Vienna

Merisi's Vienna - A virtual postcard

Image: Hans Sebald Beham, 1529, Occupation of Vienna

Rome

The History of Rome is a "weekly podcast tracing the history of the Roman Empire, beginning with Aeneas's arrival in Italy and ending (someday) with the exile of Romulus Augustulus, last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire" by Mike Duncan

Drowned Rome, - enscribed in rock, Pruned

The Narratives of Places

City of Memory :Mapping New York story-telling using rich media

Two chasms: 1 to 1 and (sub) urban first life vs cyberlife

Some thoughts after watching a video presentation which is concerned about the 'dichotomy between cyberspace and real space'. (Urban Informatics: The Internet, locative media and mobile technology for urbanites, Dr Marcus Foth)

The digital chasm in Australia between the 'first world' and interactive cyberspace is gigantic. Governments invest millions in an infrastructure of 'connectivity'. Well meaning researchers attempt to facilitate virtual interaction between households. Local councils aim to encourage community between neighbours.

To lure suburbanites with material incentives (free beer, BBQ etc) to socialise with each other and possibly interact via computer-mediated communication, ends abruptly when the freebies run out.

In Australia, mainstream society, based on individual possessions is organised mostly in an sub-urban form. The attention economy of its dwellers is usually delineated by the privately owned fence posts. The 'out there', the public, civic space is usually the place to off-load the 'externalities'. Rarely do 'neighbourhoods' actively care for their immediate surroundings. In fact, people go to huge expenditures to 'buy' privacy, to seek exclusive refuge in their own 'castle'. There would have to be 'a private gain' to get the property-holder to connect with the many others. Routes of networking are inscribed through tradition: sport, family, work etc.

Civic empowerment and engagement presupposes a common good/concern, beyond the (e-) ballot box. To participate collaboratively in the world via a gestell, a will and literacies are required. Formal and informal learners stuck in sub-urbia would benefit from improving their transliteracy. Top down 'interventions' to connect a 'community' 'face to face' or/and virtually are rarely successful.

Cities, as refuges of creative classes provide productive environments to tap into pre-existing Communities of Practice. Investments in 'connectivity' and interaction design could target and facilitate participatory networks that operate with a social purpose in urban space/s or are virtually distributed.
Links:
Streetsblog, N.Y.
How to build 'passion-based virtual communities'
Wikia, 'the place for communities to come together'
i-neighbors, 'free service that brings you and your neighbors together', ca

Bits about maps, urban art, European cities and civic sites

Place bloggers can now personalise Google maps and incorporate them in their blog. Annotations, images or videos can be added to highlight places (video). Endless widgets can be added such as 'topographic elevation contours' etc.
The possibilities to mark significant places exist for environmental bloggers (note destruction, damaged trees etc). For renters, flats could be marked with price, and dis/advantages to provide counter market information to gain insights into livable habitats.

Barcelona Street Art presents urban art: graffiti,stencils and stickers of that city.

The Academy of Urbanism has added Barcelona together with Amsterdam and Berlin on their shortlist for The European City of the Year in 2008.

In Linz, Ars Electronica arranges an aerial photography on, September 8, 2007. Participants of the event and the city will be the installation for the shots from above.

Developers from My Society build open source websites “which give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives “. One of the projects is Fix My Street where you enter the civic problem and it is then redirected to the council/s to be fixed. Wish it would say on the front page for what regions the site operates. Great idea, every place should get one.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology has many sustainability resources to guide urban communities.

There is also a meet up site by cities and countries
Image: Mural, Berlin

Waves Down Under

As ocean levels are rising, the Opera House and many indigenous artefacts will go under. Australia, belonging to “the world's biggest per capita Greenhouse emitters” of the “polluters club” defies attempts to act on climate change. Instead, the population (of mainly 4x4s) is urged to have their 'Go Bags' ready for the (diy) disaster. They should take the essentials: maps, running shoes, sunscreen and toilet paper and of course their cats. Maybe they will return on some ark and float to a New Found Land. Pity they take their cats with them – a bad new start.australia

Photos of Essen

Michael Wolf is featuring interesting historical photos of Essen portraying living conditions in this German coal mining town.
Architecture of density depicts how populations can aggregate. There are many vivid images of Hong Kong to be seen as well.
Haiko Hebig provides a visul documentation of heavy industries in Germany (and Europe), shifting to China.

Dusseldorf blogging and visualisations

Dusseldorf is soon hosting its 2nd blogger meet up. A nice livable medium size city. Fond memories are rekindled here in this video by dot Atelier



dusseldorf

Thoughts on 'place blogging' after re-publica

The blogging team of the collaborative Berlin 'Hauptstadtblog' (capital city blog) lead a workshop today about regional blogging at re:publica. Belonging to the top 50 bloggers in Germany, they used the interactive forum to clarify their concept for themselves and to others.
There was a lot of concern in the room and in the entire event about branding and eyeing future monetarisation possiblities of social media.

