RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
Sketchbooks Research & Analysis Ideas for Week 9.
Project - Adidas sponsored fun, inclusive community workshops in collaboration with black African artists, painting vibrant, colourful sports infrastructure gives communities hope, and somewhere they look forward to going each week and take pride in. Community upliftment provides a safe space for the youth to escape the harsh realities of everyday life in Africa.
Design thinking and production relevant to my project to ensure a fresh insight.
The broken window theory states that visible signs of crime and dereliction create an environment that encourages further decay. Making minor improvements to crime and the visual landscape establishes an atmosphere of order and lawfulness within a community.
The broken windows theory is behind the successful executions through colourful design in Summerfield Parks refreshed courts (Finney, 2021), William LaChance's St Louis basketball court murals (Howarth, 2017), and Morag Myerscough's murals on the run down Woodstock building walls (Collective, 2021). All instances resulted in the transformation and improvement of impoverished, derelict communities.
Beauty will save the world – Dostoevsky.
This phrase helps us understand the power of urban design projects through art and culture, relevant in that my project is built around improving the aesthetics of an area. A rising trend in community development initiatives is the use of design thinking for community advancement. In the past, design has been viewed as a skill used to primarily enhance the visual and aesthetic quality of innovation or place. While it still plays that role, it can also create real and tangible improvements in communities suffering from poverty (Fell, 2017).
The core values of my project are community involvement and engagement. Community design collectively incorporates design thinking. A community-based design approach sees communities design for themselves while a designer articulates and facilitates the process. Everyone's input equitably informs the whole process (Debevoise, 2020).
There is a real sense of empowerment when the community is allowed to play a leadership role to create something unique in their neighbourhood - Greg Raisman
Columbia has undertaken similar art initiatives to uplift communities overrun with violence. I have looked to the results as a means of evaluating the future success of my project. A graffiti collective, Ink Crew, and local community members embarked on painting 400 houses vibrant hues to brighten up the neighbourhood through colour and art in Columbia. The Colouring Community Project was more than just a splash of colour on the walls. Instead, it managed to engage the community and generate conversation and a sense of belonging. Working in colour was seen as more than just sprucing up the neighbourhood and resulted in community building and safety (Erb, 2017).
Fig. 1-4: Gil, 2019.
Artolution is a community art project centred around youths displaced by violence. The resulting murals, silk-screening and graffiti have created safer spaces and means of expression within the community (Artolution, 2021). The projects have garnered huge success in countries like Columbia, Uganda, Sudan etc.
The Bloomberg reclaim city roads and infrastructure engages with communities to reshape and inspire neighbourhoods, improve safety, and enhance residents' quality of life through vibrantly painted executions. The initiative has been so successful; it now has a global presence (Bloomberg, 2021).
The most significant impact from these projects has been the lasting relationships that have been built in the neighbourhood from collaborating – Lisa Cach
South Africa follows a global trend of locally manufactured, industrial waste-derived, environment-friendly paints and 'green' coatings (Burger, 2017). Eco-Friendly painting is a core component of my initiative to ensure the concept of being environmentally conscious is wholeheartedly embraced with the aid of technological advancements in zero VOC paints, waste disposal, water usage and transportation (Eco-painting, 2021).
Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, known for her immersive "Infinity Mirror Rooms" and aesthetic that embrace light, polka dots, and pumpkins, became an art-world phenomenon in the age of the selfie, with hundreds of thousands of people sharing Instagram photos of themselves in Kusama's unique spacey wonderlands (Adams, 2018). Today many modern art galleries are exploring the idea of exhibition as up-loadable social media "experiences" (Zwirner, 2021). I can use social media to create awareness of the African plight, with tourists and community members sharing Instagram selfies against colourfully painted sports infrastructure.
Fig. 8: Miro & Zwirine, 2021.
Research and analysis have provided insight and affirmation in my initiative's concept, process, and methodology.
IMAGINE
Proposed Execution Style
REFLECTION
Lecturers Paul and Harriet both challenged me to take my project beyond a purely aesthetic execution. Africa's needs compared to the rest of the world are, however, simple. Food, work, and a roof over your head are valued commodities and necessities that first world countries take for granted.
