Onstreet Dumping & Waste

There is a problem with onstreet dumping in Dublin.

This Dublin City Beta Project aims to explore this issue and begin to develop and prototype solutions. It is likely that it’s what’s often called “a wicked problem” – ie it’s highly complex with no apparent easy solution.

(We spotted the above on the South Circular Road recently.)

1% Innovation Fund

We’ve agreed a 3 month trial of a ’1% Innovation Fund’ with one of our Area Offices.

The thinking (the experiment) is that such a 1% Innovation Fund might be used to explore ways to better stretch the Business As Usual 99% spend.

Beta 2.0

We began a trial a year or so ago. We wanted to create a mechanism whereby Dublin was able to experiment in order to test ideas that it felt might improve the City.

We weren’t quite sure what it was that we were trying to do (there’s still a ton of aspects that we still aren’t at all sure of). That’s fine. It was ‘good enough’ and is still ‘good enough’. Every day though, we aim to make it slightly better.

If you’d asked us at that time, just like the Mark Zuckerberg character to his friend Eduardo in The Social Network, we also might have answered…

We don’t even know what it is yet. We don’t know what it is. We don’t know what it can be, we don’t know what it will be, we know that it is cool.

Or Martin Luther King Jr…

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Meeting Minutes – Traffic Light Box Artworks and Moss Wall Selection

We arranged for a chat yesterday to discuss the next steps for the traffic light box artwork Beta Project, and also to select one of the entries for the moss wall Beta.

Here’s what happened…

        

Walls, Walls, Walls – Iteration 2

Update 09/05/13

One of the reasons that we like ‘experimenting on the street’ early on is that it can often give little unexpected bits of feedback.

Anytime we’re nearby, we walk past this Beta Project just to see how it is. Out of our last 6 visits, we’ve seen tourists on 4 occasions taking photos of the pieces on the wall.

Here’s Maria and Juan from northern Spain whom we met three weeks ago…

Chat – Traffic Light Boxes & Moss Walls

We’d like to arrange a short meeting to chat to you about two projects – the traffic light box artworks and the moss wall.

Alive Alive-O

Update 01/03/13:

Here’s the minutes of the below meeting (it also involved the traffic light boxes), and the selection process.

We have some more work to do with regard to exploring how best to succeed with moss-growing, and there’s several people who have contacted us with advice. We’ll update this post once we’ve some more news!

Here’s the chosen artwork – well done John! (Here’s John’s explanation for his design.)

Update 22/02/13:

We’d like to invite you along to a discussion of this, and the selection process. More info here.

Update 12/02/13:

We’ve received 7 submissions, and we’ll be arranging for a selection event as soon as we can!

Update 05/02/13:

There were NO submissions *sad face!* to this, but a few people have since said to us that they’d have loved to have entered…so…we’re going to accept any entries that anyone wants to send in until Monday 11th February. *happy face!*

The primary aim of this project is to explore and learn more about moss-growing, so we’ll probably simply do something much simpler if there are still no entries and we’ve a plan in mind there. But if you’re just dying to send us in something, we’d be delighted!

Original Post 19/12/12:

We’d like to explore a slightly different type of onstreet art in this Beta – moss!

(click the image for more info on that project)

We’re looking for you to submit your proposal(s) for a piece of art, an image, text, abstract, to be painted in moss or mixed media on the gable of a three storey high building.

What do you think of DCC Beta Projects itself?

DCC Beta Projects has been running for about 7 months, and is ITSELF a Beta, and itself has considered the Beta criteria (it was responding to a ‘Need’, is a ‘strategic platform’ – an idea that can change and grow and help launch others’ ideas…and so on).

We’re going to ‘pause’ DCC Beta for a few weeks, and during that time we’d love to get your feedback…so here’s a whole PILE of questions to get you thinking!

UPDATE: DCC BETA IS ACTIVE AGAIN, THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR FEEDBACK!

City Resources

Here’s a suggestion sent in by Elaine: Ref:13040201

Elaine’s thoughts…

Could you (briefly) explain the issue that you’re hoping to solve?

There are many amenities available within the city which are not visable or known to people, even those in the locality on a regular basis. I have observed this while living by the Cabbage Patch Park in D8, those working 150m away have no knowledge of it in spite of its listing on the DCC quiet zones list etc. Within the Beta area there are parks and other amenities I did not know about.

Dublin Street Library

As it’s the Bram Stoker Festival this weekend, we’ve added the below ourselves to ask you for your input on this DCC Beta.

Dublin Street Gallery

As we all know, there are a large number of vacant shops in Dublin. Could they be used in some temporary way?

We have received a few suggestions that vacant shop fronts could be used as a platform for emerging artists – that exposes them to the world.