This is what I have constructed out of all this for 'place blogging', still an emerging genre in the blogosphere. The following I attempt to apply specifically to 'Manly, Sydney' or this blog of place blogger aggregation: 'Places on Earth':

• Be aware of patterns of re-action to the main stream media and their 'agenda-setting'. Have a concept, an action plan and 'do your own thing'.
• Do not regurgitate stuff from the MSM, the (mainstream) political process, parties or other interest groups.
• Do not incorporate advertising or give in to 'pressures' as you loose autonomy and credibility.
• Be aware of recycled 2nd/3rd -'hand' stuff in the blogosphere from the dominant media. If anything provide a perspective shift and construct something new.
• A regional blog is NOT an official portal providing wayfinding and event locating.
• A regional blog provides an individual/collaborative unique perspective and bestows on the place specificity. Information, impressions most portals do not provide.

Initial impressions of re:publica

re-publica

Public-private urban interface, Berlin - event

Urban-interface is an “exhibition and artistic/curatorial research project exploring the interspaces between public and private urban space.” The urban interactive space is mediated by ICT in Berlin in Mitte, Wedding and Gesundbrunnen. (Map) The events are on from 15.04 to 06.05

Also this French place-blogger in Monputeaux is improving life in his chosen place with his citizensjournalism.
(Via Telepolis)
Image: Berlin,Mitte-'beach' arcades,post Tango night

Let the public space speak - urban art

Awsome visualisations of places are created by Nikolas Schiller. Utilising public domain maps, he views the Earth from a bird's-eye view shattering into a variety of fractal images. His geo-spatial art “is about new and experimental perspectives & projections of the world around and above you. With the world already charted and mapped, Geospatial Art allows you to rediscover it all over again. My geographic designs deviate from traditional cartography because they will not orient one to the right path, rather they offer many paths and many views of a place at a specific time in history. “

In various cities street art workers are reappropriating their public spaces and engaging in heteroglossia:

• The Graffiti Research Lab is enabling artists with open source technologies for urban communication in open cities.
• On Instructibles there is a visual demonstration how to convert your digital image into to a multiple layered stencil.
• Banksy is active outdoors as well as indoors. Check Flickr images.
• Street Installations also make the city dweller stop and snap out of it.
• 6.de in Berlin is ubiquitous with a mix of painted art, stencils and installations, all work done from his bike. BTW there is an exhibition on 6.4 at the Fleischerei.
  
• On transit one can view underground art in the London tube, or even search or note all the smells (perfume, sewage, food and body odour) on the New York City Subway Smell Map.
• A "Color Shift" of (video) billboards is not a bad holiday form the ever same message of 'car-smokes-alcohol' either.
• In Russia they 'just paint the town red'

Image: Berlin, Mitte graffiti

Being in the Metropolis

“The Metropolis and Mental Life" was published in 1903 by the sociologist and philosopher George Simmel. Although the urban dweller's state was perceived as liberated from root-bound conformity and tradition, they eventually develop "the blase attitude" to themselves, others and their overstimulating surroundings. In his main work ,"The Philosophy of Money" (German) he sets the frame of reference for his social theory.

The Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies (GSZ) in Berlin “...is intended to bring together the numerous scientific competencies of the various areas of expertise which deal with the large city and the metropolis.” The “metropolis” as opposed to the “megacity” of the Newly Industrialized Countries belongs to their research clusters.

Concepts of global cities, megacities and metropolis are theorised, absent seem to be concepts of the transnational metro-dwellers.

Lots of resources on the web and even events (Gauging the Metropolis – Narratives and City Maps ) cover the topic.
Image: Berlin, Mitte

Car domination and places of mobility for people

As so often in the news: A 4x4 in the inner-city jumped the curb, and struck three pedestrians who "were trying to get out of the way of the car". One person got so mangled, she might loose her leg.

The non-profit organization LivableStreets Alliance “..challenges people to think differently and to demand a system that balances transit, walking, and biking with automobiles. We promote safe, convenient, and affordable transportation for all users in urban Boston.”

Watch their CONTESTED STREETS, the trailer shows how people have lost public space to the combustion engine. "Central to the story is a comparison of New York to what is experienced in London, Paris and Copenhagen."

Global Metropolis and specific spaces

In the period of the Global Village, numerous portals direct attention to event spaces in various cities. The globalised content, usually consumed in theme parks reduces urban space into one opaque mass. One could be anywhere, which is everywhere. The endless ever-sameness commands most of the digital documentation.

Endangered are unique places and modes of appropriation that distill the specificity of particular spaces. Do you know of such places?

Image:Berlin, Höfe

Life-quality tracking in cities - a database in Chicago

The occurences of crimes in Chicago can be tracked on a freely browsable database. The site is not an official source afiliated with the Police. The non-profit site by Holovaty and Miner is utilising Citizen ICAM and the official database of reported crimes.
Blotter follows the weekly reported illegal activities.

One could use such data to ascertain life quality, values of streets, regions etc. When will other places get access to data like this?
Chicagocrime
Thanks to Radar