The University for Creative Careers 2011

BIO PHILOSOPHY

In today’s knowledge based economy, the complexity of decision making in cultural planning and policy requires innovative tool capable of linking contents related to culture, place and economic development. This study explores how the strategic use of culture can lead to rediscovering the cultural and social wealth of places. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of participatory cultural mapping as an ethnographic research tool to capture the complex elements surrounding cultural resources in a community. The study also aims to design a digital prototype that demonstrates a practical application of cultural mapping. It is expected that the results will offer deeper and fresh insights into the diversity of community’s cultural assets which can be spatially mapped to show how resources are distributed, where they are clustered and where there are gaps.

Cultural mapping is a process that honors people’s knowledge and shared experience. It is designed for those who are involved with or interested in community cultural development. It will therefore be of primary interest to planning professionals, cultural workers, and community development workers. Participatory cultural mapping offers the opportunity to develop visual representations of the tangible and intangible benefits of cultural resources. This will be accomplished through a series of mapping techniques focusing on identifying and documenting local cultural resources. Unlike the cultural inventory method, which mainly focuses on quantitative data, the proposed method combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies which in turn offer a deeper insight into diversity, history and identity of the community.

1. How does participatory mapping methods serve to contribute to more comprehensive understanding of the complexity surrounding cultural resources?

2. How is participatory cultural mapping valuable in identifying, classifying and analyzing a community’s cultural resources?

3. How can the visual representation of cultural resources identify needs, clusters and gaps for community planners?

Answering these questions will be the basis for a more general discussion on how to leverage the tangible and the intangible elements of community’s cultural resources to achieve strategic development objectives. The scope of discussion will focus on how a broad understanding of culture can translate into greater possibilities for sustainable social and economic development.

The project was guided by the following objectives:

1. To establish baseline of information on cultural resources at Dalton and to complete initial analysis of these findings;

2. To establish recommendation for a long term vision and potential opportunities for the development of culture;

Project deliverables and outcomes:

1. Cultural plan including community’s cultural vision with comprehensive strategies, goals and objectives.

2. Conceptual Captology Model of a digital platform that demonstrates a practical application of cultural mapping.

Exploring the Use of Cultural Mapping

Value Proposition

Research Questions

Case Study: The City of Dalton

Saad Aqeel Alzarooni is a perfectionist yet pragmatic in everything he does. His introverted intuition makes him an idea and visionary person. He is passionate about participatory design and ethnographic research. He blends his educational background in development and social administration to feed into his design solutions. Saad’s goal is to help individuals, groups, and communities visualize their assets and guide them to realize their goals. He is all about truing soft data into strategic insights for emotional, process, and functional innovations.

I trust that the world of design is one full ofopportunities and challenge. Design Management is a rewarding profession requiring design thinking and creativity. I am a passionate design strategist who believes in the contributions of design management and strategy in community and cultural planning. I believe in the democratization of culture and the importance of public and community involvement in decision making. This is a profession in which I can shine, thoroughly enjoy, and impact society.

MFA DESIGN MANAGEMENTSAAD A. ALZROONI

Map B4U Plan : Cultural Mapping

Resource Mapping

“Tangibles”

Ident i ty Mapping

“Intangibles”

Quant i tat iveMethod

Qual i tat iveMethod

CulturalMapping