Institutionalizing Beauty

During Week 48, Annika Enquist and Thérèse Kristiansson (from The New Beauty Council or NBC) join as guest lecturers to guide a series of activities around the theme:

Institutionalizing Beauty and Destabilizing the Map

NBC does not conceive sites as neutral values but recognizes them as social constructions that envisage and shape relationships of power. One aspect brought forward will be how we can change the experience of the urban landscape with alternative movements and taking places with our bodies. We take our own experience as example and draw parallels to the dynamics of power manifested by architecture, behaviour and action....
(from the theme description by Annika and Thérèse)

View students' design responses and read more about the theme below.

Sthlm Collage Soup

The project Collage Soup attempts to experiment with different soft interferences on a day out in the city. The urban city is stage that although very chaotic it is highly choreographed, accident are avoided at every moment. The people who live in the city have become accustomed to this choreographed dance, through their seemingly never ending daily routine.

The objective of our project was to intervene, create a space for possible reflection, with difference sets of tool and measure their results on "stage". We came up with more than one idea, such as; interference in a commercial Stockholm city guide, critic on urban etiquette in the Tunelbanna (Metro), a precise daily event we called Sun Art: This is not Photoshop and others, but ultimately we tried to choreograph all these small ideas/activities in a bigger chain of events.

The idea behind the city guide was of to appropriate a commercial product, this product itself had previously appropriated local expertise of the cities habitants, and then give it back to the city. This was done by making three incisive cuts based on the layout of the guide, by doing this you could turn different pages randomly mixing different peoples advices for the city. We also blackened all references to the product which the guide tried to boost, a tactical un-mapping of commercial strategy of appropriation of local expertise.

The Hints on Etiquette was done as a social comment, by us outsiders and now new habitants of Stockholm, on the civic behaviour in public spaces. This was done by scripting to actors not what they should do but how they should react in the event of specific body movement, situation and action. This was done based on personal experience of the indecisiveness of remarking the other in this confined public space where everyone try hard to avoid each other and go about their business.

Exploring the Giving of good attitude to passers by in a public space

In this case study we have concentrated our efforts into observing how communication in a public space would be expanded by giving conversation pieces. Prior to this we discussed two aspects of this assignment.

One was the way people search contact with each other: In a public space, only few people tend to look each other in the eyes for a short time. Would there be a difference in this if person took contact with someone with a clear facial painting that could function as a conversation piece?

The second as the fact that the public space is so commercialized and that people have such a small chance in finding scenes and reasons to communicate with each other. We thought of the act of giving away something for free in the public space would maybe trigger some people to start communicating with us and maybe have something to discuss later on that day. We choose to give away plants as gifts. This is because we thought the plant being a strong symbol of what many people fight for to be free and in abundance. It functions as well as a time based experience in the way that it grows and becomes old and can in many years to come create the foundation for conversations. Maybe the given plant is kept alive and saved for generations. Maybe someone’s grandchild will take shoots from it and hand out somewhere as a school project. ”I remember the time when I got this plant on T centralen? It was the same day I met your grand father…” This we can not verify, but we can hope it will help trigger positive vibrations in the perceptions of the commercial space.

This practice based research resulted in an awareness of how people perceive gifts from stranger and how they react to being confronted in a polite way by a stranger in the public space. We had a lot of assumptions on how this would be perceived, but as always the result was not that of what we had “planned”. Giving is not always something good. It can bring with it a feeling of ”owing” something to the giver. Swedish people are rather reserved when it comes to “out of the ordinary” contact with their fellow citizens. Although what we observed was that everybody reacted very differently. Some was very skeptical to receiving something free and others were very curious and hungry for social interaction.

YOGA VAGN

This project starts at setting a perspective to conceive site as a social construction that envisages and shapes relationship of powers rather than of neutral values. Train system hides people's characters hence gloomy atmosphere is created. How this value constitutes norms, results how people behave and use this urban space, and affects relationship between each other?

We can change the routine of the city living for the better by an alternative movement and embodied experience. From this experiment, I find this plain grouping suggested by signages on platform is enough to enables voluntary knowledge dissemination-- free and classless; and offers a refreshing beneficial time of a day. It simply allows human inner to unfold.

