Friday, November 27. 2009
Native Land, Stop Eject, Copenhagen, December 2009.
Created by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Native Land, Stop Eject explores the meaning of sedentariness and nomadism today, an epoch in which human migration flows are taking place on an unprecedented scale. The international COP15 conference on climate change organized by the United Nations and taking place in Copenhagen from December 7-18, 2009 attests to this critical moment in history, where the environment conditions what humans do, what they will become, and where they will live.
Native Land, Stop Eject thus proposes a reflection on the notions of being rooted and uprooted, as well as related questions of identity in two works created especially for the exhibition. Filmmaker Raymond Depardon gives a voice to those who wish to remain on their land but are threatened with exile. Philosopher Paul Virilio, in collaboration with the artists architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Mark Hansen, and Laura Kurgan, examines and challenges new trends in contemporary human movement due to environmental, political, and economic factors.
Personal comment:
An exhibition about climate and migration by Paul Virilio and Raymond Depardon.
Tuesday, November 24. 2009
L'extension sur le territoire parisien du plan de caméras de la préfecture a été voté lundi soir par le PS, l'UMP et le Nouveau Centre. Contre les Verts et le PC.
L'extension du plan de vidéosurveillance de la préfecture de police à Paris a été votée lundi soir au conseil de Paris au terme d'un débat long et animé qui s'est conclu par un scrutin électronique.
Après trois heures de séance, la délibération de la mairie autorisant cette extension sur le territoire parisien a été votée par 112 voix pour (PS, UMP et Centre et indépendants) et 16 voix contre (les Verts et le PCF) ainsi que 4 abstentions.
L'exécutif, malgré les protestations du président des Verts, Sylvain Garel, a fait voter un amendement de fusion des 1000 amendements déposés par les Verts, afin d'empêcher que le débat ne s'éternise après que chacun eut exposé son point de vue.
Les Verts, partie prenante de la majorité de gauche au conseil de Paris, considèrent ce texte comme "un piège que la droite tend à la majorité parisienne" et se sont opposés à ce projet "voulu par Hortefeux et Sarkozy".
Le maire PS, Bertrand Delanoë, avait souhaité un débat "serein et honnête", estimant que "l'insécurité est à bien des égards une injustice sociale".
Le préfet de police, Michel Gaudin, a souligné que l'Etat allait "consentir en faveur des Parisiens le plus gros investissement français en matière de vidéoprotection", l'Etat finançant environ 95% de l'investissement et la quasi totalité du fonctionnement.
M. Gaudin a cité une étude de l'inspection générale de l'administration (sur 9 ans de statistiques) selon laquelle "dans les communes qui s'en sont dotées, la délinquance diminue presque deux fois plus vite que dans celles qui n'en ont pas". Un rapport dont les conclusions sont critiquées par les opposants à la vidéosurveillance.
L'investissement est évalué "entre 80 et 100 M EUR" pour un partenariat public-privé, soit sur 15 ans une évaluation à "200-250 MEUR" (investissement et fonctionnement), selon M. Gaudin.
La Ville participera modestement à hauteur de 5 M EUR (subvention d'investissement) à ce plan, alors que le budget annuel municipal des actions de prévention à Paris est de 200 M EUR.
(source AFP)
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Via Libération
Personal comment:
On peut une fois encore se poser la question de savoir ce qu'il advient de l'espace public "surveillé", lorsque celui-ci est surveillé par un partenariat "public-privé" ou même dans certain cas par des entreprises privées auxquelles l'Etat passe commande... Cette portion d'espace surveillée n'est de tout évidence plus un espace public au sens où on pouvait l'entendre jusqu'ici, ce n'est pas non plus un espace privé. Alors, qu'est-ce?
Monday, November 23. 2009
Tonight in Cambridge, Massachusetts, New Geographies will be kicking off its second issue, "Landscapes of Energy," with a launch party and panel discussion. The new issue includes many contributors, ranging from Kazys Varnelis and Mirko Zardini to the Center for Land Use Interpretation and Carola Hein, and it was edited by Rania Ghosn.
[Image: Some page spreads from the new issue, designed by Thumb].
Things kick off at 5pm tonight—Friday, November 20—in Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Harvard. Be sure to stop in and say hello!
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Via BLDGBLOG
Personal comment:
Signaled by Geoff Manaugh from BLDBLOG: the launch of the second issue of a magazine (New Geographies) about speculative/critical geography that looks interesting.
