Rural Experiential
I recently spoke at a summit called Radically Rural. To quote their mission:
“Radically Rural builds sustainability and success for rural life and places by building a network that connects people to each other and to new ideas”.
Creatives from across design industries brought various ideas to the table, and I though I could share a version of my talk here for everybody, because there is some nice insight here that I would love to see flourish.
I’m Layne, and I help lead the creative at ESI Design, the Experiential practice at NBBJ– and this is some of our work (I showed a sizzle real here, but you can go to our site). As you can see, it’s wonderful; but you may be asking yourself- how does this apply to main street USA? It’s pretty high-end.
Let’s look at another piece of experiential work I did a few years ago for Levi’s.
Station to Station was a cross country “happening” that engaged and challenged artists like David Bowie, Patti Smith, and “regular people” to collaborate and create. These artists could get on or off a vintage train at any iconic city in its USA travels. Evoking the spirit of pioneers and artists that used trains for travel and inspiration, I reimagined actual creative tools that were used on these trains into IoT-enabled tools that could capture new art & share globally.
So when we think about Main Street USA, I believe the right layer of experiential design is somewhere in-between the high-end work you saw from ESI earlier and this project.
A Memory
I want you do something for me: Think about your most cherished memory with your very first friend:
how you met
going to a movie
some epic ‘Stand by Me’ story
or even how you said goodbye.
Think about how that makes you feel inside. This is the heart of Experience Design- making people feel a certain way when they enter a space by connecting them to personal memories, if even subconscious. A color, a sound, scent, a vibration- these can all do that.
Furthermore, this memory of a friend you have is personal, but everyone in this room is sharing the same thought-of this childhood memory. This to me is the second important aspect of Experience Design, Empathy- a group shared emotional connection.
This emotional awareness of yourself & empathy towards others is key to creating not only better community, but connecting a community to the rest of the world. This is what Experiential Design can add to rural communities.
Community
Today, I want to ideate on some “What Ifs” for you to ponder over today and in the future. For me, I always start with the “What If” statement because I feel like it gives me room to really explore moonshot creative. The first area I want to touch on is community.
This is a piece we did for the Statue of Liberty museum where anyone can choose what they think liberty means to them from a series of posters, photos and art. Those are all aggregated to a larger digital wall, so everyone can view and share.
I think that sentiment of sharing your thoughts & posts to a broader audience experientially, can transfer well to rural communities.
People in rural America gather and post community info at various places today: the post office, library, coffee shop, supermarket and fast food places. This is where they go to meet, get internet, and see neighbors. Can we use this idea and figure out a way to re-connect and learn about our community in both a physical and digital way?
What if we could reimagine the community cork board?
Imagine pinning up your guitar classes, local business cards, community events and even photos on a traditional looking cork board. You walk away, and those are auto-scanned in real time, and instantly reformatted for a digital experience.
These will be output in a physical space, like the community center in wonderful ways like in these images- to truly represent the energy, diversity, and pace of a community.
Climate
There are different ways experientially to showcase and teach the world about climate change.
The data could be accessed in real time, and you could see the impact you are having on your environment.
What if we highlighted climate change where it was actually happening for a change? Outdoors.
We can use clean design, data and art to showcase variations in the land in a new way- and draw public attention to small communities who are impacted by the climate daily.
Rural communities are closer to nature. I think elevating nature to design, even art, can connect people deeper to their roots. Experience like these can also connect the youth to their roots in an empathic way- reconnecting them to the land.
Next, a similar thought about showing climate data in-situ.
What if we connected locals to their environment directly through their phones?
I am not talking about an app, but virtually. Let’s keep everyone’s eyes open to their surrounding while overlaying localized data and soundwalks about their environment, town, and land. These virtual tours will take people physically from main street to farmland.
Youth
On each of the previous sections Community and Climate, I showcased images of young kids. This is important, because they are key to the lifeblood of these rural communities. We want these kids to stick around.
All of the previous “What Ifs” apply to that. They are ideas that market to youth culture in new exciting ways, that would inspire kids to dream, and most importantly to love where they are from.
Yes, I agree with most designers that maker-spaces are great for teaching kids new skills for the modern era; but you can’t “just build it, and they will come”. You need to think about the programming of these spaces.
What if we show kids that they can reuse and readjust their current environment into anything they want. What if kids could literally reclaim their town?
By taking found and up-cycled local materials, old videos, newspapers, all of it- we can create maker programs for kids that teach them about how to look at the world around you for inspiration; and in-turn create a deeper connection to it.
This is a converted church, made into an amazing contemporary art museum in Austerlitz NY, off route 22. I drove by it a few weeks ago, and I had to pull over.
It inspired me to think about all these empty buildings you see in these small towns in a new light.
Similar to youth reclaiming the materials around them in these rural communities–
What if we reclaimed our spaces?
We can show our youth how to look at their lives and location in a fresh light-to not see empty spaces as abandoned real estate; but see the culture, magic, and new life they can breathe into main street.
Lastly, we should take a page form our current playbook. There are simple ways for kids to connect across all these towns that we are already doing. By using familiar digital tools combined with any of the ideas I discussed, we can create amazing new radically rural experiences.
That was my talk, I hope you enjoyed it. And as always, reach out to me if you have any thoughts, inspirations or innovations. Bye!
