fabulation session 20131108-9 AltArt, Transylvania. Faciliated by Istvan Szakats

(notes from day 1)

Group – Rarita

Cities – general ideas

•	Most population in Europe lives in cities (60%?) – one cannot escape statistics 
•	Surveillance – recent history ante ’89 vs traffic surveillance; to be watched (CCTV) vs, feeling constantly watched; anonymity in public spaces vs rural “surveillance” where you can’t escape getting noticed 
•	City annihilates or amplifies individuality 
•	Sectoral industry cities are different from continent to continent / country to country 
•	Paris as example of homelessness, rats, misery vs tourism mania
•	Cities have different orientations (industrial, cultural, touristic)
•	The issue of ghost cities, abandoned or failed cities (ex. Detroit, Chinese cities)
•	Pathological behaviors in cities
•	Homelessness – big in capital cities, small or non-existence in small cities 
•	One is always a minority and never the target of everything that is going on in a city. 
•	Sustainability – cities are the least sustainable form 
•	Everything that has to do with cities is a paradox 
•	Every city has a potential for a better path to the future 
•	Rural-urban distinction

Characteristics :

•	Lots of people 
•	Crowds 
•	Special districts for all tastes/hobbies – thematic, food, cultural, for specific groups 
•	Concentration yet variety 
•	Cities cluster/marginalize on specific purposes (case of immigrants- rent price control, parking control)
•	Communities that always “flock together“, small communities 
•	Traffic – the too many cars issues yet cars define social status and become a ”must have” 
•	There is always a chance for leisure activities (running exercise)
•	Biking is more and more used
•	Lots of services 
•	Geography / landscape defines cities 
•	Eco-cities and real sustainable cities– can they exist ? 
•	Food – farmers, bio products 

Likes – What do a like/love in a city??

•	There are communities for everything
•	Divers population
•	Safety 
•	Cities are “walk-able”
•	Multicultural and the challenges to deal with it
•	History
•	Multiples, culture crash
•	Cities are too big to experience
•	The chance to change cities 
•	Concentration 
•	Gaining anonymity  
•	Variety
•	Cities as culture magnets 
•	Velocity – speed, access, information, mobility
•	Variety of foods / cuisines 
•	Connectivity, internet and easy access 
•	Freedom and obscurity 
•	Different cultural backgrounds and different styles 
•	The chance to make choices 
•	Regenerative cities – cities can transform, improve themselves – urban planners, architects , landscape architects can use challenging concepts to transform cities 
•	Love a city that still has/keeps a human size 
•	Changing realities 
•	Friendly people 
•	Interest in marginal groups 
•	Infinite freedom 
•	you can find communities that welcome you 
•	getting the chance not to be noticed 

Dislikes – What do I hate most in cities?

•	Stigmatization
•	Racism
•	Bad urban planning – historical vs new neighborhoods 
•	Lack of forests 
•	Traffic jams
•	Claustrophobic
•	Dependence on resources
•	Distance from nature 
•	Concentration of people that never talk to each other 
•	Loosing anonymity 
•	Social/public spaces that make you feel strange
•	Intolerance
•	Getting the chance not to be noticed 
•	Lack of interest of who you are
•	Distraction 
•	Burden of making choices 
•	Loneliness (an appearance? Lonely groups cancel themselves out)
•	No place for losers – just for successful people 
•	The social pressure to show you are successful 
•	Hating the city itself because everything manmade is not perfect 
•	Crime   ; crime happens if neighborhood structure allows it. 
•	The inhumanity of the city – it does not work on human scale, timeframes, imposes roles, lack of access, 
•	Dependence on resources (ex. electricity) 
•	Bad urban planning.. 
•	Garbage / waste 
•	Ignorance 
•	Many choices but actually trivial 
•	Lack of safety 
•	Crime – riots 
•	Protests , strikes
•	Pollution, 
•	Strikes 
•	Unfriendly for animals – created for the interest of the supreme human race. 
•	Cities grow without a limit
•	Sexual violence, sexual assaulting, domestic violence 
•	Ignorance 

Others

• Poverty vs richness,
• Rules and slaves,
• Small image, big image,
• City is always on the verge of collapse
• Using more images then before
• Internet – urbanization of mental space
• You have limited time to generate as many identities as you like.