Hi! My name is Bella and this is my presentation about the development of my idea I’ve called #ActivateMelbourne. I will be running through the early stages of this project, where I pulled my ideas from and discuss further engaging ways this project can work as a media piece that combines the use of hash tagging to promote civic participation in a creative and playful way. Since Covid, the city of Melbourne and its businesses faced a crisis where foot traffic was cut to the absolute minimum. This project aims to rebuild Melbourne’s foot traffic post pandemic, and attract intimate publics to participate in exclusive activities that lead them to unknown locations.
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This project started with an influence around hashtags. Hashtags act as an essential affordance across multiple platforms that can be used as navigation, categorising and more. In Rambukkana’s article, Hashtag publics: the power and politics of discursive networks (2015), it is stated that ‘the Internet provides not only a bridge to a movement, but also acts as a method for engagement and participation by individuals who have no significant contact.’ I wanted to create a project that uses hashtag as a bridge across digital platforms and real world experience.
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Magdalena Olszanowskir argues that hashtags play a vital role in the production of intimate publics and are co-constitutive in the development and maintenance of communicative exchange on Instagram. This idea assisted my project to use Instagram as my main platform to further connect these intimate publics mentioned. Intimate publics, which is described by Lauren Berlin, are strangers who consume common texts and things together. This fuelled the idea behind my project to combine the use of hash tagging as a mechanism to promote civic participation amongst intimate publics.
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I began to ideate ways in which I could attract the public in a creative yet digital way. One space I gained influence from was Times Square in New York. Thousands of advertisements and digital mediums are spread across such a large scale that is engaged with by the public. This started my journey as #DOMelbourne. #DOMelboure began as an interactive experience where digital displays are planted across Melbourne to promote what there is to do. For example #EAT would be planted in China Town, #ARTS around the NGV.
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After presenting this idea, I took on board the feedback I received and narrowed down and researched an existing project and location that I could expand on which grounded my idea to use hashtags to activate the digital and material world. #ActivateMelbourne was born and landed in the heart of Federation Square.
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The Digital Facade is a digital display that showcases art, news, live sporting events, cultural events, animations and more. These events encourage participants to sit and watch while engaging with the screen. By using the Digital Facade, I ideated ways that further encourage foot traffic in a creative way.
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This project is an adaptation of Bennet, Wells and Freelon’s description of ‘acualizing citizenship’, which states the rise of actions using mobile media ‘that draw attention to self-expression, emotional involvement, and intrinsic motivation’. Through using the power of exclusivity and physical engagement offers as an intrinsic motivation to the publics who wish to involve themselves in the night. The project aims to encourage civic participation through the public texting a custom number that is specific to the night. #ActivateMelbourne will respond with an illusive message that leads you to an exclusive location. Small businesses around Melbourne are able to collaborate with #ActivateMelbourne which assists in helping rebuild their foot traffic. This works cohesively with assisting to rebuild the city’s economy and interest from the general public. Through word of mouth, influence and discovery can boost the way in which #ActivateMelbourne assists local businesses. After receiving the text message, users are prompted to decode the message and explore Melbourne to navigate and experience Melbourne nightlife. The text message acts as a bridge for groups, or individuals to decipher and really learn about Melbourne’s night life. The text offers enough guidance to share the street in which you’d find the location, but users are encouraged to work out the rest.
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The motivation behind this project is to rebuild the publics relationship with the city of Melbourne. Exclusivity and the interactive nature behind the project acts as a strength to build interest. During and post covid led to lots of businesses having to close their doors. Using a creative and interactive scheme offers an engaging way to explore and experience Melbourne nightlife. #ActivateMelbourne aims to answer this key concern.
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Core things to improve this project going forward is the accessibility of locations. While the target market is young adults looking to explore Melbourne, using clues only assists those who know the area well. While some may be adventurous and decode the message, some may find deciphering the code too much effort and lead to a lack of engagement on their behalf. Ways to ensure this project can be participated with by all ages could be to ensure the clues aren’t too illusive. This could involve clues leading to art and promoting the NGV or ACMI. Another concern would be the level of reach this project could attract.
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To address this, the use of content creators would collaborate with #ActivateMelbourne to further promote the project. Users in a digital space will be able to witness creators navigate their way through #ActivateMelbourne and reveal what locations and experiences they found. Jean Burgess states through incorporating creators who offer their knowledges and experiences play an important role of offering influence to an audience. Influencers have offered structural changes through the digital platform and have in turn contributed to the rise of industries, projects and popular culture (Cunningham, et al. 2021). Using their influence on growing platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok to further populate #ActivateMelbourne would benefit the engagement as a project and its collaborators greatly. The final question is, are you ready to #ActivateMelbourne?
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Collaboration was a difficult part of this semester. Being at a full time job, I found my availability to clash at some times. However, through out this semester I have found the understanding of both Larissa and the class to be extremely supportive. Presentations allow us as a class to communicate and share ideas. The step by step process of showing lower level ideas which then developed into larger scales offered growth and inspiration amongst peers. I thoroughly enjoyed the accessibility Larissa offered to help me establish ideas after class and also be able to discuss further in break out rooms with peers. Our chatroom was extremely vocal and were very kind about their feedback when asked.
I really enjoy communicating online and having the opportunity to reach out to individuals to find out about their lives as we are all based across the world. While I struggled to attend some classes, I found recordings and plenty of resources to be provided to refer back to when necessary. I appreciate everyones dedication to offering feedback and listening to me when I present. Thank you for your encouragement and for understanding my circumstances!
Ref.
CUNNINGHAM, S. et al.(2021) “Introduction.” Creator Culture: An Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment, edited by Stuart Cunningham and David Craig, NYU Press, pp. 1–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv27ftts6.4. Accessed 23 May 2022.
Glas, René, et al., editors. (2019), The Playful Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture. Amsterdam University Press, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcmxpds.
Jean, B., Baym, N. (2021) “Platform Studies.” Creator Culture: An Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment, edited by Stuart Cunningham and David Craig, NYU Press, , pp. 21–38. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv27ftts6.5.
Linke, G. (2011), ‘The Public, the Private, and the Intimate: Richard Sennett’s and Lauren Berlant’s Cultural Criticism in Dialogue’, in Biography 34, no. 1: 11–24, doi:10.1353/bio.2011.0013.
Olszanowski, M (2015), ‘The 1×1 Common: The Role of Instagram’s Hashtag in the Development and Maintenance of Feminist Exchange‘, Peter Lang Publishing, 229-242
Rambukkana, N. (2015). Hashtag publics: the power and politics of discursive networks. http://site.ebrary.com/id/11120742.
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