VivaCity birthday honours list - part 2
By Julian Broadhead, Dagmar Hoogland, Andy Marks and Shane Solanki
Welcome to the second instalment of the VivaCity birthday honours list, where we select our favourite movements which are changing the way we see and use cities for the better. Feel free to surf, bowl, bomb, flash, plant, eat, discuss, inspire and honour in your neighbourhood…
Ghost Bikes
Showing the difficulties of a rising bike culture in a car driven world, this initiative is daring and controversial, as its not always appreciated to point out the painful reality. Deserves credit as it takes a difficult subject head on, in a beautiful haunting way. Dagmar
Couch Surfing
Your sofa isn’t just a place to plonk your butt and zone out to an episode of Lost / Madmen / The Wire / Desperate Housewives (delete as appropriate). It is a place for folk from around the world to seek shelter, be entertained, entertain, share food and life stories. Andy
TED
The worlds most exciting platform for discussion and new ideas that’s bringing free knowledge and inspiration to the global community. From some of the world’s most inspired thinkers - believing that the power of ideas are the start of any change, TED’s the place to be. Dagmar
Seed Bombs
One of the most ubiquitous instruments of conflict, reinvented as a means by which to enhance and bring a little bit of nature back to those neglected areas of the urban landscape. Julian
Flash Mobs
The flash mob is not that new but this spontaneous action shows the collective fun of a crowd, it shows guts, action, and surprise turning to delight. Our example starting on the beach by an enthusiastic boy in red speedo’s embodies the VivaCity spirit. Dagmar
Urban vegetable gardens
Transforming the way we relate to energy, consumption, food and public space, planting stuff (be it vegetables, fruit or flowers) in the city is the most blatant example of how grassroots movements are spearheading the changes that will affect all of us city dwellers through this century. Shane
Speakeasies
Underground dining or Speakeasies - no rules, no sky high bills and no time slots, this is a private affair for foodies who love to meet people and welcome each other into their most private part of life: their home. It reflects a playful and social attitude towards food and food sharing. Dagmar
Midnight Cricket
This most formal of games played spontaneously under the yellow glow of street lights. What’s not to love? Julian
VivaCity birthday honours list - part 1
By Julian Broadhead, Dagmar Hoogland, Andy Marks and Shane Solanki
A year older and hopefully a year street, junction, underpass and ring road wiser. Looking back over the last year, we have selected our favourite grassroots movements which are changing the way we see and use cities for the better.
Afro Reggae
Trading guns, drugs and brutal violence in Rio’s favelas for an electrifying mix of rhythms, dance, theatre and martial arts; a spellbinding platform for young people to get their lives back on track. See them at London’s Southbank this weekend. Andy
Yarn bombing
Hilariously named knitting ‘crews’; a form of civil disobedience few could fail to appreciate and a fantastic way to bring a little bit of colour and creativity to our public spaces. Julian
The art of street art
Colombia recently almost elected a president who, as mayor of Bogota, successfully replaced the corrupt traffic police with a team of mime artists. Urban street art encourages us to be playful with the world that we live in, claiming it back from advertising hoardings and the long arm of the law. Shane
Hidden Park
Turning a screen obsessed culture on it’s head – off the sofa and in to the park with your smart phone to find magical creatures and beasties lurking, roaming and entrancing. Andy
Random huggers
The smallest of things can brighten your day and change your outlook. A hug, even from a stranger, could be just that thing. Julian
Holes in walls
Sugata Mitra’s famous experiment, where he put a computer into a hole in the wall in a slum in Delhi, was remarkable for demonstrating that if you give people the means, they’ll learn, create and improvise. If you haven’t quite curbed your urge to fly to hot places, then on your next trip, take the bus out to a slum, make some friends, give them your old laptop (you know, the one that’s been sitting under your desk unused for the last two years), and watch what happens! Shane
Growing fruit trees at train stations
Concrete, charmless, chilly, colourless train stations. Planting, tending and harvesting apples, redcurrants, blackcurrants and blackberries means I for one will never look at a train station the same way ever again. Andy
Bags of hope
Recycling, dealing with ever increasing mountains of plastic in a constructive way, providing employment and income for people below the poverty line, making something beautiful - Conserve India makes fashion items out of rubbish collected on the streets of Delhi. The perfect VivaCity movement. Shane
Blue sky thinking
By Shane Solanki
This is the most exciting time we have ever known. In such a short space of time, the world has changed completely. And it’s only just started; we’re hurtling towards a future that will look radically different from the one we knew even twenty years ago.
Can we pool our wisdom and imagination to create a future for all of the planet’s creatures that is rich and positive?
Hopefully we’ll remember that we all came from the same place. That we’re all related. There’s so much to be done; we need to work to find real solutions to the problems that face us all. VivaCity attempts to find such solutions, especially ones that help us to negotiate the mediated and often controlled public spaces to be found in cities.
