Post on 04-Apr-2023
UMRAN2015: A VISION OF ESTABLISHING GREEN BUILT ENVIRONMENT, 28th April 2015, IIUM
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UNVEILING INTERACTIVE STREET ART AS
NARRATIVE AND PLAYFUL ELEMENTS IN THE
CITY
Hasyimah Hassan1, Nur Shazmiera Rosmidar Roslan
2 and Khalilah Zakariya*
3
ABSTRACT Interactive street art has emerged as a new form of public art that is starting to gain attention in different
cities, including Malaysia. It is not simply just an artwork located along the streets, but it also brings a new
kind of phenomenon to the city’s interactivity and vitality. As it is still considerably new in Malaysia, there
has not been many local studies that examine interactive street art as a creative medium to enhance people’s
experience. Based on case studies in Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Terengganu, this study analyses the
potentials of interactive street art as narratives and playful elements in the city. Data is gathered through
observation, mapping and conducting surveys among visitors that encounter the artwork. From the findings,
this study identified how the artwork convey stories about the city, while also acting as informal playful
elements. The recommendation explores other possibilities of designing interactive street art in the context
of Malaysia.
Keywords: Interactive street art, street art, public art, narratives, playful, people, city
INTRODUCTION
Street art is a branch of public art that appears on the street, such as mural art, chalk art,
graffiti and others that can be found in remote area up to urban public spaces (Riggle,
2010: 244). Street art adds liveliness to the city, where at times, they encourage responses
between people and spaces. Any street art that makes people interact with it can be
considered as interactive street art. In order for a street art to become an interactive one,
there are two essential criteria, which are people and response (Conklin, 2012: 5). Irvine
(2012) mentioned that street art is an important element for a place to function, and it is
purposely organized with their own symbolic values or principles. Many researchers have
studied about street art, but there are not many studies that examine interactive street art.
Thefore, this study explores and investigates people’s perceptions towards interactive
street art, which includes how they value and experience it. The findings is aimed to
identify the suitability of applying interactive street art in the context of Malaysia.
Street art is commonly done by street artists to express feelings or ideas, whether
to increase interactivity of the city or just as a form of expression (Steedman, 2012:1). In
Malaysia, this form of public art has become an emerging trend. However, not many
people are aware of street art and its functions. Inevitably, there are some local authorities
who do not yet support street art as a form of public art, in which it is still viewed as a
form of vandalism. Based on other research, many scholars and artists argue that street art
is not always a form of vandalism because it gives people an outlet for expression that
1 3rd Year Landscape Architecture Student, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, KAED, IIUM. E-mail:
hasyimahhassan2392@gmail.com 2 3rd Year Landscape Architecture Student, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, KAED, IIUM. E-mail:
rosmieraroslan@gmail.com 3 *Corresponding Author: Asst. Prof., Dept. of Landscape Architecture, KAED, IIUM. E-mail:
khalilah@iium.edu.my
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create a productive environment (Fresh Writing – online). While street art can now be
seen in different cities in Malaysia, there is not yet a study that investigates the functional
values of street art. There is a potential for street art to enhance people experience and
interactivity, where people can stop by at a particular area, read the textual artwork, feel
the artwork on the scene, as well as play with it. Street art can also tell a story about the
city. Moreover, there are also some public spaces that are underutilized and less
appreciated. For these spaces, street art may act as a medium to potentially offer
something new in that particular area.
Lefebvre (1987:36 , see Stevens 2007) wrote that a city may not be necessarily
well-planned with adequate facilities for activities or festivals. Sometimes, the unplanned
activities are best to evoke the sense of beloging between people. People just need a
space. The city must be a place for people to engage and interact with one another.
Hence, the roles of interactive street art might be very important in improvising street
spaces to enhance people’s experience, as well as creating a space for community
engagement. As such, understanding and exploring the potential roles of of street art is
vital in making the city livelier towards the users.
INTERACTIVE STREET ART Interactive street art includes all kind of artworks that act as an interactivity interface
between people and space. The word “interactive” represents many different meanings.
“Interactive”, according to online Oxford Dictionary means ‘two people or things are
influencing each other and thus, it allows two way flow of information between them.’
