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Did you hear the one about the city as software platform? A group of NYU students has taken a more oppositional approach, posting a series of simple computer commands to address gentrification, development and neighborhood preservation.
Re-blogged from the wonderful Social Design Notes.
(Anne Elizabeth Moore is an author, editor, artist, teacher, and Groundswell guest blogger. She divides her time between Chicago and Cambodia, where she teaches young women the art of self-publishing.)
I’ve been talking to the artist Sarah Lewison about some time she spent living in Berlin lately. In honor of the 20 year fall of the Wall today, I specifically asked her what she remembered about the East.
Some how, I don’t remember how, I met a few girls from the east who invited me to visit them in East Berlin. Likely, they were a connection through someone in the West—family members who introduced us, because I was curious to go east. At that time it was very cumbersome for an American to cross. I had to pay 5 marks to cross over at Checkpoint Charlie. I remember going with the two girls to a gigantic restaurant for “tea”. there were carts rolling around with really opulent cakes. It felt like we were in a movie, in the 50s. The girls I was visiting were quite hip, had good english and expressed the thought that the most oppressive part about living in the DDR was the fact they could not travel freely and with that, the separation of families.
The comic above is from an outdoor installation of comics currently at the site of the future Berlin Wall Memorial, an engaging public art installation called Da War Mal Was. Comics? Outside? For real? It’s pretty great. This image details the “Westernization” of East Berlin, a process quickly embraced by giant soda manufacturers. (On that subject, I wrote a piece this morning on 20 years of Berlin Wall sales in the US, which might lend some interesting fodder for discussion about how resistance to capitalism gets sold anyway.)
(Artist and Groundswell guest blogger Chris Kennedy makes projects for the land and for situated communities. His ongoing projects include Artiscycle, Groups and Spaces, and the Institute for Applied Aesthetics.)
Yesterday while I was browsing the NY Art Book Fair at PS1 I ran into a SurvivaBalls™ prototype for the new Yes Men Movie: Yes Men Fix the World. SurvivaBalls™ save managers from abrupt climate change. An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible. So amazing! They are looking for cities and community partners to organize screenings! Find out more here.
Our comrade Josh over at the incredible JustSeeds.org recently posted an extensive book list of post-WWII political poster art. This list covers everything from a catalogue of Mark Rudin (Jihad Mansour) posters:
To a collection of work by the Dutch squatting movement and the “autonomous” left:
I cannot overstate how great this list is. It’s perfect for someone looking to round out their library or start one. Check out the full list here.
(Artist and Groundswell guest blogger Chris Kennedy makes projects for the land and for situated communities. His ongoing projects include Artiscycle, Groups and Spaces, and the Institute for Applied Aesthetics.)
The annual Conflux festival starts today in New York City…oddly sponsored by NYU an institutional monopoly of real estate and education in New York. But there are some great workshops to check out! Particularly Steve Lambert’s College of Tactical Culture: The CTC is a think tank on creative activism led by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert, where participants traded experiences in order to inform practices, build relationships, and create space for new projects and collaborations.
Conflux is the annual New York festival for contemporary psychogeography, the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological and social practice. At Conflux, visual and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers and the public gather for four days to explore their urban environment.
