Update: Eric Gordon on ROROTOKO >>

The Urban Spectator: American Concept-Cities from Kodak to Google by Eric Gordon:

The Urban Spectator is a lively and utterly fascinating exploration of the ways in which technologies have influenced our collective conception of the American city, as well as our relationship with urban space and architecture. Eric Gordon argues that the city, developing late and in conjunction with a range of modern media, produced a particular way of seeing — what he labels “possessive spectatorship.” Continue reading

City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community :: June 11–13 & 19, 2010 :: Invitation to Submit Proposals — Deadline: March 1, 2010 [Application Form]

Recent exhibitions, festivals and conferences across the US and in Europe have taken wireless networks, public space, locative media and urban environments as sites of intervention, creativity, and critique. Formulated within the emerging context of networked urbanism and mobile media, City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community will focus upon dynamics of the shifting, locative, cartographic and social space of the city. It is organized by educational, arts, community-based and civic organizations and asks how locative media can act as a platform and venue for community-led expression. Continue reading

VOLUME Magazine #22: The Guide + Beyroutes Launch Event :: December 22, 2009; 5:00 - 7:00 pm :: Athenaeum News Centre, Spui, Amsterdam.

Guiding – as it is commonly understood – is not about creating; it’s about helping. The guide has no goal other than to lead someone safely to the destiny of their choice. The guide is skilled; he or she actually can lead the way, but does so without ambition beyond delivering quality service. The guide sells safety where risk is involved.

With The Guide, VOLUME presents a diverse collection of guides and attempts to guide. From strange maps, bike tours and magnetic navigation belts to the conception of Paris’ 13th arrondissement as a series of islands; here, the guide is understood as not simply a service or selling point, but as an exploratory tool, a generator for a proactive engagement with the city. Continue reading

[Image: Photograph by Monica Nerula] The Sarai-CSDS Media Lab Associate Fellowship for Contemporary Art and Media Practices: City as Studio :: Call for Proposals — Deadline: December 26, 2009.

The Sarai Media Lab invites expressions of interest and intent from artists and practitioners in diverse media - textual, visual, aural, spatial and temporal - who could be - visual artists (photographers, sculptors, installation artists, graphic artists), writers and independent scholars, filmmakers, architects, experimental musicians and composers, sound recordists, performers and people whose practices straddle or transcend different areas of practice - for participation in the City as Studio Project. Continue reading

[Image: Trigger Points for the composition of Michael Mastrototaro, aka MACHFELD] Audiomobile — A mobile sound installation for cities by Matt Smith and Sandra Wintner with: Eva Ursprung (A), Martin Pichler (A), Norbert Math (A), Heike Kaltenbrunner (A), Michael Mastrototaro (A), Luka Princic (SLO) :: Registration for a ride :: November 27 - December 4, 2009 :: Bad Radkersburg, Styria, Austria.

Audiomobile invites you to explore ‘Sonic Maps’ while driving around in a comfortable vehicle that encourages dialogue between a random assortment of passengers and that is equipped with a multi-channel audio system and GPS positioning system. Continue reading

2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture: City Mobilization :: December 6, 2009 - January 23, 2010 :: Opening: December 6; 6:00 pm :: Conference: December 7-9 :: Marathon Event with Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist: December 22 :: Main Venue: Shenzhen Civic Square; Sub-Venues: Shenzhenwan Avenue, Yitian Holiday Plaza.

Taking the theme of City Mobilization, this year’s Bi-city Biennale proposes an investigation into the organization and balance of social life within contemporary urban China. In today’s globalized world, we have moved from a model of ‘nationhood’ to ‘city-hood’ where cities must consider themselves in relation to a global network of other cities around the world. Continue reading

S O U N D L I N E S - a drawing for sound interpretation by Marcus Neustetter, with Joao Orecchia, Murray Turpin, Daniel Stompie Selebi, Ziza Mhlongo, Zubz :: November 25, 2009; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: Sound and Motion Studios / CaityVarsity (Old Carfax Space), Newtown.

After drawing the city skyline of Johannesburg as sheet music, sound artists and musicians were invited to interpret and respond to these images. Recording sessions for improvisation and collaboration were held in Johannesburg’s Sound and Motion Studios. The resulting sound-scapes are presented by Marcus Neustetter in an unabridged (20m15s) and a shorter (2m52s) version. Continue reading

Matteo Pasquinelli … suggests that the form of our cities, the organization of our labor, the content of our entertainment and, I would add, the rules of our lawbooks and the teleological principles of our arts and sciences are all dependent on the greed, fear and irrational exuberance that drive the denizens of the electronic markets. - Brian Holmes

“[...] Imagine the night sky as an overarching dome, filled with thousands of shimmering points of light. Like celestial messengers they glitter and gleam as they drift across the face of the heavens. Each of these bright stars represents the stock of a publicly traded corporation. The intensity of their luminous presence varies in real time according to the frequency of trading. If one star co-varies with others – that is, if a pattern emerges between the rates at which certain stocks are bought and sold – then the flickering points of light draw slowly together, forming unstable constellations. Continue reading

Turbulence Spotlight: One Text, Many Stories — URBAN MEMORY LOSS: a Nightmare of Change in which Time is Inscribed in Space—or How a Text Became a Story by Annette Weintraub:

One Text, Many Stories is an exploration of reading, and of how the visual context and process of reading influences interpretation. An original text composed of nine short passages describes an urban space reconstituted in memory, and is interspersed with short extracts from Michael de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life and The Production of Space by Henri Lefebre. Taken together, the passages are a construction of ‘the city’ as a fluid mental map of elements that are shuffled and rearranged. Continue reading

Soft City: Azra Aksamija, Pushwagner, Dubravka Sekulić :: September 13 - November 8, 2009 :: Stroom Den Haag, Hogewal 1-9, 2514 HA The Hague, The Netherlands.

How do people organise their space? Or do they allow themselves to be organised? How do unregulated private initiatives contribute to the development of a city? Are there any guidelines, and when do the upholding of public order and legislation start to impact this process? The exhibition Soft City presents existing and new work by the international artists Azra Aksamija, Pushwagner and Dubravka Sekulić. Their work represents the extreme ways in which people create urban (living) space. And how the authorities play a role in this, or, in contrast, are completely sidelined. Continue reading