People can control or change the action, in response to their own request or interest. On
the other hand, “street art” is any form of art developed in public spaces, particularly, in
the streets. This includes stencil graffiti, sticker art, flash mob, street installations and
others. They are not limited only in galleries but it is understood by the producers as
artwork, not just for the sake of advertising (Banet-Weiser, 2011:644). Thus, interactive
street art can be perceived as any artwork on the street that allows physical interaction
between the individuals and their surrounding environment.
Typology of Interactive Street Art Interactive street art does not just focus on its aesthetic appeal, but also on the
interactivity, action and reaction of people towards it. In this study, seven types of
interactive street art have been identified, which are 2D mural art, 3D+2D artwork, 3D
illusion, sculpture, technology-based art, kinetic art and street performers. These types
comprise of any form of artworks that can create interaction and gain response from the
users. There are two main categories, which are mobile and immobile street arts. Mobile
street art includes technology-based art, kinetic art and street performers. These artworks
basically require motion by the artwork itself to create interactivity, in which they are
more flexible and agile. Immobile street art does not require motion. Interactivity can
already be created from the stationary state of the artworks. This second category includes
3D+2D artwork (3D installation), 3D illusion, sculpture, and 2D mural art.
Interactive Street Art in the City Zacca (2010:184) stated that “…the urban experience has inspired the creation of
artwork depicting aspects of city life.” As the main focus of this research is to connect
and relate how interactive street art can enhance people experience and network,
interactive street art is viewed as a creative and artistic medium that can portray the
lifestyle in cities in a fun way through the interesting artworks.
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According to Moughtin (2003: 12), the 16th Century theorist and architect John
Shute has correlated the city upon human figures that, “A city ought to be like the human
body and for this reason it should be full of all that gives life to man”. In the same source,
he also claimed that the city is not merely an element of the people’s spiritual and
physical culture, but it is the greatest expressions of that culture. Moreover, Maslow
(1943, see Stevens, 2007) emphasized that towards the functionality of a city, people
come to the city not just because they want to meet their basic physiological needs, but
also to search for love, esteem and self-actualization, and to experience the diversity of
the world around them as well as to learn and to understand it. Moreover, Montgomery (1995, see Shamsuddin, 2011) has claimed that the city
is a sense stimulator whereby the street life should always be remembered by people,
creating a sense of place simultaneously. The successful city therefore must be a
responsive environment that has a high degree of visibility that brings a steady flow of
people with different age and various types of activities. The city also gives information
as people in the society seek motivation and generates the message from the street artist
through their participation in public street life or public spaces. According to Irvine
(2012: 20), the city for street artists is not merely to transmit information but its density
itself which is the street, alleys, as well as the built environment are also information.
This is in line with what has been emphasized by Francis (1987), “..with much of the
public life of cities still taking place on streets, they will continue to be places where
public culture is developed and nurtured,” so that the city dwellers can easily understand
and learn about street life which lead to the enlightenment of a city story. Playfulness on
the other hand, will also be created through the enjoyment of downtown and
neighbourhood street with great accessibility.
Interactive Street Art as a Medium of Narrative and Playfulness Kendall (2011) suggested that street art is a “window into a city’s soul.” There is always
a mean in order to explore and discover the beauty of a city. The elements in the story of
the city are composed of culture, history, heritage and lifestyle and trend. Narrative street
art has the mechanism and ability to display stories, contributing to the lively image of the
city. It is the matter of how creative and intelligent the city can get in capturing our
attention and telling a story.
There are four basic forms of playful activity, as mentioned by Caillois (1961, see
Stevens, 2007), which are competition, chance, simulating and vertigo. These forms of
playfulness gives useful insight into the characteristics of play. This includes the set of
rules and roles assumed by various participants. Each of the forms of activity also
illustrates something about what makes play enjoyable, and hence why people might
choose to play. Urban setting frame particular kinds of opportunities for each form of
play. Urban public space brings together the diversity of social life and social values, and
thus public play in the city usually combines several forms (Stevens, 2007: 36-37).
