Digital Place Making

How are we connected to this place?
How do our individual perspectives of a place contribute to its identity?

Placemaking

Placemaking is a collective approach to community development, an "of the people, by the people, and for the people" philosophy for how to nurture neighborhoods, cities, and nations.  It is not a new concept, but with the rapid development and ubiquity of connective technology, digital placemaking has become a way of rethinking how to engage people in the conversation and redefining "Place."

For more about Placemaking, check out the work of Project for Public Spaces.

Today we will be engaging in collective digital placemaking through photo mapping.    

Project Aims:

• Discover a place through photography
• Share our personal relationships with a place to create a more complete picture
• Publish our work to a global audience
• Explore new tools: Picasa, Panoramio

Project Overview:

Using a photographer's lens, we will go out and explore this area.  By composing images, we will tell the story of what we see and what this place is, through our own perspectives.  Then we will publish our images to Panoramio, along with very short poems that help flesh out our stories.  Panoramio is an online photo mapping program that regularly selects images to included on Google Earth, visible to a truly global audience.

Connect: Back-to-Back Stories

Think of a place that is meaningful to you, and start to visualize it: the smells, the people, the textures, the light.  What is it that makes that place? 

Consume: Reading an Image

Observe: What do you see?  

Reflect: What is the mood of the photo?  How do you feel viewing it? What does it remind you of?

Interpret: What is going on in this image? What's the story here?  What do we know about this place?  Is this image candid or staged?  Why did the artist make this?

Decide: Does this work as a photograph?  What techniques might you use for your own work?  What would you have done differently as the photographer?

*This critique structure hits the Common Core Reading Anchor standards 1-6.

Create: Photo Walk

With a team of 3-4 people, take your camera for a walk around the neighborhood and compose images that tell the story of what you connect with about this place.  Be sure to notate your exact location for each shot.  Jot down words or phrases that come to you in connection with your image.

Connect: Publish

• Upload your images to your laptop or tablet.
• Log onto Picasaweb.com.
• Upload one image per artist to the Album "Digital Placemaking"
• Log onto Panoramio.
• Upload the images from your group.
• Title each image based on the words or phrases you jotted down.
• Map the images.
• Tag the image with your handle.
• If there's time, write a short (1-5 line) poem as the description.

Connect: Comment

Explore the other photos on our map, and let the photographers know how you are interpreting their work, and how their perception of this place connects to yours.  Remember the rules for comments:

Be known: Always tell us who you are, no anonymous posting.  It helps to drive the conversation in a positive, community-oriented direction if we use each other's names.

Be nice: No hating, sniping, or bullying.  Even if you disagree, do so decently, while maintaining everyone's dignity.

Back it up: Link to your sources and always be able to point to sound reasoning from a careful examination of the facts.

Write for real: This isn't a text message.  Use actual words (no abbreves), proper capitalization and punctuation, and the best spelling you can muster. 

Trust intent: If you feel bristled by what someone said, chances are they were guilty of being clunky rather than cruel.  Approach the poster in person and ask for clarity, then respond in person.  Do this within 24 hours, or breathe and let it go.

Reflect: How are we connected to this place?

What did you notice in looking at everyone's images?  What similarities or patterns?  What were some major differences?  What did you learn from looking at other people's images that you didn't see before?