HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A new year - a chance to start with a clean slate!
And prepare yourself for those tough AA crits in 2008!

Worst Urban Places/Spaces

Digital Urban is calling for people to upload pictures
to a flickr set on this topic with the possibility of being
included in a book they're publishing (I think...).
They've also created a new companion blog.
I like this one...From somewhere in East Manchester:

Missile Silo for sale?

Link
It reminds me of Henrik's Tomahawk Memorial.

Urban Shadow?

"Banksy-esque"

Animation inspiration perhaps...More info here: www.blublu.org

Second Life - Transgender Suicide Memorial

Anyone up for a virtual unit trip...Habbo Hotel or Second Life?
Anyway, this concludes my SL field trip report - a snappie from the, wait for it:
"Transgender Suicide And Hate Crime Victim Memorial".
A quick search doesn't show up that many monuments in SL, but looks like there are quite a few memorials.

Second Lifers?

This is a snapshot of me...For some reason I've ended up as a baldheaded crossdresser in an ethno-lace-schoolgirl type outfit. Oh well. Anyway, this place is great - everything levitates!

Olympian Hell Fire

Is there any escape?

Alleies

queuing - a social conditioning

Is there any escape?

human architecture

A Hong Kong View of Beijing Olympics

hm... I think its interesting...

FINAL JURY 30th November

So you may be thinking that we just had a jury, but dont stop! The next one is just around the corner: 30th of November! is the Final Jury for this term, and MM and MLM expect us to work over the break...

Tried to email you all but some addresses are a bit wierd or something.

this one is REALLY hidden....

News in October

October was a depressing one so lets hope that the news events of novemeber presented a more hopeful:

Lies

check out this vid:

Guess who...?

This is a proposal for a monument in Berlin, 1910. Can you name the architect?

Week 3: One for the weekend...

Believe in Jedi

Week 3 - More (Not So) Hidden Monuments

PROTECTED MAN

Week 4: Prefabricated Monument

sorry for the bad quality, this happened in compression

Obesity in London in 2020 if we don't act NOW!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zTt-KCI7zjU

Obesity in London in 2020 if we don't act NOW!

Week 3 - Hidden Monument

the morning after (week 4 animation)

to a part of the world that once was

Who needs Maya?

Funny Video from Youtube:

http://www.slide.com/r/vyr-FHTi4T_XaN-A1p1l3iIwYmz1s33i

Still havent got the hang of embedding videos, sorry

a great man

Changing the guard (summerschool 2006)

300 times a day is every Londoner recorded by CCTV

Tens of thousands of CCTV cameras, yet 80% of crime unsolved
By Justin Davenport, Evening Standard 19.09.07

London has 10,000 crime-fighting CCTV cameras which cost £200 million, figures show today.
But an analysis of the publicly funded spy network, which is owned and controlled by local authorities and Transport for London, has cast doubt on its ability to help solve crime.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act.

Dee Doocey, the Lib-Dems' policing spokeswoman, said: "These figures suggest there is no link between a high number of CCTV cameras and a better crime clear-up rate.

"We have estimated that CCTV cameras have cost the taxpayer in the region of £200million in the last 10 years but it's not entirely clear if some of that money would not have been better spent on police officers.

"Although CCTV has its place, it is not the only solution in preventing or detecting crime.

"Too often calls for CCTV cameras come as a knee-jerk reaction. It is time we engaged in an open debate about the role of cameras in London today."

The figures show:

• There are now 10,524 CCTV cameras in 32 London boroughs funded with Home Office grants totalling about £200million.

• Hackney has the most cameras - 1,484 - and has a better-than-average clearup rate of 22.2 per cent.

• Wandsworth has 993 cameras, Tower Hamlets, 824, Greenwich, 747 and Lewisham 730, but police in all four boroughs fail to reach the average 21 per cent crime clear-up rate for London.

• By contrast, boroughs such as Kensington and Chelsea, Sutton and Waltham Forest have fewer than 100 cameras each yet they still have clear-up rates of around 20 per cent.

• Police in Sutton have one of the highest clear-ups with 25 per cent.

• Brent police have the highest clear-up rate, with 25.9 per cent of crimes solved in 2006-07, even though the borough has only 164 cameras.

The figures appear to confirm earlier studies which have thrown doubt on the effectiveness of CCTV cameras.

A report by the criminal justice charity Nacro in 2002 concluded that the money spent on cameras would be better used on street lighting, which has been shown to cut crime by up to 20 per cent.

Scotland Yard is trying to improve its track record on the use of CCTV and has set up a special unit which collects and circulates CCTV images of criminals.