Interactive Street Art in Enhancing Values of City Ford (2000:210) highlighted that most of the time, people tend to ignore and forget the
character of a place. However, a good sense of place will give a unique emotional
character of a place. Thus, for a good place to be revealed, it should provide memorable
sensory by stimulating visual, auditory and olfactory senses, which leads to the
enhancement of the city values that comprise of aesthetic, social, cultural and
commercial.
Based on the Oxford Dictionary (online), aesthetic is something concerned with
beauty or the appreciation of it where “...visual preference based on visual sensation
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which is the most important aspect of aesthetic quality...” Ramlan (2014:18). Art is
usually directly related to beauty and thus, interactive street art will assist a city in
beautifying its physical form from the street itself, other than the buildings and
skycrapers. According to Lynch (1960:9), a mental image is created when a particular
object evokes a strong impact in the mind of the observer. Thus, the physical qualities of
an interactive street art with vivid colour, shape and texture can summed up as the criteria
that can conjure imageability in the sense of aesthetic value.
The involvement of people enriches the social and cultural values of a city. It
cultivates the daily lifestyle and people interaction to portray the richness of Malaysian
culture and tradition in preserving the heritage of the city and country as a whole.
Therefore, it gives a sense that a city which is opulent in culture will have a high cultural
value. The moral values of the people shape a good social value of city. Wodsak et. al
(2008:11) believed that the quality of life can be improved when there is a mutual
commitment of art and culture. Once the power of the community is activated, the social
value becomes better.
The commercial value is the economic significance which the city can get with the
presence of interactive street art thus acting as a mean to attract more people (local and
foreign) to promote the story of Malaysian cities. Indirectly, tourism sector of Malaysia in
total will be blossomed and is able to generate new source of income of the nation.
METHODOLOGY This section explains about the case study sites and the techniques of data collection
during the study. The case study areas are selected to compare and contrast the findings
mainly through observation, site mapping and survey questionnaire.
1. Case Study: Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Terengganu Based on the availability of the interactive street art, the case study areas are categorized
into two cities, which are Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Terengganu. As shown in Figure 1,
three locations in Kuala Lumpur are selected to conduct the data collection and analysis,
which are (a) Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, (b) Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman 4, and (c)
LRT Masjid Jamek. In Kuala Terengganu (refer to Fig. 2), three back lanes are selected,
namely (d) Turtle Alley, (e) Payang Memory Lane and (f) Tauke Weng Seng Hee
Cultural Lane. The digitized maps in both figures were reproduced from Google Earth
software.
Figure 1 Case study sites in Kuala Lumpur
a b c
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Figure 2 Case study sites in Kuala Terengganu
2. Data Collection The data collection aspects include the typology of the artwork, functions and users’
experience towards the interactive street art at the case study areas. The data is collected
through methods of observation (qualitative data) and survey questionnaires (quantitative
data). Mapping of site and people activities were conducted to document the physical
characteristics and locations of the artwork. In general, qualitative data includes the
physical characteristics of the interactive street art, while quantitative data measure the
respond from the city dwellers and visitors in terms their perception and experience.
Observation and Mapping
According to Rose and Grosvenor (2009: 9), a ‘real life’ picture can be created through
a close contact with the subject, events or people’s behaviour that are being observed by
the researcher. The categories that have been applied are complete-participant by direct
observation via site mapping and taking photographs, where the status of the researcher is
unknown. At the same time, the researchers also act as the observer-as-participant, where
the observer is a part of the study group that share the same experience. Basically, the
observation process is done in three stages: (i) preparation for observation that includes
some tools like digital camera, sketch book and recorder; (ii) carrying out the systematic
observation on the sites based on the checklist prepared; and (iii) managing and analyzing
the data collected in tables or figures.
Survey Questionnaire
According to Brace (2013: 4), a questionnaire is an instrument of quantitative method
that can be described as a mean of communication between two people, even though they
never communicate directly between one another. The purpose of conducting this
questionnaire is to get the feedback from different users regarding their profiles, level of
awareness, perceptions and preferences towards the interactive street art. In collecting the
data, two types of questionnaire, which are self-administered and interview questionnaire,
were conducted throughout the fieldwork. There are four sections consisting of close-
ended questions, scale questions and open-ended questions. Due to the nature of this
study that is conducted within a limited amount of time, a total of 30 questionnaires were
distributed in Kuala Lumpur and 20 were distributed in Kuala Terengganu.
