What might we expect to learn about a famous person from visiting a place named after them? Is naming an urban place simply an act of commemoration, or should such locations be enhanced through educational resources tell us more? Inspired by initial discussions with the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa, the Memorialising Mandela in the Metropolis project highlights the synthesis of cultural heritage and graphic form through concentration on places named after Nelson Mandela.
The following two projects are featured below, providing insight into the development of an exploratory hypothesis to establish what we learn from places named after Nelson Mandela through graphic heritage.
1. Named after Nelson: Learning from places named after Nelson Mandela through graphic heritage.
2. Mandela placemaking through graphic heritage.
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1. Named after Nelson: Learning from places named after Nelson Mandela through graphic heritage.
Funding Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) · Start 01/10/2023 · Duration 15 months · Total award £70,213
Overview
What might we expect to learn about a person through visiting a place named after them? This question has occupied design researchers at Loughborough University since 2021 and has been explored in locations associated with Nelson Mandela. Most recently this has been in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation on the project Named after Nelson: Learning from places named after Nelson Mandela through Graphic Heritage [NaN].
For an account of the project’s early development browse the booklet immediately below.
Watch this short film of the Named after Nelson: Exhibition build, installation, and opening.
Workshop participants explore the exhibition.
Detail from NaN exhibition panel.
Visit the project website →
Download photographs from the Named after Nelson archive →
Watch television broadcast about the project →
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2. Mandela placemaking through graphic heritage.
Funding GCRF Additional Funds · Start 01/04/2022 · Duration 12 months · Total award £35,000
Overview
Watch this short film of the Placemaking through Mandela’s graphic heritage project.
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Events
Exploring Madiba’s Graphic Heritage, Workshop, 2 March 2023, Johannesburg, South Africa
Invitation to heritage practitioners (©Nelson Mandela Foundation 2023)
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Read more about Exploring Madiba’s Graphic Heritage workshop in the Information Pack below https://issuu.com/marketing-web/docs/exploring_madiba_s_graphic_heritage Download Exploring Madiba’s Graphic Heritage Information Pack as PDF → + + + Zandile Miyeka presents the Nelson Mandela Foundation Archive (Photography: ©Nelson Mandela Foundation 2023)
I have learned a lot about place naming, graphic heritage, including many other subjects […] and came to the realisation that archives and graphic heritage are linked.
Zandile Miyeka, Archivist: Metadata and Archiving, Nelson Mandela Foundation
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Ilsé Assman in conversation with Nkululeko Mthembu at the workshop. (Photography: ©Nelson Mandela Foundation 2023)
Graphic heritage has opened a new world to me – fascinating!
Ilsé Assmann, Apricity Consulting, Johannesburg
Graphic heritage has challenged the delivery of some of these institutions.
Nkululeko Mthembu, Director, Pista Ventures, Cape Town
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Delegates gathered at Nelson Mandela Foundation to explore graphic heritage from several perspectives that included toponymy, graphic images, digital design, cultural heritage, place-making, archival practice, intellectual property, and copyright. (Photography: ©Nelson Mandela Foundation 2023)
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Engagement with Creative Industry practitioners
Watch this short video of the Placemaking through Mandela’s graphic heritage: The UX Sprint of the Umsuka Platform account of developing a digital prototype UX Sprint sessions.
Download the video here →
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Publications
Journal paper
Harland, R. G., Burger, Y., Barnes, A. and Burger, E. A. (2022) “Memorialising Madiba in South Africa: The Role of Graphic Heritage and Toponymy in two Contrasting Urban Places”, The Journal of Public Space, 7(1), pp. 17-36. doi: 10.32891/jps.v7i1.1571.
Conference paper proceedings
Harland, R.G., Burger, Y., & Burger, E.A. (2023) ‘Notes on public places in Madiba’s memory: Using archival resources for graphic heritage interventions in urban development’. AMPS Proceedings Series.
Harland, R.G., Barnes, A., Burger, Y. (2022). The Absence of Graphic Representations of Madiba in Nelson Mandela Park, Mamelodi, South Africa. In: Bruyns, G., Wei, H. (eds) [ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes. IASDR 2021. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7_193 https://youtu.be/u4_an6JjYvU
De Menezes Migliari, M., Harland, R.G. (2022). Making Praça Nelson Mandela: Morphological Change and Graphic Interventions to Define a New Square in the Botafogo District of Rio de Janeiro. In: Bruyns, G., Wei, H. (eds) [ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes. IASDR 2021. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7_120
The research extends the Newton Fund Repositioning Graphic Heritage project, which established how town and cityscapes are dense in graphic heritage, often triggering diverse memories and meanings in as many forms as there are people.
