StreeTALK_adigard-mcshane_M-A-D

StreeTALK
what is your dream city?
a project by
M-A-D

StreeTALK
what is your dream city?
a project by
M-A-D

4 CITIES ARE THE REALM OF CITIZENS, OR
THE AMERICAN
CITY IS MADE
OF STREETS,
PARKING LOTS,
RESIDENTIAL
AND COMMERCIAL
BUILDINGS, AND
PARKS, AND THE
CITY IS GREATLY
OCCUPIED BY
CARS, BUSES,
TRUCKS, AND
SIGNAGE.
How do humans and their pets fit in this
environment? Where does the city start and
where does it end? City centers traditionally
cater to pedestrians, workers and visitors
while the periphery is designed for housing,
cars, shopping centers, and industry. In past
decades investments migrated outward, but
more recently they are returning to downtown
corridors. Who controls these patterns and who
stands to benefit most?
Democratic processes and economic patterns
are giving elements of answers, but these are
often reactive and predicated on immediate
needs and speculative schemes.
We all use and experience urban life in
different ways and on different rhythms. To
start with, we cannot dissociate our physical

ARE THEY?
activities from our relationship with urban
commodities like cars and all goods found in
local stores. More importantly, we also often
live in very vibrant social media communities.
Living in urban centers demands adaptive
skills. Since the formation of the first known
city in 6,500 BCE, the city has remained
full of demands, expectations, and emotive
tensions.
Citizens know how to adapt, but what do
they dream about? What do they really need,
not just today, but over the course of their
lives?
Cities have proven to be more ecologically
and economically sustainable than most other
human environments, but that has happened at
a human cost that cannot be sustained.

6 StreeTALK: WHAT IS YOUR DREAM CITY?*
StreeTALK is a participatory installation of
commentaries and drawings on the future of
the city. A street corner is re-staged as a
space for creative placemaking for residents,
visitors, commuters, or students passing by.
Framed by a basic set of rules, they are
invited to address the simple prompt, what is
your dream city? The ensuing responses become
a conversation rooted in the intersection of
thoughts, ideas, concerns and suggestions. The
street corner turns into a lively universal
agora. The final piece stands as an information
tree and an unpredictable collective artwork in
its own right.
Today more than ever, the merging of walls,
people and play is an invitation for our
imagination to further revitalize the urban
fabric and make it more organic.
StreeTALK is also a design experiment in
which we are exploring the dynamics of creative
control. In both city planning and individual
creations, we enter into a set of relationships
where the contextual demands are often too
great to allow the free flow of solutions.
Cities can be as inherently dysfunctional as
they appear extraordinary. Paradoxically, it
may be the very nature of these tensions that
promotes vitality in our cities.
The rules of making and usage are
contingent on conditions that must be
controlled by a collective body. Somewhere
between order and entropy everyone has an
opportunity to find a place of coherence.

PLAY
BUILD
REGULATE
StreeTALK
what is your
dream city?
BEAUTIFY
MOVE
EXCHANGE
* StreeTALK was commissioned by The City of Palo Alto for the
Code:ART festival on June 1-3, 2017. Code:ART had the support of
an Art Works grant through the National Endowment for the Arts
(NEA) and support from local corporate sponsors.

conversation
multiculturalism
planning
legislation
participation
efficiency
commons
governance
integrity
justice
mobility
transportation
accessibility
walkability
bikes
momentum
speed
convenience
information
economy
entrepreneurship
transactions
currencies
shopping
commerce
jobs
income
pop-ups
street markets
environment
sustainability
parks
parklets
benches
art
housing
architecture
density
technology
parkings
sprawl
preservation
land use
affordability
technology
people
community
culture
creation
performance
pleasure
comfort
networks
celebration
sharing
education
REGULATE
MOVE
TRADE
BEAUTIFY
BUILD
PLAY
8 SIX CATEGORIES

1 choose a sticker to write or draw what
you want in your dream city
2 place it near a related axis or sticker
AND/OR
place a star on your favorite dream(s)

10

12

PROJECT
DETAILS

16

18

20

22

CATEGORIES

26 REGULATE

28 MOVE

30 TRADE

32 BEAUTIFY

34 BUILD

36 PLAY

TAKE AWAY

40
CITIZENS
WANT MORE
PUBLIC
AMENITIES
TO IMPROVE
THEIR CITY
“…less

injustice…”
_Ignacio Valero, StreeTALK video

42 FACTUAL AXIOMS
housing is a key concern
kids prefer to draw
cars are not popular
drawings illustrate notes

notes build in sequence
green spaces are needed
shapes & colors coalesce
drawing+stickers together

44 USAGE
BUILD
PLAY
REGULATE
BEAUTIFY
TRADE
MOVE

INTERFACE PREDICTED USE
1 The engagement phase will last 6 hours,
and art will cover 90% of the wall space.
2 Entries start from the center.
3 Entries will run along the relevant category
axis.
4 Colors will coalesce regardless of category.
5 Entries will grow around similar topics.
6 Drawing on the wall will also be popular.
FINDINGS
1 The engagement phase lasted 18 hours over
three days with periods of high activity
and inactivity when foot traffic was low.
2 Entries started from the center with few
peripheral random placements.
3 Relevancy of category axis was ignored.
4 Colors did coalesce regardless of topics.
5 Topics did coalesce around popular stickers.
6 Applying stickers was more popular than
drawing on the wall.

46

StreeTALK
©M-A-D 2017
erik adigard & patricia mcshane
with ivan chen + bonny qianying guo
additional photos:
nadya chuprina + jim colton
(pages 12,16,18,20,22)
info + video:
www.StreeTALK.space