''By being out of place, by doing private things in
public space, homeless people threaten not just the space itself, but also the very ideals
upon which we have constructed our rather fragile notions of legitimate citizenship.
Homeless people scare us: they threaten the ideological construction which declares
that publicity – and action in public space – must be voluntary.''
(mitchell, p.16)
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
SOLUTIONS?
Now one question we face as a society – a broad question of justice and social policy –
is whether we are willing to tolerate an economic system in which large numbers of
people are homeless. Since the answer is evidently, “Yes,” the question that remains is
whether we are willing to allow those who are in this predicament to act as free agents,
looking after their own needs, in public places – the only space available to them. It is a
deeply frightening fact about the modern United States that those who have homes and
jobs are willing to answer “Yes” to the first question and “No” to the second (Waldron,
1991:304).
is whether we are willing to tolerate an economic system in which large numbers of
people are homeless. Since the answer is evidently, “Yes,” the question that remains is
whether we are willing to allow those who are in this predicament to act as free agents,
looking after their own needs, in public places – the only space available to them. It is a
deeply frightening fact about the modern United States that those who have homes and
jobs are willing to answer “Yes” to the first question and “No” to the second (Waldron,
1991:304).
from D. Mitchel annihilatin of space laws
''As Lipietz (1986:19) argues, a “regime of accumulation” materializes in “the form of norms, habits, laws, regulating networks, and so on that ensure the unity of the process, i.e. the appropriate consistency of individual behaviours with the schema of reproduction;”
and as Harvey (1989:122) further comments, such talk of regulation “focuses
our attention on the complex interrelations, habits, political practices, and cultural forms that allow a highly dynamic, and consequently unstable, capitalist system to acquire a sufficient semblance of order to function coherently at least for a certainperiod of time.”
Hence cities are grappling with two, perhaps contradictory, processes.
On the one hand they must seek to attract capital seemingly unfettered by the sorts of locational determinants important during the era when fordism was under construction. That is, they must make themselves attractive to capital – large and small – that can often choose to locate there or not.'"
If a built environment possesses use value to homeless people (for sleeping, for bathing, for panhandling), but that use threatens what exchange value may still exist, or may be created, then these use values must be shed..... '
That is, through these laws and other means, cities seek to use a seemingly stable, ordered urban landscape as a positive inducement to continued investment and to maintain the viability of current investment in core areas (by showing merchants, for example, that they are doing something to keep shoppers coming downtown)...
interesting to think of destabilising activities... things that are feared to bring the exchange value down... or unpredictable ones like creative acts that come to be lauded (e.g. in the case of graffiti becoming art, such as Banksy, nb previous dissertation).... other destabilising activity - occupy amsterdam... how is this managed?
and as Harvey (1989:122) further comments, such talk of regulation “focuses
our attention on the complex interrelations, habits, political practices, and cultural forms that allow a highly dynamic, and consequently unstable, capitalist system to acquire a sufficient semblance of order to function coherently at least for a certainperiod of time.”
Hence cities are grappling with two, perhaps contradictory, processes.
On the one hand they must seek to attract capital seemingly unfettered by the sorts of locational determinants important during the era when fordism was under construction. That is, they must make themselves attractive to capital – large and small – that can often choose to locate there or not.'"
If a built environment possesses use value to homeless people (for sleeping, for bathing, for panhandling), but that use threatens what exchange value may still exist, or may be created, then these use values must be shed..... '
That is, through these laws and other means, cities seek to use a seemingly stable, ordered urban landscape as a positive inducement to continued investment and to maintain the viability of current investment in core areas (by showing merchants, for example, that they are doing something to keep shoppers coming downtown)...
interesting to think of destabilising activities... things that are feared to bring the exchange value down... or unpredictable ones like creative acts that come to be lauded (e.g. in the case of graffiti becoming art, such as Banksy, nb previous dissertation).... other destabilising activity - occupy amsterdam... how is this managed?
eliminating the homeless
“One way of describing the plight of a homeless individual might be to say that there is no place governed by a private property rule where he is allowed to be” (Waldron, 1991:299).
What is emerging – and it is not just a matter of fantasy – is a state of affairs in which a million or more citizens have no place to perform elementary human activities like urinating, washing, sleeping, cooking, eating, and standing around. Legislators voted for by
people who own private places in which they can do these things are increasingly deciding to make public places available only for activities other than these primal human tasks. The streets and the subways, they say, are for commuting from home to office. They are not for sleeping; sleeping is what one does at home. The parks are for recreations like
walking and informal ball-games, things for which one’s own yard is a little too confined. Parks are not for cooking or urinating; again, these are things one does at home. Since the public and private are complementary, the activities performed in public are the complement
of those performed in private. This complementarity works fine for those who have the benefit of both sorts of places. However, it is disastrous for those who must live their whole lives on common land. If I am right about this, it is one of the most callous and tyrannical exercises of power in modern times by a (comparatively) rich and complacent
majority against a minority of their less fortunate fellow human beings (Waldron, 1991:301–2).
