Conference Agenda

Coastliners Lab is a trans-media critical mapping practice that focuses on the border conditions of bodies of water and how they shape socio-material processes of human and environmental relations in urban and extra-urban settings. The lab works with a deep cartographic layering of aerial photographs, historical maps, news reports, video footage, field notes, interviews, and more to explore embodied map-making methods that define new roles for design toward spatial justice. It highlights agencies and political ecologies underlying the contested anthropogenic impacts on the margins of transforming landscapes. Istanbul’s political and ecological struggles with the surrounding bodies of water have been the birthplace of the lab. This paper will introduce the initial context of Istanbul, theories, cartographic experiments, and ongoing practices of the Lab to discuss emergent mapping methodologies as a design medium to engage with spatial justice.

This paper explores spatial justice in urban environments through immersive art and design, focusing on Amsterdam and Houston. It presents a case study from the Venice Biennale 2023, showcasing art's potential in fostering inclusive urban spaces. The study delves into the socio-political complexities of urban areas, highlighting often-ignored liminal spaces and their tensions and possibilities. Immersive art emerges as a transformative medium, capable of challenging and reshaping perceptions of space and addressing systemic socio-economic disparities. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach, the research combines insights from various fields to enrich discussions on spatial justice and inspire urban transformation. By examining liminal spaces and the 'phygital' nexus, the paper challenges conventional urban narratives and advocates for more inclusive and equitable urban strategies.

The topic of spatial justice offers a good platform to examine socio-economic imbalances that still exist in some Boston neighborhoods, such as Roxbury, which has a history of underdevelopment, redlining, food insecurity, and other socio-economic challenges. It also presents a chance for the execution and examination of community-led projects and initiatives that can show how locally owned projects can strengthen community ownership, underpin the preservation of cultural heritage and identity, and offer fresh examples of social participation in community development.

The Black Panther Commemoration Installation at the Winthrop Gardens in Roxbury, which was conceptualized and created through the local community social participation, will be the subject of this case study's critical analysis. The author, students at Northeastern University, local fabricators, community neighborhood association, local municipal funders and nonprofit organizations collaborated to create the Winthrop Garden installation, which celebrates the work of the Black Panthers of the Boston chapter.

Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, is a quintessential colonial city. However, in the land colonial settlers called Australia, colonialism demeaned notions of Country in a physically and politically contested space. New approaches have been called for to reconsider Australia as a shared space that places high value on indigenous identity. From within a context that challenges us to think about how Country and culture might be envisioned, designed, planned, and implemented, this paper reports on a hypothesis about how the concept of graphic heritage can be applied to enhance sustainable development in this South Australian setting. Building on recommendations from a collaboration between academic research with the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO, the imprecise relationship between heritage interpretation, presentation, and representation is exposed to reveal how graphic heritage can function as an enabling tool for disparate partners to provide a focus for discussion and joint purpose.

The preservation of minority heritage through language is widely recognised as an important means for safeguarding ethnic identity within multicultural settings. This paper investigates the visibility of "heritage language" through the lens of graphic heritage within the distinctive ethnic enclave of London's Chinatown. Located in the City of Westminster, Chinese identity is officially designated on street nameplates that demarcate geographic boundaries as well as depict a shift in the cultural influence of this migrant community. In this study, the visual analysis of 209 retail signs displays 313 instances of language. The research findings indicate the extent of retention of heritage languages within the area, providing the basis for a case study that maps the linguistic codes and spatial distribution of graphic devices. From this, new insights are gained into the design literacy of Chinese migrants in London to provide a framework for thinking about how Chinese ‘designscapes’ have developed worldwide.