Walking Doods
the problem
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Salem was experiencing an influx of people walking in its public spaces. But the city's historic sidewalk infrastructure was narrow, uneven, and disconnected, making it a challenge to provide safe distances for these new pedestrian patterns. As a temporary measure, the city extended its walking paths into the adjacent streets through the use of orange construction bollards and few easy-to-miss signs.
The Project
This project was conceived and executed by Creative Blocks, an experiential design studio founded by me and creative partner Lauren Smedley, as part of a year-long artist residency with the City of Salem. Turning a piece of public land once used for the parking and movement of vehicles into a safe haven for pedestrians takes more than a few bollards of demarcation. A more earnest invitation would need to be added in order to activate the space for its new function.
Responsibilities
- Walked along these newly installed pedestrian zones to gain first-hand experience
- Observed the movements of residents during multiple times of the day, on both weekdays and weekends.
- Fabricated original stencils and installed the decals using spray chalk
- Checked on the usage and interaction daily
the solution
To increase awareness of the extended footpaths, "walking man" decals were added to the street surface through the use of laser-cut stencils and spray chalk. Using common sidewalk chalk, we doodled on many of these decals to add a bit of Salem character to them, transforming uniform traffic pictograms into monsters, witches, and halloween costumes. Some were left blank except for a enticing "Draw on me" speech bubble, inviting residents to take ownership in these new facilities and turning the streets back into places of play.
the results
Public adoption was swift with every blank decal being customized by residents. Some were light-hearted and fun, some took the opportunity to protest police violence against people of color. The "walking doods" were also praised publicly by city leaders via social media.