What is emerging – and it is not just a matter of fantasy – is a state of affairs in which a million or more citizens have no place to perform elementary human activities like urinating, washing, sleeping, cooking, eating, and standing around. Legislators voted for by
people who own private places in which they can do these things are increasingly deciding to make public places available only for activities other than these primal human tasks. The streets and the subways, they say, are for commuting from home to office. They are not for sleeping; sleeping is what one does at home. The parks are for recreations like
walking and informal ball-games, things for which one’s own yard is a little too confined. Parks are not for cooking or urinating; again, these are things one does at home. Since the public and private are complementary, the activities performed in public are the complement
of those performed in private. This complementarity works fine for those who have the benefit of both sorts of places. However, it is disastrous for those who must live their whole lives on common land. If I am right about this, it is one of the most callous and tyrannical exercises of power in modern times by a (comparatively) rich and complacent
majority against a minority of their less fortunate fellow human beings (Waldron, 1991:301–2).
what are the reasons for criminalising the homeless?
'"....reasons that revolve around insecurity in an unstable global
market and a rather truncated sense of aesthetics developed to support the pursuit of capital"' (D. Mitchell, p.9)
explore the relationship between aesthetics and economy
market and a rather truncated sense of aesthetics developed to support the pursuit of capital"' (D. Mitchell, p.9)
explore the relationship between aesthetics and economy
homelessness: annihilating space
No one is free to perform an action unless there is somewhere he is free to perform it. . . . One of the functions of property rules, particularly as far as land is concerned, is to provide a basis for determining who is allowed to be where (Waldron, 1991:296).
Waldron, J. (1991) Homelessness and the issue of freedom. UCLA Law Review 39:295–324.
Waldron, J. (1991) Homelessness and the issue of freedom. UCLA Law Review 39:295–324.
baudellaire's ''the eyes of the poor
"ah! you want to know why i hate you today. it will probably be less easy for you to understand than for me to explain it to you; you are, i think, the most perfect example of feminine impenetrability that can possibly be found.
"we had spent a long day together, and it had seemed to me short. we had promised one another that we would think the same thoughts and that our two souls should become one soul; a dream which is not original, after all, except that, dreamed by all men, it has been realised by none.
"in the evening you were a little tired, and you sat down outside a new cafe at the corner of a new boulevard, still littered with plaster and already displaying its unfinished splendours. the cafe glittered. (about 10 lines further detail the gaslights and the people around)...."a paradise for gluttons. "exactly opposite to us, in the roadway, stood a man of about forty years of age with a weary face and a greyish beard, holding a little boy by one hand and carrying on the other arm a little fellow too weak to walk. he was taking the nursemaid's place, and had brought his children out for a walk in the evening. all were in rags. the three faces were extrordinarily serious, and the 6 eyes stared fixedly at the new cafe with an equal admiration, differentiated in each according to age.
"the fatther's eyes said: "how beautiful it is! how beautiful it is! one would think that all the gold of the poor world had found its way to these walls" the boy's eyes said: how beautiful it is! how beautiful it is! but that is a house which only people who are not like us can enter". as for the little one's eyes, they were too fascinated to express anything but stupid and utter joy.
"song-writers say that pleasure ennobles the soul and softens the heart. the song was right that evening, so far as i was concerned. not only was i touched by this family of eyes, but i felt rather ashamed of our glasses and decanters so much too much for our thirst. i turned to look at you, dear love, that i might read my own thought in you; i gazed deep into your eyes, so beautiful and so strangely sweet, your green eyes that are the home of caprice and under the sovreignty of the Moon; and you said to me: "those people are insupportable to me with their staring saucer-eyes! couldn't you tell the head waiter to send them away?
"so hard it is to understand one another, dearest, and so incommunicable is thought, even between people who are in love!"
"we had spent a long day together, and it had seemed to me short. we had promised one another that we would think the same thoughts and that our two souls should become one soul; a dream which is not original, after all, except that, dreamed by all men, it has been realised by none.
