From tripta at gmail.com Fri Jun 2 08:00:43 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 15:30:43 +0930 Subject: [multipliCity] The city in the film. Message-ID: <085D5890-6D04-4CB5-A969-448AFCF6B2CE@qut.edu.au> The city in the Film: Yesterday I went for the night show of the latest Bollywood Blockbuster, Fanaa (http://www1.yashrajfilms.com/). Fanaa means ?destroyed in love? and carries the moral ?to choose between right and wrong is simple, but what defines one?s life is the decision between the greater of two goods or lesser of the two evils?. There is much to be said about the film, there is much being said about the film. There is nothing unusual about the film. It is produced and directed from the one of the biggest production houses in India with an impeccable record to churn out sugar-coated-romantic-sagas. This one is no different. Only that romance is being played out between a blind-girl-in-the-first-half-who-sees-the-daylight-in-the-second-half- of-the film and a `terrorist?-who-committed-the-folly-of-falling-in- love with the blind girl. Nothing unusual about that as well. The treatment of both of the blind-girl and the terrorist is very jaded consciously avoiding any catharsis of either situation or even attempting to scratch beneath the surface. Nothing unusual about that as well. So if you have been patient with me till now, please bear for me a little longer I intend to bring out something ?unusual? which the film brought at least for me. But first a slight digression. I was trying to explain a ?non-academic? friend about what I am doing, my phd, my research, etc. The city, a city, cities, cites; I screamed. A bit about him (trust me, it?s important to the narrative). He is a highly intelligent, sensitive soul who believes in the ethos and principles of Larry from The Razor?s Edge. He seriously does believe in it and practices it as well. He does. So, well, in trying to tell him what I am doing, he began by question everything I said and did and threw back the rhetoric at me, ?why do you have do a PhD for that for whatever you are doing, why do you have to be bound?. When someone believes in something too strongly and has gathered the courage to diligently practice it as well, it is difficult to explain the line of inquisition one has taken instinctive rather than intellectually. This may portray me as a non- serious PhD student, researcher. However, this was my answer which I, hopefully, wish would satiate his wandering soul while not challenging my credibility as an intent researcher, ?The PhD with it?s formal, semi-formal insistence has allowed to draw a thread from all of the body (ies) of knowledge I contained. It has given me the confidence to see beyond the ?momentary brilliance of things? to develop a narrative. It has allowed me to engage and indulge with ?city? from different perspectives, from different prisms. It has allowed me to love and loathe the city. I am not singularly obsessed with the ?idea? of the city but have to make conscious attempts to excavate my obsessions while giving the city the due credit?. After a contemplative pause he said, ?well, that?s justified. However, city is a multitude of truths. Realities?. Precisely. Bingo. We are still friends. So, what about the film? The better part of the film, in the first half when the girl still can?t see the light of the day, unfolds in ?my? city. The city of Delhi. In this backdrop, the terrorist is in the guise of a tourist guide serenading the blind girl who he tours around with romantic prose and poetry. As he is progressively falling in love with the blind girl, he wants to show her ?Delhi? his way so that she can ?see? it in her way. And in that moment lie the brilliance of the film, for me. Delhi as a backdrop in Bollywood films is sort of a new phenomenon. It was constantly evoked through its metonyms to reiterate it?s position as a political city but scavenging the streets, sounds and smells of the city is something new. The stage is shifting from the dark, dense Mumbai to spread out Delhi. There has been a strong inclination in the Bollywood films to offer spectacular views of the ?foreign locales? almost as an apology (or is it escape) to the middle-class audiences. The whole morphology of Switzerland is mapped in our sensibilities through these films. However, in the recent years these fantastic-foreign ?locales? have become accessible to the middle-class in different ways, the films are forced to look within to offer that ?escape?. Now the ?local? the presented in almost in an exotic manner emphasizing, to me, the distance between the ?local? and the burgeoning middle class. Another film, Bluffmaster (http://www.bluffmasterthefilm.com/#), I recently saw proudly claimed that ?it has been shot entirely in mumbai? and it indeed offered spectacular-skyscraper view of Mumbai and not the stereotypical on-the-road-dense-dirty Mumbai. It was a Mumbai of penthouses, exclusive beaches and neon lights. Startling and enchanting. So, after localities of Mumbai, exotica of foreign locales, Delhi in its being seems to have finally arrived in Bollywood. As the tourist guide, the protagonist takes his blind love interest through the alleys and monuments of Delhi, leaves her stranded in the middle of the traffic in delhi (anyone who has been to Delhi will understand what I am saying). While taking her through these spaces, because the visuals cannot be relied on, he weaves narratives and anecdotes; he touches and insists she should as well. He runs her hand through falling monuments and makes her feel the history seeping through its walls. He makes her walk through dense traffic ?situations?, to hear the sounds. The film, bound by the narrative and pressurized to deliver drama,did not engage in excavation of the city through these tools, methodologically. I don?t hold any grudges against that as I am thrilled, intellectually and emotionally (as it is ?my? city) for these tools being used, appreciated and appropriated. It has given me leads to explore the city and my present research interest of ?soundscapes? through a ?blind? perspective where I have to consciously and deliberately obliterate the tirade of the visual elements that constantly seek my attention and more often than not get it as well. I have allow myself to go skin-deep under the city to touch, feel it, hear it, smell it. On that ending note, I want to mention something that I discovered with almost a child-like frenzy recently. When one is deliberately seeking something, one more often than not tends to merge the details into this consolidated quest. Something similar happened to me. One day while driving around in my old car without a radio, I instinctively rolled the windows (it was excruciating considering the heat, etc and all) however, in that one instance, in that one act, I blocked the city out of my sensibilities. I was traversing in an almost void space. The cars around me, without their vroom and sirens, seemed like moving in a trance. The city happened and unfolded in before me asking me pay even more attention on everything around than I unusually did as the ?sounds? to direct me through spaces, to tell me about their imminent arrival even before I entered, were missing. Interestingly, this film is embroiled in controversy at the moment as the lead protagonist, Amair Khan, a prominent Bollywood actor (muslim), made a statement about the oustess of the Narmada Dam in the state