Review of Relevant Studies
Relevant studies on the topic are reviewed to gain knowledge and to get a thorough
understanding of distinctive features of interactive street art, narrative and playful
d e f
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elements of a city. Journals, books and websites from Internet are the main sources in
searching information about public art, street art and interactive street art in the city.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Observations and Mapping
Based on the observations and mapping conducted at the sites, there are six interactive
street arts that have been identified, three each in Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Terengganu.
Referring to Figure 3, the available artworks are: (a) painted bench along Jalan TAR; (b)
mural art in Lorong TAR 4; (c) 3D installation and mural art in LRT Masjid Jamek area;
(d) mural art and 3D installation in Turtle Alley; (e) sculpture, 3D illusion and 3D
installation in Memory Lane; and (f) mural art and sculpture in Cultural Lane.
Figure 3 Six types of interactive street art in Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Terengganu
Table 1 indicates the data gathered on each artwork that has been recorded in the
observation form. Each of the street art provides different information on the locations,
types, physical attributes, message, and values according to their settings. From the
observation mapping, it was noted that the existing street art created different levels of
interactivity, but not to the maximum level. With reference to the behavioural mapping
illustrated in Figure 4, a total of 10 criteria have been recorded to show the degrees of
interaction patterns between people and the artwork. The common types of interaction
that occurred are people looking at the artwork, reading it, and taking photo with it. The
higher degree of interaction happened when they are touching it, making it move and
talking about it to others.
Table 1 Typology and attributes of the interactive street art
Site Types Physical Attributes Message (Approach) Values
Medium Colour Narrative Playful
a. Jalan
TAR
Sculpture Painting
on
bench,
relief of
national
flower
Colourful
including
red, blue,
yelllow,
green, etc.
-Patriotic
spirit
among
Malaysian
-Unity in
diversity
-Vibrant
color of
paintings
trick the eye
& create
sense of
excitement
-Aesthetic
(colour, form)
-Social (culture,
multiracial
country)
-Civic (increase
patriotism)
a b c
d e f
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b. Lorong
TAR 4
Mural Art Painting
on wall
Primary
colour
(red, blue,
yellow),
black &
white
-Prime
Minister
faces to
make
people
recognize
easily
NA -Aesthetic
(form, colour)
-Historical and
educational
(recognize
prominent
prime
ministers)
c. LRT
Masjid
Jamek
3D
Installation
Painting
on wall,
metal
structure
& LRT
relief
Cool
colour for
painting
(hues of
blue &
green),
original
colour of
LRT
-A form of
public
transport in
KL
-Busy
interchange
station
-Identity &
landmark
of Masjid
Jamek
-Creates real
ambiance as
the elements
used is
exactly the
same
-Touch &
move the
hand rail
-Sit on the
chair & take
photo with a
vibrant
mural art
-Aesthetic
(colour, form,
3D element,
texture)
-Social
(increase
interaction)
d. Turtle
Alley
Mural Art
& 3D
installation
Wooden
boards,
Mosaic
tile
painting
&
concrete
turtle
sculpture
Dark,
earth
colour
(hues of
brown &
grey),
colourful
mosaic
tiles
-Types of
turtles such
as Green
Turtle,
Hawksbill
Turtle, etc.
-Turtles as
endangered
species
-Awareness
on how to
protect
turtles
-Trivia
boards
-Touch the
relief mosaic
of the turtle
-Read the
textual
message and
story about
turtle
-Enjoy the
painting on
the
pavement
-Aesthetic
(colour, texture)
-Civic
(conserve &
protect turtles)
-Educational
(types and
different
species of
turtles)
-Environmental
(clean
environment,
protect habitat)
e. Payang
Memory
Lane
Sculpture,
3D Illusion
& 3D
Installation
Stone
relief of
the
leaders’
faces,
Painting
on wall
&
hanging
umbrella
Bright
colour of
umbrella
(yellow,
orange,
red),
golden
brown
face relief,
colourful
painting
-Detail
biography
of
prominent
Chinese
leaders
such as
state
excecutive
& MCA
Chairman
-Touch the
relief
leaders’
faces
-Touch and
pull down
umbrella &
take photo.
