Chicano Park in the Barrio Logan Neighborhood
Field Site Study FIVE will occur at the Chicano Park in the Barrio Logan Neighborhood in San Diego,
California. Citizen activism and protests are powerful political tools for change – from the March on Washington in 1963, the Arab Spring in the early 2000s to recent Black Lives Matter, Me Too/2019 Woman’s March and Climate Change Movements – these events are altering the world. In current times like these, while people still need to take their issues to the streets to be heard and seen, public spaces have resurfaced as a topic of discussion. Not limited to its definition, public spaces have always been considered as a place of exchange since the Greek Agoras and the Roman Forums, where citizens came together and discussed matters of the state. In fact, the concept comes from our need to be connected to others. It’s a place of encounters, translating how we practice space in relation to others. It ignites the idea that we are part of a collective effort, that we belong to this world… that we exist.
A public space is a form (and agent) of democracy. It is a space of freedom of movement, expression, and most importantly, it is our first contact with a city. A mere reflection of the urban fabric, it reveals cultural, economic, and political influences. Diverse, by definition, public space gives us the chance to be exposed to all types of people, especially in urban areas.
In general, in order to discover the behavior of a neighborhood, a district, or a city, we often turn to these spaces. When animated, these meeting places can even change a city’s image temporarily with the implementation of markets, parades, and festivities, or permanently through the introduction of new programs. They can range from planned streets, intersections, plazas, boulevards, parks and squares, to informal sidewalk settings, interstitial spaces and an overflow of private spaces onto the public domain. This assignment explores human activism in public spaces in cities, and the commonalities and differences in past and present human interaction within urban public spaces.
