Culturability: Exploring Visaginas City Identity – participatory approach (NCM)

Project title: Visaginas: Participatory Approaches Toward Developing the Identity of the City

Partners: Danish Cultural Institute (Leader), City of Pori, Culturability network, Laboratory for Urban Games and Research Laimikis.lt

Every consortium partner explored the local cultural resources and the existing networks of cultural actors in the chosen areas. Based on materials collected during participatory research, Laimikis.lt team developed a grid-based set for visual communication of Visaginas, drawing upon the identified characteristics of the city, its chromatic identity and distinctive recognizable city element. Invited Visaginas-based curator: Oksana Denisenko.

Activities:
The activities within this project were developed in cooperation with the local cultural operator Oksana Denisenko, who was our guide to the local context and network of actors. Together, we conducted:
• photo-walk with the residents, exploring urban elements essential for the local identity;
• seminars with the local cultural actors, identifying essential characteristics of the place’s identity (SWOT);
• cooperation with local designers to build a set for visual identity and communication of the city based on the identified characteristics and features.

Results:
• Series of interviews with Visaginas cultural actors;
• Set for facilitating discussions on the identity of the place and SWOT;
• Mapped challenges, characteristics and elements of Visaginas essential to the identity of the place;
• A grid for visual identity and communication of Visaginas based on the features identified during the project activities.

Archive:
• Photo-walk: https://laimikis.lt/visaginas-photowalk/
• Architectural elements as elements for the local identity: animated;
• Interviews with the local cultural actors who contribute to the identity of Visaginas;
• ID show-case: https://www.behance.net/gallery/60156115/VISAGINAS-grid-based-visual-identity

Further outcomes: Based on the visual grid developed by the Laimikis team, in the next several years, the Visaginas team of the Urban Cultural Planning group created and installed a series of concrete art objects commemorating the typical architectural elements of the city. The visual grid is going to be used for the communication of Visaginas City Museum, which is a process. The research conducted within this project was a preparation step for the Urban Cultural Planning project in 2019-2021.

Supported by: Nordic Council of Ministers
Year: 2017