S*PARK — Nature, People, Cities for London Design Festival

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.
R. Buckminster Fuller
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London covers more than 1,500 square kilometres, an area about the size of Surrey or South Yorkshire. More than 13,000 species, including humans, inhabit 3,000 parks, 30,000 allotments, three million gardens and two National Nature Reserves. Overall, 47% of London is green space, and 60% is classified as open space. Through a series of eco-social design interventions S*PARK seeks to challenge perspectives on how we see, inhabit and interact within a city environment and asks us to think ‘feral’ as we imagine a wilder London.
By rethinking the distinction between people, nature, cities and their symbiotic relationship, S*PARK proposes a new way of navigating landscape by focusing on the rapid change affecting Elephant & Castle. Home to London’s largest new green space in 70 years, S*PARK has created a series of activations and participatory public interventions in Elephant Park, explored and documented in this exhibition as part of the London Design Festival.
With experiment in mind, LCC alumni Jack Warne was commissioned to test synesthetic experience in two London locations: the urban, concrete Battersea Power Station site and rural Hyde Park. These sound drawings turned into 3D maps with analogue/digital generative synthesis reveal that being in a more natural environment influences human experience.

This evening sees the opening of Uncertainty Playground at London College of Communication, as part of the London Design Festival.
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We are always challenging our Diploma in Professional Studies cohort to embed themselves in the real debates and contexts that surround a design practice. S*PARK is a exploration of how design can effect and reimagine the human relationship with nature and the urban environment and features work from DPS students and staff. S*PARK explores eco-social futures and imagination through community and collaborative research practices that highlight the value of a green environment in urban life and the role that education can play in a fast changing local landscape.

​Design has an increasingly important role to play in material, social and economic change. This exhibition and series of events explores the emerging role of practice-based design research in proposing and imagining futures.
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S*PARK presents design research, lead by DPS Course Director Sarah Temple, in a series of public and collaborative design interventions and activities, both in LCC and the green spaces of Elephant and Castle. This initiative uses sensory, human-centred design practices and proposes environmentally-sustainable and socially-responsive approaches that enrich human experiences. This exhibition and surrounding events will contribute to the work of Conscientious Communicators Research Hub which is a cross-disciplinary community established to develop practice-based research around environmental and social creativity.

Uncertainty Playground 
16th September — 20th October
London College of Communication
A full listing of the exhibition and events can be found here.