Urban Transitions
Whether physical or digital, interactions do not happen in a vacuum, they are contextualized in space and place — our environments shape our interactions and perceptions.
Memory and the urban landscape
Urban Transitions explores imaginary spaces, the memories and connections to place and culture that people carry with them through their everyday experiences. It was a collaborative project between artist formblu and local residents in Deptford, Southeast London.
Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham, has a population of 300,000+ residents. More than 30% of residents were born in countries other than the UK. In addition to English, a range of languages are spoken, including: Albanian-Arabic-Bengali-French-Italian-Kurdish-Hindi-Portuguese-Spanish-Somali-Turkish-Polish-Vietnamese ...
This 6-month long project involved ethnographic research, mapping and photography by local school children — and experimentation with generative AI as a collaborative tool in the creative process.
(Re)Imagining Deptford
The original intention of the project was to explore how the urban landscape in and around Deptford could be improved and made more 'user friendly'. During the initial stage, however, one of the participating students described how she imagined Deptford High Street surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, a Polish mountain range. It was, she said, the most magical place she had experienced. This interaction changed the direction of the project.
Instead of urban/architectural improvements then, we broadened the project scope and started to explore memory and how participants' experiences of their countries of origins created a filter through which they experienced their present reality in Deptford.
Exhibition
The project was presented at the DeptfordX Fringe Festival and a one month exhibition at the APT Gallery (Sep/Oct 2023), sparking debate around migration, urbanism, climate change, and the role of local communities in driving change.
