memoryidentityneighbourhoods

MEMORY, IDENTITY & NEIGHBOURHOODS – ASSESSMENT #1: READINGS

MEMORY, IDENTITY & NEIGHBOURHOODS

The two readings I chose to help develop my ideas in assessment one were Young People, Place and Identity (1st Ed.) by Peter E. Hopkins and an article published by Matt Novacevski on theconversation.com titled How to turn a housing development into a place where people feel they belong. 

The reason I chose the first title, Young People, Place and Identity, was because it takes a deep look into the study of youth and place – “this book demonstrates the complex ways in which young people creatively shape, contest and resist their engagements with different places and identities” (taken from the blurb of Hopkins, P.E [2013]. Young People, Place and Identity. [1st ed.]. London). With Point Cook being predominantly young families and youth (as mentioned in the second article), I thought the title was only fitting. Hopkins explores neighbourhoods and communities and the way young people shape their identities within these communities, which is what I hoped to do in my pieces. I wanted to show my audience how Point Cook feels more like a place, rather a space – vibrating with youthful life. How the youth help shape the identity of Point Cook and how Point Cook helps shape the identity of the youth. I feel this title will be particularly useful for me moving into assessment three (should I choose to go ahead and choose Point Cook as the subject). The title also pairs up beautifully with my quote from Alexander McCall Smith – “Regular maps have few surprises. Their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, our place, our daily world, our life: those maps of our private world we use everyday”.

The first helped shape my ideas for my poetic meditation, however the second article from Matt Novacevski on theconversation.com, How to turn a housing development into a place where people feel they belong, really helped me with my representational documentary. I was struggling to find any kind of inspiration for this half of the assessment until I found this article, and it ended up being the source of the quote I based my representational film about – “One of the most common criticisms of new and outer suburbs is that they are bland, soulless, cookie-cutter developments that lack culture and a sense of place… Point Cook’s growth is defined by detached housing, remarkable cultural diversity, many young families, work commutes, and limited public transportation infrastructure… These interactions of people, identities and place coalesce into a stronger local sense of shared identity.” I was then inspired to go ahead and show represent Point Cook for all of the things it has to create this shared identity, including the parks, community centres and shopping centres that the article boasted about. All of the wonderful things the community has to provide, that us locals fail to realise is unique to our neighbourhood.

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