"in the evening you were a little tired, and you sat down outside a new cafe at the corner of a new boulevard, still littered with plaster and already displaying its unfinished splendours. the cafe glittered. (about 10 lines further detail the gaslights and the people around)...."a paradise for gluttons. "exactly opposite to us, in the roadway, stood a man of about forty years of age with a weary face and a greyish beard, holding a little boy by one hand and carrying on the other arm a little fellow too weak to walk. he was taking the nursemaid's place, and had brought his children out for a walk in the evening. all were in rags. the three faces were extrordinarily serious, and the 6 eyes stared fixedly at the new cafe with an equal admiration, differentiated in each according to age.
"the fatther's eyes said: "how beautiful it is! how beautiful it is! one would think that all the gold of the poor world had found its way to these walls" the boy's eyes said: how beautiful it is! how beautiful it is! but that is a house which only people who are not like us can enter". as for the little one's eyes, they were too fascinated to express anything but stupid and utter joy.
"song-writers say that pleasure ennobles the soul and softens the heart. the song was right that evening, so far as i was concerned. not only was i touched by this family of eyes, but i felt rather ashamed of our glasses and decanters so much too much for our thirst. i turned to look at you, dear love, that i might read my own thought in you; i gazed deep into your eyes, so beautiful and so strangely sweet, your green eyes that are the home of caprice and under the sovreignty of the Moon; and you said to me: "those people are insupportable to me with their staring saucer-eyes! couldn't you tell the head waiter to send them away?
"so hard it is to understand one another, dearest, and so incommunicable is thought, even between people who are in love!"
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Sunday, 9 January 2011
too zero one won!
2011: reading list
mario vargos llosa - 'the notebooks of don rigoberto'
i loved this book. my notes were as follows:
erotic cat fantasy, skin dipped in honey crawling with kittens licking with rough tongue files. the stepson obsessed with egon schiele: his models; their poses; his ladder; his mirror; his dislike of his thumbs.
an amazing form of storytelling! provoked by a dream, a theme, a character, a reference, don rigoberto's wife lucrecia would recount a story, of fantasies and sexual encounters.. erotic and filled with quotes from his notebook, historical and magical characters alongside whom he is transported, into his wife's tales, into his own fantasies..
in reading this i found that a night's entertainment can very well be a book. pages post tea time, before bedtime, interspersed with bath time. in the mornings i think about the dreams i had. at night i can read.
Films
have just seen danny boyle's 127 hours at the cinema.
i liked: the canyons
the style: jumpy. feels like a number over 2000.
the drama made me cry, for 3 seconds, without my knowing
altogether more bizarre than seeing a man cut off his own arm with a pen knife, was burlesque. it was amusing to imagine the cast were all smoking crack throughout filming. particularly the scene where cher, upon returning from a meeting with her bank manager, spends what feels like a lifetime trying to articulate the word for 'name plate'.
'he spent the whole time playing with that little thing.. you know that little thing.. the thing on the desk.. the long thing on the desk, wooden...' 'name plate?' 'yeah.. name plate'
(would like to see this remade with jackie stallone.)
mario vargos llosa - 'the notebooks of don rigoberto'
i loved this book. my notes were as follows:
erotic cat fantasy, skin dipped in honey crawling with kittens licking with rough tongue files. the stepson obsessed with egon schiele: his models; their poses; his ladder; his mirror; his dislike of his thumbs.
an amazing form of storytelling! provoked by a dream, a theme, a character, a reference, don rigoberto's wife lucrecia would recount a story, of fantasies and sexual encounters.. erotic and filled with quotes from his notebook, historical and magical characters alongside whom he is transported, into his wife's tales, into his own fantasies..
in reading this i found that a night's entertainment can very well be a book. pages post tea time, before bedtime, interspersed with bath time. in the mornings i think about the dreams i had. at night i can read.
Films
have just seen danny boyle's 127 hours at the cinema.
i liked: the canyons
the style: jumpy. feels like a number over 2000.
the drama made me cry, for 3 seconds, without my knowing
altogether more bizarre than seeing a man cut off his own arm with a pen knife, was burlesque. it was amusing to imagine the cast were all smoking crack throughout filming. particularly the scene where cher, upon returning from a meeting with her bank manager, spends what feels like a lifetime trying to articulate the word for 'name plate'.
'he spent the whole time playing with that little thing.. you know that little thing.. the thing on the desk.. the long thing on the desk, wooden...' 'name plate?' 'yeah.. name plate'
(would like to see this remade with jackie stallone.)
