On cities, mapping, psychogeography and the experience of places.

A new outdoor mobile phone game is to be piloted in London on Saturday July 24th 2010.

Exploding Places takes you on a journey through time and space. You arrive in a fictional Woolwich in South East London, create your own community and place them in the real world Woolwich. Over the space of an hour you and your community travel through 120 years of local and global history. The First World War passes in just a few minutes as you play the game to ensure your survival.

You play on the phone screen and through headphones, as you walk the town’s real streets. You can interact with other players, join together and respond to conflict or difficulties in each other’s communities. The ultimate goal is to build a thriving community that grows and creates a new generation, based on health, wealth, knowledge, participation and your contribution to the game. The game will be broadcast on the BBC Big Screen in central Woolwich giving public audiences the chance to watch the games unfold.

Exploding Places is a real world SIM city or Monopoly, played live on the streets of Woolwich. The game offers participants a playful way to engage with London, engaging with its social, community and
regeneration issues. It will explores how new communities come to live in new areas, what happens to them, how they grow, whether they thrive and settle, whether they move on, etc.

Exploding Places is part of the exciting new area of creative endeavour called locative or pervasive gaming, bringing new and emerging technologies into the public realm. It sits alongside the critically acclaimed work of companies such as Blast Theory whose games have received major international awards and BAFTA nominations.

Be the first to play Exploding Places

To play you must first register a place:
Go online: www.explodingplaces.org
or call 020 8858 2825
or Email anna@streamarts.org.uk

Once registered, come to the launch and play:
When: Saturday 24th July 2010, 11am – 5pm
Where: The Tramshed, 51 – 53 Woolwich New Road, London SE18 6ES
Directions: British Rail / DLR: Woolwich Arsenal, then 2 minute walk to The Tramshed

Exploding Places www.explodingplaces.org

Created by Active Ingredient www.i-am-ai.net in collaboration with Greenwich Heritage Centre, Woolwich Polytechnic and Woolwich residents. Active Ingredients locative game Heartlands won the UK and Ireland Satellite Navigation Competition and the Nokia Ubimedia Mindtrek Award in 2007.

Commissioned by Stream www.streamarts.org.uk, the Greenwich based producer of public and collaborative art.
In 2005 Stream produced the Greenwich Emotion Map using bio-mapping technology with artist Christian Nold.
Funded by Arts Council London and Greenwich Council.
Produced in collaboration with Horizon Digital Economy Research, funded through grant EP/G065802/1 from Research Councils UK.

A couple of days ago my good friend Roberto invited me to take part in an ‘experiment’, in fact it was a sketch for a live art piece he will be presenting at the Rifrazioni Festival of Contemporary Art (Lazio, Italy), in which he and I will be participating in late July.

It was a hot summer night in Clapton. I was sat on a bench in Millfields Park, eyes closed, waiting for the moment to arrive. A presence behind me, someone walking in the grass. A blindfold on my eyes. Roberto sat next to me, opened my hands and took my keys. From now on, I could only follow him – I felt somewhat submitted, I had to listen. He was the only guide. The story he was recounting was shifting time and place: it was now winter and I was in Brooklyn.

Eyesight disabled, the first steps in the grass were a little intimidating. Because of this sensory deprivation, my way of perceiving the world had to be reconsidered, and the world itself was changed into a place full of challenges: my feet became sensors of the ground, every bump a potential hurdle, every kerb a threshold, every wall an insurmontable frontier. Despite being relatively familiar with the area we traversed, I was completely unable to tell where I was going.

Sound was the other point of reference I could rely upon, but again it was hugely transformed by the effect of the blindfold: Ambient sounds took a whole new significance; they became abstracted, almost as if they were part of a setup, akin to a film soundtrack. Street chatter and conversations strangely felt like they were ‘acted out’ by people.

This unique experience, reminiscent of a soundwalk like Subtlemob, if only better, placed me at the center of an invisible stage, where everything and everyone around me took up a new role, forcing me to focus both on my senses – to make sense of my surroundings, and on my imagination – to visually interpret the story I was listening to.

