: what
This conference aims to alert political, social, economic and cultural decision makers in London to the nature of urban interventions in their city and, above all, how urban interventions can catalyse greater participation and deeper local democracy.
Some important themes for the conference will be: the ambiguous relationship between direct and representative democracy; the importance of public spaces as platforms for direct democracy; and the role of art as catalyst for local democracy

-:: when » Sunday June 18, 2006 start 1 PM end 5.30PM

:: venue » Jeremy Bentham Room, UCL Main building, Gower Street, London

Directions to the conference venue:
The talks will take place in the Jeremy Bentham room in the main building of UCL, Gower street, the entrance via the left hand side of the main building will be signposted » see map



:: program :: conference program

Keynote Spreaker Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.

Reports on Local workshops:
LONDON>> “Urban Interventions and democracy” by Alex loftus academic fellow in the department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London

BARCELONA>> “Krax” by Ana Betancout, architecte and associate professor at the royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

BRUSSELS>> “Micronomics” by Baudouin Massart Journalist and researcher at Agence Alter

Exhibition >>> Video >>> Publication

The Forum was prepared by :
Alana Jelinek ; Christian Nold ; Gil Doron ; Gillian McIver ; Greg Cowan ; Hilary Powell ; Siraj Izharand City Mine(d)
and enjoys the moral support of: The Centre for Urban and Community Research of Goldsmith College ; The Bartlet School of UCL ; the Flemish represenation in the UK ; South London Gallery ; CIDA ; Architecture Week

Bio Saskia Sassen

Saskia Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. Her new book is Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages ( Princeton University Press 2006). She has just completed for UNESCO a five-year project on sustainable human settlement for which she set up a network of researchers and activists in over 30 countries under the title Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO. Oxford, UK: EOLSS Publishers
. Her most recent books are the edited Global Networks, Linked Cities,(New York and London: Routledge 2002) and the co-edited Socio-Digital Formations: New Architectures for Global Order (Princeton University Press 2005). The Global City is out in a new fully updated edition in 2001. Her books are translated into sixteen languages. She serves on several editorial boards and is an advisor to several international bodies. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities, and Chair of the Information Technology and International Cooperation Committee of the Social Science Research Council (USA). Her comments have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, the International Herald Tribune, Vanguardia, Clarin, the Financial Times, among others.

Picture: Hilary Koob-Sassen: Still from video Praculture. 2005 » download

Research paper by Saskia Sassen “Making Public Interventions in today’s massive cities”

Alex Loftus, Researcher, Geography department, Royal Holloway,
University of London.
Alex Loftus is an academic fellow in the department of geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. His research lies at the intersection of urban, environmental and economic debates. In particular he is interested in how people shape urban environments and the constraints on their ability to do this. Above all, he is interested in the ability of everyday people to challenge exclusionary practices and democratise urban environments. He holds degrees in geography from Edinburgh University and Queen’s University, Canada and recently completed a PhD at Oxford University on the political ecology of water struggles in Durban, South Africa. Future projects will look at water and housing struggles in both the UK and South Africa.

Report Workshop 2:

_workshop_synopsis.doc
Poster 1



Poster 2 »

Poster 3 »

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Poster 6 »

Report Workshop 3:

» workshop3b.doc

Poster 22 may p»

:: Hilary Powell
Hilary Powell gained her first degree in Fine Art from The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University. Here she began to experiment with large-scale theatrical environments and an understanding of interior and urban landscapes through meteorological analogies. (If she wasn’t an artist she would like to be a storm chaser). She created a large interior concert for the elements entitled ‘What the Thunder Said’ and this desire to explore the invisible forces and language of space has influenced her urban research as she understands the sites of urban interventions as conductive sites of multiple histories and stories.

This led her to Prague and Utrecht within her M.A Sceonography at Central St Martins College of Art and Design where her installation practice involved more choreographic elements as she devised concerts for cars and people in Prague hinterlands and Amsterdam docklands working on wasteland sites poised on the brink of redevelopment. Her work in these cities consolidated her concern with the processes of urban change and the process of intervening in and placing value on sites that have been abandoned.
Returning to the UK she embarked on her PhD in Cultural Studies at Goldsmith’s College, University of London and an interdisciplinary investigation of what she terms ‘event art’ situated in the abandoned sites of the city. During this time she met and became a member of Luna Nera recognising a similar approach to working in space and a value placed on the derelict. She is currently developing a visual / sculptural version of her PhD for publication. She is also a partner in the film company Optimistic Productions with Daniel Edelstyn and they specialise in documenting and creating a vision of a city that holds the potential for playful subversion and sensory and imaginative encounter. They received their first commission for Channel 4 last year and are currently shooting a pilot for a new mini series and a news item on various means of reclaiming urban space.