Gujrat. (http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/06/02/stories/ 2006060201260100.htm). It raises significant questions about citizenship and democratic rights, simplistic analysis of which cannot be undertaken at the moment. other links: http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/05/fanna_your_boll.html http://www.indiadaily.org/entry/aamirs-fanna-faces-the-wrath-of- politics/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439662/plotsummary -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060602/0d7424dc/attachment.html From j.tay at qut.edu.au Mon Jun 5 16:44:04 2006 From: j.tay at qut.edu.au (Jinna Tay) Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 00:44:04 +1000 Subject: [multipliCity] The city in the film. In-Reply-To: <085D5890-6D04-4CB5-A969-448AFCF6B2CE@qut.edu.au> Message-ID: <200606051444.ELK87880@mail-router01.qut.edu.au> "It was a Mumbai of penthouses, exclusive beaches and neon lights. Startling and enchanting. So, after localities of Mumbai, exotica of foreign locales, Delhi in its being seems to have finally arrived in Bollywood." tripta, your analysis of bollywood and city is fascinating. In particular I find the idea of Delhi just arriving in bollywood really interesting....Please excuse me by letting me explain a little of my background. Having grown up in culturally 'separatist' Singapore, loud bollywood music, its colourful posters of beautiful women and cinema actually did marginally pervade my Chinese world, forced as we are into multi-racialism. However, I did not really 'consume' them until much later. Such is the world of enforced unquestioned multi-racialism. As a student, whenever I went to my convenience store or bought from the nasi-briani store - I encountered their blaring music amidst their peeling posters of exotic indian women in dance poses. My family also sometimes watch late night bollywood films in the 80s. It was not until I came to Australia for my bachelors that I understood the significance of film, and the cultural and ethnic differences presented through those films. Race as the common denominator was a blanket term that covered All Indian Culture just like Mandarin was the blanket for all Chinese-ness. There was no perceived distinction between the multiple dialects, regions, and cities. So my subjective education began... Until now, ( and my education is very far from complete...) I hadn't realise that Delhi as a city is not a common representation in bollywood? I'm surprised and very interested by that but of course I don't really have an image of Delhi in my mind, so I won't know to recognise it even if I saw it. Which makes me think about our shared imaginary cities & their spaces that we know and commonly recognise in New York, London, Paris, LA etc... how can we begin to recognise these other cities? and what does it mean when we can/not recognise them at a glance? especially when they are geographically and culturally perhaps closer to where we are? Is there any significance? I would love to know any of your response .... and perhaps a short intro about yourself, your city to this new list? :-) Jinna _____ From: multipliCity-bounces at listcultures.org [mailto:multipliCity-bounces at listcultures.org] On Behalf Of Tripta B Chandola Sent: Friday, 2 June 2006 4:01 PM To: multipliCity at listcultures.org Subject: [multipliCity] The city in the film. The city in the Film: Yesterday I went for the night show of the latest Bollywood Blockbuster, Fanaa (http://www1.yashrajfilms.com/). Fanaa means 'destroyed in love' and carries the moral 'to choose between right and wrong is simple, but what defines one's life is the decision between the greater of two goods or lesser of the two evils'. There is much to be said about the film, there is much being said about the film. There is nothing unusual about the film. It is produced and directed from the one of the biggest production houses in India with an impeccable record to churn out sugar-coated-romantic-sagas. This one is no different. Only that romance is being played out between a blind-girl-in-the-first-half-who-sees-the-daylight-in-the-second-half-of-the film and a `terrorist'-who-committed-the-folly-of-falling-in-love with the blind girl. Nothing unusual about that as well. The treatment of both of the blind-girl and the terrorist is very jaded consciously avoiding any catharsis of either situation or even attempting to scratch beneath the surface. Nothing unusual about that as well. So if you have been patient with me till now, please bear for me a little longer I intend to bring out something 'unusual' which the film brought at least for me. But first a slight digression. I was trying to explain a 'non-academic' friend about what I am doing, my phd, my research, etc. The city, a city, cities, cites; I screamed. A bit about him (trust me, it's important to the narrative). He is a highly intelligent, sensitive soul who believes in the ethos and principles of Larry from The Razor's Edge. He seriously does believe in it and practices it as well. He does. So, well, in trying to tell him what I am doing, he began by question everything I said and did and threw back the rhetoric at me, 'why do you have do a PhD for that for whatever you are doing, why do you have to be bound'. When someone believes in something too strongly and has gathered the courage to diligently practice it as well, it is difficult to explain the line of inquisition one has taken instinctive rather than intellectually. This may portray me as a non-serious PhD student, researcher. However, this was my answer which I, hopefully, wish would satiate his wandering soul while not challenging my credibility as an intent researcher, 'The PhD with it's formal, semi-formal insistence has allowed to draw a thread from all of the body (ies) of knowledge I contained. It has given me the confidence to see beyond the 'momentary brilliance of things' to develop a narrative. It has allowed me to engage and indulge with 'city' from different perspectives, from different prisms. It has allowed me to love and loathe the city. I am not singularly obsessed with the 'idea' of the city but have to make conscious attempts to excavate my obsessions while giving the city the due credit'. After a contemplative pause he said, 'well, that's justified. However, city is a multitude of truths. Realities'. Precisely. Bingo. We are still friends. So, what about the film? The better part of the film, in the first half when the girl still can't see the light of the day, unfolds in 'my' city. The city of Delhi. In this backdrop, the terrorist is in the guise of a tourist guide serenading the blind girl who he tours around with romantic prose and poetry. As he is progressively falling in love with the blind girl, he wants to show her 'Delhi' his way so that she can 'see' it in her way. And in that moment lie the brilliance of the film, for me. Delhi as a backdrop in Bollywood films is sort of a new phenomenon. It was constantly evoked through its metonyms to reiterate it's position as a political city but scavenging the streets, sounds and smells of the city is something new. The stage is shifting from the dark, dense Mumbai to spread out Delhi. There has been a strong inclination in the Bollywood films to offer spectacular views of the 'foreign locales' almost as an apology (or is it escape) to the middle-class audiences. The whole morphology of Switzerland is mapped