The praxis of radical placemaking

Abstract

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Emerging from the social disparities of the COVID-19 pandemic and contestations over marginal bodies in space during the global Black Lives Matter movement, Radical Placemaking is proposed as a digital placemaking design practice and investigated as part of a 3-year design study. This practice involves marginalized bodies highlighting social issues through the ephemerality and spectacularity of digital technologies in public space in [smart] cities. Radical Placemaking methodology, as demonstrated through three design interventions, engages participatory action research, slow design, and open pedagogies for marginal bodies to create place-based digital artifacts. Through the making and experience of the artifacts, Radical Placemaking advances and simulates a virtual manifestation of the marginal beings' bodies and knowledge in public spaces, made possible through emerging technologies. Through nine key strategies, the paper offers a conceptual framework that imbibes a relational way of co-designing within the triad of people-place-technology.

Keywords

• placemaking
• participatory action research
• urban informatics
• research methodology
• research ethics
• participatory design