NRC en de Soundtrack bij de Rellen

Gister (3mei) in het Cultureel Supplement ‘Kunst en politiek’ van het NRC Handelsblad en vandaag (4mei) in de NRC NEXT:  een twee pagina groot artikel van Bernard Hulsman over de tentoonstelling Design as Politics!

Het stuk gaat voornamelijk in op het verhaal achter de driedimensionale collages met als centraal thema de relatie tussen popmuziek en stadsrellen.  Van de punkband The EX tijdens de Amsterdamse krakersrellen via NWA’s Fuck the Police en de LA Riots naar Ill manors en de Britse rellen van vorig jaar. Interessant voor zowel de architecten als de muziekliefhebbers onder ons (liefst beide). Check it out!

Blame the Architect Assignment

Dear students from the Blame the Architect lecture series,

The submission deadline for your riot video has expired on the 15th of March. We look very much forward to enjoy your creations!  Below you find a list of student numbers from which we received a movie. Not on the list? Send an email to Marta Relats. We will grade you around the 30th of April.

Received video’s + grade:
1210696     7,5
1285343       7
1302693       9
1387324    6,5
1509934       6
1353063       7
1362178        8
1516981     7,5
4120590       6
4125622       6 

Lecture Series Video

Dear students of the Blame the Architect lecture series,
This is what you should do to get your grade.

Make a Youtube video of 5 to 10 minutes, describing an urban riot that could happen in a place you know. Incorporate the themes presented in the lecture series and project them on a fictional situation, giving special attention to the role of architecture and urban planning. Use images, texts, maps, diagrams, drawings, numbers or just use your hands. Be creative! Like the Danish.

If you need more inspiration click Here, Here, Here and Here. Still completely lost? Follow the Roadmap below:

1. Select a city you know well that holds the ingredients needed for an Urban riot
2. Describe the urban and political history of the city in so far relevant for the incidents
3. Describe the social, economic and political structure of the city relevant to the incidents
4. Imagine, describe and visualize a triggering event
5. Describe and visualize the ensuing riots
6. Describe the use of modern media
7. Describe the physical and social effects on the city
8. Imagine and visualize the role of popular culture
9. Imagine the possible role of architects before and after the riots
10. Use the story to demonstrate your opinion and analysis of the relationship between architecture and urban violence

Your deadline is March 15th and you can send the link of your video to M.RelatsTorante@tudelft.nl. Students who cannot make it can also contact Marta and make a personal arrangement. This can be done until one week before the deadline. As promised, we added some (strongly) recommended literature at the end of this page

Blame the Architect update

Tomorrow Tuesday 10th January, 10.45-12.45, Berlagezaal 1

Program:
“Racaille!” The Banlieue riots, France 2005 -part II
“Broken city” The 2011 UK riots
Conclusions
Assignment description

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

Dear students and other attendees of the Blame the Architect lecture series,

Unfortunately, the tuesday 20th December lecture is cancelled.

Next and last lecture Tuesday 10th January, 10.45-12.45, Berlagezaal 1

Program:

“Racaille!” The Banlieue riots, France 2005 -part II

“Broken city” The 2011 UK riots

Conclusions 

Assignment description

Happy holidays and see you all in 2012!

More background stuff on riots – this week we speak French. It’s  October 2005, when suddenly a wave of violence and unrest sweeps the modernist suburbs of France. A story of two boys, a tragic accident, thousands of burning cars and a hardline politician who would become president very soon. Two movies, two articles, and some music this week.

The very first thing you should do is watch La Haine: a moving, amazing, and apparently extremely realistic depiction of life in France’s ghetto’s. Nice soundtrack, too. The movie can be watched on YouTube – in non-subtitled ghetto-French, which supposedly is quite hard to understand even for French people. If you like your French movies a bit more disturbing, try this: Themroc.

The riots themselves, then. The fact that all of the unrest occured only in modernist suburbs makes for an interesting debate on the relationship between architectural style and anti-social behaviour: both Christopher Caldwell and John Lichfield wrote about this, in the NY Times and The Independent respectively.

Lastly, the extremely culturally diverse banlieues have produced some of the world’s best hip hop. It’s the language. It’s so beautiful.

Note for those who want to attend the lecture tomorrow: it will be held at 10:45, in lecture hall C!

It’s procrastinate-o-clock again! This time, the most glamorous riot of them all: the Rodney King riots. Los Angeles, 1992. Lots of anger. Lots of guns. Lots of helicopters and cameras. And gangster rap.

