Maps, models and prototypes help us to understand risk. Over the course of the UR Field Lab, participants also worked to develop outputs around a related problem: communicating risk. The month of June saw groups working on flood risk communication using video interviews and oral histories, information ecosystem maps, and facilitated dialogue and serious games.
Flood oral histories and video interviews
Over the month, participants worked to film and conduct interviews with flood-affected residents of Chiang Mai to provide a space for them to tell their stories. These interviews ranged from hour-long oral history interviews mapping the life courses of flood-affected residents to video interviews filmed on-site with residents describing the process of recovery.
Information ecosystem mapping (IEM) with Resurgence
During the field lab, participants from the Resurgence Urban Resilience Trust (resurgence.io) led a working group around information ecosystem mapping (IEM) for floods in Chiang Mai. They developed an IEM with the Nong Hoi community in Chiang Mai city by conducting interviews with residents, meeting with local organizations and identifying the needs of disaster managers.
Click here for more information on the IEM project
Facilitated dialogue and serious games with CMU SPP
Risk can be, and often is, communicated in many ways: through interventions like film and art, through maps and information products, through direct warning systems, and more. But dialogue and games allow communicators direct access to a precious part of the communication process: the direct participation and engagement of their audience, and the opportunity to watch the audience grapple with their values, beliefs and ideas in real time.
Our friends and collaborators from the Chiang Mai University School of Public Policy created a facilitated dialogue table to allow exhibition visitors to discuss contemporary urban issues – including flooding – while also providing the context of the ‘Living with Water’ exhibition to animate that conversation. They also developed a ‘serious game’ on haze and pollution issues in the city.