THE SCULPTURAL PLAYGORUND PROJECT 2012 Name of project or invention: Dean Arlen’s Sculptural Playground Project.

THE SCULPTURAL PLAYGORUND PROJECT 2012

Name of project or invention: Dean Arlen’s Sculptural Playground Project.

The aim of this project is to install “The Tacarigua Sculptural Playground” as the prototype for a unique Trinidad and Tobago model that would inspire national pride, promote national consciousness, build character and establish a distinctive identity among young Trinidad and Tobago nationals. This innovative project involves the use of indigenous design, construction and installation of 23 play-items in the Orange Grove Savannah, Trincity, Tacarigua.

It has been conceived as a community based project using the creative industries - art, architecture and artisanal crafts as a basis for the incorporation of art and design in local construction and urban development. This project has the potential to evolve into an incubator industry for indigenous art and design in construction projects for the local, regional and international market.

Why a Sculptural Playground?

International cultural, political and business leaders see cultural and artistic production as vital to creating the kind of environment in which people want to live, visit and invest.  The mark of a civilised nation is often measured by how much it supports and values its arts and supports cultural production.  The proposed sculptural playground will celebrate local art, design and artisanal skills as well as the community’s unique histories, ethnic diversity and their contribution to leadership and national development. This playground project will develop a basis for the design and production of uniquely designed play items which through interaction with the community and or the clientele results in continuous innovation, unique design and product development.

Why Play?

According to psychologist Susan Linn:

“Most child development experts agree that play is the foundation of intellectual exploration.  It is how children learn how to learn. Abilities essential for academic success and productivity in the workforce such as problem solving, reasoning, and literacy all develop through various kinds of play, as do social skills such s cooperation and sharing (Linn, 2008:12-13).”

She notes that:

 “...play has healing powers and leads to self-understanding and personal growth.” She continues:

“But pretend play provides children with a much more than that.  It affords them the opportunity to learn invaluable skills – to immerse themselves in experience, solve problems, create possibilities where none exist, learn what it’s like to be someone else, and make something new form that which already exists(Linn,2008:22-23)

Today there is a growing recognition of the importance of play in children’s lives and as this society seeks to address many of the problems of dysfunctional child development, this assumes greater significance. Today there is an increased demand for play spaces as evidenced by the establishment of play spaces in shopping malls and at multinational fast food outlets.  This project presents the possibility for locally designed and crafted play items that can fire the imagination of young citizens in a way that imported, chain produced items are unable to do.

Our children should be able to play in spaces that develop their ways of seeing, their confidence and articulation of self.  Just by seeing this space and engaging with these fantasies, fantasies derived from their own cultural and historical context, therefore [unlike with Disney], the children will and can believe in themselves.  The sculptural playground space is designed to facilitate this self-learning. It will be a space that allows the child to be a child, and to believe and act on this; giving them the room for a far-reaching experience in traditional play without the beeps, buzzers and ring tones of contemporary life.  The traditional ‘plastic’ playgrounds are not designed to stimulate the imagination.  Rather they seek to confine the child within existing social and cultural norms.

The project is conceived as collaboration between the state; private sector and community that will build on existing synergies in a cooperative effort. In the initial phase it seeks to use communal and corporate financial resources to develop, construct and install the prototype. This request seeks to access funds for the first phase of this project, to develop the prototype and a presentation to access capital for the installation of this initial project.  This project will then provide the incubator for similar projects or similar production of play items in other spaces locally, regionally or elsewhere in the world.

In this development phase of the project, efforts will be made to actualize and create an urban design company that will market designer play-items specific for urban, rural and private spaces, locally, regionally and internationally.

Objectives

The objectives of this development phase of the project are:

1.     To extend the reach of the artist beyond the walls of the gallery to people of all classes and economic groups;

2.     To develop work that is artistic but also functional providing examples of urban art and design. This should be a beacon to a new generation of artists who will see a role for functional art and design in addition to the solely aesthetic or conceptual.

