I’ve not explored ‘live art’ in my writing in any specific way. It arises through ideas of installation (Gordon Matta-Clark), locative media (Blast Theory), events (IASKA) and such. There’s a clear sense of these kinds of works chewing through art form boundaries, offering encounter and experience in time. I am looking for connections to some… [Read more…]
January 20, 2012
I’ve been thinking about suburban narratives and the kinds of images, scenarios and stories that emerge. Australia calls itself an urban nation but it’s more appropriate to recognise it as a suburban nation – 80% of us live in suburbs – even post-suburban. Various ideas emerging in the face of population growth and climate change… [Read more…]
January 19, 2012
Suburban streets can offer gifts and surprises, the generosity of neighbours and makeshift encounters. A small child offers her old toys and a free drink. A household offers a place to rest and explore on the footpath. A handmade seat in the shade.
January 16, 2012
In an interview, one of the founders of Cane Toad Times talks about using the magazine to develop a journalism of the everyday. (Cane Toad Times was a satirical magazine produced in Brisbane in the 1980s and there is an exhibition at the State Library.) A journalism of the everyday. It’s a rather poetic way… [Read more…]
January 15, 2012
In my work in community engagement and consultation, I am interested in the ways in which communities or groups can address and talk about climate change – or any kind of positive change. A thread in this project has been about conversation and negotiation. Not that I have done any substantive work in this area… [Read more…]
January 13, 2012
Recently my mother received a letter from the Council explaining that footpath improvements and streetscaping works would be happening at nights along Gympie and Albany Creek Roads, at the central intersection in Aspley. These works have already commenced, though I am yet to see any signs of streetscaping. All I’ve seen so far is new… [Read more…]
January 11, 2012
I’ve done a diagnostic on my household budget. I do this annually for all the usual reasons and some unusual ones like gaining an understanding of the environmental and social impact of the household consumption and spending. After looking at the ACF’s Australian Consumption Atlas, I just wanted to understand more about the impacts of… [Read more…]
January 10, 2012
Last year, a largish residential block in my local area was subdivided into three (above, outlined in red). An oversized lowset family home, probably built in the 60s/70s, was demolished and three two-storey family homes were approved (below, two of the three houses are built). I’ve wondered if that house and the one two doors… [Read more…]
January 9, 2012
I’m taking a small liberty with the idea of design fiction (or architectural fiction), as a kind of literary figuring or rhetoric. In general, a design fiction is an approach to design drawn from speculation; a story we can tell ourselves or a metaphor we can contrive about how things could or should be. Even… [Read more…]
January 8, 2012
In the New York Times, Michael Kimmelman muses about opportunities for carparks. Apparently, there could be as many as two billion parking spaces in the USA. He notes a forthcoming study on parking, Rethinking a Lot, in which Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of urban planning at MIT, points out that “in some U.S. cities, parking… [Read more…]
January 22, 2012
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