The Rifrazioni festival takes place on the 29th, 30th of July and 1st of August in Anzio e Nettuno (Italy).

http://www.rifrazioni.org

Comme chaque année en juillet, “la plus grande course cycliste au monde” déroule sa pseudo-intrigue le long des routes nationales. L’intérêt sportif de l’évènement se ternit d’année en année, mais pas son succès populaire. Néanmoins, pour celui qui sait regarder derrière le peloton et au-delà du classement, le sport y est vite relayé au second plan, remplacé par un travelogue d’images, un vrai documentaire de voyage, qui plus est filmé en temps réel. Enfilades de lacets, survol de chateaux et de villages pittoresques, particulatités géologiques… on y montre le paysage sous toutes ses coutures.

Il est d’ailleurs fascinant de remarquer la place donnée a la géographie dans la couverture médiatique, du moins en France: les commentaires de chaque étape incluent systématiquement des références à l’histoire et à l’économie locales. La moissoneuse-batteuse médiatique active les noms de lieux sur son passage, dresse un portrait-robot de chaque ville, et transmet à distance une image du territoire.

This map shows all trains (yellow pins) on the London Underground network in approximately real time.

Fetching live departure data from the TfL API, and placing it onto a Google map, this live map project was realised in only a short amount of time at Science Hackday on 19/20th June 2010. A small number of stations are misplaced or missing; occasional trains behave oddly…; some H&C and Circle stations are missing in the TfL feed.

The author of the project is Matthew Somerville (with helpful hinderances from Frances Berriman and James Aylett). Station icon by Tim Diggins. Source code.

http://traintimes.org.uk:81/map/tube/

The summer season at Rivington Place proposes new artistic perspectives on mapping: bringing together nine contemporary international artists working in film, installation, print and audio, whose work challenge the authority of the map and question the underlying structures and hierarchies that inform traditional mapmaking and social and political issues surrounding it, or uses maps to examine self-positioning and global geographies.

Maps are often involved in debates around subjects such as resources, territoriality, identity and migration; but in a globalised, trans-national world infused by new technological advances and rapid changes, the two dimensional map has become less adequate.

The exhibition includes three new commissions by Gayle Chong Kwan, Susan Stockwell and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, alongside recent work by Milena Bonilla, Alexandra Handal, Bouchra Khalili, Otobong Nkanga, Esther Polak and Oraib Toukan.

‘Who Map is it?‘ runs at Rivington Place, from the 2nd June to the 24th July 2010.

Please visit the InIVA website for full listings of events (symposium, talks, panel discussion, tours and workshops) associated with the exhibition.

This spring, Somerset House Trust and Sound and Music will present River Sounding, a major new commission by sound artist Bill Fontana, which will invite visitors on a journey through the hidden sound worlds of the River Thames. Opening on 15 April 2010 at Somerset House, the work will create an imaginary acoustic map of the Thames, taking visitors through Somerset House’s atmospheric subterranean spaces, normally closed to the public, and out to the Great Arch on the Embankment, highlighting the building’s historical connection to the river.

River Sounding at Somerset House features a series of different sound sequences, recorded by Bill Fontana along a one-hundred-mile section of the Thames stretching from Richmond to Southend. Projected through loudspeakers installed at river level, in the hidden pathways beneath the courtyard, visitors will be immersed in the rich musical vocabulary of the Thames, from whistling buoys and steam pumps to hidden underwater sounds and rushing water at river locks. The sounds will be played alongside his video images of the recording locations, which include Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast, the Thames Barrier and the historic Teddington Lock.

As well as revealing the rich and varied sound worlds of the Thames, River Sounding will pay homage to Somerset House’s historical connection to the river. Somerset House was originally built as a grand riverside palace in the sixteenth century and in the eighteenth century became the home of Admiral Nelson’s Navy Office, with boats entering through the building’s Great Arch. River Sounding will return the sounds of the river to Somerset House, highlighting the forgotten shared history of one of London’s most iconic buildings and the Thames.

River Sounding demonstrates the communicative power of sound art, and the commission launches Sound and Music’s new programme, dedicated to championing and developing audiences for new and innovative music and sound. It will be complemented by a series of film screenings and talks by prominent cultural figures including Iain Sinclair and Romesh Gunesekera, Writer in Residence at Somerset House, engaging with River Sounding’s themes, which will take place in and around Somerset House.

