Visualizing Cultural Resources
Saad Aqeel DMGT 706- Idea Visualization Robert Fee Fall 2009 1
Content • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Introduction Purpose of the study Why this topic? What is innovation? Cultural mapping The need Potential user groups Components of cultural mapping How to map? System map diagram Influence diagram Control I/O diagram Stages of mapping To map or not to map? Conclusion References 2
Introduction •
In summer quarter 2009, I participated in an elective summer course “Popular Culture and the city” led by faculty members from the Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The central theme of this summer course is culture and the city. The program provided an overview of social scientific theorizing about the city, and in particular about the idea of urban culture, lifestyle, or way of life.
•
The content of the program introduced in many ways in which popular culture is produced and consumed in an urban context. Is there something specific about urban life, and if so, what is it? How is city life related to public space and public domain? Is there a specific urban culture, and if so, what are its characteristics? It explores the relationship between the city and culture: culture as the production and consumption of symbolic goods. 3
Purpose of the study •
•
A central component of my MFA research is exploring the idea of visualizing culture and being able to observe the spatial and geographical distributions of cultural resources in the local community. For the purpose of this assignment, I explore the concept of cultural mapping as innovative tool to visualize cultural resources and as method used for planning and development purposes. The research is a significant in its attempt to address main concepts and practices on how to map cultural resources and utilize them strategically to build social capital in the community.
4
Why this topic? •
•
Working closely with the communities to create an artistic response is crucial to any successful public art project as it contributes a number of benefits, from aesthetic to economic and social benefits. In view of that, arts and cultural organizations are constantly reexamining their missions and roles in what has become an increasingly complex arts environment. In this context, cultural workers and planners are focusing their efforts toward increasing public access to art and culture in their communities. In this context, cultural mapping is counts as an innovative tool that will help me to further explore the idea of visualizing culture and being able to view relationships among unrelated types of characteristics and features in a community of study.
5
What is innovation? •
•
There are a variety of definitions of “innovation” that appear in the literature. Innovation can be defined as the application of new ideas to the products, processes or any other aspect of a firm’s activities. The concept of innovation is basically concerned with the process of commercialization or extracting values from ideas; this is different from ‘invention’ which need not be directly associated with commercialization. In business, innovation is something that is new or significantly improved, done by an enterprise to create added value either directly for the enterprise or indirectly for its customers.
•
For the purpose of this assignment, innovation can be defined very broadly as a practice or research that introduces community art organizations to novel way to develop visual representations of the tangible and intangible benefits of cultural resources. In view of cultural planning, the method of cultural mapping can be innovative when it leads to improving arts and cultural delivery and outcomes in local community.
6
Cultural mapping •
•
Cultural mapping is an innovative tool used for gathering information about the cultural landscape and the cultural panorama in local communities. Through this process, cultural elements are recorded – the tangibles like galleries, craft industries, distinctive landmarks, and local events as well as the intangibles like memories, personal histories, attitudes and values. How cultural mapping is carried out has everything to do with who is doing the mapping and why. What kind of information the organizations collect and how they use the information depends on what is the need for the mapping. Needs can range from defining local culture, identifying gaps and overlaps in cultural activities and practices, to making the case for investing in the community's cultural development. 7
A
B
xx
This storyboard illustrates an example of what need cultural mapping is addressing? A cultural planner is struggling with his new task to think of strategy on how to increase the public access to arts and cultural events in the community.
From design management perspective, my role as change agent is first to bring attention to the fact that before thinking about how to increase public participation, cultural planners need to understand the social and the cultural contexts of their audience. They also need to understand the concept of culture.
8
C
Understanding and appreciating the complexity and the multifaceted nature of culture, enables cultural workers to identify what the community has to offer to its residents and also observe the spatial distributions of popular culture within the public space. Here is a group of community residents participating in social mapping, one of the techniques used for cultural mapping, to present their point view of their cultural needs in their community.
9
D
Map before you plan is a basic principle in cultural planning. This is a layout of new downtown district in the city of Dubai with symbols representing the spatial distribution of specific cultural elements. Such process will help cultural workers to identify issues related to public participation in arts and culture in the area, for example, how accessible is cultural events to the residents? What are other resources available in the community that has potential for creating collaborative social networks.
10
Potential user groups •
Cultural mapping is used in communities by a number of different stakeholders to develop solutions to issues that concerns culture. Cultural maps can be used by a wide range of user-groups. These include:
1.
Cultural worker/Program planners
2.
Community based-organizations
3.
Local and national governments
4.
Non-governmental organizations
5.
Academic institutions
11
Components of cultural mapping •
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
It important to keep in mind that cultural mapping is a tool and a methodology, no matter what its application. How cultural mapping is carried out has everything to do with who is doing the mapping and why. Usually, cultural mapping involves the uncovering of the following cultural resources profiles: Population composition Ethnic Groups Artistic and Cultural Activities Art related Business Cultural Industry Existing Cultural Facilities and Institutions Cultural Inheritance Tourism and Leisure
• •
• • • •
•
A typical cultural mapping can involve a mix of the following: The usage of demographic data to identify relevant characteristics of the local population. Identification of the different lifestyles new culture introduces to the area. Identification of the local population’s cultural and social needs. Identification of activities that point toward new cultural programs and activities. The uncovering of local history from which potential common themes and new ideas can evolve. The uncovering of the relationship between cultural development and other activities such as tourism.
12
How to map? As a vehicle of information, the map is extremely versatile. It can be loaded with many kinds of data that can then be unpacked, isolated and reconfigured. As far its form, the choice ranges from an artist’s hand-crafted picture to the most sophisticated, multi media, hyperlinked database. Many techniques involved in carrying out a cultural map. In the following, I will briefly describe three basic techniques: social mapping, cognitive and mindmapping, and lastly, using geographic information system. •
Social mapping can be used to present information on village layout, social infrastructure, demography, ethno-linguistic groups and others. The tool is particularly sensitive to the composition of the participating group. Outputs differ consistently if generated for example by women than men or children.