in our sensibilities through these films. However, in the recent years these fantastic-foreign 'locales' have become accessible to the middle-class in different ways, the films are forced to look within to offer that 'escape'. Now the 'local' the presented in almost in an exotic manner emphasizing, to me, the distance between the 'local' and the burgeoning middle class. Another film, Bluffmaster (http://www.bluffmasterthefilm.com/#), I recently saw proudly claimed that 'it has been shot entirely in mumbai' and it indeed offered spectacular-skyscraper view of Mumbai and not the stereotypical on-the-road-dense-dirty Mumbai. It was a Mumbai of penthouses, exclusive beaches and neon lights. Startling and enchanting. So, after localities of Mumbai, exotica of foreign locales, Delhi in its being seems to have finally arrived in Bollywood. As the tourist guide, the protagonist takes his blind love interest through the alleys and monuments of Delhi, leaves her stranded in the middle of the traffic in delhi (anyone who has been to Delhi will understand what I am saying). While taking her through these spaces, because the visuals cannot be relied on, he weaves narratives and anecdotes; he touches and insists she should as well. He runs her hand through falling monuments and makes her feel the history seeping through its walls. He makes her walk through dense traffic 'situations', to hear the sounds. The film, bound by the narrative and pressurized to deliver drama,did not engage in excavation of the city through these tools, methodologically. I don't hold any grudges against that as I am thrilled, intellectually and emotionally (as it is 'my' city) for these tools being used, appreciated and appropriated. It has given me leads to explore the city and my present research interest of 'soundscapes' through a 'blind' perspective where I have to consciously and deliberately obliterate the tirade of the visual elements that constantly seek my attention and more often than not get it as well. I have allow myself to go skin-deep under the city to touch, feel it, hear it, smell it. On that ending note, I want to mention something that I discovered with almost a child-like frenzy recently. When one is deliberately seeking something, one more often than not tends to merge the details into this consolidated quest. Something similar happened to me. One day while driving around in my old car without a radio, I instinctively rolled the windows (it was excruciating considering the heat, etc and all) however, in that one instance, in that one act, I blocked the city out of my sensibilities. I was traversing in an almost void space. The cars around me, without their vroom and sirens, seemed like moving in a trance. The city happened and unfolded in before me asking me pay even more attention on everything around than I unusually did as the 'sounds' to direct me through spaces, to tell me about their imminent arrival even before I entered, were missing. Interestingly, this film is embroiled in controversy at the moment as the lead protagonist, Amair Khan, a prominent Bollywood actor (muslim), made a statement about the oustess of the Narmada Dam in the state Gujrat. ( http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/06/02/stories/2006060201260100.htm). It raises significant questions about citizenship and democratic rights, simplistic analysis of which cannot be undertaken at the moment. other links: http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/05/fanna_your_boll.html http://www.indiadaily.org/entry/aamirs-fanna-faces-the-wrath-of-politics/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439662/plotsummary -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060606/933c6ea8/attachment-0001.html From tripta at gmail.com Thu Jun 8 07:07:51 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 10:37:51 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] The city in the film. In-Reply-To: <200606051444.ELK87880@mail-router01.qut.edu.au> References: <200606051444.ELK87880@mail-router01.qut.edu.au> Message-ID: <1EA1FB55-4D19-4C79-AF3C-863625B208E9@qut.edu.au> Thanks, Jinna for raising those issues. In my own capacity, I am dealing with them or trying to. However, before carrying forward this conversation I will take your suggestion to introduce myself and the city I inhabit. I have been living in Delhi for the past eleven years now. I came from a small-hillside town to Delhi to pursue my higher education. I was young and confused. Reticent and rebellious. At that time, the city of Delhi, very different from what it stands at the moment, offered me the perfect getaway. It allowed me spaces to literally 'get away' from the parental supervision, the sibling sessions, the 'explanations'. I smoked my first cigarette in the college lawns without bothering about who would inform back home. I drank beer in a proper 'bar' (not hiding in a garage or waiting for somebody's parents to go away) without hesistation or fear. I bunked classes and took buses arbitrarily when I wanted to get away. The point of setting this backdrop is that without conciously being aware of it, I was appropriating the anonymity the city offers. At least at the first glance. I was fascinated with the movements and the mobility's of everything and everyone in the city. Coming from a rather staid hill-town where everyone knew everyone and your buying a pair of shoes was almost public knowledge, this freedom of being able to transverse through myriad lanes was liberating. Since then that time, I have associated with the city, any city, with awe and admiration. However, Delhi remains my fixation and obsession. Partly, I guess, it's the matter of being familiar. In the last eleven years, I have seen the make and the markings of Delhi considerably change and alter. The city was very categorically divided into the Lutyen's Delhi, Old Delhi and South Delhi. There were other pockets but they were sort of rendered in the background. I keep repeating myself, especially when questioned in regards to the difference between Mumbai and Delhi, that Delhi is an indulgence in perverse power. It is a political city. And during my initial years, it was far more pervasive than it is at the moment. Even in colleges amongst class mates, it mattered whom you knew 'politically' who was your uncle, friend, father, etc. With the opening up of the economy and the intent to re-vamp delhi into a world city, I have seen over the last five years dramatic changes in Delhi. We have more than 25 flyovers. Around 30 malls, in and around Delhi. Things, visually and spatially, have (and are) changing in Delhi. This new spatiality has significantly impacted on the geographies of cultures. With this brief introduction of the city, I will try to address the issues which Jinna has raised. Delhi's absence in the Bollywood was influenced by two factors prominently. Delhi did not offer that visual-spectacle while cascading the city as Mumbai did. It offered the spectacular landscape of lutyen's Delhi with its monuments and pillars. However, this space is essentially 'political' with all the major national levels offices housed here. So, if one wanted to use this visual in their films, it had to be within that logic with a lot of permissions and authorizations required. In most of the films, reference to Delhi was consolidated by a drive around this area. The rest of the film would unfold in the studios. In its cinematic