Kontak! - Urban Trend: Activist Citizen
Kontak!
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Urban Trend: Activist Citizen
Berkhayal di Kuala Lumpur, 2013
4 min., 59 sec.
Learn more about Activist Citizen on 100urbantrends.org: http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/100ur...
This video was commissioned as part of Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab, on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from October 11, 2013 - Jan 5, 2014. Learn more at http://www.guggenheim.org/100urbantrends.
Bio:
Founded in 2009, the collective Kontak!'s (kontaklab.wordpress.com/) work centers around design research, analysis, and production. The group is interested in the activities of daily life, behavior trends, and tracing and codifying movement in public space. The core belief of Kontak! is that design action ought to be aimed at meeting primary needs. They are working on several architectural and design projects around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Statement:
Berkhayal di Kuala Lumpur (2013) proposes a strategy for mobilizing activist citizens through expanding the possibilities of acting in public space. There is a huge gap for the general public in Malaysia in terms of being informed about their rights in public spaces. Few are even aware of their rights as individuals, in private or public. Consequently, there have been several recent examples of rights violations in public space, made public by the group Occupy Dataran (http://bit.ly/ouG9Wz), such as the recent development of Warisan Merdeka (http://on.fb.me/15vEvKw), a project costing approximately $1.6 billion.
The proposal is for a design intervention called infoshop (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infoshop) that would provide information regarding public spaces. The hope is that the infoshops also function as catalysts to inspire people to become more aware of their rights. These infoshops would be designed, based on their urban contexts, to educate citizens about the importance of public space. Infoshops would be installed permanently or temporarily using existing infrastructure, such as parking spaces, vacant buildings, pedestrian walkways, waste bin areas, and the like.