Exploration #5: Making Visible

“draw together”

A contribution to the project we found along one of our inspections

In a comment on Tara’s Public Pedagogy Blog Post, I mentioned one of our local parks: Betty Virginia Park. This particular park illuminates the diversity found within and without this community. Betty Virginia Park is a picture of the stereotypes, struggles, and differences with which the members of this community still wrestle. Discussing this park with varying members of the community has revealed several different views of the space. One mother with children said, “it is a space for communities to come together” in an area where division can still be found. Another resident mentioned the desire to “clean up the park, make it safe.” The undertones of this response read to discourage certain groups of people from using the park, a sort of “take back the park” mentality. Others are just thrilled for the nice weather and enjoy using the park on a daily basis for picnics, runs, bike rides, and playground play.

Glancing across the park on a sunny day reveals how the park attracts a wide range of people, young and old from a variety of backgrounds. Walkers, runners, students in hammocks, picnickers, loads of children, artists, sunbathers, baseball and soccer players all populate the park.  The park not only represents an area of intersecting lives but also cultures. Weekend barbeques and birthday parties offer insight into family and community structure and celebration. Each of these events offers a glimpse into the lives of those around us.  Closer inspection reveals that while all are welcome in the park, a divide remains. Individuals and/or groups are often playing along side one another without engaging with one another. Repeated afternoons at the park expose this division. Parents congregating around the picnic tables chatting or using their smart phones while their children play. Other parents hovering close, phone in hand, one eye on their child, chatting with other parent who is multitasking the same. Then there is the engaged parent consumed with his child's amusement. However, the scene offers little interaction between parents of opposite races.  

From these observations, the idea of a "draw together" movement was envisioned. By asking people that are already sharing space to participate in creating within that space challenges the current paradigm. The phrase “draw together” was used specifically to call attention to the potential unification of this participatory act. Working together. Creating together. Building upon the work of others -  together. Looking together. Engaging together. In fact, the subject of what we draw together isn’t important at this point (I believe that will come later), but rather the close proximity and coherence that develops from acting together.

In Making Visible, I enlisted the help of my four-year old to help me intersect and interrupt the park users pathways with a campaign to “draw together.” We placed buckets of sidewalk chalk along the pathways (see the blue boxes on the map of BVP) where we noticed the most intersecting. At each stop, we used the space to begin the drawings and left the bucket with a note “Take one: Chalk for Everyone” – “make your mark.” As we moved throughout the park to plant the other buckets, I noticed people walking around the chalk drawings, stopping to read the words and investigate. A few people stopped to contribute their handiwork.

Some of our original invitations to "draw together"

Aerial View of Betty Virginia Park in Shreveport, LA
Red arrows indicate the walking/running paths
Green oval identifies the playground area (most heavily populated area)
Blue boxes are chalk buckets and invitations to participate

Over the course of a (mostly sunny) week, we visited the spots, replenished the buckets and admired the handiwork. A few of the buckets disappeared (we replaced those – by the end of the week one of ten buckets remained). Each visit, we added new thoughts. A quote from Picasso, “Every child is an artist,” beside the bucket left near the play area. Lists of famous artists, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Matisse, Dali, Basquiat, Warhol, O’Keefe, Judy Chicago, and Monet with the question: “Where’s your name?” We would create our own drawings until my little one was ready to move to the play area and then I would just observe how people interacted with the space we left behind. 

Some of the responses to "Where's Your Name?" 

Almost every time someone encountered the “abandoned” materials, the person looked around to see, perhaps, if the owner was near or if someone was watching. Sometimes a runner, walker, dog walker, kid on a skateboard would pause and participate. In the less populated areas, most people worked independently around the space – someone would pass, notice an “artist” at work, make another loop and then take a moment to engage, becoming both spectator and participant.  Children approached the abandoned buckets with much more ease. Many, too small to even read the “chalk for everyone” sign, gladly grabbed a piece of chalk and used it until it was almost gone. If we were close by or still drawing, adults would simply look, smile (who wouldn’t at a four-year old drawing a Pteranodon;) and keep moving. On the contrary, children were eager to participate, often looking to me for “permission” and then to my daughter to play.

 

People contributed to "draw together" in a variety of ways. Some opted to work alone in a more remote area of the park. Some created their "art" beside other's taking care not to cover someone else's work. Some of the most interesting works are those layered and layered on top of their own or someone else's work. (On a side note: the area in which this was most frequently observed was under a pavilion with concrete that incredibly smooth and wonderful to draw on.) The two images below are slices from examples of this layering process. 

Asking people to step out of their routine to engage with us, one another, and the space around them was exciting and enlightening for me (and hopefully for my daughter) as I too was challenged to confront any social anxieties I might have. We had a wonderful time meeting new people, making art, and playing.

One person even offered "thanks" for the materials.