L11- Manipulation of place

• francisco ibáñez hantke, ‘non-structures’​

  velorose, 1 june 2019 - 30 june 2019​

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  this exhibition ‘non-structures’ photographic series presents london - and cities in general - as a spectacle of constant conflict, negotiation and flux. capturing key moments in the life of diverse buildings, the images reveal a condition of transience, trapped as these buildings and sites are between the boundaries of architecture and ruin, planning and chance, process and product. this boundary condition, of being neither one thing nor the other, has lent its name to the series and to the exhibition.
• Why are places manipulated socially

  • The change negative stereotypes​
  • To encourage people to move, live and work in an area
• Why are places manipulated economically

  • To attract inward investment​
  • To improve job opportunities
• Why are places manipulated environmentally

  To improve the quality of the built environment by removing derelict buildings, wasteland and so on.
• Why are places manipulated politically

  • To raise the status of a place, which can in turn give political gain​
  • To rebrand, make more attractive, possibly attract inward investment, and to improve the environment for those living in an area.
• Why do groups manipulate places

  • Governments, both nationally and locally, might do this to attract people or investment to particular places.​
  • Corporate bodies (e.g. businesses, government funded agencies) might do this to generate profit, or because they have been set up for a specific purpose e.g. Visit Britain is an agency set up to promote tourism.​
  • Community or local groups might try to change the perception of their place to improve the local economy or lives of local people e.g. food festivals to attract visitors to the
• • Place marketing is how places are ‘sold’ like products to consumers – the people who will potentially visit, move to the area or invest money there. Marketing companies may be employed to produce websites, design logos, run advertising campaigns and social media pages – all of which are designed to promote a particular place. ​
• Reimaging is about changing existing negative perceptions of places.
• Rebranding is about giving a place a new identity that is appealing for people and investors. It is achieved through reimaging, place marketing and regeneration schemes. As part of rebranding, many places create logos and slogans that are designed to be instantly recognisable and create positive associations with the place they’re representing.
• Sometimes this manipulation might be more subtle – retail planners and developers create spectacular places deliberately to make people want to spend longer amounts of time there, to have a ‘day out’. Rather than simply carry out their shopping, the shopping centre becomes a leisure destination where one can shop, eat and go to the cinema all in one place and in so doing, spend more money. This type of development has been termed hyper-reality and the ‘ecology of fantasy’.​
• Heritage organisations may protect certain buildings and landscapes through regular maintenance and upkeep, but they can sanitise and regulate places in ways that irretrievably change their meaning. Country houses, for example, which were once busy working estates and family homes become museums, places in which people no longer live and a certain version of the past is preserved from change. Even natural landscapes can be turned into neat, highly managed visitor attractions where people must not veer from the gravel path or away from the marked route.
• There are numerous ways in which a place can be shaped or rebranded to alter our perceptions of it. One way of rebranding a place, particularly if it has been associated with some sort of stigma or uncomfortable historical memory, is to rename it. An example is the renaming of Windscale Nuclear power station to Sellafield after the terrible leak and contamination of the area, caused by a fire in 1957. Urban areas in decline are often regenerated in order to improve their image, attract economic investment and improve the quality of life experiences by those who live there.
• Places are also represented in different ways by a range of media.

  Advertising agencies represent appropriate places, e.g. car adverts always feature open roads free of cars, often in dramatic upland scenery. If the car is a 4x4, this may then transform into an urban jungle to show the versatility of the vehicle. ​

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  Tourist agencies use particular wording to describe places in a way which connects our emotions with our perception of a place we may never have visited. The sea is usually crystal clear for example. The reality of some seaside resorts as shown by statistics on so
• The development of adventure tourism in New Zealand.​

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  The New Zealand tourism board has invested heavily in a new countrywide marketing strategy known as Brand New Zealand. Private companies in Queenstown, known as the adventure capital of the World have played a part in it. The town contains everything that the adventure seeker could want, including the popular Awesome Four adventure combination of helicopter flight, whitewater rafting, high-speed jet boating and bungee jumping. Thus, Queenstown in branded as an appropriate place for exhilarating, fresh and unsullied experiences.
• US National Park Foundation​

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  There is a growing trend for big business to ‘sponsor’ certain types of environment in order to enhance their brand image. The US National Park Foundation has a number of corporate sponsors, including American Express, Budweiser, Disney and Coca-Cola. Such relationships may have a number of positive benefits, e.g. Disney pays for half a million children to visit the national parks each year. However, considering the ethical implications of a company like Coca-Cola sponsoring spaces for health and exercises.
• City branding.​

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  City branding creates a single brand for the city and extends it to all of its offerings and interactions. From a customer point of view, this creates a unique picture of the city at every level of interactions. City branding has the power to turn a city into a place where people want to live, work and visit.​
• In the 1950s, Las Vegas even made a virtue of its location close to nuclear testing sites in the Nevada desert, and people came for parties to coincide with the detonation of bombs, with bars offering special ‘atomic cocktails’. ​

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  Las Vegas is branded as ‘sin city’ because of its association with gambling, bookmaking, easy marriage, easy divorce, sex shows, strip clubs, cabarets, clubbing and 24-hour liquor sales (‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’). In former days, it was also known for organised crime and police and political corruption.