'YOGA VAGN' is one example activity that can take place in the commute. It alters everyday compulsory time wasting -- qualitatively and quantitatively.

Many thanks to 

Moa Goliats

Bonnie Swift

Anders Mellbratt

Note: This work is prepared in synchronization with an entry to 'the fun theory' competition.

Take a second look, have a new experience.

How can you experience a space with new eyes?

On November 26th, the [Un]Real Estate group experienced Sergelstorg in a new way.
They took a psychogeographic walk, choreographed by maps from other city
squares such as, Stureplan, Tensta and Brunkebergstorg, and with their own imagination.

We hoped to find new ways of experiencing 'Plattan', Sergelstorg, a busy square located in the city center. It connects to one of the main subway stations and several department stores, which is why its surroundings can often feel neglected due to the amount of people traveling and passing by.

We choose 3 different routes to be walked by our group at Plattan. One from Stureplan, another from Tensta and the last but not the least Brunkebergstorg. These sites were choosen due to their great difference; Stureplan being Stockholm's 'posh' area, Tensta a suburb and Brunkebergstorg the old meeting spot of Stockholm.

These new routes forced the group to look at the space of Plattan in a new way. Some choose to walk in pairs others by themeselves, but everyone experienced their route in their own way.
Hopefully, giving people new insights and thoughts about the space or possibly the discovery of new artifacts, views, entrances, steps, passages and other things.

This did not only give our group a new experience, but it also made us realize that the routes need to be enhanced and focused in order to acheive a more enriched experience and outcome.

1m²

By bringing one type of value to the surface, we would like to instigate discussion around the value of space in the urban environment.

The cost of living related to renting or buying your own place is always a hot topic in Stockholm, maybe more so than in most other Swedish cities. By collecting more information, one may get a better understanding of the complex processes that determine real estate prices. However, this data is not always so easy to find. We take it to the streets by researching and calculating home prices in the area, and then putting the price tag on the pavement, for everyone to see. We connect the virtual and subjective (market) values with the actual place.

For the sites which today are public, but may be due for development by commercial interests, we placed a tag with the word "priceless". This is to emphasize the fact that commercialization and development of our shared space brings implications for future users and uses of the space – reclaiming space that is commercially owned is usually complicated.

1m²

By bringing one specific set of values to the surface, we would like to instigate discussion around the value of space in the urban environment.

The cost of living related to renting or buying your own place is always a hot topic in Stockholm, maybe more so than in most other Swedish cities. By collecting more information, one may get a better understanding of the complex processes that determine real estate prices. However, this data is not always so easy to find. We take it to the streets by researching and calculating home prices in the area, and then putting the price tag on the pavement, for everyone to see. We connect the virtual and subjective (market) values with the actual place.

For the sites which today are public, but may be due for development by commercial interests, we placed a tag with the word "priceless". This is to emphasize the fact that commercialization and development of our shared space brings implications for future users and uses of the space – reclaiming space that is commercially owned is usually complicated.

Also, the price is for ONE square meter on a single floor...

Anders Mellbratt & Stina Wessman

Experience Design Group

Stockholm Rocks

On the day of our presentations, I performed a short monologue at an outcropping of rock above the Slussen subway station. It is a story about Stockholm told from the perspective of a rock. I thought of this monologue as being part of a potentially larger theater project, in which the history of Stockholm is told by the city’s landscape itself (both natural and architectural).

This play would be staged as a walking tour, preferably at night. The audience would be equipped with headphones and flashlights. The script would be prerecorded and produced (with rich sound effects), and timed to the pace of the walk. The audience would be taken as a group through oldest parts of the city, and as they walked, they would illuminate different objects (i.e. rocks, trees, cornerstones, statues) with their flashlights, and the objects would tell their stories as first person narratives. The idea behind this project is to engage the audience in imagining time from unconventional perspectives— how does a 2.5 billion year old rock experience the city? How does a tree? If the materials in a building could talk, what would they say? This type of walking tour would also tell a more or less accurate history of Stockholm, from its geological beginnings, to its present ecological and cosmopolitan state. I started with the perspective of the rock. Here is an excerpt from the script:

"It happened all of a sudden. I woke up from a short nap, and I was covered in a heavy sheet of ice. Can you imagine, human, the weight of a glacier? Even for a rock, it’s very heavy. And what’s worse, it moves! And as it moves, it scrapes away everything underneath.

