PROJECT UNFOLD
the San Marcos library newspaper
Thi Nguyen School of Art+Design Communication Design MFA ARTC 5360C :: Designing Public Places M. Wright
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2 User space at the San Marcos public library 4
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OVERVIEW
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Public library is seen as a place for fostering reading culture, where people despite their age and social background all have access to information, media and other resources. However, it is believed that the secondary function of a public library is fostering community connection by generating shared interest through different events and activities for children, family, students and senior citizens. The San Marcos public library while becoming a social hub for the community has provided many programs such as book club, puppet show, Storytime, Teen Manga and Anime Club, etc. to bring people together. This project will explore different characteristics of the library community and locals’ relationship with the place in order to transform public places for the good of the community.
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FIELDWORK/ RESEARCH OBSERVATION ANALYSIS From the observational analytic, in average library users come to the library biweekly and stay for 30 minutes. Thus, chance of public interaction is very low. Among those, 59% are adults and senior citizens, 22% are students and 19% are children. 37% are males and 63% are females. According to The Public Life Diversity Toolkit published by Ghel Institute, public library users belong to a civic mixing group, in which they either have a ‘passive contact’ or ‘chance contact’ to one another. They can also become ‘familiar strangers’, who are place-based affiliation. Appropriate conditions can encourage public interaction (The Public Life Diversity Toolkit).
PARAMETER FOR SUCCESS / CONDITIONS OF PUBLIC INTERACTION The two conditions that library users are associated with are the internal and the external. The internal includes self conception, self awareness, self appearance, how often they go to the library, what service they use at the library, and any choices that are self-driven. The external is the library atmosphere which consist both physical and emotional content.
Physical content incorporates library interior, lightning, noise, people appearances, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, professional background, which is unwilling to change. Emotional content are perceptions, feelings of public appearances, which is more adaptable and can be changed. The internal and external is a closed-loop system that counteracts with each other, in which design as a facilitator can mandate their overlap and call for public interaction ( fig. 1). As can be seen, the design solution I chose will target the internal factors of library users to foster the external outcomes (diagram a). Diagram b shows that a successful design solution can be determined by the overlap in scale between the internal and external, which is relative to public interactive outcome. A larger overlapping section determines a stronger relationship between users and a space, which means there is a higher chance for public interaction (diagram b).
COMMUNITY STATUS / DESIGN OBSTACLES Library users are either too cautious about their surroundings or over-expressive of themselves. Two different spectrums of self-estrangement occur when people see themselves
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FIG.1: Diagrams of the relationship between users and public spaces with a design facilitator
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physically or emotionally unattached to a social group. These oppositions of two groups of audiences are obstacles for a design approach. From the observations and qualitative interviews with the library director, staff and library regulars, people are hesitant to start a conversation with others. However, the advantage
is that library users are categorized as a civic mixing group. It will benefit individuals develop a deeper understanding with their community, enhance empathy and tolerance with one another. It also built trust and confidence in the community by making individual feel belonging to a place and incline to express themselves.
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No chance contact among the library community
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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT & DESIGN DESIGN OBJECTIVES
PROTOTYPE / EXECUTION
Design objectives are first to educate library users that they are a part of a larger social fabric, second to create an opportunity for an individual to be immersed in the community and third to foster public conversation.
To collect story from the library users, I used a mailbox to gather public attention, give a description of the newspaper and prompt for submission. The prototype is built in white leaving room for future design iteration.
DESIGN SOLUTION
RESULT/ FEEDBACK
A community newspaper is chosen as a design solution, in which everyone is represented. This platform allows participants to express themselves with a given personal space. They are invited share their stories based on a selected theme assigned for each issue. The newspaper reflects community diversity in ways of thinking and emotional resonance from their stories. It also offers an opportunity for the audience to listen to the community they live in, redefine and shape new perceptions of their neighbors that once were called strangers. It is believed that understanding one another helps open the line of communication within the community. The traditional platform reclaims public understanding of a newspaper’s purpose, reflecting the voice of our community, which we don’t see often in today’s society.
The library staff are great supporters. They are willing to fund the newspaper if there is good reaction and qualitative participation from the community. They also encourage audiences to submit their stories The mailbox was displayed by the entrance and didn’t seem to attract a lot of attention. After the first week, I received one story and two drawings. I decided to move the mailbox closer to the adult seating area and next to the newspaper rack. I expected to see people react to it in a spontaneous way without being told what to do. The library program coordinator also suggested coming to the library bi-weekly to talk about the newspaper project during their up-coming events in mid May.
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FIG. 2: Logo & branding system
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PROCESS 1. Logo design & branding system ( fig. 2) 2. Prompt question objectives: • has to be understood by both the adults, and children • meets both designer’s and audiences’ interests (what designer wants to know, what information audiences look for)
• avoids sensitive or too personal topics that would intercept audiences’ participation • needs to generate answers that develop understanding in the community Prompt question samples: what is home to you? / Describe a day in a life of 3. Making of the mailbox ( fig. 3)
FIG. 3: The making of the mailbox & installation
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REFLECTION & FUTURE DESIGN DEVELOPMENT REFLECTION Through observation and talking with local people help me as a designer explore social and daily communication problems. Anonymous research finding techniques which are mapping sound and user activity at the library such time of staying, gender, age, and sitting references, I am able to understand human factors in a design process besides uncontrolled factors such as demography, geography, location, date and time. Human condition is such an important part of place marking. In “A Short Introduction”, Cresswell mentions place is not just a thing in the world but a way of understanding the world, in which we see attachment and connection between people, meanings and experiences” (Cresswell 11). Community estrangement is a consequence of the separation of a place and the people in it. Public urban interior and architecture is designed to encourage social interaction like setting up round tables or face to face benches, but people are afraid to get close to a stranger. While a public place is still defined as a property owned by someone, community is a concept built upon it. We say ‘let’s go to the San Marcos library’ but not ‘let’s go to our library’. As long as we are not
comfortable to call a place our place, the community experience is obscure. Making a public place comfortable, welcoming and meaningful for any individual to express themselves is an effective way to foster an exchanging community. It creates an opportunity for people to acknowledge their differences, to learn, to understand, to appreciate and to grow together.
FUTURE DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Human condition is changing overtime, and is different base on geography, landscape, and location. For future design development, I would love to expand the story mailbox to communities in the East and the West coasts, collect stories from locals and make newspapers ( fig. 4). I believe that community can be built despite physical distances. It’s not what we name it but how we think of it. Through this traditional platform, I hope to fulfill a public place’s functionality and every body’s need to listen and to express.
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FIG, 4: Road trip to the West and the East coasts
Works Cited Cresswell, Tim. Place : A Short Introduction. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2004. “The Public Life Diversity Toolkit.” gehlinstitute.org. Gehl Institute. Jan. 2016. Web. 21 February. 2017. <https:// gehlinstitute.org/work/public-life-diversity-toolkit/>. Image Citation Nguyen, Thi. Road trip to the West and the East Coasts. 2017. Screenshot. Google Map.