3.     To provide a prototype of a new innovative incubator industry based on indigenous art and design with potential for future development;

4.     To develop a collaborative production system for the creative industries involving artists, architects, planners, engineers and artisans.

5.     To involve community members, schools, vocational training programmes and university students in new forms of innovative indigenous creativity and skill development.

6.     To develop a work of art for all to admire, creating pride and a sense of ownership in the hearts and minds of the community.

7.      To encourage a stronger sense of community through activity among adults and children of varying ages in community playgrounds  around the country.

This project also has the potential for the further development of other art/design projects such as:

1.                      Furniture, living designs for urban and rural spaces.

2.     Other innovative urban designs projects that could be marketed to state, private consumers, UN bodies, regional institutions and the international community.

This project will also encourage patenting and copyright registration and so increase this country’s position on the innovation index, in which we are poorly represented at this time.

Target market/clientele

This project will be marketed to any client, community or entity that requires a unique artistic, designed product, specifically designed and tailored for specific spaces, locations and communities. We will target entities that are sensitive to specific criteria for site-specificity, indigenous design, local production, environmental sustainability and community participation.  This could include but would not be limited to:

·      State Urban development corporations

·      NGO’s who are interested in development projects in South-South spaces,

·      State organizations within the region and internationally,

·      Private sector organizations with progressive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes;

·      Innovative communities interested in introducing art/design projects in their communities

·      Innovative and creative branding companies under certain specified conditions;

·      The international art market including - design shows, curators, museums, galleries, art writers and publications, etc.

What makes this idea unique or original?

This project is unique not only in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean but in the entire world. Each sculptural item represents a synergy between art and product. The uniqueness of the idea is not only the play-items themselves as a marketable creative product, but also the overall intention of the project to create unique products based on a consideration of  the sensitivity of each space. This allows for the development of an art-design product that remains competitive and continuously evolving. It is also about how the project operates within these spaces – they will act as empowering tools - challenging how communities understand and experience play and space.

 Designer spaces are becoming very lucrative spaces as they capture the imagination of designers as cathedrals and museums do.

 

  Location

The Orange Grove Savannah, Tacarigua, 

On the 24^th of December 2004, the then Permanent Secretary Mr. Trevor Percival, Ministry of Youth and Sport gave permission for a portion of the Orange Grove Savannah, Tacarigua to be used for a Sculptural Playground Project to be installed. I have met with the Minister of Sport (owners of the land) Mr Anil Roberts and his colleagues of the Sport Company, the Chair of the Tunapuna Regional Corporation (custodians of the land), Khadijah Ameen and community organizations.

Work Plan/Timeline

1.    Community Consultation (2010-2011)

Interventions were made in four schools in the Tacarigua community area with the support of teachers and parents.  Children in four schools were consulted and asked to draw designs of their ideal play spaces.  These drawings provided some of the inspiration for the designs that have been produced. Consultations were also held with a number of community organisations.

DURATION – 6 MONTHS PRIOR TO CONSTRUCTION (The community consultation and involvement will unfold with the project)

2.     A formal public presentation to potential corporate sponsors/investors, community members and related state entities – Last Quarter 2012

This will take place at the proposed site of the sculptural playground.  The proposal and plan will be presented to members of the corporate sector (energy and other), state bodies of relevance to the project e.g.  Town and Country Planning - Ministries of Planning and Development, Arts and Multiculturalism, Sport, Gender, Youth and Child Development. the Environment Management Authority and educational institutions such as the schools in the area, the Metal Industries Company, The University of the West Indies and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

DURATION – 1YEAR

3.3.         4.    Continued Community Mobilisation and Involvement

A community mobilisation officer will be hired who will ensure community ownership of the project and their involvement at certain key points.

DURATION – THIS WILL FOLLOW THE PROJECTS EVOLUTION.

5.     Analysis and Development

With the successful installation there will now be a basis for evaluation, analysis and documentation of the process. In particular the production process can be analysed and streamlined with a view to production and the development of a systematic production process system.  This can then be adapted to suit the needs of specific production contexts.

