I don’t want to get militant about it (or maybe I should) but I have heard that they are building yet more houses on the only bit of clear land left at the end of my street! So now we’ll be totally hemmed in by houses. We already get powercuts and dodgy water pressure as it is; I suppose we can expect more.
It brought up the feeling of powerlessness we as community members have; where are these decisions made and why am I not being informed of these changes to the end of my street, when it blatantly affects me? I will find out.
This is relevant to my MSc project, I assure you (!), in terms of how we grab control back from these mysterious council planning departments who seem to grant permission to alter our communities; thus altering our future. I’ll capture how it changes over time and keep uploading the photos to flickr.
If you were a council, what would you do, encourage a greenspace with a communal garden or build even more expensive homes that will bring in council tax? Where’s the environmental responsibility of housebuilders here? We got a playpark (woo hoo) and a kickpitch is supposed to be going in near this site I mentioned above. Let’s bet on the fact that the houses will be up way before the kickpitch; a bigger priority apparently.
Oh can you tell how angry I am.
Filed under: Photography
I went for a morning walk to buy some newspapers and on the way back decided to capture my journey through the bit of Greenhill that I live in. I was a bit shocked at how messy and boggy this place is. I often look down into the burn (that eventually leads into the Forth and Clyde Canal) and see debris in it, and today was no exception: there were some children’s toys and even part of a brick wall!
Anyway, I uploaded my “photography” to my flickr page. You can view them as a slide show, and also read a bit of information on each. Click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilliancowell/ and click on Greenhill Photos: Batch I. I also mapped them on flickr’s geomap facility so you can see exactly where they were taken. Plus, there’s a quicklink to my photos on the left of this blog.
They show an area very much in transition, a community taking shape. I can’t say I’m delighted with the vast greenbelt that has been systematically destroyed to make way for homes that are getting more and more expensive. However, research has shown that diverse communities are the ones more likely to survive. But I’m saddened by the dumping and the litter lying around. It got me to thinking who is responsible for the area we live in? Us, that’s who. I love living in Greenhill and I’m interested to know where it’s going. What kind of community we will make it (because we’re responsible for doing just that); after all, it’s growing and changing before our very eyes.
…..You Lose Sixty Seconds of Happiness
by Julian Germain. It’s a lovely photography book, a portrait of an elderly gentleman told through original photographs. It’s very emotional to read and captures his life in so many emotive visuals. For those of us with non-digital cameras and who still like to stick our photographs into those psychedelic cloth-bound books with the static clear covers on the photos, this book is very welcome!
The point of this post (incase it’s not clear!) is that we are so focused on technology that often printed representations of our lives are so much more precious, often have a bigger impact and can be instantly passed around to friends and relatives when you are together; quicker than a web page or photograph blog. OK so it’s easy to turn on your laptop and pass that around but you get my meaning……..
There is an increasing emphasis in policy on using technologies to create meaningful learning projects; we need to be careful that we don’t exclude. If we’re obsessed with inclusive and engaging learning experiences then we need to respect the limitations and boundaries of technologies when used in a community setting. My project aims to test to what extent technologies are chosen over traditional means in capturing Greenhill as a physical space in which people live and engage with each other.
