VISION & ENCOUNTER TESTFrom mapping, I saw walkable paths and diverse places that overlapped and created a network intersection points. There seemed to be relationship between social boundaries regarding how far people will walk, places people gather and at various times. While mapping place types I became interested in walkability to raise questions such as what places that are needed on a daily basis within a reasonable, safe walk. Experiential representations of places in the Martin Drive neighborhood near Foundation Park that were of interest were painted. Leisure was represented under a big tree on Vliet Street near a park with many pathways, growers ready to sell was represented also in a nearby lot inspired by the Bethune Community Garden, play was represented in foundation Park, one of many public art works stating “choose to change” was shown on the Hmong American Friendship Association wall with people observing it, and a market was shown full of sellers and activities such as writing quotes with chalk on the sidewalk in the park near the leisure location. I wanted to demonstrate what I saw there and locations near by in a way that a person viewing the map had to interact in the way I did in the space which was turning, following, and experiencing. After engaging with the community the importance of connecting more and gain a greater understanding of identity became evident so I continued to find and research opportunities to bring more life to public spaces. This project stemmed from the community members desire for more peaceful places, to address local underused artistic and other talent (and show them a way to utilize it) and the last main thing was to bring business opportunities in. I developed concepts from "pop up" in tactical urbanism (low cost & low risk investment to envision future uses and see what will work before investing a substantial amount of money into something. Pop up is mainly something that literally pops up for a day or two and goes away such as a parklet cafe or a "teeter tire" I focused on something more permanent) and secondly I focused walkability to get people to come to these places safely. I found that if there was direct participation of the citizens, they could envision and experience potential future uses of opportunity spaces through an informative iterative approach. This would develop social capitol and organizational capacity done though contextual development and local responses. To test my position, I created a collage that showed place memory and identities in the Foundation Park area. It was wheat pasted onto boards and placed in the park and the hope was that people would interact with it as well as the chalk board and white board. I saw that people were excited to see themselves on the mural and led me to go further with art as a way of engaging people. The genealogy based chart was inspired by Setha Low because she talked about intentionality and the structure of experience as a person is directed towards an object or event. She emphasized the importance of culturally meaningful spaces in homes and I was interested on how to bring that out without losing meaning which is why people creating and working together seemed like a good premise that can be altered. I needed to consider time, experience, thought, objects, stages for a system of human activity, controlling movement. The chart below shows what people said they wanted experientially and under that I developed program ideas that would be low cost, low risk investments over time that could be altered. Again, walking was important to get people to come because it was “the spatial acting out of place.” This was another reason why assemblage to connect elements was important for me to understand.
For inspiration beyond local surroundings I researched and focused on tactical urbanism and found precedents that were low cost and low risk investments to envision ideas.
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Iterative approach for diverse experiences and uses including art making, building, and envisioning. |