URBANISTA
Creative Engagement
by Linda Carroli
Published by Arts Hub, August 2011
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Urban innovation can mean or refer
to many things and there's no shortage of ideas about how to make cities
better or more sustainable. As the theory and more deterministic
'forecasting' goes, cities must get better if they are to foster and
sustain the types of globalised knowledge and creative economies that
will underwrite the future. However, there can be both disagreement and
diversity in how to understand what better and development actually mean
in and for urban environments. Two recent Australian publications
reveal some of that diversity by presenting a series of case studies in
community engagement, site specificity and place. Edited by Elaine
Lally, Ien Ang and Kay Anderson, The Art of Engagement: Culture, Collaboration and Innovation
presents results and reflections on C3West, a project that formulated
unique arts-business-community collaborations in Western Sydney. Place Making for People: Case studies in delivering community expectations,
compiled by the Place Leaders Association, presents major urban
developments in Australia and overseas that have sought to recast
planning and community engagement paradigms.
What these publications reveal is a
swarm of thinking and problem solving tackling the challenges of
cultural development and place making. Where Place Making for People predicts a transition from car-based suburbia to urban work/lifestyle hubs in the decades to come, The Art of Engagement demonstrates
that dynamic cross-sectoral exchanges are still possible between urban
cultural institutions and suburban communities. For the contributors to The Art of Engagement
and the architects of C3West, these exchanges have activated
collaborative potential in the Western Sydney region. The projects
featured in The Art of Engagement
engage with notions of site specificity, public space and place
shaping, and highlight some aspects of what can happen ‘on the ground’
when experimenting with new ways of doing things.
However, there are sectoral biases
and professional imperatives – perhaps baggage in some instances - that
ripple through the case studies in both publications. Where in the
artworld, it might be feasible to ask “how can art involving the
community really be considered art?”, in placemaking, it is more
feasible to ask “how can planning without involving the community really
be considered planning?”. Hence Place Making for People
foregrounds an awareness that community expectations need to be met.
However, there are, as both publications reveal, potential crises of
collaboration – how much is enough, who really decides, what about
conflict, what about power and politics. Both books are instructive on
these questions and perhaps their meeting point lies in a broadened
appreciation of the significance of cultural planning as a platform for
capturing shared values and facilitating the aspirations of communities
for their built environments as living, productive and creative places.
Interestingly, cultural planning and cultural development slips out of
urban development considerations and is often subsumed by considerations
of physical form and urban design, such as public art. Creative places
and innovative projects, it seems, can be resolved through innovations
in engagement and collaboration; this is ultimately a message of both
publications.
Place Making for People
features case studies of infill development and regeneration including
Brisbane’s South Bank and Fitzgibbon Chase, Darwin’s Waterfront,
Newcastle’s Honeysuckle Promenade, and Adelaide’s Lochiel Park Green
Village. These projects all demonstrate how community engagement has
informed the evolution of these projects and precincts. Change is
rarely, if ever, easily won. However, some projects demonstrate the
importance of recognising and responding to opposition, while also
playing a positive role in community development. The ULDA’s Fitzgibbon
Chase is a case in point with its commitment to incubating cultural
engagement through public art within the emerging community. Art and
culture are heavily implicated in these projects even if not explicitly
stated: the cultural dimensions of placemaking include lifestyle,
leisure, heritage, design, community engagement and public art. The case
studies recognise that communities cannot be masterplanned.
Consequently, there are cues here for a more culturally responsive and
integrated approach to planning and placemaking that extends beyond the
drafting of plans into the facilitation of socio-cultural networks,
relationships and dynamics.
This idea of the ‘relational’ is carried through the four projects recounted in The Art of Engagement
with its emphasis of ‘arts-led collaboration and engagement’. In the
complex cultural geography of Western Sydney, the C3West projects took
hold and shape in recognition that the territory they were charting was
new. Ash Keating worked with SITA Environmental Solutions and local
artists and students in addressing environmental concerns, Craig Walsh
was immersed in the prowess of Penrith Panthers and the fervour of their
fans, Jeanne van Heeswijk worked with Veolia Environmental Services to
collect stories of personal relationships with waste, and Sylvie Blocher
and Campement Urbain worked with the Penrith Panthers and Penrith City
Council to develop a multimedia vision for Penrith’s future. All the
artists share a commitment to process-based participatory cultural
production and communicative exchange. For most of these projects, which
are principally site/context specific rather than place-based, a
learning experience negotiating multiple stakeholders and thresholds is
embedded – mediating business with specific community relations needs
and community members as co-producers and collaborators. The resulting
projects – artworks, conversations, exhibitions, performances – all
provided insights into community values and cultural identities in
Western Sydney.
The engagement processes reveal a
slippery and fluid artistic agency. Put simply, artists can get away
with things that others cannot. A planner, for example, probably can’t
pitch the kind of visioning process realised by Blocher and Campement
Urbain. And this tells us something about how participation is
constrained in planning and development. A recent roundtable in Berlin
sought to explore the role of artists and designers in shaping new kinds
of human relations in public matters, using the term ‘relational
participation’ to indicate a merging of participatory practices and
relational aesthetics. This is an idea that resonates with the processes
used in the C3West projects. Ultimately, it facilitates a public that
is active and more involved in contemporary issues and urban affairs. If
the question is about how that public is composed, then the C3West case
studies provide some indications because there is recognition of the
limits of communicative rationality and consensus. While Place Making for People
foregrounds community expectations in its cases studies, Anderson, Ang
and Lally conclude that community engagement is a resource and an
opportunity. There is potential for co-creation and user generation as
integral to cultural experience. Both publications have raised points
about what community, engagement and culture mean in relation to change.
One question that perhaps warrants asking is "what could happen if the
people responsible for C3West and similar urban cultural projects pooled
ideas and intelligence with the Place Leaders Association?" That type
of immersive interdisciplinary negotiation and learning will be
foundational to creating and realising a sustainable future for our
cities.
The Art of Engagement: Culture, Collaboration & Innovation
Edited by Elaine Lally, Ien Ang & Kay Anderson
University of Western Australia Press
http://www.uwap.uwa.edu.au
Place Making for People: Case Studies in delivering community expectations
Place Leaders Association
http://www.placeleaders.com