I used to be a mountain, a handsome mountain. So did all these other rocks that you see lying about. The ice is what wore us down into what we are today— low lying rocks. We were once much younger, taller, and sharper than we are today.

But the ice came and went, came and went, five times. Each time it came, it took a little bit more of us with it. Sometimes it left a few things —smaller rocks, sand, soil. It carved out riverbeds, lakes. Look around, human, everything underneath your city was carved by ice. "

The image above is a geological map of Sweden. As I understand it, Stockholm is situated in the Baltic Shield, which is home to some of the oldest rocks in the world. Rocks around here range in age from 2.5-3.8 billion years old. Humans first settled the Swedish peninsula about 12,000 years ago, which is really just a blink of an eye for an old rock.

Sthlm Collage Soup

by Nina and Vijai

Random thoughts and ideas from a day in the city and a stroll in the park.


Stockholm magazine.

Reconstruction of social relations.
Collective individualism, individual collectivism as a theme.

Hints on Etiquette.

Treat people like people!

Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy.
Ambrose Bierce


This is not Photoshop.

Sun art, the city at 5 meters above.
We hardly notice things happening outside of our usual everyday visual field.


Vending machine messages.

Idea of using vending machines as a providers of messages for new experiences of city.


Cinema on park benches.

New usage of public space. Benches as a open air cinema.

References from the lecture

Hi everyone, really nice to see your projects yesterday! I'm really looking forward to hearing what you develop during the coming weeks. Here is a list of references from the lecture and also the Minnie Bruce Pratt text is interesting for the psycho-geography group. Take care and e-mail either me or Annika if you have any questions, our e-mails are therese.kristiansson@newbeautycouncil.org and annika.enqvist@newbeautycouncil.org

Yours in struggle, ed. Elly Bulkin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Barbara Smith (NY:Long Haul Press, 1984) Chapter: Identity: Skin Blood Heart by Minnie Bruce Pratt.

Interesting to read in combination to that is Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity,Chandra Talpade Mohanty, around page 85

Chantal Mouffe (On the Political, 2005) on the post-political

“cross-cladd”, an expression coined by Bonnevier, Katarina, Behind Straight Curtains: Towards a Queer Feminist Theory of Architecture, (Axl Books, Stockholm, 2007).

Altering practices, Edited by Doina Petescu, (Routledge, London, 2007)

(…) we were writing from an architectural perspective that can be read from other perspectives as well, including art or performance. The group has moved away from the aim of representation (as seen in many public art projects), and from an understanding of the architectural space as space formed by objects in relation to one another, to a more political understanding of the time-space relationship. The notion of participation has shifted from a participation in the production of objects to a spatial participation. The aims are no longer to be ‘included’ or ‘represented’ but to participate directly from a different position. This is the legacy of Alterities: ‘difference becoming a tool for’ taking.

Bakhtin, Mikael. [1941, 1965] Rabelais and His World. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. 1993.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), (London & New York: Routledge, 1999).

Moura Guedes: “Flexibility could be described as the ease with which a system or component can be modified for use in applications or environments other than those for which it was specifically designed. … Why is flexibility important? Because it allows us to respond to a context that is changing, at an ever increasing pace and producing unexpected, sometimes disruptive, results”

De Beauvoir, Simone The Second Sex. Edition Gallimard, (Paris, 1^st Edition 1949)

Arquitectura parabólica – a comparative object, in the Swedish periodical Glänta

There are instances where people have not been evicted in spite of putting up satellite dishes on the façade to their residential buildings. A few families in the suburb of Rinkeby in Stockholm escaped eviction recently since the freedom of information was assessed as more pressing than the violation of the law for the right of tenancies’ remarks and regulations on “soundness, order, behaviour and good conditions” in the estate.

– You are threatening to hurt others, yes your neighbours, the satellite dishes are not only ugly, but they can also fall down and thwart the access for the rescue services agency in case of an emergency!

Douglas, Mary, Purity and danger, an analysis of concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966), New York, 1995

On Ugliness, ed. Umberto Eco, translation Alastair McEwen, Rizzoli, 2007.

