FINAL PRESENTATION

Studies - rhythms and movements 2

My vision for this design is a continuous line of light that is varied by the rhythm of the supporting posts. This light line would create a virtual roof above the street. Unequal and “choppy” in rhythmic character, the posts also serve as a distraction of traffic in the village. Lighting posts vary in angles and finishing.

With the design I invite people to interact with the street lighting by allowing them to change the angle of certain posts. This interaction could also be seen as an independent and playful guiding system, where people - locals and travellers alike - leave messages for one another.

2ND TERM PRESENTATION

I remember that in the movie American Beauty identity was satirized as ´sold´ and reduced to prepackaged lifestyle. Life was something shallowly constructed on the ´I am what I consume´. If it is about consuming goods, services and places that generate pleasurable experiences then could the concept of identity be reduced to ´I am what I experience´? Could a place in that case provide the basis for individual identity as always embodied, housing the possibilities of seeing, feeling and smelling the surroundings?

According to John Urry people will gain less satisfaction from continuing to do what they have always done. Their daily life will become less to do with collective memories and experiences and they will look more for immediate pleasure. Being a tourist is an exception of time, a period of (self)explorations and differences. The tourist is kind of pilgrim, seeking authenticity in other ´times´ and other ´places´ away from everyday life.

A place depends first and foremost on information about the way people perceive, remember and talk about surroundings. The relationship that people develop with their home surrounding is intensely personal and relational to the passage of time. It is not the question of right or wrong, or better or more valuable, more significant, more important. Ask ten trained and experienced urban/spatial professionals to record their space perception of a particular setting and you will get ten different results. This also applies when you ask the same thing from ten inhabitants of the same neighbourhood.

Lacan has described identity as “[...] something that is not always already present but comes into being ´from the place of Other”. To describe local identity one needs to know something about what aspects of the lives and surroundings of people lead them to identify and perhaps come to value particular objects, features or locations in their daily routes, both consciously and subconsciously.
Or how do people experience, remember and communicate about identity? Does the spatial setting and timing affect narratives of identity? How can planners/ designers identify local narratives of place identity and use them in urban design? What is the importance of a public space and urban design in small communities? Could designer give form to objects/ public spaces that bring out locality?

The design of the environment is a physical and three-dimensional manifestation of place identity. It is the relationship between all these individual elements - site, space or building - that gives places their character and identity. In my opinion the purpose of spatial design is to create, reproduce or mould identities of places through manipulation of activities, feelings, meanings into place identity. It is a selective way of imagining, acting and communicating about the place.

TRAVELER - the place revisited

I revisited Lake Peipsi district second time in November 2007. My aim was to find out and document how the place is currently perceived by travellers - how much information about local area is available? how do local people receive outsiders?

During the trip I was constantly aware of my behaviour. Instead of just being a gazing tourist as last time, I tried to engage myself with different aspects of being a traveller. Research on identity, cultural tourism and methods of cognitive mapping became handy. To my surprise the village had gone through an enormous change. The memory of the dark, old and grey village of wooden houses and narrow street was replaced with the image of a lively and colourful place. As if it was not the same place any more. Or maybe my expectations were different.

I was observing, sensing and documenting the place by using image and sound recording. I made almost no contact with locals during 4 days. It was not a deliberate decision, but rather a realistic nature of the village. During the field studies I realised that the structure and character of the village is more easily perceived with the speed of 30km per hour (slow car driving) and hard to accomplish by walking. One experiences surroundings on foot with more senses than travelling in a car. At the same time long distances and changing weather cut down the feeling of continuous place. Documentation of the fieldtrip (especially the video) became my irreplaceable source of inspiration for design proposals. The constant review of the material often revealed new insights and understandings that may have been missed at first sight. It allowed me to experience the place time and time again.

1ST TERM PRESENTATION

This thesis project focuses on the questions of identity and tourism.
In my research question: how to reproduce identity through public space?, I would like to emphasize the words reproduce and through. Because I believe that identity is not something fixed, but rather placing itself among the variety of behavioural patterns; and it must be played out (lived).

