UPPER Stories - ZOOM IN 1
The UPPER stories are a collection of narratives based on personal experience, perceptions, expectations and opinions of citizens on the current and future use of the neighborhoods involved in the UPPER project.
They are carried out during the project as an essential part of the transformation process, with the aim of capturing the past experience and the memory of the places involved, their scope of needs and problems, ideas and projects and finally the regeneration process and the new uses that will inhabit them.
These stories are a clear example of one of the strengthen of the UPPER project, its participative approach and co-designing implementation modality.
The UPPER stories represent a collective storytelling workshop with the citizens of Latina.
They are made in multiple formats and media: videos, stories, photographic explorations, interviews, podcasts, etc.
The production of the UPPER stories took place through various phases that include seminars, individual contributions, collective checks and online publication.
The realization of the stories foresees a collaborative practice that refers to the methodology of the StoryLabs developed by Tesserae and by the ogino: knauss collective, which proposes a series of simple narrative formats connected to participatory processes and activism practices (UrbanSketches - narrating a space, Engagement Stories - tell about a collective initiative, StakeholdersView, collect voices of actors, etc). In the case of the UPPER stories they usually have a hybrid format, which can be adapted to each of these needs or contain different ones.
Proposals and ideas of stories are collected through a call open to citizens and a selection process carried out by the Tesserae, facilitators during the co-design activities of the project, in order to respond to the purpose of telling the UPPER project, the context from which it arises and its results.
All the UPPER stories aims a teaching to the audience. It is something that history transmits to us, it gives us as learning. It can be controversial, ambiguous, left to interpretation or suspension of judgment ...
You can find an example in the MEMORIES UPPER story Narrated by the students of the Liceo GB Grassi of Latina: Gargiulo, Iacovacci, Romeo, Vicinanza and produced during the "UPPER Stories" workshops, coordinated by Chiara De Grandi and Lorenzo Tripodi, from Tesserae Urban Social Research.