To follow on from the last post here’s a few words from the Bauman…
“The lesson which planners could learn from the long chronicle of lofty dreams and abominable disasters which combine to form the history of modern architecture, is that the prime secret of a ‘good city’ is the chance it offers people to take [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘words’
February 24, 2008
zygmunt bauman
February 16, 2008
take it to the pubs
Last night the SuperWindowTable made it’s debut in the Wellington Pub in Garston. The ‘provisional construction’ brought together some important themes in my project [art, tables, pubs, community engagement, beermats]. It was the feature at an “Anything – Special Edition” night organised by Mike Carney. Mike had done some posters and publicity for the event, [...]
February 14, 2008
beuys and beermats
For the past two days we’ve been doing a Studio Six / Studio Two joint workshop, with Berlin architect/academic Mathias Heyden. It was about “A collaborative investigation on social and economical, political and cultural implications within designing the built environment”.
Central to Heyden’s discussion were the theories of Joseph Beuys, an artist who was famous for [...]
February 10, 2008
gathering
Yesterday afternoon, Garston’s bastion of the avant-garde Alex Corina phoned me and kindly invited me to an evening sioree at View Two art gallery on Liverpool’s famous Matthew Street. The ‘independent’ gallery is owned by architect Ken Martin, who’s also the architect working on the Artistic Republic of Garston’s Embassy building. It was a good [...]
February 9, 2008
anything
Last night I met up with Mike Carney in the Wellington Pub (‘The Welly’) in Garston. Mike’s a Garston-based designer who’s involved with the Artistic Republic of Garston project, working on the Embassy building. Since November he’s been trying to start something positive in Garston, by running a night called “Anything” at the Welly. Described [...]
February 8, 2008
architects’ journal picks up the story
Two weeks after I started looking at public art in Garston as part of the Interdependence studio, the Architects’ Journal conveniently ran the story as their main feature. The article gives a good overview of the ongoing art projects in the three deprived Liverpool suburbs of Kirkdale, Kensington, and Garston, including the aforementioned “Artistic Republic [...]
February 7, 2008
arctic monkeys wrecked our street
This is the story of a unique inter-relation between Sheffield and Garston, with reference to another kind of art:
The trendy Sheffield band “Arctic Monkeys” used one of the abandoned houses in Garston for their latest album cover art (pictured), and a music video.
The interior of the house was painted with psychedelic murals, before the front [...]
February 2, 2008
super window table
Exploring the interdependence/independence relationship of towns like Nowa Huta, Sheffield, and Garston, Super Window Table is an example of four identical components that work interdependently, to form an independent ‘reciprocal frame’ structure. Each component supports, and is supported by each other. Like the ‘housing’ and the ‘industry’, the components are useless on their own, but [...]
January 31, 2008
garston declares independence
The plans for the Embassy and ‘Artistic Republic of Garston’ were unveiled with a press release and launch party in November 2007. There were fireworks, music, Trotsky-esque speeches, open-top bus tours, and “lots of Ferrero Rocher”…
The Artistic Republic Of Garston
Garston Is declaring Independence
People of Garston, join the friendly revolution, we need YOU!
Friends, locals and Garstonians [...]
January 29, 2008
the ‘cultural village’ campaign
As early as 2004, local artist Alex Corina had a vision for Garston’s regeneration, to designate the area “Garston Cultural Village”, to attract new creative businesses to the village, giving the community new confidence and to redefine Garston as an integral part of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture in 2008, as a vibrant and lively ‘cultural [...]
January 24, 2008
what do people do all day?
in Garston they stay in their pyjamas, even when they go outside…
Liverpool was famous in the 1980s for pioneering the tracksuit/shellsuit leisurewear fashion, now mainstream with many working class communities all over the UK. Since the late 90’s Liverpool has been pioneering a new fashion for wearing pyjamas and slippers in the street. It is [...]
January 22, 2008
material vs chav
Garston is being seen increasingly as an opportunity for regeneration and investment by housing developers. Recently many of the deserted boarded-up houses have been demolished, and developers have started to build more standard low-quality houses to replace them.
The local residents recognise the futility of this, commenting that -like the 1970s low quality housing that was [...]
December 22, 2007
some words
Declaration of Interdependence:
Making connections.
Making places.
Making relations.
Making buildings.
Provisional Construcion:
Is a construction that is impermanent, relatively, compared to a wider timescale.
A construction that is informal, compared to pre-conceived convention.
A construction that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
November 15, 2007
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