Everywhere throughout the world local people in response to the opportunities afforded by the global tourism industry (mostly moneywise) are putting their culture on display. Instead of talking, living it out and starting the dialogue with tourist, the host population is actually trying to fulfil the expectations of a traveler. Tourist is kind of a pilgrim, who is seeking authenticity in other times and other places away from home. He shows particular fascination in the real lives of others.

Traditionally people have traveled away from their residence and work in order to participate in tourism. The tourism however does not start nor end with the physical departure and return. Anticipation and daydreaming, remembering and reminiscing are equally part of tourism experience. But if one does not need to leave the place of residence to become a tourist, then tourism and therefore also search for identity or comparison with others, cannot be described as a quality of place and time only. It is rather quality in the minds of people. Or the relationship between person and a place/ environment that makes the identity. The ways in which people experience that environment (and themselves), is not merely instrumental, but often exploratory, unsystematic, wasteful of energy and fun. They do not want to use only their vision; they need to hear, to touch, to taste and gather these five perceptions in a world.

My context is based on a village in eastern border of Estonia, known as a settlement of russian old believers. This one of the places where villagers gain mostly from tourism, but that only for up to 4 months a year. This village is extraordinary from its layout compared to historical estonian villages. It is 7km long one streetvillage. Houses are built very close to each other, there is no pavement to differentiate car area from pedestrians, and people tend interact just on the doorsteps.The citizens of the village are mostly old people; therefore it is believed that in less than 20years there will no longer be authentic village as such for tourism industry.

The relevance of tourism statistics?

According to the statistics the local tourist campaigns in Estonia in recent years have been successful. The numbers in 2005 show that 7% of the whole population made a trip in Estonia due to the campaign. Among that there was a considerable increase in spring and winter period. For example the amount of travels made in spring 2005 increased 10% and in winter 17% compared to the previous years. (Emor; 2005) However there are no studies made about the process or results of the travels. I think it would be equally relevant to find out how, when and where did these people travel and what was their experience.

Tourist place and identity

Traditionally, people have travelled away from their place of residence and work in order to participate in tourism. More recently however place for tourism has become increasingly de-differentiated from the normal, day-to-day social place and the need for a change of environment has diminished. Tourism does not start nor end with the physical departure and return to the home environment. Anticipation and daydreaming in the planning process and remembering and reminiscing after the holiday are equally part of the tourism experience.

According to John Urry (2002) people will gain less satisfaction from continuing to do what they (or particularly their family) have always done. Their daily life will become less to do with collective memories and experiences and they will look more for immediate pleasure. The tourist is a kind of pilgrim, seeking authenticity in other ´times´ and other ´places´ away from everyday life. Being a tourist is a period of (self)explorations and differences. ´Post-tourists´ however know that there is no authentic tourist experience, that there are merely a series of games, texts, images that can be played. Ironically they almost delight in the inauthenticity of the tourist experience.

If one does not need to leave the place of residence to become a tourist, then new experiences, immediate pleasures – explorations of being a tourist cannot be described as a quality of place and time, but rather a quality in the minds of people. Or is it the relationship between person and place that forms that experience and pleasure?

"I am not a tourist, I live here"

A few years ago me and three of my friends were driving in eastern Estonia to ´redefine our national and local identity in contemporary Europe´ - something that has been targeted by national tourism campaigns in Estonia for last 6 years. We were bored of driving in anonymous highways and at one point decided to take a smaller parallel road along the coast of Lake Peipsi. The road took as through various ethnic group areas.

By choosing the alternative road our behaviour compared to driving in highways did not change. We drove continuously through the villages without even slowing down the speed. Our perception of the place was limited to images seen through car windows. We did not make any stops during the 7 kilometres long village. When I asked the driver´s opinion about our behaviour, he replied without any hesitation: “... but you saw everything there is to see!”

´Travel and Tourism´ is the largest growing industry in the world with 898million international tourist arrivals in 2007. Throughout the world, local people in response to the opportunities afforded by this phenomenon are putting their culture on ´display´. Rather than initiating a dialogue with the tourist, the host population is merely trying to fulfil their expectations. Local authentic identity gets lost. A more subtle distinction should occur between the tourist, the host community and the experience from the visited culture.