In 1996, the British organisation Reclaim The Streets became infamous for their impromptu parties organised on roads, reclaiming the streets from cars (which offer speed and comfort to their users, whilst other road users pay the price through fear, injury, pollution and congestion). One of their most celebrated festivals was the M41 street party, where for nine hours 8,000 people took control of the M41 motorway in West London, partied and generally enjoyed themselves, whilst some dug up the tarmac with jack-hammers and in its place planted trees (trees that had been rescued from the construction path of the M11 link road campaign, which led to the loss of homes, loss of quality of life and community fragmentation).
These days, some activists are looking to be a little bit more playful and less confrontational in their approach to reclaiming the streets; take the pothole gardener, who saves cyclists from the perils of the pothole and simultaneously scores a goal back for nature in the match against tarmac.
Activism doesn’t have to be militant, subversive and illegal; Brighton Council (home of the UK’s recently elected first Green MP) commissioned artist Stig Evans to paint blue skies across the boarded-up windows of a derelict pub in one of Brighton’s most rundown estates. Since then, residents claim there’s been a marked decrease in problem behaviour there.
In London, artists Fugitive Images were concerned with the lack of identity which residents of their soon-to-be-demolished council estate had, amongst faceless new builds and endless property developments. So they put up life-size pictures of residents on the windows, allowing the personality of their community to breathe life into their ‘hood.
Look at these interventions as graffiti for the 21st century; signposts to a way of life which is richer with meaning, looking to enhance the quality of our lives and make us feel happier about the places we inhabit. Seed the future; paint the sky; reclaim the streets. Make them yours. It could be through poetry, guerrilla gardening, bike rides or many of the other ways we’ve documented on VivaCity. Together, like slacktivist guerillas in the midst, we can resist the grizzly grist of the corporate fist…
Let’s roll
By Julian Broadhead
At VivaCity, we are all for people getting out and about under their own steam. Not only is it healthier, you learn so much more about the city when you are the one in control.
When we think of such self-powered forms of transport, cycling’s high profile nature means it automatically springs to mind. It however, is not the only gig in town and just a little scratch of the surface reveals scenes so big that you wonder how you ever missed them.
Primary amongst these, is skating. Whether this conjures up ideas of 70s roller or 90s inline, skating is big, still very much current and a great way to get around without the need to find somewhere to park or lockup.
If you haven’t had wheels on your feet for some time though and the prospect of taking to public highways fills you with dread, fear not because public recreational spaces provide ideal areas in which to hone your skills. Those of you in London are particularly spoilt with Hyde Park being something of a focal point for all involved and providing the starting point for longer, marshalled skating tours around the city, taking place on Wednesday nights, Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. And for all kinds of useful information about skating around the UK (…there are people who will do this!) check out the Serpentine Road forum. So, once you’ve mastered the basics, there’s no lack of opportunity to get out and put them to the test in safe and friendly environments.
Summer brings longer nights and better weather providing a great opportunity to get out and give it a try, that is unless you wish to confine your skating memories to that wonderful night, under the shimmering lights of a roller disco glitter ball…
Power to the pedal
By Shane Solanki
Last week a bunch of folk landed at Southampton docks, having travelled on a boat which left New York five days earlier, to launch the Pleasant Revolution Bicycle Music Festival Tour - a 5,000 mile musical road show, by bicycle!
Over the next two months, they’ll cycle to events across Europe with their pedal powered 1,200 watt PA system, carried by specially modified bikes called Xtracycles.
Like Christopher Columbus back-pedalling in reverse gear, Europe is simply the next leg of their conquests; in 2007, the Ginger Ninjas (one of the bands that has travelled overseas with the Bicycle Music Festival) became the first band in the history of rock and roll to tour the USA by bicycle, unsupported by automobile.
Passing through the UK, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, France, Spain and Portugal, they’re on a mission to lighten up the view of a sustainable lifestyle; for them, it’s a pleasant revolution. Check out their European itinerary here
They also encourage you to start your own festival
Meanwhile, the 4th Annual San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival will hit the road on Saturday June 19th.
The mission of the Bicycle Music Festival is to promote sustainable culture in general and bicycle culture in particular, by physically engaging and immersing communities in the magic of bike culture, and cultivating and nurturing a network of local sustainable musicians, through the staging of free, community participatory, bicycle-based music events.
We at VivaCity just love how the Bicycle Music Festival changes the humble push bike from a vehicle to take you somewhere, to a vehicle to deliver an ingenious mixture of culture and positive environmental action.
A troll in the park
By Dagmar Hoogland
Computer games and couches, they seem to destined for each other (like football and beer or a soap series and a box of tissues). Not anymore though.
There is a new app on the market that actually gets you out of the house and into the nearest park to go… hunting for trolls, fairies and dragons. Really. It’s called the Hidden Park and it’s developed with the outdoors in mind..