-Aesthetic
(colour, texture,
3D, 2D form)
-Social
(increase
interaction &
awareness)
-Educational,
historical
(prominent
leaders in Kg.
Cina)
f. Tauke
Weng
Seng Hee
Cultural
Lane
Mural Art
Sculpture
Painting
on wall,
movable
sculpture
& old
signage
Bright
colour
(hues of
red,
orange &
yellow)
-Old
signages
show the
culture
-Old tel.
booth
reminds
people of
ancient
elements
-Lean to the
old post
phone
-Sit on the
bench and
enjoy the
paintings.
-Aesthetic
(colour, texture,
3D, 2D form)
-Cultural,
historical (old,
unique
elements)
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Figure 4 The pattern of interaction with the artworks which the level of interactivity for the first most
interaction (red box) and second most interaction (blue box) are indicated in the legend
a b
c d
e f
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2. Survey Questionnaire
The analysis was done descriptively using frequency (bar charts and graph) and cross-
tabulation. Results of the analysis were tabulated in the form of percentage, mean score
and comparison. In order to identify the demographic background of the respondents,
answers were specified in Section A (see Table 2). Section B shows the respondents’
choice on the interactive street art that they are familiar. Through this, the researcher is
able to examine the awareness level towards that street art. Section C includes close-
ended questions. This section measures respondents’ reasons of choosing the routes, the
ways users interact with the artworks, and feeling towards the street art. Likert scale
questions prompted the respondents to give a rating from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree) for each statement. Last but not least, Section D obtained respondents’
recommendation regarding the best alternatives for interactive street art to serve as a
medium of narratives and playful elements in the city. The questionnaire included several
open-ended questions to acquire people’s opinions regarding potentials and ways to
improve interactive street art in the future, in enhancing people’s experience in the city.
a. Respondent Profile
From a total of 50 respondents that include the locals and the visitors, there were mainly
females who were Malay (91% in KL and 70% in Terengganu). The respondents
comprised of teenagers up to senior citizens (see Table 2). Although majority of the
respondents are Malays, Chinese respondents were higher in Kuala Terengganu because
the street art is located at the back lanes of a Chinese town called Kampung Cina. It is
interesting to notice that most of the respondents were those between the age of 18-24,
(70% in KL and 60% in Terengganu). Thus, we can relate that the finding is
predominantly based on the views and opinions of university students and secondary
school students, both of which belong to the youth category. Hence, it can be emphasized
that interactive street art attracts youth the most.
Table 2 Summary of respondents’ demographic data
Items Characteristics Kuala Lumpur Kuala Terengganu
Age (years old) <18
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
11%
53%
20%
13%
0%
3%
0%
10%
45%
10%
5%
10%
10%
10%
Gender Male
Female
30%
70%
40%
60%
Race Malay
Chinese
Indian
91%
6%
3%
70%
30%
0%
Education Level Primary school
Secondary school
University students
College students
Others
0%
13%
58%
26%
3%
0%
45%
45%
10%
0%
Occupation Student
Government sector
Private sector
Self-employed
53%
17%
13%
17%
55%
25%
0%
20%
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b. Awareness towards Interactive Street Art
Seven types of interactive street art are listed for the respondents to choose based on their
familiarity with those street art. The types of street art include wall mural/graffiti, 3D
installation, sculpture, technology-based artwork, kinetic art, 3D illusion art and street
performer. In comparing the respondents’ awareness between the two cities, Figure 5
shows that there is a common trend on the percentage of familiarity, where wall
mural/graffiti (83% in KL and 95% in Terengganu) and street performer (67% in KL and
70% in Terengganu) are two most familiar street art for them. The results also illustrated
that most of the users are unfamiliar with the technology-based street art and kinetic art,
as there is less practicality of those types of artwork and is still new in cities in Malaysia.
This suggests that familiarity is contributed by the existence of the street art and what
people see often or experience. The back lanes of Kuala Terengganu provide more types
of interactive street art that are rarely found in Kuala Lumpur, such as 3D installation and
sculpture.
