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The Edible Landscape Project
Design: Public Practice Spring 2017
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Table of Contents 4 6 8 10 20 26 30 52 54 55
Introduction Team Members Community Partners McDonald Park Project TRIP Map Logo Design and Screenprinting Pop-Up Exhibition Publicity Acknowledgements Colophon
Page focus 4 Our is on food, local food systems, and the New London community as part of the Edible Landscape Project.
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Introduction
Our focus is on food, local food systems, and
the New London community as part of the Edible Landscape Project. The theme for the semester is FOOD and our community partners are FRESH New London and Spark Makerspace. ART 310 Design: Public Practice offers an in-depth exploration of methods and processes of public-based (social) design. Students are introduced to creating social change through the power of design thinking. In this course we explore human-centered design as an approach and method to problem solving and innovation. There has been a shift in the value equation toward a social responsibility that is fully integrated in design. The term “social design” highlights design-based practices within an extended field in relation to public policy, and includes collaborative and social results, rather than purely commercial objectives. Ken Friedman’s Foreword from Enzio Manzini’s Design, When Everybody Designs, An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation states “Today, objective changes in the larger world give rise to four substantive challenges that are driving convergence in design practice and research: 1. increasingly ambiguous boundaries between
artifacts, structure, and process; 2. increasingly large-scale social, economic, and industrial frames; 3. an increasingly complex environment of needs, requirements, and constraints; and 4. information content that often exceeds the value of physical substance. These challenges require new frameworks of theory and research to address contemporary issues while solving specific cases and problems. Projects of this scope require interdisciplinary teams with a transdisciplinary focus.” This course has been funded this year through a grant from the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy. Thank you to the Holleran Center! Learning goals: -to explore a methodology for seeing, making and research -to see and make interdisciplinary connections with form and content -to immerse yourself in a collaborative design project -to confront controversy and utilize local resources -to identify community’s strengths and design with the community’s voice
Page 6 Design Team Samantha Butler Majors: American Studies & Art Class of 2017
Page 7 Alexandra Kruck Major: Economics Minor: Art Class of 2017
Evelyn Mitchell Major: English Minor: Art Class of 2017
Isabelle Cookson Major: Art Minor: Economics & French Class of 2019 Ammerman Center
Lauren Linehan Major: Architectural Studies Minor: Art History Class of 2017
Greg Montenegro Major: Art Class of 2018 Ammerman Center
Jillian Edwards Major: Architectural Studies Minor: English Class of 2019
Quilan Low Major: Architectural Studies & Art Class of 2019
Mei Reffsin Major: Art Class of 2018 Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment
Margaret Elliot Major: Behavioral Neuroscience Minor: Art Class of 2017
Roxanne Low Majors: Computer Science & Art Class of 2019 Ammerman Center
Bianca Scofield Major: Psychology Minor: Art Class of 2017 Ammerman Center
Alana Wimer Majors: Art & American Studies Class of 2018 Ammerman Center
Andrea Wollensak Professor of Art Judith Ammerman ‘60 Director, Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology
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Community Partners FRESH New London
Connecticut College Arboretum
FRESH New London builds momentum for food system change through community based agriculture and youth empowerment.We are a community farm and educational hub dedicated to building a healthy and just food system. We use food to connect the community encourage stewardship, inspire leaders and incite change.
Connecticut College exists in a singular environment known as the Connecticut College Arboretum, which offers a quality of life and a conservation classroom unique among liberal arts institutions. The Arboretum’s very diverse 750 acres include the landscaped grounds of the College campus as well as the surrounding plant collections, natural areas and managed landscapes. These resources all support the College’s mission of preparing the next generation of citizen-leaders, whose diverse responsibilities will include crafting a sustainable relationship with the natural world. Our institution distinguishes itself by a long-standing commitment to conservation and supporting research and teaching in ecological and environmental studies.
Spark Makerspace Spark Makerspace is more than the workstations where making happens. Spark is a community of people who work and play independently & together dedicated to a shared purpose.Spark creates a fun environment for people to learn, tinker, prototype, and play by developing and sharing creative & productive spaces and helping gather people who share interests. Participation in the Spark community is an opportunity to get support & support others in pursuit of igniting the spark within each of us. Spark also makes it easy for people to collaborate on work that directly contributes to the revitalization of New London, southeastern CT, and beyond.
