2008 | art direction, collaboration

Photography by Holly Larsen, Anne Cottingham, and Mark Stokoe.

This was a project geared towards responding to the then-Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan’s initiative, as introduced to us by our instructor. The class was asked to group together to create self-directed visual responses to the issue, which had ultimately ended in an exhibit at the Architectural Institute of BC, located downtown. This project was particularly special in that it concerned very real issues and very real people. What we realized early on is that despite our good intentions or the natural penchant to use humour and sarcasm, there was a substantial lack of information and genuine understanding—not only from the City’s perspective, but from our own, as residents of Vancouver and as students.

How can we respond to such an issue without even bothering to understand the roots and the causes of this? How can we create opinions if they are not based on anything fundamental or even concrete? Especially since it had been regarding the Downtown Eastside and the 2010 Olympics, it was not so easy to simply cast such unenlightened opinions in a public forum. This was not an insular issue to be forgotten as soon as the semester was to end, and definitely not just about creating something clever.
And so we took to the streets; armed with a camera, a small-ish blackboard with a fill-in-the-blanks questionnaire and some chalk for people to write with: “Hello, I am _ & I think a civil city needs _ ”

Information coming from a person first-hand is one of the most memorable forms of research, and conversations
started can lead to surprising discoveries not only about what others know, but about how little we ourselves do.

In keeping with themes of awareness and visual language, Holly and I also hosted a poster-making party, more geared towards art students. We invited others from Capilano College and Langara as well, but the party turnout was a bit more intimate than that. A few of our friends showed up, and however small our party was, it was still a great chance to talk about the city and what certain opinions that an issue such as this could personally entail. Some posters were cheeky, some were full of heart, and some in particular were thought-provoking.

More photos here:
http://flickr.com/photos/hellocivilcity