Thesis excerpt

A creative and tactile entry point to conversations and rumination around decentralisation and decolonisation of the neighbourhood and other proximate networks within the urban context through the metamorphosis of ‘waste’ Generous Waste as a methodology is the metamorphosis of urban imaginaries or narratives to reshape perceptions of ‘waste’ from inevitably to-be-discarded and to-be-forgotten materials into regenerative and generous material cultures that seek to trigger, celebrate and make accessible the capacity to create new urban imaginaries. Using the transformation of waste as an entry point to the explorations of global supply chains and how we can translate them on neighbourhood scales- it becomes a tactile, nondoctrinal and creative entry point to conversations around climate change and the decolonisation and decentralisation of neighbourhoods and other hyper proximate networks in a way that offers different levels of engagement to participants.

‘As an artist, as a filmmaker, as a city dweller, as the fruit of colonialism/slavery/immigration, as a student, as a woman and the list I find is exhaustive. What is my positionality within the city or what is my positionality within my practice? I cannot at present claim to know the answer but here is an attempt at unravelling what R D Laing would call, ‘The Knots’.’ (Carberry, 2020)

MA Cities began with an exploration of how from within less defined practices the city is voices from a unique set of interwoven experiences and positionalities within the world. This thesis, and its development is an act of returning to the stark focus with how urban scale is engaged with through a practice that has grown increasingly specific and focused. However, now the focus is not simply on the voice behind this practice, but on how practice becomes a space and platform where urban dwellers can themselves voice and reimagine their city in creative and innovative ways. Before continuing we should look at a definition of what the city is from unit 4’s submission ‘ A Game of Empathy’

‘The city as an ever-changing organism that is constructed of layers and layers of history, needs, planning’ (Carberry, 2021)

This definition presents the city as a living, complex and incredibly nuanced organism. Taking urban dwellers on a journey to becoming comfortable with imagining within the complexity, the messiness of city or placemaking itself is central to the practice that foregrounds this thesis. The mind map in fig. 2 on the previous page was an early and still blurry exploration of the thematic connections within the theoretical framework being narrowed down from a sea of potentiality and connections that have been made throughout this very multidisciplinary MA and acts as an invitation to join a journey of what the process behind becoming specific enough to create a space where other can imagine looks like. We explore this whilst simultaneously engaging with the multiple scales of application of Generous Waste within the urban context. In fig 3 we see a screenshot of a transcript of a gamified audio walk that began the exploration of creating spaces where, though less explicitly, imagination in the process of city making is facilitated. The reflection would be harnessed by the local council to shape a more inclusive city. The difference between this game design and GW is that the latter seeks to be a space where decentralised futures can be explored that offer agency and a direct and tactile way of engaging with your local neighbourhood via the reimagining of waste rather than by proxy of a centralised local council.