The New London Day
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This project was an incredible experience
McDonald Park
Corner of Connecticut Avenue and McDonald Street
that allowed FRESH’s imperative to create a food and nutrition-secure New London, and to connect and co-power communities through food. Over the past 6 months, FRESH New London worked with the city in a new collaborative project: a new community garden at McDonald Park. The local community was organized and, together, with FRESH, developed a survey of 121 residents in the surrounding neighborhood to find out what the needs and visions of a new park might look like. In December, FRESH shared the results of the survey to the community and then began to develop a collaborative design for the park. Since that meeting, four community members spearheaded the design process— Maegan Parrott, Christina Soto, Denise Boyd and Tony Szramoski. They teamed up to prepare two design proposals for the McDonald Park Community. Then, our Public Practice class came in and assisted these leaders in refining their designs. The Public Practice course met with community
members at Connecticut College design studio. The students prepared multiple ways of visualizing the site including floor plans, perspective drawings, a three dimensional model, and mood boards that provided innovative ways to use the space— drawing from local history and ways to incorporate native plants. Students also prepared temporary signs for the site including a banner, directional signs and large format vegetable prints. In mid-February, the community design teams presented their visual proposals to the wider community at a community meeting (reuniòn comunitaria votes were cast on the most successful design and everyone voted for their favorite design and provided feedback on the project. In April, FRESH and community members worked onsite in building the garden beds, and installed the banner and temporary signs. McDonald Park was a successful example of collaborative efforts and that brought the larger community together to envision and create a sustainable community garden.
Floor Plan Proposals
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Page 13 Final Proposal
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Page 17 Development The project began with various meetings with F.R.E.S.H., and the McDonald Community. The class also attended a large community meeting to present the ideas and gain insight. We wanted to design materials that would be clear and playful for the site.
Temporary Signs Mei Reffsin, Greg Montenegro, and Alana Wimer The Temporary Sign project was in collaboration with the F.R.E.S.H. New London Community, the surrounding McDonald Park neighborhood, and Spark Makerspace. The goal of this project was to design wayfinding systems that informed the community of what was to come, and to bring playful color to the current park site.
Process We designed various projects that the community could participate in and also brought these to the meeting. These projects included a prompt for a word that community members envisioned the park to become, and a vegetable template for children and adults to color in.
Final Product We made two banners in English and Spanish to be hung on a telephone pole at the site, directional signs, and large format vegetables to decorate the site.
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Page 21 Development
Thames River Innovation Place Asset Map Samantha Butler, Quinlan Low, and Evelyn Mitchell
This map, made in collaboration with FRESH New London, Spark Makerspace, and the Thames River Innovation Place team, displays the rich cultural and economic features of the New London-Groton area.
We worked on a map to help better understand the proposal for the Thames River Innovation Plan. To help encourage potential innovation in New London and Groton, we gathered information on the many cultural, educational, transportation, and cultural highlights that the New London-Groton area boasts.
Process In order to have a simple and clean visualization, the map was constructed from in Illustrator from scratch. After laying out the base map of the terrain of the area, pins were made and placed onto the map alongside a key. Collaboration between the team and community partners was integral throughout this process, as they provided information about which features should be highlighted.
Final Product The map displayed various types of information featuring innovation areas throughout New London and Groton, as well as cultural attractions, transportation, and schools. The TRIP team used this map to in a Connecticut state grant proposal.
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TRIP Map
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Logo Design & Screenprinting
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For this project, Public Practice partnered with FRESH New London and Spark Makerspace to develop typographic logos and visual identity based on the phrase “Putting Culture in Agriculture” and several other prompts. Once these logos were finalized, Public Practice worked with New London High School Students to screenprint a variety of merchandise at Spark Makerspace.
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Development The phrase “Putting Culture in Agriculture” was developed by FRESH to express the importance of growing crops that are culturally significant to the diverse community of New London. The ají dulce pepper, which is grown in FRESH’s urban farm, was selected as the symbol of this concept.
Process Each student from the Public Practice team submitted several logo ideas responding to “Putting Culture in Agriculture.” Presented with this variety of visualizations, We decided to also explore the phrase “Seeds of Culture” and explore logo possibilities for New London itself. The Public Practice team met with FRESH for feedback.
Final Product After a second round of feedback and refinements, five finalized logos were selected through a class vote. We worked with Spark Makerspace and students from New London High School to screenprint these logos on tote bags, dish towels, t-shirts, and other merchandise that was offered for free to visitors of the final pop up exhibition.
