jeff watson

Duncan Speakman’s As if it were for the last time is a soundwalk and street performance wherein audiences are “invited to download an MP3 and turn up at a secret location to listen to the track at a specified time.” Speakman calls this a “subtlemob”; in contrast to flash mobs, participants in subtlemobs are urged to “try to remain invisible” throughout the event by blending into the normal flow of a busy urban space. Consequently, much of the power and poetry of projects like As if it were for the last time lie in their ability to make participants hyper-aware of their surroundings and their roles in the performance of everyday life. As one participant put it, “it was like you were given permission to look — at the people who weren’t doing it.”

From the project’s page at subtlemob.com):

When you put on the headphones you’ll find yourself immersed in the cinema of everyday life. As the soundtrack swells people in the crowd around you will begin to re-enact the England of today. Sometimes you’ll just be drifting and watching, but sometimes you’ll be following instructions or creating the scenes yourself. Don’t worry, there will be nothing illegal or embarrassing, sometimes you might be re-enacting moments you’ve seen in films, sometimes you’ll just be playing yourself. This is no requiem, this a celebratory slow dance, a chance to savour the world you live in, and to see it with fresh eyes. (subtlemob.com)

Playwright and tech enthusiast Hannah Nicklin’s writeup:

This evening I took part in a sound walk-come-performance called ‘As if it Were the Last Time’. It was devised by Duncan Speakman and was put on by subtlemob. It took place on a small number of streets near Covent Garden. It was a (performance? Experience? Neither of these words do -) for two people. We were provided with a map, an mp3, and told to set it going at 6pm on the dot. My critical vocabulary is already struggling with this piece, because it really was very individual. That was the point. For each and every person who took part, the performance (for want of a more accurate word) was theirs. Entirely. And not, in staged theatre, as each audience member receiving the piece from a different perspective. This was each participant doing. The movements, the characters the gestures, the reflection in the shop windows and puddles, and the touch of someone’s hand on a shoulder, were all completely yours. Of your making. (Hannah Nicklin)

News of subtlemob events: http://twitter.com/subtlemob

Chicago’s Version 2010 (April 22 to May 2, 2010) is “now seeking proposals and presentations about tactics and strategies that help sustain our communities, find better uses of our resources, and maintain and expand our networks.”

For eleven days and nights, we will explore the best practices and boldest failures in interventionist, participatory, and collective social, political, and cultural practices. This year’s theme is presented in order to bring together groups and individuals seeking additional methods for connecting our networks and creating solid foundations for the practice of art, education and social activism well into the next decade. We want to use this opening during the current economic and political crisis to expand and amplify our shared ideals, values and strategies for survival and expansion. (Version 10 CFP)

Submissions are programmed under themed “platforms.”

• Free University
• Live Musical Performances
• The Chicago Art Parade
• Performance/ Interventions/ Mobile Projects
• A Catalog of Strategies
• the NFO XPO
• Version Group Exhibition
• Curatorial Projects
• Underground Multiplex (Film/Video)
• Printervention
• Web Selections
• The Other

Submission form here. See also the related call for papers from Proximity Magazine: “A Catalog of Strategies.”

Via @glowlab

Dan Hill at City of Sound recently announced the next iteration of Postopolis, which will run this Spring in Los Angeles. Viz:

I’m hugely pleased to be able to announce another Postopolis, this time in Los Angeles, running from Tuesday, March 31, to Saturday, April 4, 2009. Two years after the first, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in NYC and co-ordinated by BLDGBLOG, Subtopia, Inhabitat and City of Sound – here’s a snapshot of that – we now have a different line-up of organisers/curators, covering a little bit more of the globe and an equally diverse set of interests:

• David Basulto from Plataforma Arquitectura and ArchDaily (Santiago, Chile)
• Jace Clayton from Mudd Up! (New York City, USA)
• Régine Debatty from we make money not art (Paris, France)
• Bryan Finoki from Subtopia (San Francisco, USA)
• Me from, well, here, City of Sound (Sydney, Australia)
• Geoff Manaugh from BLDGBLOG (San Francisco, USA)

We’ll be taking the same broad brushstrokes approach to architecture and urbanism as last time and selecting a diverse set of SoCal-flavoured attractions for you. More details to follow, including the line-up of speakers and the precise details of the location. Polynodal LA makes picking the location a different challenge to NYC, but we’re nearly there. Either way, it’ll be free to the public, as easy to get to as LA makes it, and running from 1700 to 2300 each day.

And I hereby publicly promise to attempt to capture the proceedings as I did last time (though those who were there in New York will have noted I ran out of steam on the last day or so – eternal apologies to those with unfinished write-ups). Can’t wait – the last time I visited LA it prompted more than a few thoughts. And if it’s good enough for Reyner Banham, it’s good enough for me.

Postopolis! LA is sponsored by the Storefront for Art and Architecture and ForYourArt, to whom we are very grateful, and it will be part of Los Angeles Art Weekend. Postopolis LA logo by Joe Alterio. (city of sound)

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

via Architectradure.

Christopher Rauschenberg writes:

Eugene Atget documented Paris from 1888 until his death in 1927. Like many people, I consider him to have been the greatest photographer of all time. Atget straightforwardly documented the city with photographs that give you the feeling that all the transitory things that people do and are have washed away, leaving only their transcendent accomplishments.

On a 1989 trip to Paris, I suddenly found myself face to face with a spiral-topped gatepost that I knew very well from a beautiful photograph by Atget (the photograph on the left). I rephotographed his gatepost from memory (the photograph on the right) and wondered how many other Atget subjects might still be holding their poses.

