Hacking Urban Furniture Conference
Hacking Urban Furniture Kick-off-Conference at ZK/U
Bus stops, public bathrooms, benches, trash bins, billboards...For the last 30 years, street furniture and outdoor advertising have defined the grammar of our cities. The ‘Hacking Urban Furniture’ project wishes to examine this sector, which so strongly defines the public space in our cities: In times of private-public partnerships (PPP), requests for increased citizen-participation, new production techniques and fantasies of economic optimization, how can such prominent public objects be designed, produced, maintained and sustained differently? What can participation processes, which are prototypical for the handling of public space, look like?
The ZK/U (Center for Art and Urbanistics) warmly invites you to the public opening conference ‘Hacking Urban Furniture’, a long-term research and practice project.
On the 7th and 8th of April 2017 artists, urban researchers, administrators, politicians, activists and citizens get together, to talk about the current state and future of urban furniture.
The conference is the starting point for the development of five artistic prototypes, an open idea competition, participation models in ‘case studies’, film series and research groups. Besides lectures about the interaction with public space in the global South, an introduction into urban research debates, and panels with experts, activists and politicians, the conference offers workshops by artists and scholars.
Detailed information available at www.hackingurbanfurniture.net and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1245463545538996/?fref=ts
The registration for the conference is closed. We are FULLY BOOKED!
Program: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BziHu4Fz_nRvdjRTRkU4d2pWcWs/view
Confirmed participants: Markus Ambach (artist / MAP Projekte), Ben Blazy (designer / Kunsthochschule Weißensee), Jan Bovelet (StadtInnenArchitektur), Konrad Braun (architect / urban researcher / openBerlin e.V.), Mary Dellenbaugh (urban researcher), Fred Dewey (author / Neighborhood Councils Movement / Los Angeles, Matthias Einhoff (artist / KUNSTrePUBLIK), Satya Gummuluri (urban researcher / Surfatial Kollektiv Bangalore), Christian Hasucha (artist), Susanne Hauser (urban researcher / UdK Berlin), Philip Horst (artist / KUNSTrePUBLIK), Sabine Knierbein (Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space / TU Wien), Jan Körbes (artist), Alireza Labeshka (urban researcher / Raaf Project Teheran), Omar Nagati (architect / urban researcher / Cluster Cairo), Mobasher Niqui (architect / mbnq.studio / Teheran), Joanne Pouzenc (researcher / CollegeLab), Alex Römer (artist / Constructlab), Martin Schwegmann (architect / Kulturmanager / MitOst e.V.), Raumlaborberlin (architecture / Berlin), Harry Sachs (artist / KUNSTrePUBLIK), Sixten Sanne-Göransson (artist), Laura Sobral (architect / The City Needs You Institute, Brasil).
Hacking Urban Furniture is a project by KUNSTrePUBLIK (www.kunstrepublik.de)
In cooperation with: bbk Kulturwerk
The Kick-off-conference is funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the Senate Department of Culture.
The art projects / ideas competition are funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
Shared Cities: Creative Momentum (SCCM) is a European cultural platform addressing the contemporary urban challenges of European cities. SCCM is a joint project of Goethe-Institut (DE), Czech Centres (CZ), reSITE (CZ), Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (SK), Association of Belgrade Architects (RS), Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre – KÉK (HU), Katowice City of Gardens (PL), KUNSTrePUBLIK (DE), Mindspace (HU), Old Market Hall Alliance (SK), Res Publica – Cities Magazine (PL). Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
// Workshop No 1
'Corporate urban furniture, public space, and money'/ by Jan Bovelet from 'stadtinnenarchitektur' / TBC: Saturday April 8 from 10:30 - 18:00 (lunch break in between) FULLY BOOKED!
The workshop investigates the spatial patterns of the corporate urban furniture system of Wall AG in Berlin. In order to understand the mechanics of the so-called recompensation business model, and what implications it bears for public space, the workshop starts with an initial mini field research into the distribution of Wall AG furniture tokens in Berlin Moabit, aimed at producing a critical map. The next step is then to research the business numbers of Wall AG and develop a plausible way to relate these numbers to the found furniture tokens. The crux here is to define which numbers are useful and to decide which ones can be researched given the limited timeframe. Once we have an initial grasp of the spatial distribution of the furniture system in Moabit and of their virtual balance sheets, the workshop proceeds to an ad hoc collective design of an initial idea for an artistic intervention to make visible the spatial patterns and impact of privately operated urban furniture via recompensation business models. As for the interdisciplinary nature of the research objective, the workshop is looking for participants from urban, industrial, and architectural design backgrounds, from data research and visualization backgrounds, and from theoretical backgrounds such as economic and political theory, urban theories and architectural theories.
'Stadtinnenarchitektur' is looking for instruments and actors that have the potential to change the forms of property and formats of political organization of today's urban societies in those places where they are harmful for societal development.
// Workshop No 2
'MINI BURNING MAN - ALL YOU CAN HEAT WORKSHOP' by Jan Körbes / max. 15 Participants / TBC: Saturday 08 April 14:00 - 18:00
Statement: Towards a new manual for a world without waste.
Refunc will take you on a tour in the neighbourhood of zku and inspire you to come up with your own experimental concepts in public space.
Next step will be to understand the available materials, their qualities and possible impacts. What we can turn them into, far away from what they have been designed for.
We might find unexpected stories and functions in material and space. Touch, play and 3D sketch towards a few strangely scaled pieces of architecture.
After inviting the audience to experience our results, all will become a light installation with short endurance. Just a few pieces of ash will be left.
REFUNC plays with problems, connects people, invents functions, creates spaces, optimises environments, transforms garbage, inspires components, helps knowledge, exchanges experiences, operates instantly, questions standards & finds solutions.
We applied the Refunc method in public space and every time surprising solutions came up after playing with given problems. About conviction, courage and change. The tools of asking, listening, playing and sharing carried us to unknown discoveries.
Web: http://refunc.nl
// Workshop No 3
'Urban Microclimates' / by Satya Gummuluri & Sixten Sanne-Göransson / max. 15 Participants / TBC: Friday 07 April 11:00 - 17:00
Statement: Which way is home? Sing the map to me as i walk, wander, drift through the city.
The goal of this workshop is to investigate microclimates and their applications within the context of urban environments. What are some ways that microclimatic concepts can be adapted to street furniture in order to change the user's perception of space? And further, how can this be achieved by changing as little as one component? In the workshop, participants would examine specific questions posed to them and brainstorm ideas and solutions using readily available or easily attainable material, with constraints such as low cost and quick implementation. The facilitators would like to open their own questions which they have been investigating within their practice, with a view to getting community input, and which they will further use towards building a prototype.