Urban Dialoging (A First: Chicago)

Urban Dialoging

The urban landscape is filled with objects, buildings, persons, smells and feelings that are usually left unobserved and unnoticed. Through the act of dialoging the city becomes a conversation. Signposts speak to fire hydrants. Newspaper dispensers ask questions to the public that open them. Lonely unobserved sides of buildings call out to the public to be noticed. Urban dialoging is essentially about bringing connectedness between an individual and the people and objects of his urban experience by engaging the individual in a conversation with these things.

Urban dialoging has two components:

Part 1. The initial canvassing. The group meets at a central location and gathers their weaponry- a sharpie, a stack of papers, a roll of duct tape, and a stack of pens attached to string. All at once we take off in different directions in a large defined area and begin canvassing. There are no restrictions as to where one can canvass. The content of the paper should be directed towards a specific urban scene, environment or object. Once a piece of paper is placed, attach the pen to it.

Part 2. The secondary canvassing. After about an hour of canvassing we will reconvene in the same central location. The group then goes out and starts adding to the dialogue using the pens that were attached to them. We will reconvene after about 30 minutes.

Here are some general guidelines that one can choose to follow or not while canvassing:
-The message of a card can be done in either first person (the actual object speaking) or third person. Try mixing both of these perspectives.
-Try using a variety of tones- playful, earnest, somber, endearing, cute, morose, etc. Dialogue is not a monotone phenomenon.
-If you are going to place a piece of paper in a private place, be swift and inconspicuous about it.
-Be creative about card placement. Manhole covers, street musicians and discarded pieces of trash are all great candidates for canvassing.