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This exhibition is about our local edible
Pop-Up Exhibition FRESH New London, Community Members, Spark, and Connecticut College ART 310 Design: Public Practice Students
landscapes, greening urban spaces and design for social betterment. The exhibit features interactive maps of three sites with the potential to be the next community gardens and urban orchards in New London, along with inspirational designs to connect people with health and nature in the urban environment. The Edible Landscape Exhibition showcases a partnership between FRESH New London, Spark Makerspace, and Connecticut College’s Public Practice Design Studio that resulted in artfully produced and interactive tools to help activate the natural environment in New London, particularly with plants that produce food. Highlights include a series of maps, augmented reality visualizations, culturally relevant site-based designs, and the tools that facilitated residents of the McDonald Park neighborhood to design their vision for an edible
community gathering space in this small city park. All aspects were created by Connecticut College students and with FRESH staff & youth, and Spark members and neighborhood residents. Public Practice students screen printed with FRESH youth at Spark Makerspace to promote the Edible Landscape program with merchandise that will be sold to raise funds for the initiative. This is a sharing event! Please bring old cookbooks, saved seeds, and favorite recipes for swapping! Come with stories of your first time discovering the wonder of tending a garden and eating that which you helped to grow for audio recording captured in the spirit of StoryCorps. Bring a friend! The show will stay up through May 15th at the Spark Coworking Space, located at 13 Golden Street in downtown New London.
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Page 33 Development
Old Town Mill
Bianca Scofield and Alexandra Kruck The Old Town Mill Proposal attempts to visualize a possible edible landscape in the space next to the historic mill site in New London, CT near Hodges Square. In order to engage the broader community and to gather more information about indigenous plants, we spoke with Maggie Redfern, the Assistant Director of the Connecticut College Arboretum. Our design strategy was to incorporate both the history of the Old Town Mill and the existing highway (I-95) to show how “the past meets the present�.
In order to expand the edible landscape, other under-utilized lots in the greater New London area were examined. The site projects aimed to pin point specific locations in which a potential community garden could be installed. The lot next to the historic Old Town Mill was chosen as one of these potential community garden sites.
Process
In order to gain a better understanding of the space, we visited the site and took photographs and measurements. The history of the Old Mill was also researched. We then met with Maggie Redfern to gather information about indigenous and sustainable plants that could be planted on the site. Finally, we designed a floor plan of the site including the information we had gathered.
Final Product Our final product was a large-scale poster with the floor plan design (which included a community garden proposal) and information about indigenous plants, the history of the Old Mill, and picnic table inspirations. A perspective drawing was also created for the site.
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Page 35 Development When we first redesigned Cottage Street we did site visits, research on the history and researched local plants of New London. One of the initial steps was getting to know the area and understanding the neighborhood. We also talked with St. Francis home organization helping them to better understand the property.
Cottage Street
Lauren Linehan and Margaret Elliot Cottage street is located down the street from the local grocery store Fiddleheads and across from New Londons judicial clerks office. The open undeveloped plot is situated next to residential homes.We worked with the community to create a new approach to Cottage Street. One of the goal of the redesign was to create more community spaces.
Process The design for Cottage Street went through many different stages. At first, we viewed Cottage Street as different individual plot of land instead of a long rectangle site. The original idea only incorporated gardening and seating amenities. However after revisiting the history and information gathered we decided Cottage Street needed more open spaces and community gathering spots.
Final Product The final project for Cottage Street is a long square plot that is naturally divided into four different areas. Each area is split by a group of trees the different sections are water/waste, gardening, community space, and play and seating area. The final design idea for Cottage Street is developing a community based natural area where people can come together and enjoy the natural landscape. The different visual tool used for Cottage Street is a perspective drawing, photo series of the site and a site map.
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Page 37 Development
Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School Field
Isabelle Cookson, Jillian Edwards, and Roxanne Low
We teamed with Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School, FRESH New London, and Brigaid to redesign the Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School Field. Bennie Dover was shifting some of their academic focus towards working with FRESH to create garden spaces on their campus. The Middle School created a focus group of students to work with FRESH to initiate this process and began to add flower beds to their indoor courtyard. The outdoor space was much larger and had more potential in terms of embodying a productive space for learning, gardening, and maintaining its use as a play space. FRESH’s interest in the field included creating a garden-specific area both for the middle schoolers to learn about and grow their own food produce and as another outlet for the Edible Landscape Project. We focused on synthesizing FRESH’s gardening and educational objectives with a community space and play area through visuals.
The Bennie Dover Field was one of the spaces included in the Edible Landscape prject as a potential site, so we began designing the space, keeping in mind the original use as a play space and the Edible Landscape project and gardening space.
