Park Products

Abstract

A series of collaboratively produced products using resources from Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park London presented in a mobile market stall and exchanged for small tasks to be done around the park. Working from positions of art and architecture, the project set out to design a new prototype for cultural exchange within public space by asking the following questions: What cultural, social and material resources are associated with the Serpentine Gallery? Can the production of cultural products and services find sustenance through non-monetary communication-based exchange? Strategies included collaborations with product designers on the design and production of artefacts made from material supplied by the Royal Park ground staff. This led to relationships and negotiations with involved institutions on issues of intellectual copyright, project evaluation and project legacy. The project engaged the public through principals of informal economics; resulting in the exchange of park-labour for products plus discussions on art/architecture collaboration, cultural production and public participation.