:: Siraj Izhar
My art works are active social processes, which are completed by the ongoing activity of others.
They are generators of activity (like the former Public Life project The projects are always autonomous, sometimes anonymous and usually take place over a 3 year cycle consisting of phases which emerge out of each other: Production – Distribution – Representation. The concept of the ecosystem is central to my working process in that it describes the way the works work in real contexts with complexities of built-in feedback processes which develop over time. I do not produce exhibitions as such but engage with the living city directly to produce autonomous working realities. Through the 1990s my work was produced through the charity called strike foundation that I set up to promote and produce work that operates purely in civil society without the mediation of art institutions. Strike foundation was based at Fashion Street which provided 600 sq metres of different types of spaces and cells of activity along with differentiation of use - as public : semi-public : private spaces. The project was an experiment in modelling a ‘factory for integrated social production’ by bringing together an experimental mix of artists and social activist projects into the same shared facility. It was influenced by ideas from many disciplines in particular the physicist David Bohm's concept of the rheomode which allowed a fluid crossflow of ideas at the same time as a high level of cultural production without being answerable to any institutional yardstick or convention. Currently I am working on a waste collection and recycling project involving twenty 7-cubic yard waste skips (dumpsters) near Stratford, East London. The areas covered by this project are Leytonstone, Chingford, Walthamstow, Edmonton, Ilford, Romford. This is a metaphoric project which deals with the greater landscape in the aftermath of September 11; of how we are coping with the cultural detritus of September 11. It is run through the institution of an everyday urban service, in this instance a waste refuse collection company. I am also working on a Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa www.stalk.net/LivingMemorial/ to be constructed in London with Platform www.platformlondon.org. The Living Memorial is a continuation of my creative picturing of the city based on a visual eco-system. In this every autonomous community is distinctive in its functioning and its ideology - its core belief systems. This is differentiated for different communities even in a large city like London. Mainstream society is pictured as state-based consumer monoculture flowing in an uni-direction. Autonomous communities are more like concentric circles, creating complex eddies and ripples in the cultural landscape. In May 2006 I am participating in a conference on corporate ethics in Sienna I am also on the Editorial Advisory Board for The New Social Movements journal, published by Taylor and Francis. Others: UK participant at the International Cyber Conference Budapest Hungary 1996 Advisor at The Pari Center of New Learning www.paricenter.com , Tuscany, Italy 1998-present.
s-i@xyzlondon.com

:: John Jordan

:: Christian Nold
Christian Nold is an artist and cultural activist living in London . He
studied Fine Art at Kingston University as well as Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art. In 2001, he wrote the book ‘Mobile Vulgus' which been widely reviewed and extracts published in: Art Monthly, Sleazenation, Tank, Flux, Mute, Do or Die, Saturday and Janus. At the Royal College of Art, Christian developed the ‘Community Edit' and ‘Crowd Compiler' software pieces which have been presented at Yale and NYU as well as Sample Image in Rome , Neuro in Munich and ZKM in Karlsruhe . His project, Bio Mapping is
currently part of a national touring exhibition as well as an artist's commission on the Greenwich Peninsula . This project has previously been shown in India , Italy , Finland , Latvia and Holland . Christian is
currently a teacher at the Bartlett and South Bank University in London .

:: Gil Doron
Transgressive Architecture, has since 2001 examined the socio-political and architectural boundaries of the public space in London. The group was founded by Gil Doron and is based on his Ph.D. research “The Dead Zone & the Architecture of Transgression” at the Bartlett (UCL). The thesis is comprised of empirical research - in the form of a global de’rive in numerous cities, and is influenced by post colonialist / queer / everyday life theories and by the concepts of transgression and space in the writings of Bataille, Foucault, de Certeau, & Tschumi.
Transgressive Architecture, whose members are loosely connected through  various projects and academic teaching, has followed the ongoing sanitization of London’s public spaces, and the exclusion of the “Urban Nomads” (a temporal community based on non essential identity G.D) . This sanitization has manifested for example through the eviction of  rough sleepers, street vendors, and beggars from various public spaces; the closure at night of public squares; the attempts to “clean up” the sex industry in Soho; the  plan to transform Leicester Square into a “family zone”; and the implementations of ‘zero tolerance’ zones. Transgressive Architecture’s work is a critique and an attempt to change this situation via urban interventions , art, design project, wrinting, curating, teachings.
[See also cubes at the bottom of the page]
The group is currently working on the concept of the " “multi layered public space” and the “urban void” as a radical democratic public space. It is open to collaboration with individuals, groups, and exhibition spaces.
Transgressive Architecture’s work and Doron’s writings was published in numerous publications among them “Loose Space” (eds. Franck & Stevens; Routledge 11.06),  Visuelle Kultur, (Eds. Mortenbock / Mooshammer, bo`halu Publishers ,2003) HJARNSTORM (11.05); UmBau20 (06.03) City (04.02) Archis (02.02), The Guardian (8/09/01) Time Out, (27/06/01)   BluePrint (03.2000).
The work and research was presented in various conferences and public lectures such as EME3 Architectural Market - Barcelona (10/2005); TU Delft School of Architecture; Royal Collage of Art; National University of Singapore; International Institute for Urban Ecology -  Detroit; National Gallery - London.
For more info please see:
www.transgressivearchitecture.org