representation, only that part of the city was ever identified. The fate of the rest of the city dissolved in the elements which referred to the 'location' being in the city without specifying which one. Compared to this, Bombay has always been visually far more layered than Delhi. Also, the industry being located there has made it much more visible in the cinemascope. In the last few years, the exterior of Delhi is being constantly appropriated for settings. The flyovers, the broad roads all provide exciting car-chase sequences. The distinctions in dialects, regions, castes, religion and cities in the Indian cinema, with a few exceptions, are constantly portrayed through certain stereotypes emphasizing on the 'established' characteristics of these 'people' and 'places'. So more often than not, a person from mumbai will speak in the mumbai-dialect (which I guess one can only differentiate if one belongs to the culture. The nuances of usually getting lost in translation). A muslim settlement will be represented as being densely populated, aggressive and fanatics. These 'stereotypes' are usually employed for comic relief in the film or to define the 'other'. Any involved engagement is missing. In that sense, within the localized cultural representation as well certain blankets are used to avoid any further catharsis of the situation. And coming to the issues you have raised in regards to 'identifying' the city at a glance or for that matter not being able to identify them in some regards reflects the position and positioning of the particular 'city' in the cinematic, cultural, political maps. Conversely, the absence of 'cities' (or should it be silence) in these maps significantly influences the manner in which we perceive it. It doesn't surprise anyone of us that the Manhattan skyline is the most recalled cinematic expression of any city. At this point, I would like to invite Sean Maher working on cities and cinema (apologies for putting it so simplistically) to share his views on the topic with us. Cheers, tripta From tripta at gmail.com Thu Jun 8 07:09:16 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 10:39:16 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] Fwd: Introduction to the list. References: Message-ID: <5D34C492-A945-4D20-B72B-589C4A96C5F8@qut.edu.au> An introduction by the new member of the list. welcome! cheers tripta p.s. taking liberties to forward your message to the whole list. Begin forwarded message: > From: "diego perez urruchi" > Date: 7 June 2006 11:38:51 PM > To: tripta at gmail.com > Subject: RE: Introduction to the list. > > I'm interested in new media art: wireless, cities, collaboration, > etc. I work in my thesis about Wireless and collaborative art in > Basque Country Art University. Also I develop video, web and design > jobs as freelance. > > Saludos a todos!! > > PRAGMATIK > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060608/242b00b8/attachment.html From tripta at gmail.com Thu Jun 8 08:33:08 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 12:03:08 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] Rationed citizenship Message-ID: <190A1B0E-EA0A-45DC-B0FD-B026175647E6@qut.edu.au> Rationed Citizenship: Space is as much geographic and spatial as it is political, cultural and economic. Even psychological. The evolution of ?space? as a commodity, as a political entity has meant that territoriality has become an important element to define one?s citizenship, the association with the ?state?, and the claims to this ?citizenship?. For my PhD, I am working on constructions, articulations, and imaginations of ?space? in the city vis-?-vis the ?slums? in the city. I am not working with clear boundaries and demarcations between the city and the slum, as it appears to be. I am trying to understand the process of marginalization through which ?slums? carve out a specific space, spatiality in the city to counter the city, having an active and involved agency in the construction of this space. And I realize that I cannot understand this construction of ?space?, ?spatiality? without engaging with the ideas of ?citizenship? that circulates in these spaces. Security of tenure, i.e., legalizing the ownership of the land they live on is one of the main arguments used by the anti-demolition groups in India. It is understood that the ?insecurity? of not having legal claims leads to most of the issues concerning these spaces. However, within the constitutional domain, the ?legal? and ?illegal? (specifically pertaining to these spaces) is not clearly articulated. So, like in the case of the recent demolitions of slums in Delhi, it actually lies at the discretion of the ?judge? in session to allow or stop the same. There is no engagement with the decision and the lens through which it is made. This ?illegality? shrouds the everyday reality of the residents of these spaces. They are referred to as ?criminals?, ?immoral?, ?menace to the society? etc only because they do not have the territorial claims to validate their ?citizenship? and involvement with the ?state?. Having said that, the neighboring areas of the ?slum? settlements reap on the advantages of the proximity to these spaces without actually contributing to solving the problem. It from these spaces that majority of the labour force, industrial and domestic, comes from. It is in these spaces that services at a minimal cost are sought. And it lies at the discretion of these ?legal? middle class settlements to decide the fate of these neighboring slums areas. In Delhi, it is the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) of the middle class settlements that put in the PIL to remove these slums. The residents of the slums within political and economic rationale are given tenuous claims to citizenship by providing them with ?ration cards? (these allow them to access subsidized commodities. However, the real importance of these ration cards lies in determining the ?association? of the residents with the space which is of grave importance when re-settlements are being undertaken) and ?electoral cards?. These, however, are rendered null and void, in terms of making any absolute claims to the rights of ?citizens?, when the demolitions are undertaken. In the most recent case, the demolishing agencies were not even required to re-settle the residents. In that situation, the carefully guarded ration-card was of no use. I am interested in understanding the circulation and creation of the notions of ?citizenship? in illegal spaces. And the manner in which this notion of citizenship affects the geographies of culture, henceforth, produced. I am trying to understand the growth of the ?city?, extending and locating its space, in relation to the coming up of ?slum? pockets, the time period for which they were allowed, the attempts to demolish them, and their demolition eventually, if they were demolished. Through this exercise I want to map the (shifting) geographies of capital and culture. Any ideas, links, references on this subject would be more than welcome. Thanks, tripta -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060608/38f52dd5/attachment.html From tripta at gmail.com Thu Jun 8 15:42:57 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 19:12:57 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] Jan Hatt-Olsen's introduction References: <000001c68af8$d2235050$52f5d7c3@cameraobscura> Message-ID: <9B421237-FEC1-43EB-B44F-E61F187B152F@qut.edu.au> > From: "Jan Hatt-Olsen" > Date: 8 June 2006 5:40:33 PM > To: "Tripta B Chandola" > Subject: Re: Introduction to the list. > > Dear Tripta > > I'm a poet/artist, form Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2004 I made the > center of > V?rl?se ( a town of 18.000 just north of Copenhagen ) into a > collection of > poetry, the web-catalogue can be found at > www.lyrik-installation.dk/Vaerloese . In 2005 the work was > selected as one > out of 30 examples of street creativity in Europe. To participate > in 'Street > Creativity Exhibition' one of the exhibitions in City Living- > Living City | > the 6'th European Biennial of Towns and Town Planners. I was > invited to make > and present a charter for street creativity at the Biennial. The > Cinescape > Street Creativity Charter, which can be seen at > www.urbanartscape.org/streetcreativitycharter.htm . Currently I'm > working > with public art in the group Urban Artscape www.urbanartscape.org > I'm interested in making crossovers in the urban space between art - > poetry - design - urban planning - architecture and all other > aspects of > urban life. > The web-sites I mentioned have parts in english and parts in danish. > > cheers > Jan > ------------------------- > Jan Hatt-Olsen > Urban Artscape > www.urbanartscape.org > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060608/afa9386a/attachment.html From m81l1ngl1sts at richtextformat.org Thu Jun 8 15:28:00 2006 From: m81l1ngl1sts at richtextformat.org (richard willis) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 14:28:00 +0100 (BST) Subject: [multipliCity] intro Message-ID: <4971.82.108.46.34.1149773280.squirrel@pop3.hfdns.co.uk> hello multiplicity i am a traditional and new media artist from brighton, uk. the maxim that drives my work, paraphrased from cezanne, is 'treat nature by means of the cube', a maxim which can be very easily understood by any urbanite who undertakes the task of counting the amount of rectangles that he/she sees in an average day (a lot). i am also subscribed to the rhizome and urbanscreens listservs where i am almost exclusively a reader as both lists are largely subscribed to by people from whom i can learn much but who could learn little if anything from me. i subscribed to multiplicity with the same aim. r. http://richtextformat.org From sw.maher at student.qut.edu.au Mon Jun 12 05:22:15 2006 From: sw.maher at student.qut.edu.au (sw.maher@student.qut.edu.au) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:22:15 +1000 (EST) Subject: [multipliCity] The City in Film Message-ID: <20060612132215.CEA76186@mail-msgstore01.qut.edu.au> Welcome all, and thank you Tripta and Jinna for your contributions and for the invitation to reply on the topic of Delhi and its rising currency within Bollywood. First, a brief intro on my background and interests in cities. I have been a filmmaker, writer, researcher and academic in Sydney and since about 2000 become increasinglly preoccupied with the role, shape, function and relationship between cinema and cities. An important milestone in my interest was a short, two-day intensive course I designed and delivered at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney entitled "Celluloid Cities". I ran it consecutively over two years and became addicted to the topic. I began with the simple premise that a city in a film becomes interesting when it functions dramaturgically as opposed to simple backdrop. I began to map a taxonomy of Hollywood and European films that made this distinction, delved into the common histories linking early film practice with architecture and further explored the design issues to assist the production design students at AFTRS. Needless to say, with the scale of the topic and the manifold issues that arose, the two-day course merely tantalized me and I remain on the journey. More recently I have opened up the exploration as a way to trace the cinema and the city and their relationship in terms of their determining role on modernity. The inquiry is now formalising into a creative practice led PhD (50% film/ 50% written thesis) that I have tentatively titled "Sign Cities: Cinema Architecture and the Metropolis." In response to Tripta and Jinna, I would now like to comment on Delhi as a rising Bollywood location. Although my research has been limited to US/Euro and Australian cities (out of pure necessity to limit the field of inquiry), there remain global parallels in how all cities become treated cinematically. Until recently, the economics of large scale feature film production traditionally saw films become preoccupied with certain 'convenient cities' ie. the corporate location of production. The tendency is to mine these cities for all they were worth until a combination of factors drove productions and settings into other locales. (London gave way to Vienna for example in the case of The Third Man - the rationale for making the film and setting it in Vienna was post WWII restrictions on film studios remitting earnings out of Europe, especially formerly occupied Eastern European states. So various studios and producers had all this capital tied up in the Continent and the only way to access it was to direct it into European productions). New York remains one of the most interesting cities in relation to production logistics as well as its positioning through what I have labelled its 'imaginary quotient'. Initially of course, New York was the locus of North American film production. But by the 1920s Edison's punitive copyright and other legal mechanisms designed to restrict East Coast film production saw the rise of Hollywood and LA. The advent of sound was another contributing factor, making New York location shooting much less appealing to sound stage Hollywood shooting. Despite losing out to Los Angeles as the hub of mass produced filmmaking in the US, New York remained at the centre of a filmmaking consciousness. One of the first set environments that were constructed on the Hollywood backlots was the New York street. This facilited the de facto New York film which was made in LA but shot on Hollywood studio soundstages and the New York street backlot. An extensive history of this phenomenon is chronicled in James Sander's book 'Celluloid Skyline - New York and the Movies'. Ten years in the making, the book is an incredibly comprehensive account of almosty every film either shot or located in New York. In short, despite LA and Hollywood occupying the centre of filmmaking gravity, life and the movies still happened in New York, where most of the writers, producers, actors and directors actually descended from. As Pauline Kael observed "Sitting out in Los Angeles, the expatriate New York writers projected their fantasies of Eastern connoisseurship and suavity. Los Angeles itself has never recovered from the inferiority complex that its movies nourished, and every moviegoing kid in America felt that people in New York were smarter, livelier, and better looking than anyone in their hometown. There were no Cary Grants in the sticks. He and his counterparts were to be found only in the imaginary cities of the movies." But back to Delhi, it is interesting to hear that Delhi's raised status as a filmmaking locale conicides with the spatial reorganisation of the city under the influence of development and modernisation. The actual and imaginary city appears to be experiencing a reconfiguration that lends itself to the