There, among the things and places that Atget had admired, I resolved to return and do a rephotographic exploration to discover if the haunting and beautiful Paris of Atget’s vision still existed. (lensculture.com)

A selected archive of Atget’s photographs is hosted at George Eastman House.

Geoff at bldgblog articulates what makes living in Los Angeles so confounding, liberating and existentially raw:

Los Angeles is where you confront the objective fact that you mean nothing; the desert, the ocean, the tectonic plates, the clear skies, the sun itself, the Hollywood Walk of Fame – even the parking lots: everything there somehow precedes you, even new construction sites, and it’s bigger than you and more abstract than you and indifferent to you. You don’t matter. You’re free. (bldgblog)

Hat tip: E.G.

More/tangent: Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear

One of the projects I’m working on involves crowdsourcing video clips to construct a database for a “recombinant city symphony.” I thought it would be useful to go back and look at some of the classics of the genre as touchstones for tone and structure. Viz:

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Paul Strand, Manhatta (1921)

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René Clair, Paris qui dort (1925)

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Walter Ruttman, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)

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Joris Ivens, Regen (1929)

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Dziga Vertov, Man With A Movie Camera (1929)

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Jean Vigo, Apropos de Nice (1930)

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Jay Leyda, A Bronx Morning (1931)

Edit: Added Manhatta by Paul Strand.

Hong Kong architectural photographs by Michael Wolf

Check out this great photoset by Flickr user and virtual flâneur Matthew Johnston comparing locations in New York City to their virtual counterparts in Grand Theft Auto IV’s Liberty City (hat tip: teleclinica).

I’ve been playing GTA IV over the past week and am extremely impressed by the depth of the game, both as a satirical city/culture sim and as a compelling multithreaded narrative. And despite the usual outrage that accompanies a GTA release, the reviews in the mainstream press (and everywhere else — the game rates an incredible 98/100 on metacritic.com) suggest that this iteration of the series is something of a watershed moment for gaming. The Onion A/V club, for example, went so far as to compare the game to the much-lauded TV series, The Wire. Here are a few more perspectives, sampled from major press outlets:

NYT: Grand Theft Auto Takes On New York

Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. (New York Times)

Slate: It’s Not Just About Killing Hookers Anymore

Each player will encounter a million different facets of this virtual world at his own pace and in his own unique order. It’s the sort of experience that you can’t get from any other medium, and no game has ever done it better than GTA IV. The reputation of the series might be too far gone for nongamers and politicians to appreciate the depth and richness of this amazing game. But Grand Theft Auto IV is not an orgy of death. It’s a living, breathing place—and when you’re forced to kill, it’s nothing to celebrate. (Slate)

The Guardian: How Grand Theft Auto smashed the system

At the heart of it all, there is a modern interpretation of the American Dream as immigrant experience. Lead character Niko Bellic is a Serbian national with a violent military past who arrives in Liberty City via a rusted container ship. He is the archetypal outsider, striving to start a new life in the Land of the Free; a Vito Corleone for the 21st century. There are also themes of ethnicity, race and identity in contemporary America, of heritage and culture, of the struggle to fit in. When Niko arrives, he’s quickly forced to assimilate into an Eastern European criminal underworld. For him, there is no escape from the old life, the old country.

Of course, all this stuff lurks in the background and doesn’t have to interfere with the anarchic action. Plenty of people might play the game without ever realising its true complexity – but it might give you something to think about the next time you launch an RPG down a crowded Liberty City street. (The Guardian)

New York magazine asked four architects to dream up proposals for a lot on Canal Street and Work AC came up with this. “We thought we’d bring the farm back to the city and stretch it vertically,” says Work AC co-principal Dan Wood. “We are interested in urban farming and the notion of trying to make our cities more sustainable by cutting the miles [food travels],” adds his co-principal (and wife) Amale Andraos. Underneath is what appears to be a farmers market, selling what grows above. Artists would be commissioned to design the columns that hold it up and define the space under: “We show a Brancusi, but it could be anyone,” says Wood. (treehugger)

Ground-up City. Play as a Design Tool maps the continuing history of an urban design strategy for play in the city. Liane Lefaivre has developed a theoretical model for tackling playgrounds as an urban strategy. She steps off from a historical overview of play and the ludic in art, architecture and urban design, focusing particularly on the post-war playgrounds realized in Amsterdam as joint ventures between Aldo van Eyck, Cornelis van Eesteren and Jakoba Mulder.

The architecture firm Döll – Atelier voor Bouwkunst explored the possibility of applying the model in two urban redevelopment areas in Rotterdam, Oude Westen in the inner city and Meeuwenplaat in Hoogvliet, an outlying postwar district, refining it into a practical design strategy.

A second layer in the book gives an inspirational and refreshing new look at play in a picture essay with a welter of reference images illustrating play as an urban phenomenon.

Ground-up City places the playground high on the agenda as an urban design challenge. It also shows how specifying a generic, academic model for a particular situation can lead to a practically applicable design resource. (010publishers.nl)

More info, review and links: WMMNA

As the second phase of The City of the Future challenge, IBM and The History Channel, in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), challenged engineering students in NYC, Chicago and LA to propose innovative engineering solutions that will sustain our great cities in the 22nd century.

The students had 5 weeks to develop their solutions before presenting their proposals to the panels of esteemed jurors at IBM offices in each city. Each team exhibited extraordinary vision and innovation but only one team in each city was named winner. The jurors voted and the IBM Engineers of the Future are… (history.com)

Outdoor digital projection in urban environments is a great method for getting your content up big before the eyes and in the minds of your fellow city inhabitants. This tutorial comes out of trial and error and it works. (Instructables: Projection Bombing)