:: Gillian McIver
After studies at postgraduate level in History and Philosophy in Canada, Gillian McIver began to work in documentary photography and film-making. Further study of film and video and a growing interest in experimental film led her to artist-film and installation work. She has always been fascinated with places, and the layered physical and psychological residues of history that accrue in them. Her work takes the form of "experimental documentary" films and installations, where images and text intersect with metaphysical and epistemological questions about reality, time and memory. She combines a strongly visual approach with a theoretical underpinning, encouraging viewers to experience the work first emotionally and then intellectually.
She considers herself a “post-academic” historian of alternative narratives, working in visual expression as well as text.
In 1997 she co-founded the Luna Nera group artists, which for nearly ten years has made site-responsive mixed-media projects in iconic but abandoned sites in London, Berlin, St Petersburg and elsewhere.

:: Alana Jelinek ( www.alanajelinek.com, www.ti3.org.uk/alana.htm)

:: Timothy Layden» City Mine(d)
I received my PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona in April 2005 where I specialized in synesthetic visual arts and interdisciplinary expression. In fine arts I have worked in a wide range of medium: mainly Installation, sculpture, painting, performance and digital. I see art as a form of communication which transcends human difference. This can be a participatory act wherein the work takes on a sense of social exchange as its media where the tangible result of the work becomes a by-product of such or on the other hand an individual act where the work takes the creator out of their immediate social context up scaling the uniqueness of their point of view beyond their individuality. Having worked in studios settings, as a curator in a gallery setting as well as in the public arena I’ve worked with a variety of groups and cooperatives in various parts of the world: Mexico, Japan, Spain, Italy, The United States and England. I have been working with City Mined doing urban intervention since summer 2005.

:: Jim Segers » City Mine(d)
He was born in Turnhout (Belgium) in 1974 and holds A-levels in chemistry and biology. He finished his four year training in Brussels‚ drama school RITS with the Macbeth-apparatus, an art installation confronting the Scottish business with the disused and derelict modernist Le Peuple-building by architect Ferdinand Brunfaut; thereby raising awareness about urban issues, while giving a contemporary interpretation to the play. He was wrong in thinking that the curse resting on the Unmentionable would not apply in the extra-theatrical setting of a derelict building.
During his last years of drama school, Jim got involved in urban actions that combined support for innovative public art with strong political statements, and challenged the existing Brussel-negativism: Foundation Legumen, Habitat Central, Sens Unique. In 1996, Jim was invited to join Dito‚Dito, an independent theatre collective, with whom he had a chance to make Oleanna (David Mamet), Ah oui ça alors là (Rudi Bekaert) and La nuit juste avant les fôrets (Bernard-Marie Koltès) in Belgium and the Netherlands. Until 2005 Jim was secretary of Dito‚Dito‚s board of trustees.
In 1997, he was founding president of City Mine(d), position he left in 1998 to join the permanent staff of the organization. For City Mine(d) he developed Limite Limite, an innovative urban regeneration scheme that won international critical acclaim and awards; realized urban interventions in Brussels, Belfast and London, published the Repertorium (Brussels, 2000) and the Networkbook (London, 2004);and was involved in the launch of Precare, a project negociating the temporary use of buildings.
As a strong advocate of Urban Interventions as a catalyst for urban democracy, Jim gave talks about the subject in Brussels, London, Belfast, Rouen and New York and contributed to articles about the subject in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. In 2003-04, he was associate fellow of the Centre for Urban and Community Research in the depertment of Sociology of Goldsmiths University, London.
In 2004, Jim created City Mine(d) London, a British office of City Mine(d) through which he currently combines urban interventions with building a network between artists and activists who work in public spaces.



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