Moving Time
from co-presence to co-producing
Created by Carolyn Defrin with Winstan Whitter, Levitt Bernstein Architects and Petit Miracles
'Moving Time continues the collaboration with Levitt Bernstein Architects, taking their desire for a more expressive artistic process forward to include residents and wider area beneficiaries across generations.
A colourful swing and set of multi-directional benches comprise an outdoor installation at the charity’s 400th anniversary party. Playfully inviting party guests of all ages to discuss aging and the potential use of communal spaces, this project also tests a different equitable relationship in the design process with beneficiary communities. Engaging in a partnership with social enterprise, Petit Miracles, a local up-cycling furniture business that trains unemployed people in DIY skills, reveals a set of complexities that comes with sharing more equitable design power.
As such, this PaR reflexively examines how the move from co-presence to co-production can be navigated with an identification and awareness of differentiated vulnerabilities at play between partners' (Chapter 5, p. 110).
A chance question asked between Toni and Colin, two participants working on the project, sparked intrigue for how we could facilitate casual and playful conversations across generations.
'This metaphoric design would illustrate that while we might look in different directions, we are connected. Or, because we look in different directions, all the more reason we should stay connected.' (Chapter 5, 120)
