Visual Seduction : The Ambiguity of Visual Images in PPGIS

Visual images have long played an important role in participatory planning processes. One frequently used technique is to have residents take photographs of their community depicting features they like and want to protect and features they dislike and want to change. The primary benefit of this approach lies in its ability to link residents’ appraisals with actions directed at either preserving or transforming particular community attributes. In addition, such images are easily linked to geographic features and are therefore an important component of many PPGIS projects. In the absence of explanatory text, however, images convey vague or confusing messages. Providing a platform for marginalized voices is one critical goal of PPGIS, but this aim may be undermined by over-reliance on images whose meaning is ambiguous. PPGIS projects can overcome this obstacle by allowing community members to provide narrative explanations for their images. This paper presents examples from ongoing participatory planning projects in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and on the Red Cliff Reservation in Wisconsin. In these cases, participation plays an important role in the community planning process where the goal was to incorporate the voices from all members of the community. In part, this work demonstrates the usefulness of translating familiar planning techniques into a GIS framework, but it also highlights some of the obstacles to meaningful public participation.