Visual Assembly is a tool designed to help us collectively reimagine how we organize hospitals, schools, nursing homes, cities, and any other social spaces.
Playgrounds are essential public spaces because they not only bring the community together—connecting old and young, rich and poor—but are also about playing and having fun, just as it should be during times when collective decisions are made. A network of community-built playgrounds centered around Visual Assemblies could foster spaces for collective decision-making.
The key element of the project is a circle made out of chalkboard. Aside from a few minimalistic drawings and texts, the circle is blank — an open invitation for participants to contribute their own artwork and ideas, while rethinking how to organize the public spaces they share.
Nika’s initial idea emerged from a workshop held at the Community College of Kingstown, St. Vincent in the Grenadines in 2014, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl. The plan was to create a space made up of various modular elements such as ropes, planks and other readymade parts, along with other more permanent features, that would be able to withstand the potential destruction of future hurricanes. During unfavorable weather, the modular elements could be taken apart and temporarily stored, leaving only the reinforced and secured larger elements like pillars and poles.
The space is designed to be continuously reshaped by its participants, both children and adults. In the spirit of recently exhibited installations like André Heller’s Luna Luna (1987) and Jana Warsza & Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius’ Radical Playgrounds (2024) the playgrounds would invite interventions and collaborations from renowned international artists, creating a sense of joyous carnivalesque that we all need to inspire dialog with each other and reimagine our social spaces.
What can be done with this playground:
Draw, erase, and draw again on the circle, which is decorated with subtle drawings and texts designed as an open invitation for participants to create their own drawings and writings.
Hang and attach various elements using ropes and boards to create hammocks, ladders, swings, climbing structures, and other play elements. The design allows for continuous modification, with new pieces being added or existing ones rearranged based on the participants’ ages. Nets can transform into mazes, clusters of hammocks or loungers for rest, or even swings and merry-go-rounds for younger children.
Guest artists can contribute (inspired by Malevich’s idea of “additional elements”) by adding sound installations, botanical gardens, ceramic workshops, water pipes turned into a spread out fountain, wind-activated sculptures, and other interactive components.
Playground communities are encouraged to co-create and reshape the space by introducing new artistic elements, repainting posts, adding handmade decorations, and other ideas, many of which were developed by participants in the Saint Vincent workshop — from activities that could help make the playground sustainable, such as ceramic workshops and sales, to establishing educational classes, a small petting zoo, a plant nursery, and much more..
The Visual Assembly project, initiated by Nika Dubrovsky and her late husband David Graeber, includes an open-source playground concept developed as part of the David Graeber Institute’s initiative in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Feature image: Visual Assembly Workshop at the Community College of Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 2024