A pilot project is running in Southwark and Lambeth and is expected to be rolled out across the capital.

The figures only include state-funded cameras.

The true number, once privately run units and CCTV at rail and London Underground stations are taken into account, will be significantly higher.

can't get no satisfaction OR ode to ms.padmavathi

Week Four

Exercise of Displacement (Week Three)

Best Comedians?

Curating Presidency

Week 03: Breathing > Monument < Extension

Week 02: Moment >> Monument

INVISIBLE MAN

Invisible Architecture - smoking areas or the lack there of.

Smoking areas or the lack there of.
Imagine a gateway/door/entrance into a public space.
A space without walls, no barriers..
Completely open, marked only by its entrance.
A sort of invisible public architecture.

Vote Lib Dems

My video to highlight the contradiction between the Liberal Democrats behaviour towards their leader and the policies that they hold about such a community.

politics and religion: the story of our lives

Videos

Don't know if this will work wihtout logging in as me to youtube, but try this link to view my videos:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=margheritawitholives

Cut Outs

Nice Video, if a little disturbing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr1pWzoLvT8

More Hidden Economics

immigration

Immigration will feature ever more strongly in daily politics as the 21st century unfolds. In Britain immigration will be seen as an essential component of economic growth and a prerequisite for a healthy economy. But this will not happen in the same way as in the US and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries, when they built multicultural societies on a positive historical legacy of integrating waves of migrants through the common goal of citizenship.

Instead, by 2020 British immigration policy will be founded on the fact of our ageing society. Britain will have fewer people of working age trying to support a growing number of retired people. Britain is likely to encourage immigration on a scale that current levels only hint at, but in the process there is a danger we will develop a two-tier workforce that has more in common with the gastarbeiter economy of the old West Germany than on any American melting pot example.

The basis for that prediction lies in the United Nations report Replacement Migration, published in 2000. It estimated that Britain needs to attract a million people a year between now and 2050 to maintain the balance between the workforce and the retired population. That might be regarded as unduly pessimistic, but even the most recent figures from the government actuary suggest that by 2020 there will be 20% more older people than younger adults.

The majority of people in their 60s and 70s will be healthy and active; they will demand ever more consumer items and the personal services that go with increased leisure time. There will also be a growing welfare sector to care for the ageing population. The retirement homes of Bournemouth and Eastbourne will become key models for economic regeneration projects across the country. Home Office studies predict this will mean an increase in low-paid, low-skilled jobs that may be difficult to fill from the existing labour force.

The pattern is already beginning to emerge in the hospitality and catering industries, where low-wage jobs with little security are increasingly being filled by migrants. The government's role is to ensure they can come here legally and get paid the minimum wage. But for this strategy to succeed longer-term, British governments will have to have come to terms with the flourishing hidden economy of illegal migrants. Otherwise the two-tier workforce will be even more likely.

That means that a way to "regularise" the position of illegal migrants already in Britain will have to be found. By 2020 it could become a regular feature of British life, with amnesties granted to illegal immigrants before each general election. And if you think that could not happen, look to the US. Earlier this year, President George Bush thought it politic to give three-year work permits and possible citizenship to up to eight million "undocumented" workers living mainly in New Mexico and Arizona. His "compassionate conservative" move was, of course, really an attempt to capture the increasingly powerful Hispanic vote. Migrants here could soon hold equivalent political power.

SOURCE: Guardian Unlimited, September 18, 2004

Hidden Economics

(Honestly Matthew, I'm covered in blue foam dust as I'm typing this!)

My topic/monument this week will attempt to address the issue of "hidden economics".
More specifically, the waves of cheap labor/immigrants that have historically supported Europe in good times, eg. Turkish immigrants in continental Europe in the 60's and 70's to the current waves of New Europeans. As has always been the case, immigrants are usually happy to do the work that nobody else wants and do it for less, work longer hours with little or none of the protection that a "native" worker enjoys. In a simple manner, I wish to
address how to a large extent our economy (and our privileged "welfare") is maintained by
access to these workforces, yet this group of people is rarely acknowledged nor shown any particular appreciation. Well, it's a start anyway...

Here's a piece of a speech by Vice President Franco Frattini, European Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security @ LSE, 23 February 2007:

Europe needs migration

The approach we are developing is realistic – it acknowledges the fact that international migration is part and parcel of today's world and that the central question is how to manage it effectively. Immigration has both a poverty and a richness strand: poverty is portrayed by the waves of illegal immigrants, victims of human trafficking, desperate and ready to risk everything in search of a better life.

