MAGCD Project 1: Diagramming
It’s been a while since I’ve done something for the sake of doing something. Actively avoiding thinking about the final product or outcome is weirdly freeing and disconcerting at the same time.
My area of investigation is the upper part of King’s Boulevard, specifically the tactile paving. I suppose it sat awkwardly with me since I walked by it the first few times. I do, of course, know what tactile paving is, but not enough to know why it felt wrong.
I considered three types of investigation: photography, video, and diagramming. Diagramming proved the most revealing and aligned best with the questions I wanted to interrogate.
On an unrelated note, I enjoy this language overlaid in an urban environment. I like that you mostly ‘understand’ it through your feet. I appreciate its attempt to make public spaces easier to navigate for certain parts of the population and the hidden ‘in-the-know’ aspects of it. This, however, turns out to be its downfall.
The language itself is deceptively simple; it is, however, more complicated than I originally appreciated. The major confusion lies in the three striped versions. My area, it turns out, not only uses the wrong version, but it is also the wrong colour, or no colour at all in this case. The clear area is completely ignored.
Observing the space at different times of the week, as well as times of the day, it is not surprising that I never saw anyone use it. It is fraught with hazards, including solid objects placed directly in the line of travel. This turns out to be a known thing within this community.
I struck up a conversation with the security guard who looked to be ‘guarding’ one such obstacle. He was not and was unaware of the tactile paving. Instead, he was guarding the not-quite-complete anti-ram bollards. And here lies the crux of the issue. Competing priorities in an urban setting: the loudest voice is heard.
No wonder this area had originally felt off. From paths leading directly into hazards and unpredictable objects such as advertising boards, event notices, urban art projects, refuse bins, and even ice cream trucks placed directly up against the tactile paving, there was no lack of things to pick up on.
I ended up focusing on these unpredictable yet frequent occurrences of advertising boards. I can imagine these are hard to navigate and pose extra anxiety as you navigate along a path you know hasn’t followed the rules laid out. How often do they occur? How unpredictable are they? It turns out it’s often and very.
The anti-ram bollards and the connected intercoms were perhaps the worst offenders, but clearly the top priority in the area. These are consequences, I suppose, of being near a major transport hub and a highly frequented pedestrian area. In the hustle of big-city living, this little-known language is struggling to get heard.
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