Figure 5 Level of awareness on interactive street art in both cities
c. Perceptions towards Interactive Street Art
Looking at the findings, most of the people agreed that they noticed the existence of the
street art at the sites (63% in KL and 95% in Terengganu). The reason that can be derived
from this result is that most of the people visit the sites almost every day because of the
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locations, adjacency to their offices, and the shortest route for them. However, in Lorong
TAR 4, the case is a quite different as only 50% of the users noticed its existence. This is
contributed to the type of artwork, which is a mural, and the location that is less strategic.
Moreover, Figure 6 analyzed that in Kuala Lumpur, there is a lower level of engagement
in Kuala Lumpur as people move in and out of the LRT, where as they walk in a hurry,
they would only take a quick look at the artwork and take photo, and do not to stop for
time, as compared to the artwork in the back lanes of Kuala Terengganu. This situation
indicates that there is less interactivity in general. However, due to the relaxing ambiance
in Kuala Terengganu where the intention of people going there is mainly for the purpose
of visiting the back lanes, they have more time to interact with the artworks. From the
positive feedbacks, the finding revealed that there is a 100% level of interactivity for
Memory Lane whereby all respondents engaged with it. In addition, Cultural Lane’s
respondents also showed 100% interactivity by looking and standing beside it. 71% of
respondents in both Memory Lane and Cultural Lane are attracted to touch the artworks.
Figure 6 Level of interactivity of people and the street art
For the scale questions, the data tabulated in Figure 7 represented a more positive
feedback from the users in Kuala Terengganu, whereby most of them agreed and strongly
agreed with the statements. As an example, Turtle Alley received a mean score of 5,
where 100% of the respondents strongly agreed that street art could evoke social
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interaction. Specifically for Memory Lane, many people felt neutral that the street art
reminded them of the city’s history. For Kuala Lumpur area, precisely Jalan Tuanku
Abdul Rahman (TAR) with the mean between 2.5-3.4, the users seem to lack awareness
towards those statements because the site is mainly visited for shopping purposes and no
other spaces is more interesting than the shops. As for Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman 4,
people have also could not agree nor disagree that the street art can give a sense a safety.
The street art in the LRT area also could be enhanced further to become a safety booster
as well as a landmark of the city.
As indicated with red dotted line in Figure 7, it is obvious that the Turtle Alley
received the highest mean for most of the statements, except for having attractive colour
and creating a lively city. Thus, this alley can become a benchmark in this study for the
researcher to get some design ideas of how to improve interactive street art. Furthermore,
when the mean scores for the two cities are combined, the attractive colours of the street
art produced the highest score, while the sense of safety needs to be further improved as it
has the lowest mean score. Hence, some actions have to be taken to increase the safety of
the area with the enhancement of those artworks.
Figure 7 Perceptions of the respondents towards the interactive street art
The data show that feelings seem to affect the perceptions of users towards the
street art. Street art with different attributes create different experience and moods to the
users. As seen in Figure 8, the results for both cities show higher percentage of positive
feelings. Most of the people feel entertained by the painted benches in Jalan TAR (60%)
as well as combination of wall art and 3D installation at the LRT area (70%). Meanwhile,
nostalgic feeling (80%) is the most obvious feeling in Lorong TAR 4, which directly
relates to the historical mural art. For the Turtle Alley and Memory Lane in Kuala
Terengganu, it is interesting to see the similar feelings were chosen by the majority:
happy (67%) and entertained (86%). Moreover, Cultural Lane received 100% response in
terms of entertainment to the users. Thus, more interactive street art should be
implemented to evoke people’s feeling and create a vibrant community.