fantasy elements that underpin cinematic treatments of a city. It is this psychoanalytic perception of a city that cinema is so adept at exploiting - since it is one of the tenets of the cinematic experience itself. In film, the city becomes a desire laden landscape. Viewed this way, we can account for the longevity of New York which functioned as THE measure of dreams, hopes and fears surrounding 20th Century modernity. In film, a city manifests dreams and nightmares and these unconscious drives can find no more dramatic setting than the utopian/dystopian dimensions of urban modernity. For any actual city to sustain this projection of desire it needs some rudimentary physical infrastructure on which the desire fuelled imagery can hang. It sounds like Delhi has made this leap so I am sure it is set to remain a constant on the radar of cinematic cities. cheers, Sean Maher From sw.maher at student.qut.edu.au Mon Jun 12 05:54:04 2006 From: sw.maher at student.qut.edu.au (sw.maher@student.qut.edu.au) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:54:04 +1000 (EST) Subject: [multipliCity] typos Message-ID: <20060612135404.CEA77174@mail-msgstore01.qut.edu.au> All, apologies for a couple of typos I have just picked up upon receiving my own posting. Also, tentative PhD title was incorrect. My topic is not as architecturally orientated as it appeared, but is more to do with the intersections between filmic representations of architecture and cities as well as actual architectural and urban planning ideas and principles. So correct title is - "Sign Cities: Film, Architecture and the Metropolis'. Sean Maher PhD Researcher Film and Television Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Precinct Z6 The Hub Musk Avenue Kelvin Grove QLD 4059 From ginomail at gmail.com Mon Jun 12 14:39:12 2006 From: ginomail at gmail.com (Zeenath Hasan) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:39:12 +0300 Subject: [multipliCity] Intro: Zeenath Message-ID: <4bd1abcb0606120539oac0c1a9wc0b279790a3b1018@mail.gmail.com> I engage with locals to appropriate public spaces for self-expression. Transit points and city surfaces serve as outlets for sharing personal experiences. The appropriation of otherwise inconspicuous territories creates a communal zone in the vicinity of the intervention. Deja Vu is an ongoing project involving school going children of Helsinki city. The project uses grey, metal electricity distribution cabinets located city-wide as display surfaces for visual expression by children of a locality. http://www.helsinginenergia.fi/en/ymparisto/passing/Deja_vu_esite.pdf IMPROVe is a masters thesis work exploring the potential of the phone as a temporal, networked medium. The project arranges public performances that improvise with live sounds. http://mlab.uiah.fi/improve/demo/ I am currently enrolled into the MA in New Media programme at the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design Helsinki. From j.tay at qut.edu.au Tue Jun 13 06:07:36 2006 From: j.tay at qut.edu.au (Jinna Tay) Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:07:36 +1000 Subject: [multipliCity] Intro: Zeenath In-Reply-To: <4bd1abcb0606120539oac0c1a9wc0b279790a3b1018@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <200606130407.ELW50027@mail-router01.qut.edu.au> hi there Zeenath I love the idea of flagging ideas via repetition and the participation of schoolchildren in them. On a similar but less theoretical bend, the city council of Brisbane (where I live) through project ArtForce is encouraging the community to adopt and paint a Traffic Signal Box (TSB). For years I have wondered about but loved these colourful surfaces that standout at traffic junctions some of them sad and forlorn and others happy. The public art project was a way of jazzing up the city as well as getting community participation. (I think its ongoing...) Yet, the expressions of creativity captured on these TSB captured much more than just the community... http://svc189.bne146v.server-web.com/artforce/ Sometime ago, I was told by a student that the city of Melbourne has a project that is centred on lighting up its dark alley ways and street corners, these areas often being particularly deserted spaces. The light boxes are one way of shifting attention away from the darken spaces to bringing both light and a notion of safety into these spaces as pedestrians journeyed through and pass them. While, I couldn't find the link to this site I have found a new Melbourne project, New Wave Festival, Mar-April 06 which is centred on lighting the city. But beyond lighting spaces this festival is positioning installations such as dustbins with holes drilled into them to represent the animals that scour in them for food. Quite quirky and whimsical ... http://2006festival.nextwave.org.au/?pageid=4190 I also remember a colleague who went to a conference last year and was telling me about larger architecture/design project in Vancouver or was it Toronto? That is re-imagining city spaces through re-invention. This was conducted through a university course working with perhaps architecture students that resulted in a tire-alley, zen garden, market alley and a few more. It was just beautiful in the way that it completely rejigged the sense of community and its aesthetics in urban space through using tired old areas that no one cared for. (Sorry I don't have the website) cheers Jinna -----Original Message----- From: multipliCity-bounces at listcultures.org [mailto:multipliCity-bounces at listcultures.org] On Behalf Of Zeenath Hasan Sent: Monday, 12 June 2006 10:39 PM To: multipliCity at listcultures.org Subject: [multipliCity] Intro: Zeenath I engage with locals to appropriate public spaces for self-expression. Transit points and city surfaces serve as outlets for sharing personal experiences. The appropriation of otherwise inconspicuous territories creates a communal zone in the vicinity of the intervention. Deja Vu is an ongoing project involving school going children of Helsinki city. The project uses grey, metal electricity distribution cabinets located city-wide as display surfaces for visual expression by children of a locality. http://www.helsinginenergia.fi/en/ymparisto/passing/Deja_vu_esite.pdf IMPROVe is a masters thesis work exploring the potential of the phone as a temporal, networked medium. The project arranges public performances that improvise with live sounds. http://mlab.uiah.fi/improve/demo/ I am currently enrolled into the MA in New Media programme at the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design Helsinki. _______________________________________________ multipliCity mailing list multipliCity at listcultures.org http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/multiplicity_listcultures.org From db at dannybutt.net Tue Jun 13 08:08:22 2006 From: db at dannybutt.net (Danny Butt) Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:08:22 +1200 Subject: [multipliCity] Introduction to the list. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 13/06/2006, at 6:02 PM, Tripta B Chandola wrote: > Dear Danny, > > Thanks for joining the list. To facilitate diverse conversations, > we would request you to introduce yourself to the list, your > background, area of interest in the 'citiy/ies'. A few lines will > be sufficient. Kia ora Tripta, all I was invited onto the list by Jinna Tay, and expect to mostly be listening and learning at the moment! My main research interests are in colonisation and settler culture; creative industries policy and methodology; and cultural aspects of technology, particularly as they are visible in the Asia-Pacific region. You can find out more on my website. As far as cities goes, it's a big topic lol! I've been in an engagement with Sarai and their reader-list for a few years now and have an interest in the work of Solomon Benjamin (urban studies scholar in Bangalore) on different forms of land tenure within the cities of postcolonial India. I also did a bit of engagement with Sassen and other urbanists during my postgraduate work on the information economy. I guess at a personal level, I live outside the city but my work and aesthetic interests takes me to a lot of them, so I always find that interesting. What can we really say about the city? I guess we all have our own stories of urbanity, I'm looking forward to those. Regards, Danny -- Danny Butt danny at dannybutt.net | http://www.dannybutt.net Suma Media Consulting | http://www.sumamedia.com Private Bag MBE P145, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand Ph: +64 21 456 379 | Fx: +64 21 291 0200 From tripta at gmail.com Tue Jun 13 11:49:44 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:19:44 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] Fwd: Introduction to the list (sezer kumru) References: <20060613082813.17544.qmail@web53902.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: posting on behalf of sezer kumru. Begin forwarded message: > From: sezer kumru > Date: 13 June 2006 1:58:13 PM > To: Tripta B Chandola > Subject: Re: Introduction to the list. > > Hi all, Im a city planner ,now im in urban design master program . > I m interested in new media and the affect on physical life . > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060613/0adcc5bb/attachment.html From j.tay at qut.edu.au Tue Jun 13 15:07:04 2006 From: j.tay at qut.edu.au (Jinna Tay) Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:07:04 +1000 Subject: [multipliCity] FW: Landscapes of Exile Conference News Message-ID: <200606131307.ELX13679@mail-router01.qut.edu.au> fyi ... regards Jinna Centre for Cultural Diversity and Social Justice Southern Cross University Conference News Landscapes of Exile: "Once Perilous, Now Safe" Byron Bay 26-28 July 2006 Over 50 speakers, including: Peter Read Deborah Bird-Rose Melissa Lucashenko Sunil Govinnage Anna Haebich Vin D'Cruz Sessions include: Writing and Exile Exile and the Self Indigenous Exile Spaces of Asylum Visual and Musical Expressions of Exile Contested Spaces Exile and Art Journeys Politics of Place Belonging to Place Belonging on the North Coast of NSW PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR DETAILS: http://www.scu.edu.au/research/ccdsj/landscapesofexiles/index.html Please send Registrations to: Karen Hanna Conference & Event Manager Norsearch Conference Services Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore NSW Australia Ph: +61 2 6620 3932 fx: +61 2 66269317 email: khanna at scu.edu.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060613/6b95df78/attachment.html From m.gregg at uq.edu.au Sat Jun 17 02:55:18 2006 From: m.gregg at uq.edu.au (Mel) Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:55:18 +1000 Subject: [multipliCity] Headline - World tips to urban sprawl Message-ID: <200606170055.k5H0tI37013767@conan.f2.com.au> Dear MultipliCity, You have been sent this article link by Mel courtesy of smh.com.au Personal Message: Hi listy types, I saw this article in the paper this morning and it reminded me to join this list - I wondered what others thought about it. Cheers Mel World tips to urban sprawl David Adam in London June 17, 2006 To view the entire article, click on: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/06/16/1149964736731.html Sign up for news updates from The Sydney Morning Herald newsroom emailed each morning and afternoon: http://smh.com.au/newsletters/subscription.html Visit http://smh.com.au for updated local and world news, sports results, entertainment news and reviews and the latest technology information. From tripta at gmail.com Sat Jun 24 11:40:15 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 15:10:15 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] the city categories Message-ID: <69D96146-7764-4513-82F3-E5086D15984A@qut.edu.au> http://www.indianexpress.com/story/7117.htmlFrom incredulity to disapproval to introspection to laughter, the recent Readers? Digest survey ? that proclaimed Mumbai the rudest city in the world ? has evoked every reaction in the city. Three prominent Mumbaikars give their take. The aforementioned report and the retort it has evoked promoted me to articulate what I have been pondering over a long time. Mumbai has been proclaimed as the ?rudest? city of the world. The response, especially that of Rahul Bose (an eminent actor in India) has opened the pandora?s box of issues, concerns and cracks about cities, the manner in which one deals with them, seals them, moves one; but most importantly, a one-dimensional-staid categorization of the city as ?such? or other. As the ?rudest? city, as the most ?livable? city, as the most ?dangerous? city. I am interested in the manner in which the city is produced, consumed and imagined. I am interested in the manner in which dreams of the city(ies) are articulated and how the cities become the ?dreams? or ?nightmares?. The city in its many vocabularies through which one tried to understand it comes across, at least to me, as the perfect instance of unrequited love. The city has many loves and lovers. However, it fails to return the affection and love of each and everyone of its lover with the intensity and intent it is approached. And as it happens, the unrequited love vests the power of imagination with the disappointed lover. For the lover, the unattainable ?loved? one is everything and everyone. The lover can make anything and nothing out of the loved one. I have always insisted that the lover is much more powerful than the loved one. I have also been called a hopeless romantic more often than not. However, coming back to cities and their categorization. It is so easy to relegate the city into the background, to consume it without considering it. With all its imminent presence and pressures, the ?city? slides into the anonymity. It assumes several roles and numerous avataras. It shows what you seek to see. It hides everything else. In talking like this about the city, I know I am laying the trap for ?city? to be understood as a monolithic-staid entity. The idea of this exercise at the basic level is to evolve vocabularies, diverse and dense, to talk about the city. Instead of starting from a theoretical perspective, I am taking the liberty of initiating the conversation with the city from a personal perspective. Every time I visit a new city, I examine its texture, as if feeling the silks and satins, to see whether I can ?live? in that city. I examine the corners, the crowds. I take all possible available forms of transportations. I try and get lost in the alleys. I try not to ask for directions. And then I ask directions, hopelessly, over and over again, to see whether I am sent. I sit about at intersections and stare. And evaluate the stares back. What makes it comfortable? What makes a city livable? For me, it?s definitely not the people. I don?t know many people and even in the city (Delhi) I presently live in, I