Watch out for the lewd gnomes! Nice (and scarrrry) public space hack.

Chalk interventions on objects of status in the neighborhood. Next time this motorbike owner steps onto the street he/she will be reminded of their coolness.

We set up a cup phone on the street for people to talk up to us during the workshop! The idea was to stream the audio live over the internet from passerbyers!

the actual project
Intended use by the city architecutre is a monument - a symbolic statue of a man, a monument for the union workers. The underdog, the working class, the masses… I observed that the actual use or the most attention towards this statue is from the pigeons also an underdog type. The monument has a park surrounding it, that also is a high activity zone for skate boarders - often an undervalued activity and very regulated social activity [especially in Australia] but in most cities. Above the pigeons sit on the monuments head & hand to even look him in the eye [as illustrated in this image] & skate boarders on the ground use its ledges for tricks. I wonder when there will be a time when architects for the city notice the ‘Actual’ usage of the public domain & work with this to open more interesting possibilities for human action.

Open for discussion to develop the idea “it’s OK to let your emotions wander in public space” . how can we provoke and document emotional response that is conveyed through people’s looking in a confined public space where really nothing special happens?
Our intervention could take place in a tram

Links on a technology based intervention (arjen keesmaat) and a lo-tech one (tutofuocco+previdi) on public spaces

http://www.lookingglass.be/en/past/expo_32.html

http://www.flashartonline.com/issues/239italia/esteticasituazionale.asp

Break the word question down to its root–quest–and you get a sense of the insurgent inquiry practiced by artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. Their poetic and unabashedly activist conceptual art challenges everything from common definitions–they define protest as “proactive testing” and responsibility as “the ability to respond”–to concepts like free speech and historical commemoration.

(more at adbusters)

There is a very inspiring exhibit in Rotterdam, the Netherlands called Start/Content presenting the work of OMA-AMO Rem Koolhaas.
For those of you who cannot visit the exhibit there is a wonderful (cheap) new publication out that goes with the exhibit called CONTENT
You can pick it up at any good bookshop for about 10 euro. Excellent articles that makes you think on (public)space. Here is a quote:
“the last decade has revealed an accelerated erosion of the public domain- replaced by the increasingly sophisticated and entertaining forms of the private. the essence of the public is that it is free,
increasingly, public space has been replaced by accumulations of quasi public substance that, while suggesting an open invite, make you pay. the library stands exposed as outdated and moralistic at the moment that it has become the last repository of the free and the public”

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On 13 th of june, there will be elections for
the european parliament, Flemish Council, Council of the Walloon Region,
German Community Council, Council of the Brussels-Capital Region.

Public space will be full of poster of the political parties.
As we know politcs are evolving towards easy one-liners, visual appearance
- election promises without practical execution.

But the biggest danger is extreme right.
Vlaams blok has a clear vison, “foreigners out”.
Because of their racist point of view, they were comdamned in court.
But at election time, they are convinced of winning.
Politics you don’t fight in courts but in elections - they express the voice of the people,
said the Vlaams Blok.
So for hasseling people, they reacted immediately with a campaign
with as one-liner a very basic right of democratic societies “freedom of speech”,.
As if racist views are not a voilation of the human rights in a democracy.

The media, give this issue too much visual exposure.
There used to be a “cordon sanitaire”, for the Vlaams blok,
no negation, no communication, as if they didn’t existed..
But now they are considered as an other political playmate,
they are getting airtime.

Is this airtime also public space ? post.common wealth ?
Maybe we need to re-think the public space as a medium.
Find a way where people claim back their human right ‘freedom of speech’.

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www.vlaamsblok.be
belgium.indymedia.org/
www.gelijkekansen.vlaanderen.be/

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Interesting hack of public space in Heath Bunting and Kayle Brandon RED NET. “RED#NET intends to be a multi-functional, permeable, portable surface that
reroutes and reapplies public space.” Here’s a pic of using string between objects to make a makeshift public hammock/chair!

Nice site on Pattern Languages for changing interior and exterior spaces. The link about cities is relevant to the workshop because it shows how you identify aspects of a city space - such as quiet spaces, pedestrian vs machine space (cars and people), and more. Also the Pedestrian Network how tos are interesting!

Life: a user’s manual’ is a series of public performances and online mappings that examine the hidden stories captured by private wireless CCTV streams and how they intersect with the visible world around us.
www.ubermatic.org/life

Acheological research has proved that there was human settlement in Ghent during prehistoric times. Only later, in the Roman period, the nucleus of a city began to grow near the confluence of the two rivers Scheldt and Leie. (The flemish name ‘Gent’ is probably derived from the Celtic ‘Ganda’, which meant confluence).

www.trabel.com/gent-history.htm

This project uses a street in Dublin as a venue for public art. Via 2 is a large scale public exhibition of visual art situated in places that people visit everyday such as their local café, thrift store or fast food outlet, offering its viewers a unique opportunity to experience art as an integral part of their everyday experience.

Via 2 will consist of non-permanent artistic interventions making reference to their readymade surroundings.  The Camden Street location reflects new and exciting changes taking place in Irish society as a whole.  Camden Street is an immensely interesting and diverse place, steeped in local history yet constantly in a state of change.  It is a perfect location in which to situate site-specific and transient artworks.

Log on to via.ie for images, more information and regular updates.

The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a research organization involved in exploring, examining, and understanding land and landscape issues. The Center employs a variety of methods to pursue its mission - engaging in research, classification, extrapolation, and exhibition.

More info:
http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/mission/mission.html