The Mnemonic Device workshops were designed to engage participants in a discussion about how to mark the Troubles era, a 30-year ethno-Nationalist conflict, in Belfast. Calls for participation were circulated via arts, educational and peace organizations, attracting diverse range of participants who contributed a wide range of disciplinary and life experiences to each of the four Belfast workshops. Locals in their 50’s, worked alongside teenagers and newly arrived inhabitants of the city; architects, planners, artists, writers and social workers collaborated with refugees, retirees, social workers, community leaders and neighbors to create negotiated outcomes and provide input on Drawing the Ring of Steel.

Workshops

2017 Golden Thread

Thanks to: Peter Richardson at Golden Thread Gallery; Deirdre Robb at Belfast Exposed; Amberlea Neely at Place: Built Environment Centre; partners who facilitated workshops at the University of Ulster, including Professor Paul Seawright, Director and Professor Anne Boylan Earl, studio faculty; and the Community Relations Council which kindly funded two of the workshops at Belfast Exposed Gallery in 2019.

Workshops begin with a walking tour searching for the urban archeology of the Troubles and evidence of the ring of steel. An exhibit, in the workshop space provides additional context through maps and period photographs of the city.

The design challenge is framed as “How to mark and discuss in an inclusive, engaging and thoughtful way, a contested history in the urban space it was originally experienced”? Initial steps rely on teaching using a co-design approach, leading the group through a critical analysis of the project space, its buildings, infrastructural elements and existent public art. This provides a stepping stone to the second phase of the workshop, reliant on participatory methods to structure a collaborative design process leading to the origination and visualization of proposals for mnemonic devices.

2019 Belfast Exposed

Much thanks to Deirdre Robb at Belfast Exposed, the Community Relations Council for their funding of two of the workshops and all those who participated in the workshops.

2018 University
of Ulster

Many thanks to partners who facilitated workshops at the University of Ulster, including Professor Paul Seawright, Director, Professor Anne Boylan Earl, studio faculty and Anne’s wonderful students in the Jewelry Design program.

2019 Built Environment Centre

Many thanks to Amberlea Neely at Place: Built Environment Centre and all those who participated in the workshops and gallery talk.

Project proposals were originated during co-design workshops at Golden Thread Gallery, University of Ulster, Belfast Exposed and Place NI and are moving forward: A proposal for a forest, each tree representing a life lost during the conflict (not yet realized); wearable conversation starters; a strategy for youth workshops utilizing the co-design process itself, and an interactive GIS mapping project, tracing the evolution of the ring of steel, from 1972 to the present that was completed with funding from the Community Relations Council, spring 2020.