Chatty Bench Project: Radical Media Architecture during COVID-19 Pandemic

Chatty Bench Project (CBP) is a radical media architecture where Kelvin Grove Urban Village (KGUV) community members developed place-based digital stories during the COVID-19 pandemic. The situated digital stories are built in the DIY ethos [1] and is a case of Radical Placemaking where marginalised communities engage in critical, creative and hybrid placemaking methods to advocate for social justice. The project aimed at tackling social isolation experienced in the project prior to and during the pandemic. The project involved 16 KGUV storytellers of KGUV in participatory workshops on storytelling and digital technology to enable the creation of situated digital stories and can be experienced in the landscape of KGUV. The project ran from July-October 2020 on online platforms of Google Classroom, Zoom and Hubs by Mozilla and ended with two exhibitions: one in the virtual environment of Mozilla Hubs and in a face-to-face community barbecue. Next steps in the project include the planning of the community festival Chatty Bench Festival based on the project and the creation of a Radical Placemaking toolkit for community organizations to create similar interventions.