Gipuzkoa Council invites citizens to build a provincial map of wishes

The general public mood will be captured through something akin to a word cloud

The Gipuzkoa Provincial Council (headquartered in the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian-Donostia) announced a new initiative, which starts on 23 December, aiming to capture the overall mood and wishes for the future development on part of the province’s residents.

They can speak their mind to a recording system, which will capture and transform those wishes into light, colour and words on a large screen installed at Plaza de Gipuzkoa. This is meant as a democratic, participatory and collective exercise under the motto Gipuzkoa argitu zure ahotsaz (Illuminate Gipuzkoa with your voice).

Hearing and seeing the concerns and needs of the local community

Each voluntary participant’s message will be captured through a voice recognition system, which will cause the illumination of the screen. The spoken contributions are collected in two separate points, one in Basque and the other in Spanish. To share a message, it will be enough to approach one of the points, depending on the language the participants prefer to speak in – the recording will be launched through an activation system – and leave there the verbal testimony of each or one.

Thus, the voices of the Gipuzkoans will be reflected in the map of words and colors that can be seen on the screen. At the end of each day, the contents will be analyzed and projected as a summary on the screen.

In order to encourage citizens to participate, and while the project lasts, some locally-famous and familiar faces will approach the Plaza Gipuzkoa and offer their testimony.

Anyone who wants to participate in the elaboration of the map of wishes for the future can do so until 5 January. This is possible from 12:00 to 20:00, except on 25 December, and 1 January.