Dialogical arts practice in place-making. Re:connections: a case study of Lee Bank, Birmingham

Abstract

Dialogical aesthetics is a term used by art historian and critic Grant Kester (2004) to describe a form of arts practice defined by the artist’s ability to listen and catalyse understanding. My research explores how this arts practice can be applied to the understanding of people’s emotional connections to their lived place, addressing the need to consider complex nuances of people’s place attachment within existing built environment assessment processes. This paper focuses on Re:connections, a creative place-making project that took place in summer 2017 where artists, through a dialogical approach, engaged residents in Lee Bank, Birmingham, an area that has been undergoing regeneration since 2000 and previously regarded as an area of poor quality housing and social deprivation. Re:connections provides an insight into the impact physical change has had on residents place attachment, and new knowledge regarding the value of dialogical arts practice as a tool for design professionals.