DURATION – 1YEAR

 We see this project lasting a period of four years. Three years construction, one year analysis.

Four years include prepping, logistics, mobilization, delays, climate, analysis etc. The project can be morphed to enable pro-activity.

How will it transform the lives of people and the country?

 This project will do this in a number of ways:

·      It will be seek to raise the level of local artisanship by challenging the skill level of our artisans, technicians, engineers, academic institutions including  secondary schools and the manufacturing community. Through the formation of a cluster community of artisans – welders, plumbers, mould-makers, structural engineers etc. we will be able to stimulate a high level skilled, intellectual and philosophical approach to creative industry stimulating new areas of manufacture. These individuals would then return to their bases, developing a new, more creative and progressive practice that will transform the quality and aesthetics of their artisanal or engineering production.  I am proposing a product based on a philosophical approach that sees community spaces not as a backdrop but locations of interaction and the connectivity among people.   

·      This project would also develop a new awareness of the significance of the use of art and design in public spaces and the economic and social potential of this for the entire society.

·      This project also reinforces the need for indigenous creativity and can explore the potential of economic viability of local artisanal production

·      Provides new possibilities for economic diversification based new developments in local artisanal production thus generating new avenues of sustainable employment.

Sources of Additional Funding

Plans are in train for approaching the local corporate sector especially through their Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes for their support as well as international art funding organisations.  The support of the state would also be sought especially for the initial presentation event.

Additional Comments.

DESIGNING THROUGH MEMORY.

The question of how we design through memory.  Is one of the highlights of this project. We will have a constructed platform, of real time data for developing a mechanism through which memory design can become a design paradigm in architecture, planning and design.

Resources Required and their Costs

References

Susan Linn (2008). The Case for Make-Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, New York, The New Press

I WILL EAT PORK WHILE I'M HERE…BANGKOK, THAILAND

I WILL EAT PORK WHILE I'M HERE.
SO TO; STICKY-RICE AND MANGO, NOODLE SOUP, NASAM RAMBUTAN, HOLLAND PAPAYA, EDO LONGAN. 
BANGKOK STYLE.

Meticulous hands have carved this ancient space, of warm soft earth, red bricks, mothers' milk drawn deep from the wells of divinity. The space seems spiritual in all of its meaning of wealth and poverty. I have gazed into the sun, walked the path of the ages, leapt into the insecurity of modernity, all this swells up in this mega city. Neo-liberalism is here, but the City of Angels, holds him in her arms, cradling him, in some sense acknowledging him and the knife that he wields. Bangkok seems to have embraced neo-liberalism with a seamlessness that blends into some kind of sweet soup that you can get at the entrance of the subway, where tradition is served daily. Neo-Liberalism is here, but he is no commander, as the people have a living history, a now that reaches into the past; all are the same, meeting here at the edge of the land, warm in their hands.

The city's development is large, complicated, intense which is maybe one of the reasons why people sit at their steps, on the way to and from work, for breakfast, lunch, dinner; quickly shifting spaces set up for people to sit and eat. Communal spaces, hold them together, hold an old historical socio-economic system together. Here on the street I see how a people hold neo-liberalism at bay. So when I asked a friend, as we walked through the shiny high-end Siam Paragon Mall, how would you identify a wealthy young woman here. She mentioned if you can eat here (at this mall) you have some money. The mall is the border of wealth, outside there is a mother, living, suckling her child while a daughter sips green tea or eats sticky rice, all tongues have tasted this is national pride.

A young man on the subway, leaned over to me and asked to take a picture. My hair interested him so much that he wanted to take a photo… I constantly felt eyes on me, I never felt those eyes to be malicious though, although those eyes, may be filled with remnants of colourism brought down through their own distinct history and tradition.

Here I am at the centre where many tongues come  to lap at the Chao Phraya River, partake in a meal, partake in its vulnerabilities. There is a darkness that lies in the city, at the centre there is pain, an activist friend tells us that they are dealing with it and shares with us a book of stories by women who have survived human trafficking. Later on in Hua Lamphong I look at one woman's face as she directs us towards the subway. It is hard here, I am seeing it in her face, I see it in her eyes.

