Summary |
Thematic
Structure | Methodology
| Team
Members | Project
Management | Visions of the City Magazine
Project
Outline
1.
Summary
The urban metropolis
has long been a place of connection, of refuge and regeneration, for
multitudes of peoples who have been attracted by economic, social,
political and aesthetic forces. Certain great metropolitan centres,
however, have particularly unique qualities, whether from their special
history, their topography or their physical and temporal location. These
exceptional places become urban hubs, trans-national in scope, having a
powerful magnetic force which attracts a great diversity of peoples and
cultures.
More than the sum of
buildings, parks and avenues, these cities are complex organisms,
combinations of flows, symbols and mineral matter although most often
viewed in stereotypical and lifeless form through iconic structures such
as bridges, towers and monuments. Yet each urban metropolis we have chosen
to explore is a throbbing concatenation of people from a multitude of
backgrounds and origins, weaving a cultural tapestry in a continuous state
of vibrant transition. What attracts people to these special metropolitan
centres is as much cerebral energy as safety or food. Sometimes there is a
particular period when a city captures the imagination.- Paris in the 50s,
London in the 60s, San Francisco in the 70s. These were particular times
of social and intellectual fermentation. But great cities have a special
quality that transcends these cycles. To explore the magic of these cities
one needs to go beyond the bricks and mortar but also beyond rational,
explicit and direct reportage.
There are visions of
the city that express a special insight through “otherness” or a kind of
non-belonging. This “outside-in” vision is best exemplified through the
eyes of urban immigrants (from both the provinces and foreign lands) and
is often the obverse of what is usually transmitted. Their perspective is
initially one of innocence and naivety, subject to their abrupt entry into
the urban cosmos. This vision encompasses a wide range of views and a
diversity of myths. It also expresses a point of view of those who are
struggling to survive, lacking even the most basic needs while all around
them glittering goods beckon from the windows of brightly lit
shops.
“Outside-in”
perspectives of the city also come from writers and artists who visit the
metropolis for a length of time to use it as a canvas or a backdrop or
even a central character in their work. These visionaries are immigrants
of the mind, refugees of the spirit in search of intellectual freedom,
who, more often than not, see themselves as citizens not of a particular
place but of the world. The border between travellers and immigrants can
often be very porous.
There is another
vision as well which we will explore by tapping into the urban memory of
the outcasts and those on the fringe who may help reveal what is lost or
forgotten in the development of the city through individual experiences
which collectively expose the city’s unconsciousness or misplaced
soul.
This project,
therefore, is about the city within told by the people without –
informants whose stories are used to cast light on the inner landscape of
three metropolitan centres and who share three attributes: cultural
references from elsewhere; a sense of “otherness”; and a desire to be of
the city (if only for a short duration). It is an exploration of place,
people and the conjunction of geography and energy which creates, in the
three cities we have chosen, an exciting microcosm where the present, past
and future collide and “the new” is continuously taking shape and
re-moulded in sometimes invisible underground workshops.
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2.
Thematic structure
2.1 Entry
Points
Ports,
rivers, highways, stations, airports and other points of arrival. City
gates and passages. Flows of people; stories of coming in and going out.
What is it to be in or out of the city? How clear are the boundaries?
How do theses cities relate to their provinces, the suburbs, the world
at large?
2.2 Urban myths and realities
The city as
a refuge.– Down and out in London, Paris and San Francisco. Survival
strategies. How do these cities invent or resist the new, the strange,
the bizarre and how do they incorporate them? The sensual aspects of the
city – sights, tastes and smells. Is there a real city and where does one
find it? Who controls the great stories, the city myths, and how are
they transmitted? How does
the city react to its legends? Who are the masters, real and fictional,
of these mythologies?
2.3 Urban
sanctuaries
Cafes,
Bistros and watering holes - Salons for the masses. What does it mean to
belong to one of these cities? How do people generate and
regenerate? How do they
hide from dangers or escape the numbness of alienation. What are the
specific places that foster creativity? What are the cracks and chinks
for hidden love, sex, politics and business - for dark transgressions?
How do night and day respond to one other? How do these sanctuaries
change from winter to summer?
2.4
Markets
The
distribution of sustenance and information. Bartering and trading.
Recycling the old and touting the new. How, when and where do these
cities offer information on sex, food, fun, drugs, art, escape, money,
goods and services? On what basis are the prices or exchange rates
fixed? Who works where and which sectors of the city are dedicated to
which activity? How the city interconnects its different functions.
2.5 Common
Grounds
Public spaces where people congregate – to play, to wander, to
think. Little green and
concrete patches. How and where people show themselves off or hide from
one another. How much is the city an accomplice in those games? How do
these cities differ in what is public and what is private? What spaces
fall in-between and escape those categories?