This poverty has to be tackled and harnessed, and turned into richness. This in turn reflects Europe's need for selective immigration to continue its economic development and rise to the challenge of globalisation. This is the richness we imagine when looking at what the Americans have achieved, admittedly over the years and after fierce civil rights battles.

The EU needs immigration. In spite of the recent enlargement, which has brought the total population to some 490 million, the number of people living in the EU is set to decline in the coming decades and by 2050 a third will be over 65 years of age. The need for workers in many Member States, including the UK, is already evident in a number of sectors. This demand will grow as we lose 20 million workers between now and 2050.

The Lions of Trafalgar Square have finally arrived

Find them here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=lions%20of%20trafalgar&search_sort=video_date_uploaded&search_category=0&search=Search&v=&uploaded=

Because for some reason this blog won't take them :(

Week 2 - Billion Dollar Models

Another Billion Dollar Monument

More Billion Dollar Monument

Data:
Location: Wembley Stadium
Dimensions: Approx. 700m tall / 300m across "arms"
Materials: Proprietary (unknown). Outer surface is precious stones and metals.
Program: DNA bank and mausoleum for ORPs (Overwhelmingly Rich People)

Billion Dollar Monument

Levitating panic room for dead billionaire DNA @ Wembley
Picture snapped from Metropolitan Line train.

hey, i'm still unable to actually upload movies, so i decided to at least just post the links...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvyQjcDTPW4 (gordon brown on burma)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySuaJ2B20E (and jim carey on aung san)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vc0WK6DF7A (sth not too serious)
and sth of a more personal concern... a building that could have - and did for a time - become a monument:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr_MynD-DmM

a moving ceremony in an undefined location

Joe

The Video

Media March

Tomahawk Memorial

If only they made it bigger...

If it's small, it's a statue - if it's big, it's a monument!

"How much for the little statue...?"

List of 10 tallest monuments

Non-Domesticated London

London has become home to the world's billionaires
in recent years, whilst huge profits (and hence huge
bonuses) in the City's investment banks has created
a group of people with so much money, they hardly
know how to spend it. The "New Americans" are picking
up penthouses in West London as ex-oligarchs shop
for football clubs...All to the amusement of the Duke of
Westminister enjoying his 100 acres of Mayfair real
estate.
Welcome to Europe's tax haven number one!

nice videos

Fish
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx/?mkt=en-gb&vid=af59eb20-7087-4c4f-a781-3b8fa1623de2&wa=wsignin1.0

Lion
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx/?mkt=en-gb&vid=af59eb20-7087-4c4f-a781-3b8fa1623de2&wa=wsignin1.0

HELP: My laptop died!

My Sony Vaio (with all my data and work on it!) is not booting. I think it´s a power issue... Does anybody know good laptop repair service in London????

Walking a Line, No Barriers

Video walking a line:



Enjoy!

OMU

"Nur noch das Wesentliche - die Reduktion." - "Limit it to the essential -reduction". Oswald Matthias Unger, of which Rem Koolhaas said that he was perhaps his most influencial teacher, died this week.

Bruce Lee in Mostar

There´s not only Stari Most :)

http://www.projekt-relations.de/en/get/pressematerial/de_construction.php

action urbanism..

marching borders - b. march video

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxb1_763Kq8

A memorial in silence

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AFFQrUyi8-s

Kidd of Speed - Radioactive Monument

Well, this is perhaps a somewhat sad excuse to share a strange journey with Elena A.K.A KiddOfSpeed on her motorbike and with Geiger counter in tow through the off-world that is post-Chernobylium.
This made the rounds at my work a few years back, mostly cause there's quite a few bike nuts and partly because it's like straight out of Stalker.

Alyosha - Relocation/Removal of War Memorial in Estonia

The relocation of a Soviet era war memorial in Tallinn (Estonia) to a local cemetery caused three days of rioting and looting. Following the removal, Russia was accused of engaging in cyber warfare against the country - accusations I believe were never, at least publicly, proven nor confirmed by later investigations (NATO dispatched "anti-cyberwar" teams to Estonia in the days after the attack).

I present three YouTube vids on the subject to emphasize the point I was trying to get across with my Burma demo vid - you have to consider the point of view that the story is told from.
Perhaps they're not the best choices, but there's plenty more...

BBC - Breaking News


Russia Today - Soviet Monument Controversy


ETV (Estonian TV report - subtitled)

Future Monuments - Monument for a Species

Burma video

The link to my video is:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vRKtHBIi74A

Tate Britain draft...

Just thought i'd upload a few images of demonstrations i went to in Beirut in 2005, for our 'independance'.

