How to be in when you are out

By Julian Broadhead

“A cricket ground is a flat piece of earth with some buildings around it” Richie Benaud

As anyone who has ever tried to buy a home can tell you, space in the city is at a premium, even more so as people continue to move to our urban centres. This presents civic planners with a tough balancing act between accommodating an ever increasing population and maintaining a pleasant and healthy environment for us all to occupy, with a large amount of the resulting pressure being placed on our recreational spaces.

So it’s seems only appropriate, at the end of this Ashes summer, to celebrate the phenomenon of ‘Midnight Cricket’ (for those of you who don’t follow this most idiosyncratic of games, ‘the Ashes’ is a biennial test series between England and Australia). Started in 2004 by a group calling themselves ‘Space Hijackers’ www.spacehijackers.co.uk, it is exactly what the name suggests with a total of seven matches played to date in the open spaces of London’s financial district.

But how does a game of Midnight Cricket come about? Well, with the Space Hijackers model, you assemble your team of players (the Anarchists) and proceed to one of the city’s many watering holes. Once there, you challenge the assembled drinkers (the Capitalists) to a game of cricket. Hey presto! (Full reports can be found on the Space Hijackers site).

We at Vivacity find the anarchist/capitalist dynamic a little too confrontational for our liking but it does seem that the games are played in good spirit. More importantly however, Midnight Cricket raises important questions about how we use our civic spaces.  There are good examples of government run initiatives, such as the ‘Paris-Plages’ that turns the banks of the Seine into a beach every summer, but perhaps there is an opportunity for each of us as individuals to seize the initiative and make better use of our open areas. And whilst we mull that over, we might just go and dig out the old bat and ball.

Which games or activities would you like to see taking place in city centres? How might they be adapted from their original formats? Please share your suggestions with fellow VivaCity folk below.

why vivacity

This is the century of the city.

Over half the world’s population now live in cities. This is projected to rise to three-quarters of all people in 2050. With population increases, this means 6.75 billion of us will be city dwellers, an increase of 3.75 billion from today. As the future success or failure of mankind lies in cities, new ways of using them are needed.

The city represents an incredible paradox. We have never been closer together physically, but we have never been further away from each other emotionally. At vivacity we celebrate city movements around the world that change and re-define the way we interact with and use cities. Whilst cities cannot cope with the numbers now and the resultant strain on the world’s natural resources and eco-systems are already painfully evident, we believe that human spirit and endeavor will overcome, as it has done before.

vivacity promotes city movements that are connecting people & creating new types of communities. They are typically low impact, highly sociable, enabled by technology, using public and private spaces in new ways and empowering people to act locally.

vivacity promotes new ways of feeling alive, new ways of being invigorated, and new things to be a part of. We call it grassroots stuff in the city. We hope you get involved and share your experiences with us.

who we are

Andy Marks vivacity founder and editor

Social entrepreneur, lecturer, writer and curator, Andy Marks is an agent of positive social change practicing at the intersection or fault-line of business, society and culture. Andy is the founder of research and consultancy network Salad Worldwide, an advisor to some of the world’s leading companies on Corporate Responsibility and an advisor to a number of non-profit organizations. Andy is an expert on grass roots city movements, and a founding partner of an upcycling enterprise launching in 2010.

Julian Broadhead contributor

With a background in advertising, branding and corporate responsibility, Julian works with blue-chip companies from a wide range of industries and sectors, advising on strategy and new ways of connecting with people. He is currently developing a number of new opportunities in the environmental sector, with a particular emphasis on making environmental action more accessible.

Shane Solanki – contributor/distributor/carburettor/carbon-ara

Artist, writer, performer, producer and director, Shane’s first short film was commissioned by the BBC and directed by Peter Cattaneo. His first record was produced by Mercury Prize Winner Talvin Singh. He worked for years to forge the unique identity of independent record label Ninja Tune. We at Vivacity like to think of him as a grass roots detective, covertly operating under the pseudonym of the Last Mango in Paris; imagine him skulking around the world in a beige macintosh, recording and documenting our shift into a society where social responsibility and public creativity are norms.

contribute

become a vivacity scout

As more and more of us live in urban areas, individuals and communities can feel overwhelmed and isolated by the sheer intense-city of it all.

However we at vivacity believe that human spirit and endeavor will overcome as it has done so many times before. That is why we are celebrating movements around the world that are changing and re-defining the way we interact with the city. We would like to hear from you about grassroots movements or activities that bring people together face to face and use cities in new ways. The more original and imaginative the better.

Please email us describing a movement you would like to see on vivacity using a maximum of 300 words. info@vivacity.me