2.6 Public
Art
Stone, earth, graffiti, monuments: imprints on the
surroundings. Iconography of the neighbourhoods. How does the city grow and shape
itself? Who contributes to this shaping and transition? How does the city
views itself as a work of art? The city as a creation, the city as a
stimulant for creativity, the city as a shelter or a canvas for created
works. Relation between urban shapes and politics.
2.7
Psycho-geography
The gestalt of the metropolis. What makes a city tick?
Underworlds and Undergrounds. Subways, sewage and sweatshops. Crowds and
mobs. How cities choose their leaders, their patrons, their saints, their
villains. What are the rhythms of the city and how different rhythms
interfere, syncopate, congregate, synchronise or clash. What are the highs
and lows of the city, what is its relative pace over the day, the week,
the year and the century?
2.8 Celebration
Various ways the cities celebrate themselves. What are the
great events, characters, sites celebrated by the city, what are those
deprived of celebration and those reluctant to be celebrated? How is
history told inside and outside the city? What is open to public eyes and
what to private ones? On what grounds is pride of belonging built? How is
it said, sung or sculpted?
Statues and popular songs, movies and festivals.
2.9 Visions of
the Urban Dream
The Commune or Alphaville? If time past and time future are
both present in the city, how do they interact with those dreams and how
do they project themselves into fantasized and real time? What are the
dreams of a city? Who dreams them and who or what makes these dreams come
true (or stops them from happening)? Our three cities are places of many
dreams, for themselves as well as for the world. How can one explore or
share these dreams, and how do dreams contribute to the vision of the
city, past or future?
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3. Methodology
There will be a mix
of techniques used to gather data including current and historical
observations, interviews with key informants, stories and photos. Use will
be made of literary and visual artefacts. Each member of the investigating
team will spend time in all three cities collecting references and
resources.
Three techniques will
be used to gather data, all of them opting for a vision of the sideway,
the slantwise or the askew as an access to a more substantial reality. We
expect those techniques to cast a new perspective on the three cities.
They are the real and profound originality of this project.
3.1. Interviews
of immigrants
What we call
immigrants are the persons, groups and families coming from distant
lands or places geographically close but distant socio-economically, to
seek asylum or shelter or intellectual freedom, be it for a while or
more permanently. We expect the intensity of the migrant adventure to
offer a keen insight into these cities. The search for new ways of
living, loving, working and the fear of an unwanted return sharpens the
eyes of the migrants in a way no ethnologist will ever match on their
own. It is this look we want to capture, not for the destiny of the
migrants but for their insight on the cities. Our three cities have, for
different reasons, in different periods of history, become the
repository for ceaseless waves of immigrants that still continue
undiminished and unabated.
We shall interview
twenty-five to thirty persons in each city. The interviews will treat
all the aspects of our research: ideas and fantasies about the city,
gates and ports, flows, symbols, secrets and mysteries, labour, politics
and culture. Our grid of investigation will carefully follow the pattern
of the above written themes. In each city, we shall define a sample of
persons, ranging from the fresh to the ancient, from different parts of
the world, different abilities, both genders and with different purposes
in the migration process. For each person we shall apply the same grid
as far as their particular history will allow.
We shall have, for
each city, material of life stories from which we shall be able to
extract the pertinent data we require. As we want to rely on maximum
confidence from our informers, we expect to need a full year from the
first contacts to the last investigations. For this material we shall
apply the very strict rules of anthropological surveys.
We do not expect
the immigrant narratives to deliver a truer version of the cities but
a more acute look leading to an original vision of the cities. We shall
then correct the bias of the delivered discourses as is done in a
traditional investigation using direct informants by introducing the
surroundings of the survey and explaining the relation between
investigator and interviewed.
3.2 Decoding Rags and Bones
We will interview
and collect the stories of those unsung urban heroes who often live on
the fringe, but who are instrumental in the evolution of urban
life. The dandy, the
prostitute, the “chiffonier”, the “flaneur”, the eccentric: they all
have a special take on the underbelly of the metropolis and thus allow
us entry into hidden worlds which give resonance to the city as graffiti
may give life to bare concrete walls.
3.3 Fictional
characters
Fiction is another
way to explore a city through fantasized characters. The cities of
London, Paris and San Francisco have been rich settings for many novels,
plays and films. Sometimes the cities even tend to be portrayed as
characters, themselves. We shall incorporate diverse fictional
characters living in or exploring these three cities. Depending on the
specific fiction and the author's knowledge of the city we shall exploit
the resources of different narratives and descriptions to offer a
contrast to contemporary observations.
For each city we
expect to find from six to eight fictional characters. We shall insert
the fictional characters amidst the narratives of immigrants giving
relief and depth to our descriptions.
3.4 Photos and images
As complementary
material, with the sole purpose of underlining some of our discoveries,
we shall include original photographs of the three cities. The photos
will follow the pattern of the described themes. We shall illustrate the
narrative with a number of photos on each theme.
Similarly, we shall
also underline our discoveries by means of pictures by other artists,
painters and sculptors of the cities including one or two pictures for
each theme as illustrations of our
research.
