What does
Localism mean for the quality of our environment and enhancement of our
public spaces ?
How do we continue to be creative in
making places in the light of a major re-orientation of public policy
and finances ?
Is there still a role for art and
design which addresses key social
issues such as housing, transport and other community needs or should
the focus return to economics, branding and “iconic” art ?
Aiming
to address these questions the Wide Open Space conference took place on
the 26th of May 2011. Focusing on the new agenda created by the
Localism Bill speakers and the audience considered what the devolvement
of planning powers to neighbourhoods means for the creation of high
quality places and spaces in rural communities, in the context of a
stark economic and political climate for non-standardised
methodologies.
Using examples of best practice and innovation in public realm projects
by the public, private and voluntary sectors in Dorset, it highlighted
the value of existing projects delivered through the Jurassic Coast
public art programme, projects at Weymouth for the 2012 Olympics and
the new Wide Open Space programme of research on context specific,
cross-disciplinary art, design and heritage collaborations.
Stimulated by perspectives from politicians, academics, planners,
artists, public art producers and arts organisations, discussion ranged
from local authority mechanisms to enable grassroots groups to robustly
discuss issues of design quality as developments evolve, to the
opportunities created for Do-It-Yourself activism from artists and arts
organisations working with communities. Foregrounding the equal
creativity of all stakeholders and the necessity of collaborative
processes in the public realm, the conference included participatory
sessions by artists collective, the People Speak. Testing the scenario
“art by committee” delegates had the opportunity to design
a public art project, a final act for the conference emphasising the
ongoing need for adventurous partnerships who create spaces and places
that allow for what is different, sublime and unexpected.
All sessions are documented as text, images or video - click on
the links below.
More information available on the official project page
http://www.dorsetforyou.com/390685
What do you want ? (the People Speak)
Conference
programme,
including speakers biographies and project summaries
Wide Open Space conference heckle cloud
A summary of the conference as a word and picture cloud by The
People
Speak.
Text and images
The future for public design, art and
heritage in
Dorset…
What does the future for heritage, art and design look like in Dorset -
key questions from Kevin Morris, Chair, Dorset Design and Heritage
Forum.
Text and images
The lure of creativity: art, localism
and the land
“...there is a
radical otherness in a sense of place: a refusal of the functionalism
which was
always the flaw in modernism’s utopian project. In contrast to
solutions based
on a largely technical expertise, which is an urban model invented to
be
politically neutral in face of contested claims to space, perhaps there
is an
alternative based in local knowledges, and an acceptance that people
produce
space, just as they produce meaning, all the time, and are fully
competent in
doing so. The dweller is an expert on dwelling just as the planner is
an expert
on planning; but the former knowledge is tacit, intuitive, and easily
dismissed. The challenge is to construct an equilibrium.”
Malcolm Miles, Professor of Cultural Theory, University of Plymouth
Text
-
Images
Localism and the environment
The Right Hon. Oliver Letwin, MP, FRSA, Minister of State for
the
Cabinet Office is one of the architects of the Localism agenda, hear
his thoughts on the future of the planning system and some of its
impacts on rural communities.
Video
of presentation - part one (links to youtube)
Video
of presentation - part two (links to youtube)
Unlecture by the People Speak
The audience discusses the impact of localism for
communities, the
planning system and creative places.
Video
of discussion - part one (links to youtube)
Video
of discussion - part two (links to youtube)
Dali now works for us
(visualisation
by the People Speak)
Artists in public: projects and
practices in Dorset
A comprehensive summary of public art in Dorset today, looking
at
projects along the Jurassic Coast, Weymouth and Portland for 2012 and
throughout the county by Maggie Bolt, Director of Maggie Bolt
Associates.
Text
-
Images
Wide Open Space
Introducing the Wide Open Space programme of research and
commissions, Alex Murdin, Creative Places Development Manager for
the Dorset Design and
Heritage Forum, sets out their rationale and thoughts on the site and
location of future projects within a relational infrastructure.
Includes info on WOS projects "
Road for
the Future" by Anna Best on the Bridport Trailway and "
Commonplaces" by Pirie and ZMMA for Shaftesbury.
Text
-
Images
Intergeneration
Jo Joelson, London Fieldworks gives a summary of their proposal
for
developers CG Fry and Chickerell Town Council - a half timbered
medieval house emerging from a wildflower meadow that serves as a site
of mediation between historical periods and contemporary generations.
Text
-
Images
Intergenerational meeting
place by
London Fieldworks for Chickerell, Dorset
Rural Roads Protocol
Michael Pinsky and Tom Munro, Manager, Dorset Area of
Outstanding
Natural Beauty run through the context and proposals for work which
strikingly rethink the infrastructure of rural roads as new social
spaces that function in harmony with a sensitive landscape.
Video
of presentation - part one
Video
of
presentation - part two
Michael Pinsky's proposals as pdf
Enhancing sensitive
landscapes in Cumbria
Stephen Ratcliffe, Director of Planning and Partnerships, Lake
District
National Park discusses the steps taken by LDNP to allow contemporary
art and design to flourish in one of the most treasured and protected
landscapes in the UK.
Text and images
Agora – audience participation
session by The People Speak
No more monuments: an impromtu game show session creates three
public
art project by committees made up from the audience. Ideas
involving memory sticks, marrows, airships, seed
bombs and a well known supermarket chain highlight the move
away from narrow conceptions of art as static, physical objects, to
public art/art in public as a process of democratic involvement of all
sections of the community in rethinking the politics of rural places.
Video
of presentation - part one
Video of
presentation - part two
Delegate List
List as pdf
Public art by post (art by
committee
proposal)
Healthy Communities and Sustainable Places
This is the second major conference
by the Dorset Design and Heritage Forum. In February 2011 it held, in
partnership with Arts and Health South West and Willis Newson,
a one
day conference called
Healthy Communities and Sustainable Places
- how can the arts reduce social isolation, improve
community capital,
encourage active travel and physical exercise and improve the food
environment? The project showcased an inspirational range of successful
and effective arts-based approaches to creating healthy and sustainable
places - post conference documentation of presentations, a review
of
evidence and a podcast is on the Willis Newson site
here.
