fabulation session 20131107-8 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.