2.9
3.8
3.4
2.8
3.7
4.3
3.9
3.8
3.3
3.9
3.8
3.5
4.1
4
3.8
3.2
4.2
4.3
3.8
4.1
3.9
4.1
4.1
4.3
3.7
4
3.4
3.2
3.8
4.2
3.7
4
3.9
4.2
4.3
4.2
4.2
4.8
4.7
4
4.5
4.7
4.3
4.8
5
4.7
4.7
4.5
2.9
4.3
4.1
3.6
3.7
4.4
4
4.3
4.1
4.3
4.6
4.3
4
4.4
4.1
3.3
4
4.3
4.3
4.7
4.6
4.9
4.9
4.3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Reminds of history
As playful medium
Acts as landmark
Creates sense of safety
Gives good message
Contributes to tourism
Portrays people's lifestyle
Makes city interesting
Boosts social interaction
Creates lively city
Has attractive colour
Has interesting design
Cumulative mean
PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS INTERACTIVE STREET ART IN KL AND KUALA
TERENGGANU
Jalan TAR Lorong TAR 4 LRT Masjid Jamek Turtle Alley Memory Lane Cultural Lane
UMRAN2015: A VISION OF ESTABLISHING GREEN BUILT ENVIRONMENT, 28th April 2015, IIUM
13
Figure 8 Overall perceptions on feelings towards the artwork
CONCLUSION AND DESIGN RECOMMENDATION Several criteria have been extracted to guide the improvement of interactive street art.
This is to overcome the lack of playfulness in public spaces that involves various physical
interaction, and to creatively enhance the narratives in interpreting the city stories that is
often conventional and textual as compared to visual public artworks within the area.
Design proposal for Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman 4, KL
Based on the findings, Lorong TAR 4 is chosen as an example for the design
recommendation because it had the least degrees of interactions. The site has potential in
evoking the nostalgic feeling and narratives of history. First, the artwork is lacking in
engaging people because it is only a mural that offers passive activities. People only pass
by and look at the mural. Second, there is no element of playfulness in the artwork. Third,
people who interacted with the artwork do not display a feeling of happiness and
entertainment.
Realizing the site can become a landmark to the city of Kuala lumpur and Malaysia,
the design recommendation suggests art installations to encourage and attract more
interactions from the people. As exemplified in the design, more people will be attracted
to interact with the street art with the additional elements. This will then increase the
‘public eye’ of the space from the presence of other people. Hence, the safety will be
increased. Referring to Figure 9, some improvement have been implemented based on the
following key guidelines to tranform Lorong TAR 4 into an interactive lane as follows:
Vibrant colours like red, yellow and blue are used in order to attract youth.
The colours are chosen to reflect the existing nostalgic mural art.
Positive messages are being portrayed in a fun way rather than just through typical
textual form.
Simple, big font texts are used rather than lengthy texts to tell story of the city.
More types of street art are added to create interest and increase familiary to users.
Playful elements are integrated to boost the interactions of the visitors.
The interactivity of people should be ranging from just stop and look at the
artwork up to the extent of touching and making it move.
10
60
10 10 10
60
0
80
40
70
30
10
67 67 50
0
86 86
29 43
57
100
14
0
20
40
60
80
100
Happy Entertained Peaceful Nostalgic
Perc
enta
ge
(%)
Feeling when looking at the artwork
PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS INTERACTIVE STREET ART
IN KUALA LUMPUR AND KUALA TERENGGANU
Jalan TAR Lorong TAR 4 LRT Masjid Jamek
Turtle Alley Memoty Lane Cultural Lane
UMRAN2015: A VISION OF ESTABLISHING GREEN BUILT ENVIRONMENT, 28th April 2015, IIUM
14
Figure 9 The image shows Lorong TAR before and after the recommendation
Interactive street art plays a major contribution towards the city as it brings people
together and make the city to be known all over the world. There are several lessons that
can be concluded from the results. Firstly, interactive street art should reflect something
in a place, and it should serve a purpose or value. People might appreciate something
because of its structured values. The interactive street art should be in variety, in terms of
form, design, character and function, so that it can increase the level of interactivity
between users and the street art itself, while offering them a distinct experiences when
using a space. The space for people to experience the story of a city is also important in
creating a vibrant and cheerful environment. Various activities in the public spaces in the
urban area will attract more people. Interactive street art will also make the street as one
of the favourable place to go. As the city needs some additional creative art to enrich the
area as well as stimulate the built and social environment, interactive street art has
significant potential to act as a medium for people to interact and appreciate their
surrounding, while at the same time creating a playful and memorable place.
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