The Hidden Park is an alternative reality game (ARG) where various functions on an iphone like the camera, GPS and compass are used to create a game in the real world. It translates your surroundings into a fantasy world full of magical creatures with whom you can interact via your phone. Here’s how it works.
Right now, The Hidden Park is already available at city parks in New York, Sydney, London, Portland, Toronto and Tokyo and the idea is to keep on growing. You can vote for your neighborhood to become the next hidden park or you can build your own Hidden Park adventure game in your local park and share it with friends in your neighborhood. You can even publish it for the rest of the world to see.
So next time you find yourself dozing off next to your junior who’s eyes are stuck on that big screen watching Toy Story 2, 3 or 4, remember there’s magic out there!
The road less travelled
By Shane Solanki
Following on from our last post on the frontline of couchsurfing, we’d like to put forward the theory that disappearing off on a plane-free adventure is much easier than we are led to believe.
All over the world, dudes and dudettes are strapping their belongings to their back and choosing the path less travelled. Take Nancy Shepherd, who says, “I wanted to celebrate my fiftieth birthday with something big. I thought I would either ride my bike across the country or get a boob job. It was a tough decision.”
What does it take to forgo the fast-food convenience of intercontinental flights? You’ve got to travel lightly, and slowly. You also get to engage with so many more places and people, rather than just flying over their heads whilst being forcefed airplane food and the latest Hollywood dream.
British up-and-coming rapper Dizraeli recently received the offer of a gig in Cairo. One slight problem; he had vowed never to fly again. He decided to stick to his principles and go overland. Crossing borders and barriers, Dizraeli broadcasted his journey to the world at unplaned.com. He’s full of good advice as to how you can do the same and make an overland journey yourself.
Artist and ex Talking Head David Byrne has explored cities around the world on his foldable bike, and documented his travels for your perusal.
So activate your own inner Kerouac and hit the road, Jack. Tell your story through Facebook, Twitter and blogs, updating your peeps via your iPhone. Bikes and trains are much more romantic and reliable… feel free to tell us about how you’ve explored the road less travelled!
Sofa so good
By Andy Marks
What’s your sofa like? Is it wide and spacious, and firm enough to offer a good night’s sleep? Have you ever dozed off safe in the knowledge that long spells aboard your sofa are a decent alternative to your bed? If you answer yes, then you could make a great host.
Do you love travel, but find staying in hotels too expensive and more importantly too disconnected from the people and the cultures of the place you are visiting? If you answer yes, then you sound like an ideal surfer.
We are talking CouchSurfing, an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the globe.
It is a beautifully simple idea. People offer their sofa to travelers, with some planning and vetting beforehand to try and get a degree of compatibility and hopefully make everyone’s experience as good as possible. The people who set up CouchSurfing realise the connections and bonds you make, either as guest or host, increase the number of interesting people and possibilities in your life allowing you to learn about other cultures and perspectives. And bringing down the cost of travel allows more rich connections to be made.
With nearly 2 million successful surfs or host experiences in thousands of cities around the world, it is considerably more than a directory, as one of the seasoned surfers testifies “CouchSurfing is the best thing to happen to travel since the airplane. I’ve stayed in well over 100 homes of complete strangers through this site and have had the time of my life.”
So pick a city, pack your bags, and ride the wave.
Bomb tha hood
By Dagmar Hoogland
Spring is that time of the year when there is a certain excitement in the air.
Nature is waking up and you can almost feel the burst of energy of things that are about to pop open. You may not always be so in tune with the rhythm of our planet, being busy with everyday life, but there is always that moment waiting for a bus or picking up a paper in the morning that you notice something good is about to happen. Now, groups of people have picked up on an idea to become part of the thrill of Spring by creating something called seed bombs.
The idea isn’t new. In 1973 Liz Christy created seed grenades when she started the “Green Guerrillas”. The first seed grenades were made from condoms filled with local wildflower seeds, water and fertilizer. They were tossed over fences onto empty lots in New York City in order to make the neighborhoods look better. In the last couple of years, seed bombs have become an increasingly popular means of combating the many forgotten grey spaces we encounter everyday, from sidewalk cracks to vacant lots and parking medians.
As well as organising routes around town which you can “bomb” together, Vanessa Harden has some fantastic methods of bombing.
There are several tutorial videos spread around on how to make one yourself. But if you don’t like to get your hands dirty, seed bombs are for sale. They come in all sorts and shapes; as balls, balloons, pills and at Kabloom Seed Bombs you can buy seed bombs in the shape of hand grenades in a colorful packet of 6. And you can follow them on Facebook.
At the common studio, Daniel Philips and Kim Karlsrud even came up with a seed bomb vending machine called The Greenaid Dispensary, creating a free-standing, coin-operated device to purchase your own bomb.
Seed bombs are easy to make (or buy), fun to plant and will make you go that extra block around the neighborhood to watch your bomb explode into a colourful patch. So, go and throw your bit of spring!
