Participatory Visual Methods for Community Well-being: The “Psychology loves Porta Capuana” project

Blog post written by Caterina Arcidiacono for the article by Caterina Arcidiacono, Daria Grimaldi, Salvatore Di Martino, and Fortuna Procentese

The “I love Porta Capuana” project was carried out with the purpose of setting Porta Capuana’s surrounding area as part of the future urban planning projects of the city of Naples. This is, in fact, an area that surrounds an ancient gateway used in the past to separate the city of Naples from the countryside. This is a place that once used to be a vibrant site of art and beauty, yet today unfortunately stands out as a degraded and alienated area. Although Porta Capuana still boasts a long-lasting heritage of art and architecture as well as a well-established tradition of trading and cuisine, tourists still tend to stay clear from the area, preferring to head towards the better tended old Centre of Naples.

With this project we introduce a particular use of participatory visual methods – along with an array of other tools (i.e. SWOT analysis, interviews, community walkabout, flash mob etc.) – all aimed at building dialogue between the local associations, inhabitants, researchers, and authorities.

In this case, the combined and interactive use of visual tools such as photos, movies, and short videos like this one or others found here, as well as social networks (i.e facebook), helped to interpret the needs of the local people of Porta Capuana and strongly supported the shared social actions for the urban regeneration of the area.

IlovePortaCapuana

You can access this article for free for the next 30 days starting January 12 by using THIS LINK.

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