Building infrastructure is impractical due to the expense and probability of it getting stolen. The addition of lighting for security purposes isn't feasible due to load shedding, vandalism and illegal connections. The success of my concept hinges on its simplicity – community workshops painting infrastructure where people play sport to uplift and transform communities.
The research throughout this project shows evidence of community upliftment resulting from an improvement in the aesthetics of infrastructure within the community.
I conceptually took this a step further by strategically painting infrastructure with a dual purpose - aesthetic appeal, mimicking sporting infrastructure or serving as functional sports infrastructure.
- Concrete pillars or tree branches randomly placed in a field could be painted to represent soccer goalposts
- Highway flyovers leading to adjacent fields where communities play soccer could be painted to represent sports entrance arches
- Tunnels connecting townships, fields and highways could be painted to mimic the tunnels athletes emerge from before running onto a pitch.
- Walkways leading to grounds where sports are played could be painted to represent fan walkways
These suggested executions would create excitement amongst players and the community friends and spectators who cheer them on.
"For artists, listening to feedback and making changes is important and necessary – this is your work, but it's also for the community, so this context must be understood." – Molly Dilworth
Reference: Data.bloomberglp.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://data.bloomberglp.com/dotorg/sites/43/2019/10/asphalt-art-guide.pdf> [Accessed 26 November 2021].
Reference: Artolution. 2021. Colombia — Artolution. [online] Available at: <https://www.artolution.org/colombia> [Accessed 26 November 2021].
Reference: Erb, C., 2017. Los Puentes: Colouring a community. [online] The Bogotá Post. Available at: <https://thebogotapost.com/los-puentes-colouring-community/22351/> [Accessed 26 November 2021].
Reference: Burger, S., 2017. [online] Engineering News. Available at: <https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/print-version/construction-demand-boosts-local-eco-friendly-paints-2017-03-10> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: Engineering News. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/print-version/construction-demand-boosts-local-eco-friendly-paints-2017-03-10> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: Eco Painting Inc. 2021. Eco Painting. [online] Available at: <https://ecopainting.ca/eco-painting/> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: The BAZ-ART Organisation. 2021. Meet Ilukuluku Collective X Morag Myerscough (UK) from South Africa | Artist profile, artworks and Street Art. [online] Available at: <https://baz-art.co.za/what-we-do/online-art-gallery/the-artists/ilukuluku-collective-x-morag-myerscough-uk#Ilukuluku%20Collective%20X%20Morag%20Myerscough%20(UK)> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: Zwirner, D., 2021. Yayoi Kusama - Artworks & Biography | David Zwirner. [online] David Zwirner. Available at: <https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/yayoi-kusama> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: Adams, T., 2018. Yayoi Kusama: the world's favourite artist?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/23/yayoi-kusama-infinity-film-victoria-miro-exhibition> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: Fell, D., 2017. Incorporating Design Thinking for Community Improvement – Panorama Innovation. [online] Panoramainnovation.com. Available at: <http://panoramainnovation.com/?p=235> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: Debevoise, N., 2020. What Is Community Design And How Can It Build Brave Spaces With Heart. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelldebevoise/2020/07/29/what-is-community-design-and-how-can-it-build-brave-spaces-with-heart/?sh=f1f1ab235e66> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Reference: COLLECTIVE, I., 2021. Meet Ilukuluku Collective X Morag Myerscough (UK) from South Africa | Artist profile, artworks and Street Art. [online] The BAZ-ART Organisation. Available at: <https://baz-art.co.za/what-we-do/online-art-gallery/the-artists/ilukuluku-collective-x-morag-myerscough-uk> [Accessed 19 November 2021].
Image 1-4: Gil, N., 2019. The Ultimate Street Art Guide to Bogotá. [image] Available at: <https://nymag.com/urbanist/the-ultimate-street-art-guide-to-bogot.html> [Accessed 26 November 2021].
Image 5-7: 2021. Artolution. [image] Available at: <https://www.artolution.org/videos> [Accessed 26 November 2021].
Image 8: Miro, V. and Zwirne, D., 2021. [image] Available at: <https://nocamels.com/2021/11/retrospective-japanese-artist-yayoi-kusama/> [Accessed 26 November 2021].