4. Information Design_Group
Tactical Urbanism in Denver
Brief
This project focuses on synthesising complex, difficult-to-understand research in an easy-to-understand info-motion visualisation. Through time and sequencing, it unfolds a narrative inspired by the theme Tactical Urbanism.
Deliverables
● A final script.
● Storyboard conceptualisation.
● 40-180 second Vox or Kurzgesagt style infomotion.
Rationale
Working in a team of two Charlene Raath and I decide to base our info-motion on the 2019 Visual Communication research paper by 4th year BA Information Design student, Tamica Scrivens, which is inspired by the theme Tactical Urbanism.
This info-motion reveals what Tactical Urbanism and how it can be used effectively to help everyday problems faced by ordinary people in South Africa. We settled on looking at how Tactical Urbanism can tackle inequality in spatial planning and layout of the city as it is still reminiscent of apartheid rule. It reviews our chosen topic of fires in informal settlements, focusing on Denver township in Gauteng.
This infomotion explains why townships are the way that they are, what issues people living there deal with on a daily basis, we then looked at what solutions were devised to solve the lack of housing in South Africa and why that did not work. After which we introduce Tactical Urbanism and spatial planning and how these two simple ideas combined saved Denver in the most unexpected and simple way possible. By working with the people in the township and understanding the actual problems the community faced, the fire problem was eventually solved with a very simple, low cost solution that came from local support and integration into solving their own problem.
The medium is a college animation. It mimics how these townships pop up all over and are basically making houses out of what is left lying around, the solutions are then hand draw in and highlighted by color, showing that it is not all doom and gloom if we can look at life through the eyes of those who experience it and ask them for their insight into how they believe it could be solved.
Thank you to 1 to 1 , as they were a main source of our case study research.
