urban occupation : berlin

here are the details for the submission:

• please submit your work (the dvd) on friday july 24th between 3 pm and 5pm in the office on level 6 or the mailbox (a61)
• don’t forget to upload your final submission to the blog!
• if there are any problems, please contact me before friday.

viviane

the final submission is on friday july 24, latest at 4pm 

please read careful the following instructions,

if you have any questions please send me an email asap

the submission consists of

SUBMISSION OF ONE DVD AND UPLOAD OF ONE PDF ONTO THE BLOG (maybe it includes a movie link to youtube)

SUBMISSION OF DVD IS AT THE FACHGEBIET ADIP AT 4pm, on level 6, or in the ‘briefkasten’  letterbox for fachgebiet A61 on ground floor,

(when you enter the tu building, you walk right, past the cafeteria and at the far end the left door, there are letterboxes) 

DVD INCLUDES

A_PUBLICATION OR BOOKLET

i hope that you all work with indesign for the documentation, as said earlier, photoshop is not really working for documentations!!!!

ABSOLUTELY important: submit your documentation as ‘packed’ indesign file! that means that in that file all images you used in the document will be saved in a folder in their original resolution, which is important because the pdf alone will provide really low res images.

the dimension of the publication is up to you, the format could i.e. also be a publication which consists of a number of publications, like caitlyn’s, elba’s and laure’s final presentation, but caitlyn, elba and laure will need to document and submit the process and concepts 

you might wanna have _a frontcover with image and title_a contentpage with an overview of what is where in the booklet_kind of chapters which make clear what we are looking at in the following pages, like i.e. Urban occupation action, research, early sketches, first concept, …_a separate final or first chapter on the final design proposal or project result

B_MOVIE FILES

also submit on the dvd any movie files in the best resolution you have as an original file and not downsized youtube files.

PDF BLOG SUBMISSION INCLUDES 

A PDF OF YOUR FINAL PROJECT

please upload your final project as pdf with one keyimage which shows your design.

upload onto the blog by 8 pm, friday, july 24 

submit a pdf with a low file size (max 5mb) on the blog under the new final submission category,

you of course can use the same document as your dvd submission, but concentrate primarily on the final project. the overall size will be too large. that means you might need to downsize your file, you might even need to delete some pages or quite a few pages. this is also why the use of indesign is so important, as photoshop produces too large files and you can’t downsize them afterwards.

The quasi object seems to be a third element that relates, or defines the perspective from which to read, the ‘reciprocal determination between the subject and object’.  I am unclear as to whether this quasi object could also be thought of as the noise or the filter. If the noise is the ‘entropic’ quality in a system then perhaps the quasi object can be both (noise and filter). In this model, it can create a new way to read the relationship between the subject and the object by creating the interference, or it can change what is allowed to emerge from the unchanging constant interference. The quasi object only defines the group through movement, as soon as stasis is achieved the individual is created. It seems to be acting here as both the noise (of the collective) and then the filter (when it stands comes to rest).  Cybernetics, as defined by the founder Norbert Wiener, is the control and communication in the animal and the machine, and underlying this is the idea that all control/communication systems can be described and understood using the same language and concepts.  Perhaps the noise is the just the differing element between all systems, and the varying quasi object are the markers of different systems.

the kubus is up and will be running from may 20 until july 13, we can participate in the event through group or individual actions. Markus Nielsen and Ramona Reiser are the curatorial team and will visit us friday may 15 at 11.30!09-01-17-kubus-entwurf-kleine-variante-grundr09-01-17-kubus-entwurf-kleine-variante-seitenans09-01-17-kubus-entwurf-kleine-variante-ubersicht-3d

by Ivan Andonow (BG) Jakob Pawlowski (PL)

The Rosa Luxemburg Platz today is not a centre for left activism or a meeting point of the left intelligenzia. It has become a cliché of it’s past. The area is neat and clean, quiet and fantastically white-bread. People living and working there use symbols, behaviours, language, ideas of the left as attachments to their identity, rather then living the ideas they use to make themselves appear more interesting, different.

Berlin offers all the problems of the modern (urban) life in a nutshell, failed immigration, the failed transformation from a industrial society to a service economy, the failed social reunification of Germany, the lack of money spent on education and social money, the imbalance between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the people etc. However, none of this is actually visible there. Instead, the Rosa Luxemburg Platz and the people using this space have created for themselves a peaceful island within reality, from which they observe the world around them like animals in the zoo.

However, this behaviour not only occurs to the people using the area and not only affects political/social activism. It is within everyone that with time we feel overburdened by the social, political, global reality and try to find/create a peaceful niche for ourselves. This might be good for us to close our eyes in order to feel better, safer, happier. But it doens’t change reality and only bridges the time gap until we ourselves become victims of what we ignore.