13
How to map? •
Mind maps are used to visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in problem solving and decision making.
•
Mind maps may actually aid recall of existing memories, which can be considered as effective tool for presenting the intangibles culture.
•
Cognitive Mapping It is the internal representation of information. It is a mental model that helps us to contextualize and make sense of information.
14
How to map? In the strictest sense, geographical information system is a computer system capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing, and displaying geographically referenced information. In a more generic sense, GIS is a tool that allows users to create interactive searches and analyze the spatial information. •
GIS is an innovative information-technology based tool that enables you to do more than just draw maps and pictures. GIS allows you to organize and reveal multiple layers of information, which can help highlight relationships among disparate or unrelated types of characteristics and features in an area. It can also be used to display quantities, densities, and change over time.
15
System map diagram •
It important to keep in mind that cultural mapping is a tool and a methodology, no matter what its application. How cultural mapping is carried out has everything to do with who is doing the mapping and why. Usually, cultural mapping involves the uncovering cultural resources profiles such as profiles related to population composition, ethno-linguistic groups and existing cultural facilities and institutions.
•
The boundary of the system diagram has been drawn so that design manager focus on the selected mapping tools that will be carried out as part of the cultural mapping process.
16
Influence diagram •
The diagram provides a high-level qualitative view under which I design a model for community cultural planning. Influence diagram offers a way to identify and display the essential elements and how they influence each other. This diagram shows how the concept of culture can be viewed as intangible and tangible elements and how both can influence what can be included as cultural resources in the community. These, in turn, influence what kind of profiles needed to identify intangible culture through “identity mapping”, and also identifying the tangible cultural resources through “resource mapping”. Both of them, in turn, influence elements to be part of cultural mapping, which ultimately affect the final product: a cultural plan that is responsive to arts and cultural needs of local communities.
17
Control I/O diagram •
• •
•
•
•
This diagram incorporates control feedback to I/O diagram. This brings the following diagram features: The actuators, which covers tasks that need to be adopted when required. The environmental influences, which are beyond control. In this case, these include polices related to art and culture. The sensor who has clear criteria for standard of performance from the output. In this case, the sensor is design manager. The feedback Negative feedback acts on the inputs by increasing or decreasing in order to maintain a desired result. Positive feedback, on the other hand, acts on the inputs in order to maximize results at the output. The comparator who compares the standard from the output with the overall goal or the process and triggers off any changes to one or more inputs. 18
Stages of mapping •
•
•
•
•
Planning: in this stage, cultural planner focus on determining objectives with the community and obtaining buy-in from community leaders. It also involves setting a budget and identifying mapping resources – these can be human or technical. Project Design: this includes designing the inventory and drafting survey questionnaires and interview questions. Implementation: mainly involves carrying out broad-based research – surveys and targeted research – interviews. Synthesis: in this stage, cultural planner participates in roughing out the map (textbased, web based or graphic) and analyzing the results. Finalizing the Map and presenting the results to the target audience.
19
To map or not to map? •
One of the advantages for cultural workers is that mapping allows to get a fresh perspective by looking at data from different points of view: cross cultural, public access, concentration, networking. However, mapping can be a demanding process and feasibility is an important consideration. Does the organization has the money, the time and the human resources to see it through? A good question to ask is whether mapping would be the most useful and economical approach.
•
The force field diagram gives an overall picture of pros and cons of the proposed idea. This diagram identifies points that represent the driving forces and the restraining forces of proposing cultural mapping or arts and cultural organizations. Each force is shown as an arrow, 'pushing' either in the ‘driving' or ‘restraining' direction. Each of these arguments have a different weight shown by the thickness of the arrow. 20
Conclusion •
•
•
Cultural mapping is an innovative tool designed for cultural workers and planners who want to enrich the cultural landscape in the community. The product offers the opportunity to develop visual representations of the tangible and intangible benefits of cultural resources. This will be accomplished through a series of mapping techniques focusing on identifying and documenting local cultural resources. Unlike the cultural inventory method, which mainly focuses on quantitative data, cultural mapping tool creatively combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies which in turn offers a deeper insight into diversity, history and identity.
•
•
The beauty of using a mapping process is that it can be tailored for the group you wish to consult. It is not a confronting process and in many cases, the participants can learn new skills or further develop existing kills. Cultural mapping is a process that honors people’s knowledge and shared experience and if facilitated well, it can bring cohesion, develop networks and be an enriching experience for all involved. The key outcome of the process may be a Cultural Plan, however through creative processes there may be many other outcomes, such as ideas for projects, activities and new businesses.
21
References •
• •
• • • •
Mark Rogers (1998). The definition and measurement of innovation. Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 10/98. http://melbourneinstitute.com/wp/wp1998n10.pdf Business Council of Australia, 1993. Managing the innovation enterprise. Melbourne, BCA. ://melbourneinstitute.com/wp/wp1998n10.pdf Arts Yakka. Practical information, ideas, templates and tools to support community arts, 2009. Available; www.artsyakka.com Commonwealth Department of Communication and the Arts, Mapping Culture, 1994 Cultural Mapping Toolkit. Creative City Network of Canada. Available: www.creativecity.ca Cultural Mapping. UNESCO. Available: www.unescobkk.org Bianchini and Ghilardi. Cultural planning and cultural diversity. 1997. Available: www.culutralplanning-oresund.net/Annex-1-1liaghilardi.PDF
22
End of document
23