Beyond The Building: Creating and supporting communities based on place Rebecca Hawcroft, PhD candidate, University of Canberra
Beyond The Building: Creating and supporting communities based on
place
Rebecca Hawcroft, PhD candidate, University of Canberra
What is place?
• A value attached to a location
• Enacted through events, walking, interactions, encounters
• Transient, ephemeral
Aram Bartholl
The Virtuous CircleBY
UNDERSTANDING
The historic environment,
people value it
BY VALUING it, they will want to care for it
BY CARING for it they will help people enjoy it
FROM ENJOYING the
historic environment
comes a thirst to understand
English Heritage (now Historic England)
Does place matter in the digital space..?• New ways of interacting
with places• Social networks no longer
dictated by proximity• Increased mobility• Virtual worlds• Global economics…
Place in digital culture…
Place remains a key part of identity creation and community building within digital culture .
Does place matter for museums..?
• Global audiences• Increasing online
visitation• Transient and
amorphous digital communities
The important difference between a road and a street
Charles Marohn, TEDx Talk, September 2011
www.strongtowns.org
Town square
Walker Art Center;“…a communal atmosphere where participants felt connected to their values and interests. ”
Strengthening place attachment is a key strategy in supporting the collective identity of a visiting community
community
How can collections connect to places..?• Traditionally siloed
within central repositories
• Interaction mediated by curatorial and conservation restrictions
Collections connect to many places• Links to the identities of
many communities• Global and local
connections• Participatory culture is
demanding more access
Spatialised searching
• Projects adding GIS coordinates to collection datasets
• Mapping of collections
• Add tate art maps and Ta papa