“Maybe you forgot something” aims questions to passers-by, that aren’t political, although some can be interpreted this way. The messages on the speech bubbles don’t mean to have an instant, even radical imapct on people. The questions are subcutaneous, maybe even formal and not communicating aggressively. They are meant to stay in people’s minds and maybe, in a different context, be the trigger for individual experience of self awareness.

documentation (pdf): maybe you forgot something

by  Mesimaaria Koponen (FIN), Caitlin Mills-Sheehy (AUS), Caitlyn Parry (AUS), Laure Severac (F)

The two starting points were public space as a means to an ends (a space that must be overcome to reach ones destination), and the definitions of a territory.  We were interested in prompting a response from the public using a technique that did not require a direct asking of them, which was proven as the most successful way of engagement from the instant occupation action.   One travels through a number of spaces or territories in any one day. These territories, on a gross level, can be defined by structural elements such as walls, doors, signs etc, however we were wanting to explore and set up situations where one (the public) had to create a territorial membrane from more non tangible elements. We decided to create a territory where the barrier (referred to as a membrane) to the territory takes the form of the senses (touch: static and dynamic, sound and vision: reflections). Four methods of territory definition were created, each performed for 15 minutes over 2 cycles.  3 people participated at one time, with the third documenting.

Act one was shuffling along the stairs with the intention of obstruction the public’s line of travel (with the intensity of the obstruction adjusted to the individual’s capacity to interact ie: elderly were omitted),

Act two involved lying on the stairs forming zig zag spaces to see if the public would step over the performers or conform to the created pathways.

Act three was to create a triangular space with sound (each person making a noise ie. clapping, vocal noise and scraping metal object down tiled wall).

Act four was using mirrors to create an intensity between the 3 performers where one reflected the others image in the triangle.

The questions to be answered were: which of the methods was more conducive in creating a non-permeable membrane to a territory that the public acknowledged, respected or were confused by, how can one engage the public and provide a haptic experience, and what methods broke the daily monotony of the pedestrian action of the exiting/entering the u-bahn.

documentation (pdf): Territorial Membranes Action

Following Rochus’ dictum that we should post even things that might be of little or no relevance to our work, I’d like to quickly direct your attention to the following:

On May 18th and 19th, there is a series of performances and lectures related to climate change in the theatre “Hebbel am Ufer” in Kreuzberg. See:

http://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/en/kuenstler/kuenstler_14992.html?HAU=1

Among other things, there’s going to be a presentation of swimming architecture, and a lot of other architecture-linked events.
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For all those of you who haven’t been to Volksbuehne yet, but do not want to experience the athmosphere watching a greec drama in german language: On May 14th there’s going to be a headphone-concert (whatever that means) of Adolf Noise (aka dj Koze), who makes great soulful electronic music:

http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de/praxis/musikbuehne_adolf_noise/?id_datum=1662

http://www.myspace.com/djkozeakaadolfnoise
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Davide was the guy who gave us a short account of his 4-month trip through Central America on friday. He was also talking about plans to set up a workshop after the Biennale di Venezia (july 7th - november 22nd): Anyone who is interested in working with the remains of the exhibition is invited to contact him and share her/his ideas. The workshop will take place circa 23.11.09 - 28.11.09.
For more info about his journey as well as Davide’s email address: see next (password-protected) post above this one.

Thanks a lot Martin, for spending your saturday afternoon making this blog work!

I’ve already mentioned the Fis-Broker website in class; here’s the exact link:

http://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/index.jsp

The site is really helpful, it features all kinds of downloadable maps of berlin: from the middle ages to the 80ies, from climatic data to social structures…

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A note for all of you who know as much about video editing as I do (nothing):

The interflugs - bureau (which also lends out all kinds of electronical equipment) is offering a free workshop on video editing:

Adobe After Effects: 3 days: Saturday 16.5.09 11.30h + Sunday 17.5.09 11.30h + Monday 18.5.09 13.30h.

For details see: http://www.interflugs.de/if/?cat=1

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Searching the net for infos related to Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, I found an ‘association for the promotion of art and culture on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz’.

They have, among other things, annually invited artists to work on and about Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. It might be of advantage to get in touch with them, although they seem to have been rather inactive recently. Here’s the link:

www.rosa-luxemburg-platz.net/rosa_luxemburg_platz_ev.html

Should I write them a mail or should we wait until we have a clearer idea about what to do on R.L.P.?

as you might have noticed, rss feeds for categories have been activated. rss feeds inform you, when new posts have been added to the blog, thus liberating you from checking it all the time.

depending on your browser, there are several ways of notification. when activated, opera’s built-in web-mail client  adds a feed folder to your message panel and a pop-up will inform you when new posts are available. firefox and internet explorer will create a new dynamic bookmark in your task bar. safari users can add a dynamic bookmark by clicking the rss link and selecting “add bookmarks” under the actions section at the bottom of the right panel.

The urban occupation actions are all happening on thursday on and around Rosa-Luxemburg Platz in Berlin. The walk arounds, with presentation and discussions are at 13.00 and 15.00, a number of guest will come.

We will go for dinner together after the actions, see you all at 5.30 at “Good mornig Vietnam”, Alte Schönhauser Straße 60