live in my own-cocooned world. I hardly meet people. I am not socially deficient. I am just lazy. People tire me. It?s the familiarity, at one level. To know that you know some, if not the entire city. The familiarity does not mean being comfortable. For me, it means, having a vague idea about what I would do if were in an uncomfortable position. I am a smoker and being able to smoke uninhibitedly in public spaces is a definite marker for me. This may come across as a strange marker/ reference for some but in India there are many places where women smoking is out of the norm and not acceptable. The act of smoking by a woman in a public space makes her a certain sort of a woman; definitely not normal evoking stares and catcalls. Now staying in Delhi for the last ten years, I have evolved a smoking-map. In this map, zones and areas are marked where I smoke without bothering. Other areas, I don?t. The areas in which I don?t smoke are usually decided by the density, the ?masculine? character of the space, some instinctive feel, whether I am passing the area at night or day time. I have never really articulated this, smoking vs. non-smoking zones in my map. And as I am writing about it I am amazed how my smoking spatialities are strongly embedded and impressed upon by the cultural, economic, religious, political, spatialities of the ?zone?, of the ?area?. And that if I take on the task, I will be able to draw multiple maps of what I do, what I think I can do in certain areas based on either imagined, real or perceived ideas of that space. Maybe my comfortable zone is uncomfortable for others. Maybe i am the reason for the discomfort. Essentially, what I am trying to say about the ?livable? city, or the ?rude? city or the ?dangerous? city is that within one map exist multiple maps. Within each city, there are ?livable?, ?rude? and ?dangerous? areas. However, what I am interested in is who sets the parameters for a city being ?rude?, ?dangerous? or ?livable?. How are these standards set? How is it different from the ?first? world to the ?third world cities? How is it different between the cities and the villages? Cities and the towns? Cities and suburbs? What does it mean to be the most ?livable? city? Is it the proximity to the nearest grocery store, a mall, a police station, a lover?s house? In what manner is the idea of the most ?livable? city sold? Security has definitely become an important marker in charting these categories. One is constantly sold fear so they can obsessively buy security. With all the ramblings set about here and many more still churning in my head, I am still not clear about these categorizations. I have been to Mumbai and though I am not very fond of the city (in the sense it did not fit in very well with my scheme of things about being able to live there), I did not think it was a rude city. Is it the people who are rude or is it the city-life that makes the people rude? I would take this opportunity to invite everyone on the list to share what they think makes a city ?livable?, ?dangerous?, ?rude? (and any other categories that are often used) for them. Through the conversations that follow we can try and richen our grammar and vocabularies about the categories through which the ?city? is constantly examined. Maybe then the lovers will know more about their object of affection. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060624/d36d6407/attachment.html From jh at urbanartscape.org Mon Jun 26 14:55:43 2006 From: jh at urbanartscape.org (Jan Hatt-Olsen) Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:55:43 +0200 Subject: [multipliCity] Invitatation to the opening of Urban Poetry - Poetry in Thrige Message-ID: <004f01c6991f$df29eae0$85c1f9c3@cameraobscura> Hi City People I invite you to the opening of Poetry in Thrige 31.8 kl. 19.30-20.30 I have sendt the program for the first day, but the whole art, dance, music festival is from 31.8 - 15.10. My Exhibition will be there in the whole period. My Exhibition consist of an installation in the raw industrial hall of 61 transparent plexiglass plates, with one of my poems printed on each. It is the same plexiglasplates I installed in V?rl?se Bymidte in 'The City as a Collection of Poetry' web-katalogue: www.lyrik-installation.dk/Vaerloese , but in Thrigehallen it will in interaction with the industrial hall, be a totally new experience and a new collection of poetry. Thrigehallen is placed i the center of Odense. Denmarks third largest City. The whole program both in danish and english can be seen at. http://www.mancopy.dk/inthrige.php Ciao Jan P.S I have been to a good summercamp for urban planners in the network NYP www.nyp.dk They were fascinated that the center of a city have been turned into a collection of poetry. We made a lot of new cool stof at the camp. It will be presented at the web-site. The network is open for international participation. At the summercamp there was participants form Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Belgium, so join it if you find it interesting. --------------------------------------------- Jan Hatt-Olsen Urban Artscape www.urbanartscape.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/multiplicity_listcultures.org/attachments/20060626/11ac9b81/attachment.html From tripta at gmail.com Tue Jun 27 09:13:38 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:43:38 +0530 Subject: [multipliCity] theses on New media and the city Message-ID: This dialouge between Pavlos Hatzopoulos and Geert Lovink raises some significant and interesting perspectives. I find the connections (or disconnections) between 'new media' and 'architecture' as a practice particularly relevant to the issues I am trying to understand. The manner in which practice and consumption of 'technology' in everyday facilitates 'architectural' innovations is really fascinating. As I have explored it specifically in the Indian context, the connections and intersections are insidious and subtle instead of being part of a larger imagination. I did some research in Nehru Place, Asia's largest secondhand hardware and pirated software market. This market complex though conceptualized as a part of the larger post-colonial imagination with corners and maps very clearly marked out for specific purpose has changed in character 'architecturally because of the prevalence of the 'secondhand' hardware and 'piracy' market. A lot of transactions in these fields require to be shielded off the 'public' eye and for that new rooms and spaces are created access to these is usually through a complicated labyrinth and needs specialized knowledge or a well-acquainted escort. Would these 'innovations' in the use of the architectural space qualify as media practices influencing them? I, however, think that this shift where architectural imagination would intersect with the new-media practices is very specific to context and usually employed to create some or the other sort of simulacrum to titillate and give a glimpse of the possibility. As a possibility, I think it has a long way to go. Does the fact that 'architecture' as a field has a much more sturdy historical background than the 'new-media' technologies make a difference in this regard? As also, at some level the fluidity of the new media practices, does it make the task of epistemologically makes it difficult for the two to intersect? http://www.networkcultures.org/geert/theses-on-new-media-and-the-city/ cheers, tripta