Flash Communities

Jeff Nordberg
This exhibit addresses issues of permanence and the development of urbanism in the context of the public realm. The focus of the study is on the individuals in the community creating the urban typology of "shantytowns" and temporary architecture. The individuals in these Flash Communities function as architect, developer, landscape architect, and planner. These haphazard, improvised developments reflect the importance of the individual in the creation of a context for the human experience. The exhibit highlights the formation, occupation, and destruction of these settlements. Focusing specifically on scale, spatial implications, temporal existence, environmental impacts, and communal interaction on the global and local levels. Equally important to the impact and influence of the individual on an improvised community is the reciprocal impact of the community on the individual. The exhibit attacks the assumption that decentralized dwelling is confined to the developing world. The idea of a shantytown, or slum development, is often seen through a pessimistic and negative lens. The exhibition of further information and understanding of these towns as public urban institutions creates a potential dialogue and appreciation for the urban values of these towns. There can potentially be as many solutions found in Flash Communities as problems highlighted.
The installation of these ideas is mainly through photographic evidence and understanding of Flash Communities. The installation is one of complete immersion and interaction for the visitor. The aim of the exhibit is to place the visitor within the context of this unique urban typology. In this exhibit the visitor becomes less of an onlooker and much more a user of the space. The human experience of the shantytown is at the center of its urban development and must be equally translated as the center of the exhibition experience. The photographs and other visual elements that define the space reflect upon the qualities of the improvised communities themselves, relating directly to the ideas of scale, space, time, environment, and community. The visitor will at once understand their relation to these communities on a personal, almost primitive level, as well as at the global level. The exhibition's focus on the more globally recognized and lesser known local examples of Flash Communities will create a more full picture of the values found in these towns and spaces.