A collection of screenshot from a LiveMapping done in Hedehusene in the western suburbs of Copenhagen in 2012. The mapping was done both with street interviews and small interventions such as public meetings, walks and being part of a local market. Especially our street kitchen was an important tool as a mobile base.
LiveMapping – a work in progress (beta)
The problem with maps in an urban context is that they tend to simplify and fix a city that is complex and always changing.
CiTyBee has started to make an old dream real. In collaboration with MapCentia.com we are now developing an online mapping tool that boosts the efforts to tell stories “in and about the city”. Have a sneak view on a first trial version that is using the stories told on walks and public meetings in Hedehusene 2012 here. Stay tuned for further developments
In order to make some quick prototypes we have a selection of cordless power tools – mostly various Hammer Driver-Drills but also a wonderful cordless Recipro Saw. Our aim is to get the batteries recharged with solar panels in the near future.
Kia from Helsinki built 9 benches for a public meeting in one day!
Amel brought his own tools to speed things up.
In the third phase we facilitated concrete actions based on the new localised ideas and networks. In this case the idea was to make an incubator for local projects in the empty train station. One of our actions was to design and build a module for the old train station that had a number functions.
A bench
A table
A stage
Our idea was that the flexibility of this design makes it less finished and more open for new ideas and discussions.
We did some practical things that made the Station function better like building a common storage
Some local musicians passed by and noticed the bad acoustics in the biggest room in the station – it used to be the waiting area. We made a large acoustic curtain that improved the discussion “climate” in the building.
We tried out a number of ways to use the building with local people; a cinema evening
Eating together
DJ Dr Jazz pLayed some of his records. This was also a test of the new acoustic curtain to see if it improved the possibility to play music there. It did.
Finally we organised a number of public meetings that discussed the use of the building so far.
As a result of the meeting and the prototyping before that, the building is slowly coming alive with a formal association, a local theatre group setting up their plays and more music arrangements.See all the photos here
In the third phase we also worked with the langauge that is used to talk about the local community. In our case we discovered the word offshoots which was used to describe a number of actions in the community like:
The many additions to the self build houses or how you move into an existing old factory building.
A new curated walk was organised to discuss the offshoots in the community and formalising the use of that word. We also choose to use the word offshoots to describe the third phase in the CiTyBee process:
Concrete spatial actions: either building and taking space in a visual and functional way but also changing the way we talk about space. Offshoots are ongoing changes to what is already there. Always leaving little seeds of imperfection that makes it open to new stories, discussions and offshoots.
The second phase starts with a public meeting where the map shows often conflicting interests or different views on the same place. This is our way of making the dialogue more constructive – to make people know about other peoples views and disagreeing in a civilised way.
We work out the important issues of the community and start seeing some patterns of possibilities. The dialogue and further stories are also taken to the streets in curated walks. People are free to join in and it usually leads to new stories.
A second public meeting is set in a place central to the local community – here it is a garden that used to belong to a old factory. We opened the garden for experiments before the meeting – inviting people to come with their ideas. Being, building and discussing it in the actual space makes the discussion about space more concrete.
For the actual meeting people would discuss new ideas and form networks around these – Or just build something themselves – for themselves.
Out of this second public meeting evolves a number of new localised networks and ideas.
Our most popular tool is our Street Kitchen. It makes us able to get around and talk to people – hearing stories in and about space. And make this talk about space more spatial. By being there but also by putting up signs with keywords from the stories.
It makes people curious and with a bite or a drink there is a good start for telling stories. In one case we made a special coffee based on Chicory that referred to an old factory in town.
Our Street Kitchen was at the same time our tool box that we used to carry all our other tools such as our printer for stickers, video gear or street whiteboards.
For meetings we can produce a lot of food!
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