Take you shoes off, cover your shoulders, sit at the side street cafe and have a meal, there is so much that comes at you, you need to really consider what you are seeing, as there is a cultural thing going on here that has nothing to do with me. But I do feel compelled to be part of it as I feel a divinity to this space. But deep in me, I know that I don't belong…

This is Bangkok, she allowed me a moment to lean against her walls, suck at her breast, listen to her heartbeat. As milk swirls within my mouth. I allow the taste to settle, like a seasoned wine taster, trying to sense taste. Bangkok, is bright reds, with a fruity taste, with an after burn that holds you in your stride. A subtle, subtle burn that can seriously affect the mind and the body if one over does. It means that with all that calm inviting charm, there is an old monarchy of tradition, which means, be aware.

WE ENTER THE SPACE SIT QUIETLY IN THE CORNER. 

WE WALK TO THE SUBWAY DOWN THE NARROW ROAD. THIS ROAD INITIALLY REMINDED ME OF  BELMONT, BUT THEY WERE GENERALLY WELL MAINTAINED. MAYBE I'M NOT AT HOME,
I CHANGE MY MIND.

WHEN I SAW THIS I FELT AT HOME, THE IDEA OF MAKING DO WITH WHAT WAS, IS THIS THING THAT WE ALSO HAVE, PULLING TOGETHER THE MATERIALS, THAT WILL MAKE LIFE. 

AH NIGHT! WHEN THE SIDE WALKS WILL CHANGE TO DINING ROOMS, PEOPLE WILL SIT ON THEIR STOOPS AND EAT MANY MEALS FILLED WITH SWEET PORK, FISH, RICE AND NODLES. CHICKEN COMES LATER.

I SAW THIS, I HAVE TO USE IT IN A PAINTING, WHICH I WILL WHEN I RETURN TO THE STUDIO.

AH MODERNITY CAME IN SWEET MALLS, SO WELL AIR CONDITIONED THAT YOU HAVE TO WEAR A LITTLE COAT TO PROTECT YOUR SKIN, THERE WERE ALL THE ENTRAPMENTS OF GLOBALISED MODERNITY.

BACC, THE BANGKOK ART AND CULTURAL CENTRE.

AFTER THE VIST TO THE CULTURAL CENTRE WE WENT TO JIM THOMPSON HOUSE A HOUSE BUILT ON TRADITIONAL THAI ARCHITECTURE BY JIM THOMPSON KNOWN AS THE FATHER OF THE  MODERN THAI SILK INDUSTRY. THE  JIM THOMPSON SILK COMPANY IS THE MOST FAMOUS IN THAILAND. WE HUNG OUT  THERE, THEN WENT TO VISIT SVENN AT THE SEVEN SPOONS, A HIP EATERY RATCHADAMNERN NOK. WE HAD A MEAL AND TOOK A TAXI HOME. WHEN WE GAVE HIM THE $100 BHAT FOR THE $60 BHAT TRIP. EXPECTING CHANGE, WHEN ASKED HE RESPONDED, "TIP, TIP". WE WHERE A BIT PUT OFF, OR CULTURALLY SHOCKED, SO WE LEFT IT WITH HIM.

IT DID NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.

THERE IS A BROWNING OF SPACE, A CRACKED, BRITTLENESS THAT TELLS A STORY OF OLD, HISTORICAL, RENEWAL AND CONGESTION IN SOME AREAS. THIS MEGA CITY IS FILLED WITH PEOPLE. IT AMAZES ME HOW IT DEALS WITH NEW MOVEMENTS OF PEOPLE, IT IS ALWAYS INTENSE.

LIFE IS ON THE STREET YOU MAKE LOVE AT HOME, THERE IS ALWAYS THE SIGHT OF THE MAN AND WOMAN WALKING WITH THE PLASTIC BAG FILLED WITH CUCUMBER, FRIED CHICKEN, MEAT BALLS, RICE, FRUIT ETC.

SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT THAIS EAT ALL THE TIME, THE SCOOTER IS THE SYMBOL OF FREEDOM, WITH THIS THE BODY CAN MOVE THROUGH THE CITY WITH IMPUNITY AMIDST THE TRAFFIC. THEY ARE THE LORDS. WITH GREAT POWER COMES MUCH RESPONSIBILITY. 

THE MAN IN THE ORANGE VEST WILL TAKE YOU TO YOUR HOME, FOR ABOUT A $5 BHAT, MAYBE MORE ACCORDING TO HOW FAR ONE WANT TO GO FROM THE MAIN ROAD.

A MAN BUSKING, HE WAS PLAYING A TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENT.

OH THE FOOD, MAN THE FOOD, MANY SMALL BITS, BUT IT COMES IN WAVES. NOT EVERYTHING WAS EATEN, BUT MOST OF IT, WAS NYAMED DOWN TRINI STYLE. 

THIS IS THE HAPPINESS STREET FESTIVAL, ALONG THE SKY TRAIN ROUTE, OUTSIDE THE MALLS, HERE THE ARTISANS CAME OUT. 

AN OIL DRUM BECOMES A SEAT. MALL DESIGN.

I LOVE THIS STALL, THIS WAS PART OF THE HAPPINESS STREET FESTIVAL. IT WAS SO CUTE, HOW THEY ALL STOOD THERE ON THE STREET MAKING SENSE. CAN WE LEARN SOMETHING…YES WE CAN, WILL WE, NO!

WHAT I LLOVED OF THESE SIDE STREET KTICHENS, WAS HOW THEY WHERE ABLE TO PLACE THE WHOLE KITCHEN! IN THERE, YOU SEE THE SEAT AT THE SIDE, THEY WILL BE ARRANGED WITH TABLES, PEOPLE WILL EAT, MAMMY WILL TALK, THE WILL LISTEN, THEY WILL TALK, MAMMY WILL LISTEN. THEY WILL LEAVE, MAMMY WILL PACK UP AND LEAVE.  AN AMAZING ARRAY OF MEALS. MAMMY CAN HANDLE, SHE STORIES.

THIS WAS THE STREET FESTIVAL….

OH THE STREET, THIS COULD BE GEORGE STREET.

MAN THIS IS WHERE THE WEALTH, COULD BE SO IN YOUR FACE. THERE WERE SOME SERIOUS BRAND NAMES….

DESIGN.

WE WHERE HERE AFTER THE COUP, THERE WAS A MILITARY GOVERNMENT.
YOU WILL SEE THEM, I HEARD
http://prachatai.org  

THE ROLLING GATES.

OH SO SIMPLE, THEY ARE ALL OVER THEY PLACE, USED TO ROLL IN AND OUT, TEMPORARY MOVEABLE GATES.

THE MARKET

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS IS THE ABILITY TO REST THE COCONUT ON THE TABLE, THE CIVILIZED WAY OF DRINKING AND HAVING A MEAL WITH THE COCONUT, WAS COOL. WHAT I WILL DO IS JUST CUT OFF THE BASE AND SERVE CHILLED.

NOW UNDERSTAND THAT WE IN A MARKET EH.
WE IN A MARKET!

AN EXAMPLE OF COLORISM, SEE THE AFRICAN BLACK DOLL. LOOK.

WTF GALLERY. ONE OF THE GALLERY THAT I MET WITH THE CURATOR. NEXT TO IT WAS A SHOP SELLING THAI MUSIC, I BOUGHT SOME NIGERIAN JAZZ AND WE SAW A CALYPSO CD.

ON THE RIVER. FROM HERE YOU CAN GO TO ANY PART OF THE CITY.

THE TUK TUK.

THE SUBWAY.
WHEN WE SPEAK OF RAPID RAIL.
I HOPE WE WILL CONSIDER HOW INTENSE AN INFRASTRUCTURE THAT WILL BE.

THE TOK TOK, MAN
SEE THE SIGN,
THE SCOOTER, WITH FREEDOM COMES MUCH RESPONSIBILITIES.