Physical and Virtual Models

Location Map, Petrova Gora

David Maljkovic, Scenes for a New Heritage

Croatian-artist David Maljkovic’s epic film series Scene for New Heritage Trilogy focuses on a group of travellers visiting a memorial park, erected in Petrova Gora, Croatia, for victims of the Second World War under the Communist government of Yugoslavia. As they visit the monument, debate is sparked as to its long-forgotten meaning – it means nothing to them, just as their strange dialect is alien to us. The second film, set 20 years later, features a young boy approaching and looking out from the monument's tower to an empty snow-filled landscape, as if on some spiritual pilgrimage. The third and final film depicts young teenagers milling aimlessly around the central tower; talking, playing and walking around the derelict monument.

Scenes for a New Heritage (2004) follows a group of heritage-seekers to Petrova Gora, a memorial to the victims of the Second World War built in Croatia between 1970 and 1981. Maljkovic has set the scene on 25 May (Tito's birthday) in the year 2045, when the loaded historical background of the location would have been long forgotten. The protagonists emerge from a tinfoil-covered automobile and shout out to each other in 'ganga' , a Croatian folksong. Here, the use of a once suppressed oral tradition is more futuristic than anachronistic.

http://www.cca.rca.ac.uk/againfortomorrow/index.htm
http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/gallery/2007/maljkovic/
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/david_maljkovic/

A subtle "hack"....?

Not sure if it qualifies, but this picture shows demonstrators
at the Burma Campaign March on Saturday "decorating" one
of the lion sculptures at the foot of Nelson's column with the red
cloth/head band that was the "logo" of the event...

Google Earth tour of Burma demo route

why democracy? please vote for me

i caught this documentary on tv last night.
i'm trying to download a copy of it now.
it's fascinating : )
below is the link of its synopsis.

http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/please-vote-for-me/


and its nice to see this site is not dead..

Clips from Burma March

Volumetric Public Space

Not sure if this will interest any of you, but I just received an email from an organisation called "ascii" in Amsterdam - this being the flotsam from various mailing lists I subscribed to when back in 2004 I momentarily pretended to be a documentary auteur bumming round central Europe, visiting organisations that are involved in creating what's commonly referred to by the sexy title "community wireless networks" - essentially disseminators of the knowledge required to create ad-hoc computer networks using cheap tech (and frankly, many of those involved happens to be some of the most qualified and passionate geeks I've ever come across). The documentary project came to a sudden halt during IDFA in Amsterdam that same year in a haze of butter cookies and strong espressos (tangential thought: Do watch "Darwin's Nightmare" if you ever get the chance...), but that's another tale (I still have hours of unedited, embarrassingly amateurish interviews packed away on a dusty Lacie drive - all shot on an iSight at full res, which generated an incredible 5Mb per second data stream (read: unmanageable)).
The point I want to get across here, is the little known fact that the airwaves, literally "the sky" around us, is a highly segmented piece of real estate, used by governments worldwide to raise billions in revenue (recall the financially back-breaking mobile license auctions for 3g a few years back). Of course, this network also runs below us, in the shape of strands of copper and optical fiber.
What the "community wireless network"...err...community has argued for over the past few years is that the government releases more spectrum to their efforts to allow the "publics" to create their own non-commercial networks (eg. by allocating the soon-to-be available analogue telly broadcast spectrum). Unfortunately, said community is a loosely connected patchwork of organisations...My feeling is that eventually they will loose out to commercial powers like Google/telcos etc. (and perhaps one could say they already have)
But here's what I REALLY wanted to show - a piece of graphic that made a big impression on me 3 years ago. Click here to view a diagram of US spectrum allocation. Now try and see if you can track down where what we commonly refer to by its commercialized moniker "WiFi" sits (hint: it's quite small!) - this being the patch of spectrum which was de-regulated years back as it was considered a "junkspace" within the spectrum - messy and noisy as it was, being in the wavelenghts of microwaves, garage door openers and whatnot. Yet, WiFi took off in a big way perhaps even making possible the "nomadic" laptop lifestyles we now take for granted.
Something that was hinted to me back in those days was how convenient it would be if we (architects) put antennas into window frames....But I'll leave it at that for for now.
Have a look at some more graphs here and here.
Comments are welcome...

Video of Interest

Hey,

After searching for something of interest this is my link to a vid I chose off you tube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IGo5U_KGr4c

It remains of similar interest to the aspect I had previously decided on shooting for my Burma vid, 'the space from a journalist point of view' although I have fallen into this with much raw footage, nothing really grabs me. I don't know what I should do? Well I lost four hours of work from the computer room yesterday so i could start again with a new perspective? Any way waffle waffle, henrik don't worry about it.

Burma speech