Hi everyone,
Hope you’re all continuing to hang in there during these wildly unsettling
times and finding ways to prioritise wellbeing.
I have a project coming up in Munich this summer (the one thing that is not
cancelled!) and since the topics I’m engaging with have been regularly brought
up on Netbehaviour I wanted to share some material with you all and see if
anyone has some input for me, too…
The project is a commission for a rather admirable annual series of ephemeral
artworks in public space in Munich, Germany. My initial proposal was to do a
kind of anti-advertising advertising campaign using billboards in public space
to dig into the erosion of public space through commercialisation and
privatisation. But since the lockdowns have hit (and the accompanying collapse
of commercialisation in daily life) I’ve shifted to thinking more about the
ways that public space are used when capitalism is suspended, which also leads
to thinking about more hopeful speculations on the public space and green space
we would want in a more ideal future.
Basically, if shopping malls and high streets are closed, the parks are full.
The problem, obviously, isn’t that there’s too many people but rather that
there’s too little public space. This shift reveals more starkly truths we
already knew about the socially stratified access to space. The less private
space you own, the more you need public space. The more you need public space,
often, the less access you have to it. In the last few months we’ve seen
‘hoarding’ (or, as the Germans charmingly call it, ‘hamstering’) of basics like
toilet paper, flour, and yeast - but the green and leafy neighbourhoods of the
wealthy have been hoarding public space for centuries.
I’ve got a collection of links here for people who might be interested.
https://www.daphnedragona.net/projects/mapping-the-commons
<https://www.daphnedragona.net/projects/mapping-the-commons>
https://gehlpeople.com/blog/public-space-plays-vital-role-in-pandemic/
<https://gehlpeople.com/blog/public-space-plays-vital-role-in-pandemic/>
https://www.riai.ie/whats-on/news/adapting-our-urban-environments-to-covid-19
<https://www.riai.ie/whats-on/news/adapting-our-urban-environments-to-covid-19>
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2020/05/02/lessons-of-urban-mobility-and-inequality-during-a-pandemic/
<http://spacing.ca/toronto/2020/05/02/lessons-of-urban-mobility-and-inequality-during-a-pandemic/>
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-no-torontos-problem-isnt-too-many-people-going-outside-its-too/
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-no-torontos-problem-isnt-too-many-people-going-outside-its-too/>
https://www.politico.eu/article/helped-on-by-the-coronavirus-covid19-brussels-battles-its-car-culture/
<https://www.politico.eu/article/helped-on-by-the-coronavirus-covid19-brussels-battles-its-car-culture/>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/22/lockdown-coronavirus-crisis-right-to-roam
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/22/lockdown-coronavirus-crisis-right-to-roam>
***
http://historyofpublicspace.uk/ <http://historyofpublicspace.uk/>
https://landforthemany.uk/ <https://landforthemany.uk/>
I’d really appreciate it if anyone has some other links to articles they think
I should read - perhaps we can build a bit of a shared library of resources
about public space, the commons and how it relates to post-Corona living. And
I’d appreciate it even more if you’d briefly share your thoughts about how the
use of public space has changed, or what ‘message in a bottle’ you’d like to
send to the public about how to reimagine or reclaim public space. Both online
and offline! Although I must admit that I am currently working from the
understanding that all truly public space is offline.
Would love to hear from you!
All my best,
Gretta
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