Grassroots Mapping

Project: Grassroots Mapping from PlayPhilly on Vimeo.

Giacomo Ciminello of PlayPhilly writes:

Hello everyone, I wanted to pop in to answer any questions on the project. Yes, we used Photosynth as a quick and dirty method to stitch everything together. The project started as a means to use playful tools to get the public to stop and engage in public space more. This method really got people around the city talking. A couple even left their buildings and chased us down to see what we were up too. Fantastic experience overall. So many great stories. But if you would like to check out the Synths go here..

Photosynth 1
Photosynth 2
Photosynth 3
Photosynth 4

All of these flights were during peak office hours, and in the most occupied downtown district of Center City. yet, there are no people. The spaces go unused, and give the downtown landscape a sense of loss
and isolation. This could in theory translate to the un-innovative nature of the workforce here. The theory being that by using playful acts people get re-energized as the spaces do. The city recognizes its horrible planning and plans on spending upwards of 90 million to fix just one of these spaces. We spent $100 and got people talking. We hope to continue using this method to open the dialog between the people of downtown Philly, and city planners so that city resources get put to the appropriate use and that the public can have a voice.

More photos and documentation »

And photos on Flickr:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 11:27 am and is filed under syndicated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.