Jen, the Project Manager for Global Studio, sent me this photo of a “wall newspaper” in Liberia. Neat! A chalkboard becomes a cheap alternative to a printed local newspaper and is a possible model for how we can help the non-profit group Diepsloot Community News spread the local word in their Johannesburg township. It’s a clever hub for information and could also become a place for communication between local government and residents, as well as communication between residents and each other. This reminds me of when I documented flyers in three NYC neighborhoods…
Flyers are spread throughout the interstitial spaces of the city and streetposts have become unofficial billboards for local communication. What if every neighborhood had their own chalkboard? Could it be a flexible (and eco-friendly!) hub for residents to share local information? Or would it be a ripe hotbed of x-rated doodles…
I like what John Thackara says in his book In the Bubble: “Design does not take place in a situation; it is the situation. As planners, designers, and citizens, we need to rethink our spaces, places, and communities in order to better exploit the dynamic potential of networked collaborations.” Good stuff.
June 21st, 2008 at 7:21 am
[...] then, many ideas have been passed around, including a model of local communication in Nigeria. Community chalkboards are used to post local news, resources and events, and they serve as a cheaper (and more [...]
July 10th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
[...] burdens. It is also important that this information cannot be freely updated or modified (so the example of an open chalkboard originally considered by the GS team may be problematic for this type of [...]
July 10th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
[...] burdens. It is also important that this information cannot be freely updated or modified (so the example of an open chalkboard originally considered by the GS team may be problematic for this type of [...]