Performing Public Space

La Casa del Tunél
Calle Chapo Márquez 133
Colonia Federal, Tijuana BC Mexico

Saturday, March 20
Closing Party

2:00 pm: Fallen Fruit: Acción Fruta Urbana
4:30 pm: Lauren Bon: Tia Juana Day
7:00 pm: Portable City Projects: People’s Café Dance Party
7:30 pm: John Geary: A Touch of Evil

“As towns and cities are increasingly overwritten by the needs and desires of globalized capital, so public spaces and the behaviors they support are becoming evermore shrunken and controlled. At the same time however, everyday examples of common usage – a skate boarder curving past a crowd, a girl chopping and bagging melon on the sidewalk, a child dancing up a mountain of steps – counterpoint homogenization and regulation.

Curated by Owen Driggs, Performing Public Space (PPS) is both a celebration of artists who consciously adopt such tactics and instrumentalize their bodies in an effort to bend, expand, or puncture dominant spatial narratives, and an inquiry into the ways in which public space is articulated through real use.

Like tumbleweed, the inquiry is designed to pick up more material as it roams. Understanding that, despite the strategies of corporate commerce, local spatial conditions vary, at each place it visits PPS will work with local citizens to create a city-specific archive. Documenting both quotidian uses of public space and witting artist interventions the archives will be included in the exhibition and become part of a growing website that considers local, national, and international interpretations of ‘public space’ and approaches to its preservation, generation, and augmentation.”

Lauren BON
FALLEN FRUIT
FINISHING SCHOOL
John GEARY
Anne HARS & Bill
WHEELOCK
Ari KLETZKY
Paul PESCADOR
Nancy POPP
PORTABLE CITY PROJECTS
Jane TSONG
L.A. URBAN RANGERS

[Text and graphic from organization. Caption: "'Ryan, Freerunner, 2009.' Owen Driggs." Cross-posted to The Data Stream.]

dala
Durban, South Africa
ongoing project: spaza-de-move-on

In the early 60s ‘café-de-move-ons’ could be seen wherever there were substantial numbers of African workers or passers by in need of refreshment. Vendors were frequently arrested in police raids and fined or imprisoned.

Since apartheid, South Africa witnessed the phenomenon of urbanization. Thousands of workers move daily from the township’s into the cities for their livelihood. This has given rise to the re-birth of the trade in refreshments, loose cigarettes, sweets and chips along pedestrian routes. Similarly these vendors too face victimisation by the powers that be.

The spaza-de-move-on is a design response to the need for an efficient, easily transportable solution for these vendors. Its evolution, involved bottom-up collaboration with Moses Gwiba – a street vendor – who Doung has formed a relationship over a number of years of walking in the city of Durban. His hail “when you make something for me?” sparked the inspiration for this South African solution.

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dala is an interdisciplinary creative collective that believes in the transformative role of creativity in building safer and more liveable cities. dala emerged as a response to the growing need for a sustainable space for creative practitioners actively engaging in the production of art / architecture for social change in eThekwini. dala believes that sustainable change can only happen through democratic participation and collaboration. dala therefore facilitates creative initiatives between creative practitioners from a variety of backgrounds (artists, architects, researchers, performers, urban planners, designers), the municipality and most importantly the people and organisations that live and work within and around the city. dala’s initiatives all revolve around re-imagining the use and expression in and of public space.

Founders, Doung Jahangeer, Rike Sitas and Nontobeko Ntombela have been working on similar initiatives individually and collectively for close to ten years. The strength of dala lies in the interdisciplinary skills the founders bring to the organisation – Doung (architect), Rike (social scientist), Nonto (curator). All three are practicing artists and educators who have been involved in a number of local and international projects and exhibitions.

[Text and graphic from dala website. Cross-posted to The Data Stream.]

ISIS Arts
5 Charlotte Square
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Thursday, October 1 6 – 8pm
Maia Urstad

“Maia Urstad works at the intersection of audio and visual art. Maia’s work involves integrating sound into specific locations. Recent practice includes outdoor and indoor sound installations and performances, using CD and cassette-radios for both sound transmission and as sculptural objects, commenting on the temporary nature of present technology. The sound-textures for these projects are made from found/concrete sound sources, particularly signals from radio broadcast and telecommunication. At present she is investigating multi-channel FM transmissions sent to multiple radios as sound installations and performances.”

[text and graphic from Facebook event page. Cross-posted to The Data Stream.]

Signal Fire is worried that New York is SCREWED!
http://nypost-se.com

The annual springtime arts festival Version brings artists, musicians and educators together to present and discuss challenging ideas and art initiatives. This year, the ten-day festival showcases Immodest Proposals to change and improve social, political and cultural frameworks. The festival includes the NFO XPO exposition/art fair, temporary shelter projects, an art parade, public interventions, video screenings and a variety of other activities.

Version Festival 09: Immodest Proposals will take place April 23- May 2, 2009 in Chicago, IL.

Check out their blog for updates and pictures from past Version festivals.

Today’s New York Times features a link to a March 3  article by David Leonhardt on U.S. unemployment rates with an accompanying interactive map, captioned “Geography of a Recession.” The graphic speaks volumes. Data visualization increasingly shapes our view of the world.

article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/business/04leonhardt.html
map: Geography of a Recession

[From 826 Valencia, the brilliant writing|education initiative disguised as a Pirate Store:]

March 6 | 4–7 m
49 Stories

“Please join us for an evening of interactive storytelling as we launch “49 Stories,” the result of a collaboration between students from John O’Connell High School, new media artists JD Beltran + Scott Minneman, author Stephen Elliott, and 826 Valencia.

Student authors will read their work from this exciting new project, which allows viewers to immerse themselves in stories throughout the 49-square-mile geography of San Francisco by interacting with a “story table” that fuses maps, text, images, and even the storytellers’ own

“49 Stories” will be exhibited at 826 Valencia from noon to 6 pm every day, from March 6th through March 20th.”

[photo from Onomy Labs, developers of the story table. Best wishes to colleagues Scott and J.D.! Note cross-posted to the Data Stream.]