BostonAPP/Lab Notes from January 28, 2019

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• An unsurprising assertion: all of us inevitably find ourselves moving — or not! — by ourselves or with assistance, through complicated urban environments (Central Square, or similar, to take a handy example), whether walking, dancing, driving, biking, boarding, wandering, or some combination.

• Given that, is it possible to come up with ways to create “collaboration” among these kinds of movement – beyond traffic lights/street signs/crosswalks — and to bring art and design to ease, or even enhance, the experience of moving through public space? This Workshop will unpack – and, with your participation, repack – the working definition(s) of movement to brainstorm some new initiatives for “nurturing navigation” in public spaces.

• Stage setters for this will include: Peter DiMuro, Executive Artistic Director, The Dance Complex; Liz LaManche, Urban Artist; and David De Celis, DCVL Design and Cambridge Public Art Commission.

• “Collaboration,” someone wrote, “is not about glueing together existing egos. It’s about the ideas that never existed until after everyone entered the room.”

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NOTES: This workshop especially inspired a number of ideas/recommendations/”what if’s.” Which of them inspire you? What’s missing? What needs more investigation? What’d be great, if only...? Let us know and we’ll post them on our website. Send to: info@bostonapp.org. Definitely want to hear from you!

• Visual Enhancers

  • Art in trees

  • Projections on buildings, draw peoples’ eyes

  • More “kinetic art”

  • Incorporate art that makes people look up/down

  • Use vacant storefronts for pop-up events beyond gallery shows

  • Playful, ephemeral installations, incorporated into existing, available spaces (parks, sidewalks)

  • “Art alley”

  • Arrows on the sidewalk as an installation of flashing lights to direct foot traffic, or color lines to direct pedestrian to different locations.

  • Walking as play: cf. Liz LaManche’s work in East Boston

  • How to make sidewalk a “canvas”

  • “Leave a poem-book/take a poem-book”

  • Art that encourages playfulness

• Pedestrian Experience

  • Insulate pedestrian zones with planters

  • Incorporate seating at major intersections

  • Activate side streets, with attractions/opportunities for engagement, including parkour/climbing structure

  • Enhanced wayfinding signage (for vehicular traffic as well?)

• Technology

  • Social media apps that allow immediate interactions/disrupt “solitariness”