Dundee, Scotland
This film explores the importance of public parks for providing an opportunity to connect with diverse city spaces, provide openness in built environments, support biodiversity and to improve wellbeing. The film explores the case study of Baxter Park in the city centre of Dundee, Scotland. This setting is the focus of an ongoing study exploring creative approaches towards green spaces and sense of place. Using qualitative methods, the film explores the history of the park's development and the importance of archives, oral histories and cultural geographies for understanding our connections to place.
Our film set out to explore perceptions of green spaces and public parks, connections to place and changing uses of Baxter Park in Dundee, Scotland. The film also set out to provide an introduction to our ongoing collaborative research project, The Big Back Garden, which examines wellbeing, nature in the city, and creativity.
Key questions were:
-How do public parks provide opportunities and challenges for city spaces and residents?
-How can we explore the use of creative mixed methods for sharing, and reflecting on, park spaces?
-In what ways do past and present cultural geographies of Baxter Park, reflect changing local and international connections?