Process We met with FRESH representatives, Brigaid representatives, and representatives from the Bennie Dover Middle School to create a template for the student focus group to use in their future planning and design. We then used this information to initiate the process of redesigning the field.
Final Product The project manifested itself in a single document that combined a floorplan, perspecitve drawings, and a mood board. All were initial proposals to give the field some context and begin to give the focus group some ideas to build off of. The goal was to create a space designed in an intelligent and useful way that fits the needs of education, recreation, and gardening.
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Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School Field Design Workshop Jillian Edwards, Isabelle Cookson, and Roxanne Low
As part of the Edible Landscape Project, Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School Field was identified as one of the potential sites to expand FRESH New London’s community garden. This design workshop project was created to encourage more community participation in the designing process of the site proposal. Through the engagement and collaboration with different groups of community, we hope to propose a design of this open field space in BDJ Middle School that strategically considers all communities that it potentially serves. This project invites New London community to visualize ideas on how to use the the outdoor school space on a blank template.
Development This project was developed through the desire to gather ideas from the New London community on ways to reimagine the use of the field space. While Edwards, Cookson and Low had their own idea on how this open space could be used, we wanted to give the community a chance to share their own vision for the space.
Process We decided that the best way to generate more ideas was to provide a example and a blank template. We cut out icons that could symbolize different kinds of activities and objects that could potentially be introduced into the space such as trees, steps, picnic tables. The icons were made into movable blocks for easy placement on the arial view template of the field.
Final Product The final product of this project was a successful interactive session with community members from very different age groups. Additionally, snapshot of the ideas generated were compiled and added to the design proposal of this school field.
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Seeds of New London Samantha Butler and Quinlan Low
This crowdsourcing project used an interactive board to engage visitors. Each participant obtained a ball of yarn and wrapped their string around any pegs that applied to their interests for each prompt. As a result of their participation, the board displayed a large amount of data from the people of New London about activities that they enjoy doing, what they love to eat, and their community’s identity.
For this project, we were inspired to create an engaging way for people evaluate their relationships with local food and the New London community. We decided that constructing an interactive board with prompts for community members would be the right design method.
Process We started by prototyping to see what sort of materials would best serve the project. Next we brainstormed to figure out what prompts and answers would be most likely to get viewers to participate. The final board was constructed by attaching each word to a wooden peg, which was secured to a 6-foot by 4-foot board. Several boxes of yarn promted viewers to complete the thoughts “I like to,” “I eat,” and “Together we,” by unravelling balls of yarn around word peg options.
Final Product The final product for the exhibition was a simple white board that displayed layers of three different colors of string associated with the three prompts. After unraveling the balls of yarn, the visitors received a piece of seed paper that either contained basil, lettuce, or tomatoes. By spending time with each prompt, the visitors gained a greater sense of their identity and their community. The finished board also provided a data visualization that represented the participants’ relationships with the edible landscape.
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Page 43 Development
Stories Around the Table
Mei Reffsin, Greg Montenegro, and Alana Wimer
We conducted interviews using a series of questions. The questions were intended to gather stories or memories that involved food. Over the course of two days, eleven interviews were conducted, including input from residents, Connecticut College staff, and students.
Process Stories around the table was a project that aimed to promote the importance of food in creating relationships and community through imitating the experience of a shared meal. The aim was to emphasize the role that food has in bringing people together. The project was based upon the belief that food and sharing meals is an extremely important aspect in building relationships and creating community.
Using the interviews, we decided that the best way to display information at the pop up would be to utilize QR codes that linked to the audio files of interviews. We managed to assemble a website as well that contained the information, and assemble QR codes for every story.
Final Product The final product lives in a few different locations. The first was an installation at the pop up exhibit located at Spark Co-working Space on 13 Golden Street. This installation featured a table setting with stories in the form of QR codes embedded on napkins, plates, and a table cloth. It was meant to show how stories are shared during meals and around tables.
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Page 45 Development
Visualizing Cottage Street Using Augmented Reality Margaret Elliott, Lauren Linehan, and Evelyn Mitchell
Visualizing Cottage Street Using Augmented Reality was a project that aimed to involve the New London community in the development of the sites for The Edible Landscape Project. The aim was to get community members to express their ideas for what they envisioned the Cottage Street site could be using words or sketches. The project was based upon the belief that by superimposing the community members ideas onto an image of the site using augmented reality, it might inspire them to generate more ideas and want to get involved with The Edible Landscape Project.
