Aesthetic Disruption: Altering Mental Models in Social Systems through Designerly Practices Josina Vink Article - 2017 Design as a Reflective Conversation Donald Schon Article - 1992 Thinking in Systems Donella Meadows Book - 2009 A Good City Tells a Story Jenni Väänänen Article - 2016
Communicating Cultural Significance Through Contemporary Storytelling. Case Study Brisbane Australia Kimberly Wilson / Cheryl Desha Article - 2016 Civic Design for a Civic City Ruedi Baur Blog - 2010 S, M, L, XL Rem Koolhaas / Bruce Mau Book -1998 Storytelling, a model for Planning Theory Van Hulst Book - 2012 Mapping City Perceptions Jimmy Elias Design MA Thesis -2012 Belonging Exploring Connection to Community Community Foundations Canada National Report - 2015 The Vanishing Neighbor Marc J. Dunkelman Book - 2014
The Village Effect Susan Pinkerman Book - 2015 Collage City Rowe - Koetter Book - 1978 Reading Images Alberto Manguel Book - 2008 Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs Book - 1971 The Architecture of the City Aldo Rossi Book - 1982 Architecture and Narrative Sophia Psarra Book - 2009 The Dollar Street Anna Rosling Online Platform - 2017
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Resume The Role of Design Activism and Language in Building Communities The current proposal aims to test the disruption possibilities of typography, written language and storytelling as tools to make evident the active role of individuals in the development of their space. The City complexity is approached from a scale perspective, from house, to neighbour, to district, to city, and points out the lack of interaction and communication as one of the issues responsible of the insular lifestyle mode of western societies which plays an effect in human health and politics. To pursue the objective the research has three main phases that follow techniques derived from art and urbanism. Reading cities, Writing cities and Bridging cities. Concepts of belonging and co-creation, get connected with the possibilities of design to become a tool to gradually change our perspective of a space and to build upon the idea of what is needed to design and who designs.