Ah, Los Angeles. Design as Politics loves it, admittedly because Reyner Banham does too. His book about the city is amazing, but this is even better: watching Banham himself cruise through town for about an hour is indeed an hour well spent. But that’s enough reality for now: more than anything Los Angeles is a place of myth and media and fiction. The city of course stars in about half a million movies – this one is great because it has Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and lots of violence. Else, try Blade Runner. Interestingly, Hollywood has also produced quite a few movies in which Los Angeles gets destroyed completely.

Then, the riots. This is what started it. Then this happened – for about a week. Naturally, there is an incredible amount of footage from the riots: do pay attention to the awesomeness of 90′s fashion and hair styles. Only in LA do looters care about their appearance. Also, this oddity of a documentary is an interesting watch if you can sit through the horrific starting credits.

Lastly, there is music. Lots of it. And a white, British reporter talking about LA’s gang culture in 2008.

Note for those who want to attend the lecture: tomorrow’s and next week’s lecture will be held at 10:45, in lecture hall C!

Yes! Another lecture! And more tips on how to waste time on the youtubes! This week: the 1985 Broadwater Farm riot in London. Extra interesting because of the recent London riots – about which much, much more very soon. For now, lots of grainy VHS-format fun below.

The first half of the 80′s were somewhat of a riotous period in the UK: the Broadwater Farm incidents were part of a larger series of uprisings. See for instance John Akomfrah’s Handsworth Songs (part 1,2,3,4), documenting racial tensions leading up to a series of riots in Handsworth, Birmingham (Wouter Vanstiphout’s favourite reggae band published an album about Handsworth, by the way). Also, Tom Cordell made a beautiful documentary on London and its planning history, but it is rather hard to find – here’s the trailer. For even more on London’s cityscape, we kindly refer you to Johnny Rotten.

But in Broadwater Farm, a police officer was murdered by the mob – something that hadn’t happened in more than a century. Everybody’s favourite documentary manufacturer – the BBC – reconstructed the how, where and who (or, in this case, who not) twice: click here and here (watchable in the UK only, unfortunately). Also, Broadwater Farm itself also has a devoted reggae track from the 80′s – and a number of, ehm, more contemporary beat poets, too. For more on the estate itself, see the BF Community Centre website.

For a comparison between 1985 and 2011, see this article in the Telegraph.

Picture by Cromacom

This post accompanies part two of the Blame the Architect lecture series. This week we’ll discuss the 1967 Race Riots in Detroit; extra material for those who are interested or otherwise unoccupied can be found below.

Firstly, please watch this before you do anything else Detroit-related: it’s made by Julien Temple and it’s an absolutely brilliant (8.0 says IMDB)  portrait of present-day Detroit. Yes, that’s a dodgy looking Russian website we refer you to, but unfortunately the documentary is pretty hard to find (or buy, for that matter). For those who like their documentaries sponsored by a shoe brand and featuring celebrities-through-self-mutilation, Palladium had Johnny Knoxville walk around some ruins actually make a very interesting portrait of the city. And this looks interesting too.

Then there is this gem of public broadcasting: Detroit on the Move has mayor Jerome Cavanagh paint a bright and prosperous future for the city of Detroit, just two years before the riots would tear the city apart.

On a lighter note though, besides urban decline and violence Detroit also means cars and music of course. And more music. And even more music. And some more cars (caution: Australian accents). O, and great songs too. The Supremes were born here, by the way –  and Eddie Murphy’s claymation series the PJ’s was set there as well.

The coming months, we will be posting links to movies, writings and/or obscure websites that are (at least vaguely) related to that week’s Blame the Architect lecture subject (see post below for the program) – a lecture appendix so to speak.

Since this week’s lecture is a general introduction to the theme of the series and the course assignment, here is some stuff on riots in general (part one and two). As for the assignment: enrolled students are asked to make a short, YouTube-uploadable video documenting their own fictional riot. Time to dive into the world of amateur directors, gonzo journalism and people who are too lazy to hold their cell phone properly while filming street fights and car accidents.

Firstly, this is both great and riot related – as far as can be judged from fast-forwarding through it. Looks like a lot of work, though. So does the augmented-reality-niftyness you have all seen Bjarke Ingels pull off. Powerpoint-cum-voiceover seems much easier.

In terms of message delivery, check this ad for British new town Milton Keynes, or this one Stephen Colbert recently aired in Iowa (no architecture but lots of political satire, which also counts). Naturally, cartoons also work.

But if all else fails, you can always (de)construct your riot using 2011′s most popular modeling software.