Educational activity based on the short film Dona Coroquinha
Naming, locating and characterizing spaces: urban public space.
« Understand the concept of geographical scale. »
« Create graphic work; use analog maps at different scales. »
Dona Coroquinha © Diogo Nii Cavalcanti
TitleDona Coroquinha
ThemeDetermination
Genre & keywordsComic, courage, pedestrian crossing, car, bus, traffic, animals, dog
Age (for the film)3-11 years
Duration03 min 28 s
DirectorDiogo Nii Cavalcanti
MusicDavid Convery
ProductionVancouver Film School (Canada, 2010)
Analyze the intersection of rhythms of life on a street. Walking in the street, crossing a pedestrian crossing in the city: « everyday activities that, though they may still catch our attention out of caution », seem as natural and regulated to us as eating a meal or washing ourselves. But, as the film shows, the street is a complex intersection of human, animal or mechanical flows, the coordination of which can be problematic.
Can an old lady calmly cross a pedestrian crossing? « Can someone in a wheelchair easily make their way among the passers-by », scooters or parked cars? How does a dog cope (on leash or not)? This activity aims to map a street space to represent flows and « spot any problems with how they share the space ». It is a way of raising children's awareness of questions about the rhythms of life and the organization of cities, at the crossroads of sociology and urban ethnography.
The first step is to « choose and mark out a stretch of street that will be the study area ». Ideally, it should be fairly busy, commercial, fairly extensive (several businesses), transverse (including the entire width of the street: roadway and sidewalks) and include at least one vehicle/pedestrian crossing point (pedestrian crossing, garage or parking entrance). « You could also just use a stretch of sidewalk », while still including parking spaces.
The study itself consists of going into the field and observing in a group everything that moves in a limited area. Several sessions are therefore necessary to cover the entire area. Observations are made on a prepared sheet representing the area observed in the form of a plan with obstacles and boundaries: street furniture, sidewalk limits, etc. A first session can also consist of observing the sector and jointly establishing this plan, discussing the relevant elements.
To represent the flows, we will note all the individual trajectories observed, « each reduced to two features that can simply be judged by eye »: the trajectory and the speed. Speeds are represented by a color code used to trace the trajectory on the plan. We will also take care to note, with a special code, the “accidents” of the journey, the moments where the trajectories collide or coordinate (e.g. pause = ◎, « blockage = |, collision = X »). Superimposing all the color trajectories on the sheet will give an idea of the flows and their interactions.
The speed legend (the correspondence between a color and a speed) is an important element. « It will inevitably develop as you go along », because of the subjective visual assessment and the absence of a reference base at the start. Gradually, by observing who moves and how, children will acquire habits resulting from the finesse of their observation and which are one of the challenges of the activity. This correspondence will be drawn up on a separate sheet, noting the color and the entity that is moving: a mother with a stroller in this color, a schoolchild in this color, a bus or a garbage truck in this color, etc.
We understand that it is not important to be exhaustive. For each sector and observation session, it is enough to have a large enough range of speeds to establish the legend, which can be supplemented by the other sessions. At the end of all observations, all sector sheets
juxtaposed, accompanied by the detailed legend, will give the flow map of the area studied. It can be exhibited. This activity lends itself well to a long project shared between several classes, to pool observations on the different sectors of the area.
(General texts that focus on the issues of urban flows.)
A general work on the transformations of the contemporary city, addressing in particular the question of traffic flows: « Olivier Mongin, La ville des flux (Fayard, 2013) ». See in particular the first part “Under the pressure of flows and speed”.
An article taking stock of recent research in anthropology, sociology and urban planning devoted to walking in the city: Rachel Thomas, “Walking in the city. A story of meaning”, in the magazine L’Espacegraphique (2007/1, Volume 36), visible online on CAIRN.
Activity sheet written by: Bruno Pellier
