ORCHESTRATING THE PUBLIC
TO REVEAL & ACTIVATE THROUGH DESIGN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE CITY

This presentation will describe and demonstrate my art and design based research methodology, which explores the range and quality of interactive experiences people have with public spaces in their cities.  From my ongoing work with Sydney’s homeless community, I am aware that the quality of experience of a city for an individual or group is often dependent upon the degree and nature of interaction that occurs with a particular place or series of spaces. 

This interactive dynamic of social and physical participation in space sits within the broader field of urban studies, however my methodology is derived from the practice and traditions of performance art as well as the structured approach of a designer. 

As a research tool, I have created an investigative character, the Action Researcher/Performer.  This engaged participant acts as a transducer, interacting and mediating between current theoretical arguments, public spaces themselves and the people who occupy them.  To explore, assess, test and extend a diverse range of experiences, more than ninety experimental projects have been undertaken, within the diverse geopolitical urban contexts of Sydney, Beijing, Paris, New York and Delhi.

Creating action projects that amplify and distort an inhabitant’s incentive and facility to communicate induces members of the public to engage and re-evaluate their relationship with the individual and the known spaces in which a community is built.  At the same time these performance works act as catalysts for new social experiences that bring otherwise strangers into powerful alliances.