Trained as a composer, Bill Fontana (born 1947, USA) is internationally known for his pioneering works in sound, which examine the nature of our acoustic environment. He has presented his “sound sculptures” at leading museums around the world, as well as at iconic locations in many of the world’s great cities, including London’s Millennium Bridge and Big Ben, San Francisco’s Golden Gate and Paris’s Arc de Triomphe. He has received numerous fellowships for his work, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 1986. He lives and works in San Francisco and is represented in the UK by Haunch of Venison.

15 April – 31 May 2010
Somerset House
The Strand
London WC2R 1LA

www.somersethouse.org.uk

Opening hours:
Monday – Sunday: 10:00am– 6:00pm,
Thursdays: late night opening until 8:00pm

Admission Free

‘Holding Time’ is a survey of still, object-based works derived out of ‘Time-based’ practices by artists. An opportunity to dialogue, debate and share how artists extend their practice from Performance, Moving Image and Time-based concerns into recording, documenting, interventions and object-making. The exhibition has been curated by Darshana Vora from an open call.

Participating Artists:
Arantxa Echarte, Beatrice Jarvis, Bettina John, Bill Leslie, Cinzia Cremona, Cos Ahmet, Daniel Somerville, Darshana Vora, David Theobald, Elaina Arkeooll &Tim Flitcroft, Ella Golt, Helena Eflerová, Herve Constant, Laura Davidson, Mat Chivers, Nicola Mccartney, Peter Nutley, Rachel Gomme, Sam Holden, Sebastian Edge, Daniel Belasco Rogers & Sophia New, Teresa Paiva, Tory Smith, Wiracha Daochai and Yaron Lapid.

Opening Preview: Thursday,  April 8, 2010. 6pm-8pm
Exhibition Dates: April 8-14, 11am-7pm.
Special Events: Sat & Sun, April 10 & 11, 3pm-5pm: Performances and artist’s talks

Online catalogue

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, UK Centre
4a Castletown Road
London W14 9HE
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 207 381 3086/4608

http://www.bhavan.net

HYBRID TERRITORIES JOAN AYRTON / GRÉGORY CHATONSKY / BAS ZOONTJENS
20.03.2010 > 01.05.2010
VERNISSAGE 20.03.10 >16H

Galerie Kamchatka
23, rue charles V
75008 Paris

La galerie Kamchatka est heureuse d’annoncer l’exposition HYBRID TERRITORIES qui regroupe les travaux de Joan Ayrton (artiste de la galerie) et de deux artistes invités : Grégory Chatonsky (galerie Poller, Frankfurt – New York) et Bas Zoontjens (galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam) autour d’une intention d’invention du paysage.

Tous trois créent à travers les oeuvres présentées des paysages et territoires fictifs. Le paysage s’oppose à la nature en cela qu’il est un point de vue, un point précis d’où part le regard, un simple pas de côté modifie et altère notre perception d’un espace, donnant à voir tout autre chose. A l’heure où l’homme est décidé à sauver la nature et la terre, rejetant deux degrés supplémentaires au thermomètre, nous pouvons nous interroger sur la manière choisie ou non d’agencer les territoires et paysages. Aux frontières des zones rurales et urbaines, on trouve des espaces étranges et difficiles à définir. On y ronge le sauvage pour y planter ce qui ne passe plus en ville : zones commerciales et industrielles, échangeurs routiers, parkings, etc…
Ces espaces hybrides s’étendent depuis longtemps, le paysage agencé et maîtrisé dans un but fonctionnel et utilitariste. L’anthropisation – transformation d’espaces ou de milieux naturels sous l’action de l’homme – est inhérente à notre présence, l’idée de Wilderness, un espace naturel préservé à tout prix, interdit à l’activité humaine, est une utopie réalisée – tous les pays ont créés des concepts de réserves et parcs naturels – mais incomplète puisqu’elle ne peut être que temporaire. L’idée romantique d’une nature vierge et primaire ne fait pas le poids face à l’utilisation pragmatique de ses ressources et le risque constant de destruction volontaire ou accidentelle.
Deux notions s’affrontent : contrôler et régenter tel le démiurge conscient de son pouvoir et sûr de son droit ou, être le strict gardien de ce qui peut être préserver, le conservateur des vestiges naturels encore intacts, John Muir face à la vallée de Yosemite.
Le terme hybride nous renvoit également à l’altération humaine de la nature ; hybrida, en latin, définit simplement le croisement d’un cochon et d’un sanglier. C’est à travers son étymologie grecque que l’on retrouve le sens moral du mot : L’hybris étant considérée dans la mythologie comme la faute humaine ou divine de démesure, de dépassement de la limite. Dans le code moral antique, prémice de la morale chrétienne, elle est punie par la Némesis, vengeance divine destinée à rétablir l’équilibre naturel des choses.
On retrouve cette dualité dans les oeuvres de Joan Ayrton, Grégory Chatonsky et Bas Zoontjens, elles révèlent une nature et des paysages altérés, transformés d’où poignent un malaise, un sentiment étrange de désolation. Ils nous montrent des territoires hybrides, à portée de Nemesis.

