ARCHIVING THE CITY

for the city yet to come

Archive for April, 2011

foolish journeys documentation

Posted on April 23, 2011

Yesterday’s performance of Foolish Journeys went very well. First, participants came in and signed the book, and then they were given pamphlets (made from a single letter-sized sheet folded in half twice), which contained the Foolish Journeys orientation text. Then they were given a reading, using my deck of cards, laid out on a tablecloth made of cut up pieces of the official MTA New York City subway maps. The tablecloth was pieced together to create an impossible geography of New York,with some segments of the city repeated, mirrored and distorted, as in a dream. After the reading, participants were asked to choose the card they would most like to focus upon and encounter in their lives. Once this card was chosen, I scattered…

foolish journeys

Posted on April 21, 2011

This evening, April 21, as part of Urban Undercurrents at the New School, I am presenting “Foolish Journeys,” a participatory performance, in which I will read tarot cards for inquiring hearts. Foolish Journeys begins from Jacques Derrida’s distinction between the future and l’avenir: “the future is… predictable, programmed, scheduled, forseeable. But there is a future, l’avenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected…totally unpredictable. The Other…” The tarot is also called “The Fool’s Journey,” in which a seeker sets out in blissful ignorance, to meet the Other and reach the World. The tarot is a guide to encountering l’avenir. If l’avenir is the meeting with the Other, the unknown, the unpredictable future, then we might lock eyes with…

the danger is really there

Posted on April 20, 2011

Interviewer: Do you ever examine yourself to say, ‘why are you so fearless, compared to other people?’

AW: [laughing] I am so fearful! That’s not fearless. I am more fearful than other people, maybe. That’s why I act more brave: because I know the danger is really there. If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger. 

fairytale

Posted on April 18, 2011

In 2007, for his invited exhibition at the art fair, Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany, Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei did a strange thing. He put out a call on his blog (which was shut down in 2009 by Chinese authorities) asking for 1001 Chinese people to accompany him to the art fair in Kassel. When I was invited by Documenta, I didn’t want to do a conventional work like painting or sculpture, but rather do a work which directly relates to the real lives of ordinary people… Then the idea came to bring 1,001 Chinese people to view the exhibition as audience, and create a work of itself. The basic concept behind the work is to create a condition which encourages self experience and extends people’s participation…

the living room is open

Posted on April 17, 2011

The Living Room(s), a “non-space for exhibitions, performance and discursive events in Amsterdam West,” is an exciting new venture of my friends, musicians Anat Spiegel and Thomas Mymel, along with curator, Yael Messer and writer, Gilad Reich. According to their website,  The Livingroom(s) is not a modular space- adapting to host a variety of activities; but a variety of activities adapting to the diverse spaces offered to us by sympathetic property owners, shop owners, squatters, buurtcentrums, and artists: like-minded people with a burning desire to see the cohesion of the neighborhood grow. Together we can critically examine our surroundings, create new relationships with our neighbors, and revel in the knowledge of each others perspective. If you are in Amsterdam Saturday, April 23, check out their kickoff…

terrible karma documentation

Posted on April 17, 2011

Here are some images of Terrible Karma, the project I did in collaboration with geographer and curator Merle Patchett, on March 25, 2011, as part of the citywide commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, the deadliest industrial disaster in New York history.  All photos were taken by Merle Patchett. For more images of the event, visit her site.

shhh! geographer at work

Posted on April 4, 2011

Last week, my friend Tom Croll-Knight, sent out this recording, which was played on the BBC. Tom is a researcher, sound artist, producer and DJ, currently living in Paris and working on the doctorate in Human Geography at The University of Sheffield, UK. This particular recording includes his field recordings of various locations in Paris, along with his own commentary, in rhyme no less! Listen up: Now this is urban research we can all get down with!

re-inscribing the city

Posted on April 2, 2011

Hey New York, I’m participating in this panel discussion next weekend, which promises to be interesting. Come out and participate, if you’re in town! Re-Inscribing the City: Unitary Urbanism and it’s Legacy Panel Discussion April 9th , 4:15-5:45pm WHERE: Judson Memorial Church (balcony) 55 Washington Square South, NYC A panel for the 5th Annual Anarchist Book Fair. From the late 1950s until about the early 1970s, a group of poets, artists, architects, students and troublemakers known as the Lettrrist/Situationist International (LI/SI) made a desperate attempt to re-inscribe the European city so that its inhabitants could break free from the bleak urban routine of work and consumption. Today some artists are still attempting to break from urban alienation, while operating on the periphery of the establishment,…

  

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