Friday, November 20. 2009
Image courtesy of Public Earth
Imagine being able to find all the great public art in the world, and then finding out all about it! After more than a year of development, The PublicEarth Project is proud to announce the launch of a new website –www.publicearth.com. PublicEarth is “the Wiki for Places,” and is dedicated to delivering interesting, unique and up-to-date place information in a personalized way. PublicEarth offers an ever-expanding database of nearly 5 million places, across 400 categories — including public art.
Global explorer Duncan McCall created PublicEarth after years of traveling the world, sharing information with fellow travelers on paper maps, while trying to avoid difficult border crossings and, occasionally, landmine fields. Popular information was always easy to come by, but the really valuable information was not. The problem extended to the urban landscape: “Web search results are dominated with businesses and restaurants,” says McCall. “I want to be able to find interesting things about where I’m going—where can I go for a walk and see something unique, something I wouldn’t even know to search for? We created PublicEarth to be the one source for everything that is interesting about where you are right now, or where you’re going.”
David Hose, the Chairman and CEO of PublicEarth and a long-time veteran of both geographic information systems and the mobile industry, saw a need for a comprehensive database of detailed long-tail information, and wanted to connect it systematically with more popular searches. Ultimately that data should flow to all of the worlds’ GPS devices, mobile phones and mapping applications.
“We knew that we had to launch with a sizable database. But we also knew that the millions of places we have right now make up less than 1% of the mapable places in the world. So we are providing easy to use tools that allow anyone to add places that they find interesting or important,” says Hose, “It will take time to be anywhere close to complete, but we have a remarkable start.”
PublicEarth has spent the last year working with numerous ’special interest’ communities, providing features they requested, and helping them incorporate their specific information needs into the database. Their goals were to expose their unique content to a broader audience, and make it more accessible. For instance, PublicEarth offers simple widgets that allow communities to bring their content back to their own websites, but also add value by connecting it to complimentary and relevant nearby places.
Public art is a growing community of individuals and organizations who are utilizing the new service. Jack Becker, Executive Director, Forecast Public Art and publisher of Public Art Review comments, “PublicEarth has unlimited potential for deepening the experience of appreciating and interpreting public art worldwide. It will revolutionize the way future generations learn who artists are, what they do, and how they contribute their creativity to the public realm.”
A broad variety of communities have been working with PublicEarth, including: Trailer Life Directory, the most complete listing of RV parks in North America, and sister organization of the GoodSam Club; Ghosthound.com, a listing of haunted places throughout New England; and Forecast Public Art, publisher of Public Art Review, the respected source of information on public art worldwide.
Text courtesy of Public Earth
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Via Northern Lights
Friday, November 13. 2009
© The Berg
German architect Jakob Tigges has projected a new and visionary landmark in Berlin. He plans to build a mountain of 1,000 meters high called “The Berg”, which would become a never-before-seen tourist destination in the German capital city. Seen at Plataforma Arquitectura. More images and description after the break.
© The Berg
The objective is to create a natural habitat for the mountain’s wildlife and at the same time, become a recreation space for everyone in the city. “The Berg” would take the place of the Tempelhof Airport, a space currently under discussion. Surprisingly, there’s a big group supporting “The Berg” and people are pressing to get the approval and financing of the project.
© The Berg
The Berg Manifesto:
While big and wealthy cities in many parts of the world challenge the limits of possibility by building gigantic hotels with fancy shapes, erecting sky-high offce towers or constructing hovering philharmonic temples, Berlin sets up a decent mountain. Its peak exceeds 1000 metres and is covered with snow from September to March…
Hamburg, as stiff as fat, turns green with envy, rich and once proud Munich starts to feel ashamed of its distant Alp-panorama and planners of the Middle-East, experienced in taking the spell off any kind of architectural utopia immediately design authentic copies of the iconic Berlin-Mountain. Tempelhof no longer only is on Berliners’ minds: People come in focks to – not to see the mountain. Thus,
Come and see The Berg!
© The Berg
© The Berg
© The Berg
© The Berg
© The Berg
© The Berg
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Via ArchDaily
Personal comment:
Projet totalement irréaliste bien entendu. Par contre l'idée d'objet urbain "paysage" est assez intéressante (d'une certaine façon cela renvoie un peu au projet de NYC de réaménagement de l'ancienne voie de métro aérien en parc public --qui serait alors le pendant réaliste de ce projet de montagne--), l'imagerie que cela génère (qui encore une fois me rappelle un projet réalisé avec Philippe Rahm pour l'Université de Neuchâtel il y a 15 ans..., déjà mentionné ici) et le système écologique-climatique également.
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