The design stretegy of this project was to represent one site in The Edible Landscape Project by engaging with members of the New London community to better understand what they envision for the site in terms of a public space and community garden.
Process We decided to focus on the Cottage Street Site, and brought handouts to the Fiddleheads Earth Day event, showing community members what the site currently looks like and prompting them to write down or sketch out ideas they have for the potential future of Cottage Street as a community garden.
Final Product To create the final product we used the community members’ words and drawings and the website/app Aurasma to overlay their ideas on an image of the Cottage Street site. This allowed community members to view an augmented vision of the open site by superimposing images of their ideas on an image of the real world.
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NL Recipe Exchange Community Isabelle Cookson, Jillian Edwards, and Roxanne Low
Through this recipe exchange project, we aim to use food as a way to bring out the extent of the diversity that we know exists within the city of New London, and to unite our community by providing the means to share and exchange what defines culture. The recipes were collected by reaching out to companies and organizations within New London that are associated with food, including FRESH New London and Spark Maker Space, along with individual community members. By requesting family and favorite recipes, a broad category, people felt welcome to submit recipes for any meal or course, and of any culture. Through an open Facebook group called, “NL Recipe Exchange Community�, on which people can post and view recipes, we hope to continue this concept of a constant sharing and exchange of ideas.
Working within a larger Edible Landscape Project, we thought a food type project would be appropriate. We considered the diversity within New London and thought of how we could apply it to food and community. Thus, the idea of a recipe exchange was developed.
Process We collected recipes by reaching out to food organization, restaurants, local farms, and individuals at a community event at Fiddleheads. Once we started receiving recipes, we decided to format them on individual cards to give an old fashioned recipe feel. In order to encourage the exchange part of the project, we created a blank recipe card and a Facebook page.
Final Product Our final product was a collection of diverse recipes, each on its own card and all with the same format. By the end of the exhibit, several recipes were taken and more were submitted on the blank cards provided. Several people have joined and posted on the Facebook group and hope for this to continue.
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DIY Gardening: Tools & Tips for the Aspiring Gardener
Bianca Scofield and Alexandra Kruck The DIY Gardening: Tools & Tips for the Aspiring Gardener cards are meant to inspire the community to create their own edible gardens in their backyards. In order to engage the community, we worked together with Maggie Redfern (the Assistant Director of the Connecticut College Arboretum), and Fresh New London to provide seeds, seedlings, and seed bombs for community members to take home. For the design of the cards our strategy was to provide baseline information about gardening in an accessible and engaging way.
For the pop-up exhibition, we wanted to encourage the New London community to create gardens in their own backyards. In order to do so, we landed on the idea of creating cards to provide basic information on how to start a garden (what to plant, how to plant it, and where to get materials). We also wanted to provide the community with plants and seeds in order to begin the gardening process.
Process We began our design process by researching about indigenous and sustainable plants and how to plant seeds at the proper time of year with the proper amount of sunlight. We then met with community partners FRESH New London and Maggie Redfern to make seed bombs and plant seedlings, respectively. Finally, we bought a variety of seeds to give to the community at the pop-up.
Final Product Our final product was three informational cards (how to, what to, where to), seed bombs that we made with the FRESH New London high school group, seedlings from the Connecticut College Arboretum, and a variety of vegetable seeds.
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Publicity Edible Landscapes CC Magazine Winter 2017
The Day Articles The New London Day
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Acknowledgements
Colophon
We would like to thank the staff, volunteers, and students of FRESH New London and Spark Makerspace for collaborating with us. We enjoyed working with the individuals involved and being offered the experience to meet new people and engage with the New London Community. We would also like to thank the Holleran Center for providing us the Sheridan Grant. An additional thanks is extended out to Professor Rachel Black, Professor Anthony Graesch, Jeff Deutsch ‘98, Maggie Redfern of the Connecticut College Arboretum, CURE Innovation Commons, and McDonald Park Community Partners for guiding and encouraging us to discover, and create. Lastly, we would like to thank the Connecticut College Printshop for making every project a physical reality.
Š 2017, All reserved by respective owners Produced and Printed in Spring 2017 for the Design: Public Practice class at: Connecticut College 270 Mohegan Avenue New London, CT 06329 In collaboration with: FRESH New London 120 Broad Street New London, CT 06320 www.freshnewlondon.org Spark Makerspace 86 Golden Street New London, CT 06320 www.spark.coop Typeset in Helvetica Neue