ARCHIVING THE CITY

for the city yet to come

Posts tagged “streets”

sociological party marathon

Posted on May 3, 2012

On Sunday, May 6, 2012, as part of the city-wide Delai Sam (DIY) Urban Festival, 10-15 participants will engage in a “Sociological Party-Marathon” in the Palevsky Zhilmassiv, Saint Petersburg’s oldest cooperative community. The idea is for people to open up their homes to strangers, and to enjoy food and drinks, while they discuss important aspects of life in their community. This event is a challenge to people who want to  to get out of the routine of everyday atomization—who really want to “move” in a different, and unpredictable direction. Successful movements to change cities by the residents, depend upon a strong sense of community: people recognize that they are connected, sharing histories and come together on that basis, not just because of a threat…

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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.

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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!

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terrible karma

Posted on March 22, 2011

Friday, March 25, 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which claimed the lives of 146 garment workers trapped at their machines. Most of the people who died, either consumed by flames, or jumping out of the windows on the ninth floor, were young women, recent immigrants. This is the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City. Terrible Karma is project Merle Patchett and I put together. The title - Terrible Karma – refers to both the title of a protest song sung by Cambodian female garment workers at a union rally in Phnom Penh (July 2010) and to the idea that events of the garment industry past continue to haunt the present, that they are always coming back. Merle…

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tel aviv in wartime

Posted on January 21, 2011

It is July 2006, and Israel is at war again with Lebanon. Terrible waves of shelling sweep over densely populated south Beirut and the Israeli army enters southern Lebanon. Small mines, shaped and colored like toys rain from Israeli planes into farmer’s fields, making a deadly harvest. Each day, missiles assail the northern Israeli towns closest to the border. There is little protection for Arab Israelis. Their communities are hit hard. An overwhelming silence about Lebanese casualties engulfs the country—a wall of support-our-troops-bomb-them-into-the-next-century rises up into the air. On Israeli television a few heartfelt cries to please stop the bombing come from Arab Israelis standing in the ruins of their neighborhood, places forgotten long before the war. I am in Tel Aviv, “Israel’s urban…

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speed of life

Posted on December 3, 2010

I lived on 139th street for a time. Harlem is intense. Lives move at incredible speeds, while appearing to go nowhere at all. I later learned that Big L lived his entire life on my block. He died there, six weeks before his 25th birthday. (If the video won’t play, click “Watch on youtube”) In his song “Ebonics,” is the entirety of a kind of Harlem life. At first it appears that the song is a short dictionary—a brief English-to-“criminal slang” guide–aimed at beginners. Yo pay attention/And listen real closely how I break this slang shit down He proceeds through a list: Weed smoke=lye Ki(lo) of coke = pie Lifted=High Cars=whips Sneakers=kicks But as the list goes on it seems that what I am…

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the city yet to come

Posted on August 18, 2010

In general, I try to distinguish between what one calls the future and “l’avenir.” The future is that which–tomorrow, later, next century–will be. There is a future which is predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable. But there is a future, l’avenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected. For me that is the real future: that which is totally unpredictable. The Other who comes without my being able to anticipate their arrival. So if there is a real future beyond this other known future, it is “l’avenir” in that it’s the coming of the Other, when I am completely unable to foresee their arrival. –Jacques Derrida, “derrida” (2002) If l’avenir is always the meeting of the Other, the unknown, the…

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