urban cartography

National Park(ing) Day 2007

From Jason Presley at LJurban:

Ever wish for a world with more parks and fewer parking lots? September 21st on the corner of 14th and J in one small 22 x 7 foot parking spot, you'll find just that.

Imagine it. Car. Car. Car. Park. Car. Car. Car. This is just way too much fun.

Better yet. Come out and see for yourself. We'll be there (most of the time). You'll find us sitting on a large boulder dreaming big. Maybe you can sit a spell yourself. Play some chess. Listen to a live musician. And think about what its going to take to make this city better.

It's National Park(ing) Day 2007. Sacramento-style.

Brought to you by a dedicated group of eco-urbanists: artists, planners, bicyclists, landscape designers, photographers, bloggers, and a developer.

P.S. Even better yet - volunteer to help, and spread the word!

Conflux 2006

Conflux is the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets. Currently in its third year, Conflux will take place September 14 - 17th in Brooklyn. Over 80 artists from across the US and countries including Canada,UK, Spain, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Australia will come to Williamsburg to present projects including experimental walking, biking, boat and public-transport tours; street games and tech workshops; mobile broadcasts, performances and a number of temporary installations.

highlights include:

• street art tour by Streetsy and the Graffiti Research Lab
• human-scale Othello game on the streets of Williamsburg
• museum tours by the City Reliquary
• mobile art installation in a truck by the Rider Project
• urban tourism mash-up of New York and Baghdad
• audio bus tour by The New York Society for Acoustic Ecology [NYSAE] with members of free 103.9
• 24-hour road trip through the 5 boroughs
• over a dozen multimedia presentations by noted artists and writers, includingthe Miss Rockaway Armada crew and author Adam Greenfield
• Alice Arnold's "To Be Seen" street art film screening
• free money hidden in public space by artist Sal Randolph
• mark Tribe's historic protest speech re-creation
• student projects and workshops from NYU's ITP program
• events all four nights of Conflux

Conflux headquarters: McCaig-Welles Gallery, 129 Roebling Street, Williamsburg. open 10 am - 7 pm.

Conflux is free and open to the public, and is produced by Glowlab. Additional background information and press release.

Future City at the Barbican

Edwin Heathcote has a review of the extensive but disjointed Future City exhibit at the Barbican, which opened last week and runs through mid-September.

Nothing dates faster than the future. That is why architecture, the slowest of the arts, is probably the worst medium to express it. But that hasn't stopped architects trying and their futuristic fantasies have been hugely influential in our cities. This was never more so than in the early 20th century, when the modernists conceived of rational cities that would replace random street-patterns with gardens spiked with skyscrapers linked by streets in the sky. The best ended up like London's Barbican (yes, the best), the worst like the decaying housing projects that circle nearly every major city.

So it is entirely appropriate that Future City, a paean to architectural utopias, should sit in the Barbican, London's last chunk of architectural utopianism. (Conceived in the 1950s, it was finished only in the 1980s, when it was already painfully passé.) Future City is an attempt to display architecture's most radical visions from the lasthalf-century. It is a superb collection of stuff, with fantastic, visionary drawings, pasted-together manifestoes and stunning models.

pictured: David Greene / Archigram's 1967 Living Pod, photographed by Philippe Magnon.

New American City: Artists Look Forward

Arizona State University Art Museum: September 9 2006 - January 27 2007

New American City: Artists Look Forward explores the role of artists and the art produced in urban development and revitalization contexts: What is the role of art and visual culture in the city's current development, and in its future?

The artists selected for the exhibition were recently announced at an event that took place on the farm/art project of Arizona artist Matthew Moore.

More information on the exhibition and a complete list of selected artists can be found on the New American City: Artist Look Forward website, which will be updated throughout the summer and run of the exhibition. A catalogue for the exhibition will be available Fall '06.

New Urbanists Vs. Psychogeographers Kickball Challenge

Press Release: New Urbanists Vs. Psychogeographers Kickball Challenge
Sunday June 4th 2pm, Providence, RI

A joint collaboration between the Provflux III and Congress for the New Urbanism XIV Attend a unique opportunity for attendees of the Congress for the New Urbanism and participants of the 2006 Provflux events to come together and get out of the Conference rooms and share ideas on the Kickball field about the future of Urban Civilization in America!

Event begins at 2pm at the park across the street from the State House & Providence Place Mall. If you are interested in being on the New Urbanist team please talk to Eduardo Sardina of the Washington DC office of DPZ (Duany Plater-Zyberk) and if you are interested in playing on the Psychogeographers team talk to Frank Stieber (aka Kickball Jesus) or Meredith Younger with PIPS (Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies). Or just come on out day of game, all spectators are welcome, the more urbanists the merrier! Come One, Come All, Brown Paper Bag that Narragansett and come out for a true meeting of the minds between the Providence Urban Activist and Arts Community and the Architects and Planners revolutionizing the American Dream!

see also: Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies
for more information contact Frank Stieber

Don't Get Picked Last

Tonight, if you are in the area, might we suggest that you participate in the West Village's neighborhood-wide version of Capture the Flag? Last week they held a crazy combination of Tag and Hide-and-Seek in SoHo, which sounded like a total blast! Tonight's game starts around 7:30 PM, EST.

You Are Here But Why?

You are invited to attend You Are Here But Why?, a "festival of mapping" to be held in June 2005 at the 56a Infoshop Free School in London, a "long-established social centre in the Elephant and Castle, South London."

2005 AAG Meeting Begins

April 05, 2005 marks the beginning of the annual Association of American Geographers meeting, which is being held this year in Denver, CO. Testing the capacity of attendees' minds, this year's program is absolutely stacked with presentations. If you plan on attending, try to make it out on one of the scheduled field trips, which include Kerouac-inspired walking tours of downtown Denver, a few Rocky Mountain skiing excursions, and even a short jaunt to the Grand Canyon. Yes, the Grand Canyon.  Those crazy geographers.

Provflux 2005

The Providence Initiative for  Psychogeographic Studies (PIPS) is now accepting submissions through April 15th for presenters and demonstrators for ProvFlux 2005, a weekend event scheduled for May 27-29th, 2005, in Providence, Rhode Island. Addressing urban issues with hands-on action, the members of PIPSworks have saturated their website with examples of social, biological and artistic experiments that open communication channels within their community. Check the PIPS weblog for current events and inspiration. Thanks to JohnJ for the tip.