Part 2: Psychogeografic Data

In the late 1950's the French avant-garde Situationist movement introduced Psychogeography, a method of mapping a city according to the emotional and psychological quality of urban space. Fifty years later, a young group of Psychogeographers re-discovers methods for programmed walks and cartographic freestyle. Through walks, instructions, maps and algorithms, data is collected which allows access to new situations and experiences.

 

28.11.2004

PRESENTATIONS

Wilfried Hou Je Bek

Socialfiction Wilfried Hou Je Bek is a psychogeographer from Utrecht who developed walking algorithms, such as '1st street left, 2nd street right, 2nd street left' which are applicable in every urban environment and turn walking people into data-collecting computers. With the Psychogeographical MarkUp Language (PML), places can be characterised as closed, empty, distinct, at ease or lively. The processed data can "take the fingerprint of a city" and generate "a new mythology for urban space". Wilfried Hou Je Bek is one of the engineering brains behind a new Flaneur Culture. http://www.socialfiction.org

Inga Zimprich

Congress Inga Zimprich is an artist based in Amsterdam / Berlin. By using a combination of ciphers and stripes, complex information can be coded. In a thirteen-digit bar code all worldwide products can be classified. In EAN 13 daycode Inga Zimprich has adapted this system to code new situations that are livable in any European city. Based on a generic archive of places, activities, equipment and movements, new situations can be programmed and experienced. Inga Zimprich was living according to this system in Amsterdam during the project. Inga spoke about the subjective attachment to places and the day coding system. http://www.daycode.con-gress.net

Boaz Bar-Adon

Boaz Bar-Adon is an architect from Israel. “I want to make the city a personal place for people who live in it. The idea is to take a route based on the personal places of a person living in the city, and give this route back to the city in a physical way, and thereafter to give other people the chance to 'follow' this person, experience the city trough his perspective and therefore undergo a new city experience.” Boaz Bar-Adon is looking for 21st century adventurers, willing to explore the city in search of personal experiences.

Pieterjan Ginckels

Pieterjan Ginckels is a civil engineer-architect from Belgium who gently attacked the whole city during the project period with small daily interventions, house-by-house, car-by-car, until he has perforated the city systematically in his own way. The notes and comments he distributed contained pasta-recipes and compliments for beautifully parked cars. The little handwritten flyers were carriers for personal attention that take the receiver by surprise in their daily routines. Pieterjan Ginckels presented his work "you + me = you i am not a lot"  http://www.geocities.com/pieterjan_g

 

3.12.2004

Workshop: Programming for Cities by Wilfried Hou Je Bek

Programming for Cities is a workshop that reinforced a long-standing link between code and architecture. Many fine buildings can be reduced to a few lines of code, and a quick glance backward in time shows that this is a deliberate consequence of architectural theory. This workshop started with an overview of this longstanding connection between programming and architecture, and explained the basics of programming. The main part of the workshop was a hands-on approach to the design of a city through code. No Computers were used. This workshop was ideal for those people who think that programming was not for them. The workshop Programming for Cities was led by Wilfried Hou Je Bek of Socialfiction, who has a long history developing computational systems without traditional hardware.

 

4.12.2004

Walk: Boaz Bar-Adon

Those who want to serve as human GPS, to explore the city in search of human signs, were invited to join Boaz Bar-Adon for a walk in the city. "Not to find an immediate definition of the city, it is too big, the chance to get it wrong is too great. City: stone, concrete, asphalt, strangers, monuments, institutes. Mega metropolis. Octopus cities. Arteries. Masses. Ant nests? What is the heart of the city? What is her soul? Why is it said about a city that it is beautiful, or that it is ugly? What is beautiful or ugly in a city? How does one get to know a city? How does a man know his own city?" Georges Perec, Species of spaces and other pieces.

 

11.12.2004

Presentation: Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec

Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec is a composer / sound artist from Slovenia. He spoke about transforming the perception of reality by means of sound intervention. The intervention took place in Amsterdam in 2004. It was organized and supported by Public Space With A Roof. RS (REALITY SOUNDTRACK) is a sound intervention in public spaces such as post offices, passages, and shopping malls. Sound carriers are people equipped with small radio receivers - around 25 people, each one having a radio receiver. All these radio receivers transmit the same electronic composition, which is transmitted from a (mobile) pirate radio station, or from an existing radio station. All the carriers walk together through parts of the city following a given score of movement. The audible result of the action is a moving cloud of sound, which is traveling through the city.