Place as Protagonist explores memories and place in the city through two modes of storytelling: online map-based community engagement platform CrowdSpot, and a storytelling event that brings a mix of voices together with a prompt to share a story about a time when the city made them laugh or cry.

So many places in Melbourne hold significant memories for different people, and bring a richness and nuance to Melbourne’s public spaces and landscapes—our rivers, creeks, buildings, streets and parks. Sharing stories not only allows us to understand the city through a different perspective, but can provide a guide to how the city can embody the stories of its community over time.

Share your story on CrowdSpot in the month prior to the storytelling event, and come along to the event and hear a mix of storytellers share their stories through a medium that speaks to them, whether that’s spoken word, song, sound or dance.

Collaborators:

Urban Design Forum is a non-profit organisation that supports public interest outcomes in cities, with firm belief in the role that cities can play in solving the major challenges of our time. The Forum itself has three roles: creating a supportive network of urban designers and allied professionals, sharing knowledge on best practice urbanism, and researching and advocating for better urban education, systems and outcomes.

CrowdSpot is an award-winning, Melbourne-based digital consultancy specialising in map-based community engagement and data collection. Their mission is to help create quality spaces in a social, inclusive and engaging process. They do this by connecting decision-makers with targeted community groups through the use of online map-based social survey tools.

Dr Michael Trudgeon is a founding design director at Crowd Productions, a Melbourne based design studio, incorporated in 1983. His practice focus is on developing immersive spatial strategies to prototype new design solutions for commercial architecture projects and product service systems. The practice has completed many built projects including national roll-outs of cinema complexes, financial services networks and exhibition installations. He is a professor of design in the School of Design at RMIT University and co-ordinator of the Master Of Design Innovation and Technology Major Project program. He has he taught into the Masters of Architecture design program in Melbourne and overseas.

Joy Zhou is a transdisciplinary artist and design practitioner based in Naarm/Melbourne whose practice draws on embodied experiences to communicate complex intersectional relations. Expanding on their background in interior design, Joy works with immediate contexts. They often interrogate norms with queering gestures and aim to amplify unnoticed existence within everyday life.