Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures
Abstract
Since the early 1980s, Nelson Mandela (or Madiba) has been commemorated all over the world through places named after him. An early example in the United Kingdom is Nelson Mandela Park in the city of Leicester, an urban public park that was renamed in his honour in 1986. The park is situated in a unique mixed-land use area that includes residential housing, a public hospital, the local prison, institutions for higher education, hotels, and a large sports stadium. This paper traces past and present representations of Mandela in the park to explore the role of graphic heritage in celebrating his legacy as a case study. The site allows for opportunities, exploration, and speculation about future graphic interventions as the area is redeveloped to meet the emerging needs of the city. The research methodology uses the public archive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa as a creative resource to provide insight into how graphic heritage interventions of the past and present may enhance future tributes to Mandela in public places, using the park as an example. This is achieved through a multi-disciplinary approach to photo-documenting the park, conducting additional historical research into the park with Leicester City Council, initiating exploratory discussions with Nelson Mandela Foundation that includes a scoping study visit to the foundations’ archive. The findings envision design guidelines for future graphic heritage interventions to enhance the association with public places named in Mandela’s honour as well as to provide insight into the intrinsic collaboration process between stakeholders.
Dr Yolandi Burger is a Research Fellow at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. She is a native South African who grew up in the Free State region of the country. She holds a PhD in Higher Education Studies from the University of the Free State together with a Master’s degree in Design. Her research interests include the exploration of urban places and spaces through the lens of urban graphic heritage and the ever-changing role of creative designers and the resulting impact this has on research, pedagogy, ecology, and sustainability.
Dr Robert Harland is a Reader in Urban Graphic Heritage at Loughborough University in the UK. His research explores how urban environments function through their graphic objects, explored through the lens of graphic design as urban design. Most recently this perspective has been applied to how cities and urban places communicate through heritage interpretation. Since 2018 he has led the Urbanism theme for Loughborough’s Built Environment Beacon and before then was one of the founding members of the interdisciplinary Leicester Urban Observatory. He is regularly invited to give lectures and undertake peer reviews for leading design research journals and publishers.
Dr Everardt Burger is a Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Tshwane University of Technology. He holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of the Free State together with a master degree in Civil Engineering. His research interests include urban design and planning, smart cities, and human-centered transportation.
2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Friday 2nd December, 2022