Category Archives: research & consultation
From the horses mouth
Filed under progress, research & consultation, what is...
There are a few opportunities coming up to hear us talk about progress on CHART Scarborough.
The first is something of a last minute arrangement – due to the keynote speaker having to pull out of Digital Scarborough due to family illness I’ve been asked if I might fill in. So at 4.30pm today you’re welcome to turn up to Westwood School of Arts (yorkshire Coast College – next to Tescos) where I’ll talk about the theory of cognitive mapping that’s guiding the design of our maps and an overview of what we’ve done so far. Plus I’ll have the latest version of the map itself (still being worked on) with me. I’m expected to fill about an hour, so you can come a judge if I know enough to do that!
If you can’t make that, I’m also talking about cognitive mapping at the Digital Scarborough Barcamp tomorrow. (Details & booking on the Digital Scarborough website – link above.)
Dorcas will be presenting progress so far to the Town Team on Tuesday evening. I’m hoping I might get along towards the end of that too when I finish at another event.
All three will provide opportunity to ask questions.
Terms and conditions
Filed under research & consultation
Terms and conditions for the CHART Scarborough text-in prize draw:
- This competition is promoted by CHART Scarborough, the ‘promoter’.
- The winner must text a response to the given mobile telephone number, together with their full name and contact telephone number and comply with all rules to be eligible for the prize. Standard network rates apply.
- No responsibility is accepted for ineligible or offensive entries or entries made fraudulently.
- Winners will be randomly selected by an independent body with no connection to the promotion
- One winner will be announced for the £20 HMV Voucher prize for participants responding to the questions printed on CHART Scarborough promotional material displayed in public places and 6 winners will be announce for the £10 HMV Voucher prizes responding to the individual questions printed in the Scarborough Evening. Only one entry per question is allowed.
- Entrants must be UK residents. Minimum age to enter is 18.
- Winners must be prepared to take part in post-competition publicity.
- The prizes must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred.
- There will be no cash alternatives.
- The promoter’s decision is final in every situation including any not covered above and no correspondence will be entered into. The promoter reserves the right, in the event of circumstances arising outside of their control which in their opinion makes it necessary, to cancel the competition at any stage. Participants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering this competition. This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales.
North vs South
Filed under research & consultation
Had a really useful session looking at our prototype area of map with the Civic Society today. It was opportunity to thrash out some of the ‘tensions’ on the map we’ve been debating within the team, not least how much of Scarborough we show in true legible-cities detail and how much we show just as a small scale overview. We’ve been working on just the South Bay knowing that sooner or later we had to address the relationship with the North Bay, which has a smaller number of cultural landmarks but is just as important in being part of Scarborough’s unique flavour. The limiting factor is paper size as usability concerns mean we don’t want to go above A2, especially not a windy day when we might see CHART Scarborough users being blown across the headland, our maps acting as a sail.
Prototype ver.2 is now in production taking into some revised thinking on indicating distance, landmarks and scale. I’m really pleased with how the map is looking, knowing that we have some solid theory and research behind it and that initial reactions to the map are always how attractive it is (largely the fruits of James’s labour).
And keep an eye out for our town centre ‘interventions’ – starting next week and offering opportunity to contribute to the map’s content and win some goodies into the bargain.
Fresh perspectives
Filed under research & consultation
This week we worked with a group of young people from the NYCC Connecting Youth Culture project. Their responses introduced some new ideas, markedly different from the other group workshops. Notable was identifying and naming places according to events that have happened or regularly happen there, for example the area of beach at the bottom of Valley Road was used as a landmark and identified as ‘beached’ because of a 3-day rock festival that has happened on that spot annually for the last 5 years. Similarly, the cultural spots they valued were not identified so much by buildings as by the activity and sense of community associated with them.
An intriguing suggestion was that areas have their own colour – determined by the environment – and could be identified on a map according to colour. This struck me as interesting as current map town map fashion generally eliminates obvious colouring and mood-creating detail such as trees or building materials.
We’re intending to work further with the group on the interactive elements of CHART Scarborough involving user-generated content.
Treasure hunt
Filed under research & consultation
We invited members of the Creative Coast network and kids to take a text message-guided treasure trail around Scarborough on 10th November 09. Clues were sent to your mobile phone, the correct answering triggering the next clue. The trail took us around the town centre taking in several blue plaques (we spotted loads we didn’t realise were there) and culturally and historically significant places. The trail was followed by a creative session (and hot chocolate!) discovering which parts of Scarborough had a particular resonance for people and ideas of what CHART Scarborough might include.
Reading
Filed under research & consultation
An indication of some of the research reading going on behind the scenes. As you can see it’s a mix of theory, exploring what others have done and trying to keep an arts perspective. The latter is important as there’s always a temptation to get so absorbed in the cartographic process or the ‘what if’ dreaming of a grand wayfinding system for the town that we lose the unique flavour of the project. That’s why Richard Long and Hamish Fulton are currently in there and also Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy which I’m planning to re-read - I seem to remember there’s a fantastic story in which journeys are walked in order to spell out a message.
Most engaging at the moment however is Kitchen and Blades’ Cognition of Geographic Space. The first half of the book compiles some often disparate research on cognitive mapping in an attempt to draw up some conclusive theories. It’s interesting to be reading this as we lead the workshops and see some of these theories in action as people describe navigating the town. i’m particularly intrigued with the alternative to the ‘landmarks’ and ‘routes’ theory which most intelligent wayfinding/map systems (such as Legible London) currently follow – that of navigating via snapshots of vistas. i think the young people especially describe journeys in this way.
what can you see?
Filed under research & consultation
from here you can see the rotunda, an independent gallery, the grand hotel and a ‘secret’ bridge! workshop walk 24-10-09