The form of this Beta is Tommie’s (below) interpretation of that idea. He suggests that it’s like a  hybrid between a physical and online/virtual gallery…a “traditional gallery in the digital age”.

Street Art Checklist – Until 12/12/12

Here’s a Street Art Checklist…

Walls, Walls, Walls – Iteration 1

Update 28/02/13:

There is to be a second iteration of this DCC Beta.

Update 25/10/12:

For queries about getting involved (adding to the art, for example) contact Paul Joyce on paul.joyce@dublincity.ie or 012227879.

The wall has now been painted – see the below photos.

Contact DCC Beta Projects as usual with queries or comments on the general Beta itself (for example if you think it’s a good/bad idea, or changes to how it’s done, etc).

This DCC Beta is a ‘curated’ wall (a little bit similar to the way the Bridge of Peace is ‘curated’ or ‘managed’), and will be curated by Paul Joyce for the duration of this Beta…which will run until December.

Here’s a ‘joiner’ of the full wall (click on to expand)…

ORIGINAL POST: 18/10/2012

Would you like to see more walls with/for ‘art on the street’? Why, or why not?

If so, should they be ‘commissioned walls’, or ‘legal walls’ or something else? Any suggestions?

This wall is going to be painted by a group of artists over the coming few days to help start the conversation.

Parklets

We’re going to be running a Parklet Beta.

Are you aware of the idea of Parklets? Here’s also some further information on San Francisco’s Pavement To Parks initiative (thanks to David Andrews for sending on).

(Image credit to San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks programme.)

‘Equinox’ Cycle Parking

(Update 02/07/12: Now in place onstreet…cheers to Alan for the pics https://twitter.com/AlanRiain/status/219768310697426944)

So we saw recently that in Helsinki they’re starting to put extra temporary cycle-parking onto the city streets for the ‘Summer’ half of the year (when more people cycle).

This got us thinking about a Beta, so we’re going to begin to look at the idea here also.

Should Street Corner Signs Also Sing and Dance?

There are many corners in the city without street signs, and you’ll frequently spot tourists, map-in-hand, trying to figure out where they are. This got us thinking about street corner signs!

What would we like street corner signs to do? What could they be doing for us? Will they shortly be redundant – because of smartphones, for example?

View Larger Map

Beta 2 – Selecting the artwork for Beta 1

Just getting some free time to blog this now (thanks again to everyone who came along!) and let you know how the artworks were selected for the Traffic Light Box Artwork Beta.

On a Friday in early May, from 10:30-12:00 a group met (it was by open invitation to anyone who had submitted an artwork and generally to the public via the blog, facebook and twitter) to have an informal chat about…

1. The form the traffic light box artwork Beta Project might next take (ie learn from this first version, and tweak it next time).
2. How/who should select artwork submitted and why.

The meeting was held in one of the Beta Area’s hidden gems…

What Makes a Good Traffic Light Artwork?

Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal for a Traffic Light Box Artwork!

We discussed this and we want to ask you something…

What format should the ‘selection’ process take?

Where are you? What’s the area called? Does it matter?

• What’s the importance/value in an area having a clear name?
• Are there areas of the city that are more difficult to name? For example ‘Rathmines’, or ‘Stoneybatter’ are clear enough, however many areas of the city are not so clearly defined.
• How should we better define them? Should it be ‘hard’ items such as street lights, street-name signs, etc…or should it be ‘soft’ items such as street feasts, or celebrations of each area?
• Who/how should decide on the name (if no clear one already seems to exist)? For example, the Beta Area doesn’t seem to have a clear name in people’s heads (people refer to it as “that area just off Capel Street” or “Smithfield”). Would you agree? How should it get that clear name?
• Should they be ‘quarters’, or ‘areas’, or ‘neighbourhoods’, or some other title?
• Should they have any role other than place-making…ie should they simply give you a sense of where you are/live/work, or should they also have a political or strategic function?

Traffic Light Box Artworks – 1 / 11 / 111

1 Identity / 11 Boxes / 111 Euro

As the very first Beta Project, we are making 11 traffic light boxes (in the ‘Beta Area’) available for street artworks, and we’re looking for people to submit designs for them!

UPDATE 26/04/12: Please submit until Wednesday 2nd May (we’ll be printing out on the Thursday morning)…and see this blog post!

(UPDATE 17/04/12: We didn’t receive 11 submissions, so if you wish to, please send on your proposal. We’ll update this blog once we arrange a date for selecting them, and if you want to send us an email to betaprojects@dublincity.ie we can specifically send you an email beforehand.)

Here’s an example of the type of thing that we’re talking about. This one is by Tarsila Kruse, and it’s at Christchurch.