Sandqvist, Tom, Det fula, Raster, Stockholm, 1998.

Presentation Plan

Hi,

This is plan for presentation, Thursday, 25 Nov.

1-Prang | 1:00 p.m. (30 min.) | Telefonplan T-bana, Pressbyrån towards T-centralen

2- Josefin & Mahmoud | 1:45 (30 min.) | T-centralen T-bana, by Plattan-Drottingatan

3- Nina & Vijai | 2:30 (30 min.) | Slussen

4-Martin & Min | 3:00 (30 min.) | Slussen

5-Anders & Stina | 3:30 (30 min.) | Slussen

6-Bonnie | 4:15 (15 min.) | Gamla Stan

Stockholm Open Green Map

Hi everyone! It was really fun meeting you and seeing the presentations you performed yesterday! This is a link to the interactive map I was talking about that we could use to either make a sub-map or directly be part of the existing map

http://www.stockholmgreenmap.se/open_green_map.html and here is an example of a sub-map, the Bagis Map,

which is more of a community created map

http://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/bagiskartan-bagarmossen-community-green-map

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!

/Thérèse

Assignement:

Work in groups of two and choose a site, an action, an enactment, or appropriate a space and perform it for the rest of the group on Thursday. You can use your own body, the bodies of the entire group as your tool, your speech, or by adding some kind of material to a site in order to perform your assignment. If you want to, you can refer to projects by the NBC or any other projects you may find interesting in any of the literature that we have suggested.

If you would like to have a look at the Stockholm City Museum data base this is their web site:

http://www.stockholmskallan.se/index.php?sokning=22

Institutionalizing Beauty and Destabilizing the Map

During Week 48, Annika Enquist and Thérèse Kristiansson will join as guest lecturers, guiding a series of activities.

Refer to the main course page for times/places of activities in Week 48.

NBC does not conceive sites as neutral values but recognize them as social constructions that envisage and shape relationships of power. One aspect brought forward will be how we can change the experience of the urban landscape with alternative movements and taking places with our bodies.
We take our own experience within NBC as example and draw parallels to the dynamics of power manifested by architecture, behaviour and action. With this in mind, we will talk about how NBC operates, trying out different methods and how the practical experiments are entwined with theories on gender and queer etc and possible tools to reinterpret sites.

Part 1
Lecture "Institutionalizing Beauty"
In which we describe the story and idea behind the art project The New
Beauty Council (NBC) and specifically addresses the subject of construction of taste, beauty and ugliness. We will also talk about how value only exists if it is articulated by someone/something (Bruno Latour, The social practice of articulating value, Chantal Mouffe, Laclau). How could for example values of tolerance/intolerance be articulated? How does creation of values impact the decision-making in urban development and creation, selection and preservation of the city's cultural heritage? The protection of beauty, the protection of city-like aspects of the city, the city of Stockholm's "Snygg och Trygg" (Neat & Safe) -policies etc.

Part 2
Field trip into Public Space
In which we will discuss the role theatrical aspects such as stage design and selective narrations play in the creation of sites, pasts, “histories”, cultural heritages and identities. How architecture meet needs for ideological requirements to influence and control the public and how institutions have been used to impress on the masses ‘civilized’ behaviour and values (like manners and how to behave in public). We will use a queer and feminist perspective.

Part 3
Individual or group work on assignment "Destabilizing the Map"
In which the students' point of departure is to look into the persuasiveness of design, to find the psychological aspects in situated, embodied experience. They will analyze how articulated values constitute norms on how to behave in and use the city. One aspect in this analyzes should be how risk play a role in the policies. The brief includes taking these analyses to the next level by finding their own way of articulating value from their own or a taken/acted position/perspective. The assignment consists of the enactment of being a service provider/producer of a new experience/narration of a chosen site.

Part 4
Actions/Interventions/Presentations
In which the students take the lead and present their experiments and results as producer of a city walk with a stop each or other coordinated way.

Literature

Petrescu, D. (ed.) Altering Practices. Routledge, 2007.
3 copies are on reserve as course literature in the library

aaa (ed.) Urban Act. PEPRAV (2007)
available at www.peprav.net and www.urbantactics.org