The ‘About Time’ approach was designed to foster dialogue between the Municipality of Bolzano and people waiting in public spaces. The aim is to create playful spaces to spark conversation between strangers and discuss desired changes. The platform empowers individuals to directly express their opinions to policymakers in discussions at eye level. Students of the Master’s in Eco-Social Design (University of Bozen-Bolzano) designed the methodology in an effort to foster more participatory and democratic decision-making.
As a first experiment, one bus stop at Piazza Domenicani was “decorated” with previously designed paper interventions. A clearly visible and scannable QR code led participants to a survey about time and made it possible to analyse the fuctionality of the experiment’s design. The first half of the survey consisted of quantitative multiple-choice questions, while the last three questions were open. Combined, they gave us insight into how people in Bolzano’s public space experience waiting time, their ideas on the possibility of reclaiming ownership of such time, and other topics they think about during waiting times. This last aspect proved to be more interesting than expected. After completing design of the survey and various improvements to the design of the paper interventions, a second round of interventions focused once again on Piazza Domenicani. Intrigued by the concept of a “confession board” on public participation, we placed a blackboard at the bus stop in combination with the paper interventions.
To give back some insights to bus stop participants, we designed a final intervention combining playfulness and relaxation – participants’ most frequently cited suggestions to improve waiting times. The result was a large, wheel-shaped installation inviting participants to interact playfully on one side and reflect on the prompt “It’s about time to…” on the other. The “confession board” style was applied again to give non-participating bystanders the chance to read participants’ answers.
The final intervention was a chance to reiterate the method developed to test a more participatory democratic process. The aim was maximum participation in the discussion with minimal means. Active participation in the public realm can help plant the seeds of civic engagement.
