{"id":597,"date":"2018-05-18T14:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T13:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/?p=597"},"modified":"2018-05-18T14:46:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T13:46:20","slug":"jigsaudio-drawing-and-talking-about-spaces-using-digital-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/jigsaudio-drawing-and-talking-about-spaces-using-digital-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"JigsAudio: drawing and talking about spaces using digital technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"

How can we encourage children to imagine the spaces of the future, and how they might change? In this blog post, find out about <\/strong>Alexander Wilson\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> JigsAudio project<\/strong><\/a> at <\/strong>Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children\u2019s Books\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Children have fascinating insights into the places they live in, and Seven Stories are interested in how the families that visit them feel about their locality. Yet traditional approaches to urban planning are quite exclusive (and not massively creative) when it comes to consulting and involving children and young people. So what about new and alternative methods?<\/p>\n

The Vital North Partnership<\/a> has been helping Seven Stories to explore these questions through new partnerships with the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<\/a> and Open Lab<\/a> at Newcastle University.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today I\u2019m exploring JigsAudio,<\/a> a research project led by Alexander Wilson,<\/a> a doctoral trainee in the EPSRC<\/a> Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Civics at Open Lab<\/a>. Zander\u2019s research interrogates the intersections between digital technology, design, human-computer interaction and town planning, with a focus on alternative tools and methods to participation.<\/p>\n

Zander was first introduced to me when I was working with his academic supervisor Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones<\/a> and Newcastle City Futures<\/a> around our Big Draw events in October 2016.<\/a> Together, we saw an opportunity to combine planning, drawing, and digital technology. Drawing could allow Seven Stories\u2019 visitors to overcome some of the traditional barriers to getting involved with planning.<\/p>\n

\"Drawing
We drew on RFID enabled wooden jigsaw pieces and recorded messages about the future of the city. Image: Newcastle University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From that initial conversation, Zander and his Digital Civics colleagues came up with JigsAudio. It combines drawing and colouring in jigsaw pieces, which the children and families visiting Seven Stories are familiar with, with something new: a device which allowed the children to record an audio message about their jigsaw piece. The pieces and their recordings are then combined to create a digital version of the jigsaw online.<\/p>\n

JigsAudio\u2019s first test was during the Big Draw in October 2016 and formed part of a range of drop in activities offered that weekend around Newcastle City Futures. Zander said, \u201cA colourful puzzle came back with many varied visions of Newcastle and Gateshead. A five-hour barge trip along the Tyne and a colourful new bridge across the Tyne \u2013 painted in green, yellow, black, blue and purple \u2013 were just two of the ideas that emerged.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Following that, Seven Stories also worked with Zander on a second JigsAudio activity for Summer 2017 around their Aliens Love Underpants exhibition,<\/a> asking children to design and talk about alien planets and reflect on what they value about their own. For Zander: \u201cI\u2019m amazed at the effort the children put into their alien\u2019s planet. It\u2019s really interesting to see that they have such a strong sense of what is important to where they live. As well as a few aliens, we got something that\u2019s really valuable and will hopefully lead to children getting more of a say in how places change. We\u2019ve been underplaying their ability to understand some of the issues planning is facing and hearing their ideas has been an eye-opening exercise. It\u2019s been a fantastic project.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"The
The Aliens Love Underpants JigsAudio activity at Seven Stories. Image: Alexander Wilson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The JigsAudio technology has also been used by Nexus,<\/a> the North Tyneside Youth Council<\/a> and Newcastle\u2019s Let\u2019s Talk Parks<\/a> initiative to engage citizens on the futures of places.<\/p>\n

So what were Zander\u2019s research findings? He found:<\/p>\n