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4. Team
Members
Bob Biderman
(project coordinator)
Bob Biderman
is an editor, social historian.and novelest. He spent his early
adulthood
in San Francisco and Berkeley, where he did his university studies in
science and literature. During the 70s he helped develop a local
arts-in-education programme which he managed for several years. He also
started an alternative publishing house which produced a number
of
significant books focusing on social issues of the time. He moved to
Europe in the 1980s, living in both France and Britain, where
he settled
in 1984. Bob is the
author of seven novels which use cities as cultural backdrops
including
KOBA (Gollancz, 1987) set in San Francisco of the 1970s and JUDGEMENT
OF DEATH (Gollancz, 1988) set in London of the 80s. He currently edits two magazines
– Café Magazine, an historical and literary review of the café
experience in urban cultures, and Ozymandias, a review of European arts
and politics. He also is
the editor of a series of historical novels focused on 19th
century London for Black Apollo Press.
Marc Hatzfeld
(writer/researcher),
Marc Hatzfeld is
a sociologist, writer, poet and filmmaker. He has travelled widely
and has lived, worked and studied in Madagascar, South America,
the USA and India. He
currently works in Paris as a consultant for city councils, local
communities and associative organisations on subjects related to
suburbs and other urban issues. As a researcher he collaborates
on sociological and anthropological programs launched by ministerial
bodies concerning issues of cities and labour. Marc’s recent publications
and films include: Petit
traité de la banlieue, Dunod, Paris, 2004; Tisser le lien social, guide des
régies de quartiers. Editions du CNLRQ, Paris, 2003; Quand la marge est créatrice.
Editions de l'Aube, La Tour d'Aigues, 1998; Portes et passages, 52 mn documentary
about immigration in the heart of Paris, Films du Village, Paris,
1997; Pas de problème,
52 mn documentary about young fellows in search of employment in
a suburban environment, Films du Village, Paris, 2002.
Yann Perreau
(writer/researcher)
Yann Perreau
has lived and worked in Senegal, Japan, South Korea, Paris and
London. He studied at the
Sorbonne where he received his Masters of Philosophy in 1999 and Diplôme
Etudes Approfondies in
Art Theory in 2000. Yann
was the book attaché for the French Embassy in charge of promoting
French books and authors in the United-Kingdom. He also worked as
cultural
events and conferences organiser at the Institut Français, South
Kensington. His editorial work includes Berg Publishers (Oxford), series
on Talking Images and Gallimard (Paris), books on “Verdi” and “Tokyo”. Since 2003
Yann has been the London editor of Blast Magazine and has been a
contributor to (among others) Libération, France Culture, Beaux-Art
magazine, Nova, The Idler, Tank and The London Review of Books. Yann
has set up a number of conferences and events at the ICA, Tate Modern,
Centre George Pompidou in Paris and the Institut Français, London. He has
also produced a radio documentary for France Culture and is currently
working on a book, Villes en mouvement, Londres, to be
published by Editions Autrement, Paris, in 2005.
Kevin Biderman
(photographer),
Kevin Biderman received his degree in Fine Arts from
Sheffield Hallam University in Combined Media. He has lived in San
Francisco, Toulouse, Cambridge and now works as a lecturer at a London
College teaching photography, multimedia and semiotics. His photographs have appeared
in numerous publications in France and Britain including: Blast
Magazine,
Paris, Nova Magazine, Paris, Time Out, London and Agenda Magazine,
Cambridge. He is currently
working on a book, Villes en mouvement, Londres, to be
published by Editions Autrement, Paris, in 2005.
David Cutting
(designer)
After graduating from the Central
School of Art in London, David Cutting began DCG Design over
twenty years ago and in 1982 established his company’s presence in
Cambridge. Since then he has serviced the design needs of a wide variety
of clients from high-tech and industrial sector companies to public
sector organisations, educational institutions and charities. David is
chief designer for Black Apollo Press and is on the board of directors
of Germinal Productions
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5. Project Management
Germinal Productions is multimedia
company of writers, visual artists, film makers and graphic
designers. Our focus is on
the integration of image and word exploring history, thought, art and
expression.
Recent projects:
- Livres d'Artistes: The Dialogue between Painting and
Poetry.. Publication
coordinated with exhibition at Fitzwilliam Museum and sponsored by the
French Cultural Delegation, Trinity College, Cambridge and Fitzwilliam
Museum celebrating the collaboration between visual artists and
writers in 19th century Paris.
- Exploring The Victorian City: – a collection of novels from
the late Victorian period which cast light on forgotten aspects of
19th century London
In Production
- Cities and Movements: a film discussing the interaction of
people outside the mainstream and events that changed the nature of
urban life.
- Living in Limbo: a documentary concerning a Lebanese mother
caught in legal limbo for twelve years under threat of
deportation.
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For more information, contact: Visionsofthecity@gmail.com
Or visit: Visions of the City Magazine