Joan Ayrton, présente des oeuvres récentes de la série «Iridescant Landscape» (acrylique sur papier, 2009-2010). Dans cette série, l’utilisation de couleurs iridescantes révèle des paysages denses et complexes où la ligne d’horizon toujours présente apparaît selon l’angle de vue. «Graphite» (graphite sur bois, 2009) évoque un paysage de nuit dont la ligne d’horizon apparaît ou non selon les reflets du graphite.

«The road» (photographie, 2009), de Grégory Chatonsky dévoile des bords de route où des arbres calcinés s’entremêlent et surgissent d’une nuit d’encre. L’enchevêtrement des branches grises et mates ne nous permet pas réellement de distinguer s’il s’agit de bois ou de matériaux manufacturés détruits. Grégory Chatonsky présente également au sous sol de la galerie, une installation vidéo «The Forest» (2009), un long traveling à travers les cimes d’une forêt numérique. Il s’agit en réalité d’images en 3D créées automatiquement à partir de données récupérées sur internet.

Bas Zoontjens qui expose pour la première fois en France, présente une série de peintures sur bois de petits et moyens formats. Ses peintures fragiles inventent un monde d’architectures utopistes, évoquant un futur possible pour l’humanité. Avec très peu de moyens, il nous plonge dans un univers irréel et atemporel mêlant formes géométriques et constructions d’espaces en ruine.

http://kamchatka-artblog.blogspot.com/

Entre les villes, celle où je vis, celles où j’ai vécu, celles que je ne connais pas encore, se tisse tout un réseau de connexions et de renversements, d’allusions et de proximités pressenties. Notre interprétation d’une ville est le résultat de tels échos de ressemblance suscitée par un détail ou une configuration, des glissements qui sont autant de départs vers d’autres villes. Il y a les départs objectifs, dus a l’imprégnation de tout un quartier par une population différente et lointaine ou par un bâtiment qui soudain fait rupture, il en est aussi de plus secrets, de moins facilement décelables, et qui n’existent peut-être que pour celui qui en perçoit le frémissement. Il en est encore d’autres qui relèvent du collage, lorsque par exemple, chez soi ou au contraire très loin, l’on se projette par la lecture dans un autre espace.

Jean Christophe Bailly (2001) La Clairière, in La Ville à l’œuvre, Paris: Les Editions de l’Imprimeur (p.73 – 79)

Mythogeography takes the form of a documentary-fictional collection of the internal documents, diary fragments, letters, emails, narratives, notebooks and handbooks of a loose coalition of artists, performers, ‘alternative’ walkers and pedestrian geographers. All Illustrated in full colour by Tony Weaver, who designed the Wrights & Sites’ Mis-Guide books.

The fragmentary and slippery format recognises the disparate, loosely interwoven and rapidly evolving uses of walking today: as performance, as exploration, as urban resistance, as activism, as an ambulatory practice of geography, as meditation, as post-tourism, as dissident mapping, as subversion of and rejoicing in the everyday. ‘Mythogeography’ celebrates that interweaving, its contradictions and complementarities, and is an attempt at a handbook for those who want to be part of it.

Mythogeography: A Guide to Walking Sideways by Phil Smith is out on 26th January 2010.
Paperback (244 x 170mm), 256 pages. ISBN: 978-0-9562631-3-1

Mythogeography: The Book at Triarchy Press

http://www.mythogeography.com