What we learned from Framing UB
These images are helping us plan
Taking photographs is an inherently critical exercise. Whenever we take a picture we must always choose what to leave in and what to exclude, what to notice and what to ignore, what to frame in and what to frame out.
Planning, too, in part, is a critical exercise. Planning involves making decisions about what we consider good and what we think is bad, what we would like to keep or change, what we want more of and what we want less.
The photos from Framing UB have provided a wide-ranging assessment of our campus centers that our planners are using to guide their analyses, deliberations, and creative work.
Some common themes have emerged
It should probably come as no surprise that our analysis of the photographs has identified some common themes. After all, we live on the same campuses, even if we might see them differently.
Many of the photographs express a strong affection for the great historic buildings of the South Campus and for the expansive sky and lake of North Campus.
Others exhibit deep concern over issues of transportation, the pedestrian environment, weather, access for the disabled, and the ability of campus visitors to find their way around. Still others are offended by evidence of disorder and decay in our campus centers.
We will show more photographs
As additional photographs are submitted, we will share the best of these with our planning team and with the whole university community.
We will look for new themes and new issues that the planning needs to address. We hope photographers will tell us more about what they have captured and why.
Only a handful of the photographs taken so far have featured people at UB. We hope participants will show us the places they care about AND how the people of UB use them and make them their own.
Keep taking pictures
The dialogue is continuing. Many other issues remain to be explored both in words and pictures. Framing UB is one of your opportunities to contribute to the planning process. Keep taking pictures. Keep sending them in.
We need more of your best thinking to make a great plan. Our goal is to create places that members of the university community will truly love. Show us how – in photographs.
We want to create campuses that are “seamlessly connected” to each other and to our host communities. What does that look like?
UB needs to become more of a “vital intellectual community.” Give us the image that will show us the way.
Why not a video?
From the very beginning, Framing UB invited students, staff, faculty, and others to submit short videos. Many people have submitted still photographs but no one has done a video.
Perhaps you will be the one to take advantage of the critical potential in moving images combined with the spoken word. Every picture tells a story. But every story really tells a story. Tell us yours.