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
at home
this morning my phone rang and i woke up while i dreamt i was on the apprentice, working for lord sugar, developing a shaving razor. i was project manager and had just arrived at the scene of the shoot for the advert we were making. i watched on the test screen as the actor (who looked to be made out of playmobil) stroked his cheek, 'ooh smooth like heaven'. i say "i did not give the green light on the use of that phrase", i swish my coat and turn towards lord sugar. he says that the next point we are to consider is advertising - 'now, think about it carefully' he says. 'TOP GEAR.... we'll advertise on top gear' i say, and i know that i have cracked it. i've done it, i've got the golden ticket, i am Stella.
i answer my phone, it's 9am. i awake straight into an interview for a job as a recruitment consultant. i have actually already been interviewed by this man about eight months ago. that time i didn't get beyond, 'so tell me what makes you want to get into recruitment', i said that i didn't want to, that i didn't know anything about it, and that the idea of working in sales made me want to cry even though i didn't know what it was. i still feel vaguely the same. i would like to have gargled my answers RECRUITMENT CONSULTBLEEEEEH! but my dream had made me think that perhaps i was the apprentice. i brushed the crumbs of my bedclothes and thought, what would stella do.
deeply immature but keeps having deja vu, which makes me think - older than i am? i have just made christmas biscuits. last night i watched the elephant man. i can see over five different types of bird from my window. does the blue tit wish he had a hat. integrity? where is my integrity. where are my sequinned pants. where is my storyboard. where's my silky tights.
a bizarre creative malaise. x
i answer my phone, it's 9am. i awake straight into an interview for a job as a recruitment consultant. i have actually already been interviewed by this man about eight months ago. that time i didn't get beyond, 'so tell me what makes you want to get into recruitment', i said that i didn't want to, that i didn't know anything about it, and that the idea of working in sales made me want to cry even though i didn't know what it was. i still feel vaguely the same. i would like to have gargled my answers RECRUITMENT CONSULTBLEEEEEH! but my dream had made me think that perhaps i was the apprentice. i brushed the crumbs of my bedclothes and thought, what would stella do.
deeply immature but keeps having deja vu, which makes me think - older than i am? i have just made christmas biscuits. last night i watched the elephant man. i can see over five different types of bird from my window. does the blue tit wish he had a hat. integrity? where is my integrity. where are my sequinned pants. where is my storyboard. where's my silky tights.
a bizarre creative malaise. x
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
MUSIC
a musical renaissance.
new discoveries;
MR MEEBLE 'until i grasp the second'
YES!! :-)
4 year old twin led gospel... triumphantly oddball!
Spike Jonze directed.... the pharcyde - the drop
new discoveries;
MR MEEBLE 'until i grasp the second'
YES!! :-)
4 year old twin led gospel... triumphantly oddball!
Spike Jonze directed.... the pharcyde - the drop
Thursday, 27 May 2010
ee cummings
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
POEMS
the charge of the light brigade
by lord alfred tennyson
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
by lord alfred tennyson
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Air Balloons
My pitch idea...
What makes things fly?
What is air?
What makes things burst?
The only interesting one to me is the first.
Levoisier and the hot air balloon
Bristol and the balloon festival
Pink piggy want to come and film it with me?
Secrets and things that never made the news
The woman who went round the world in record time.
Loneliness hits hard those who write but forget to.
Started reading War of the World today and bought a confederecy of dunces.
Watching Michael Mason's series about The Story of Science...
'How history made science and science made history'
Henig Berg the alchemist convinced his urine would make gold.
What makes things fly?
What is air?
What makes things burst?
The only interesting one to me is the first.
Levoisier and the hot air balloon
Bristol and the balloon festival
Pink piggy want to come and film it with me?
Secrets and things that never made the news
The woman who went round the world in record time.
Loneliness hits hard those who write but forget to.
Started reading War of the World today and bought a confederecy of dunces.
Watching Michael Mason's series about The Story of Science...
'How history made science and science made history'
Henig Berg the alchemist convinced his urine would make gold.
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
an experiment
i ate sushi, proper sushi, for the first time last night.
i watched the simpsons. i saw the clod ensemble in the pit of the old vic.
i saw a drag artist reveal her shoulders and squint with richard gere's eyes and speak with a new york drawl. in a darkened room she put her face in the square of light that the spot had cast on the floor and told us of every major injury she'd incurred - breaking both heels, smashing a fist, getting poked in the eye with a stick.
i am not coming home early this evening.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Recent sources
Brilliant.
Recent things I Have Seen:
- The insides of people's houses on the Montpelier Art trail
- Daddy Long Bones at the Attic supporting an all girl band from Oz who were dull & performed like Sims and made me feel like I was at a Sims rock concert. the camera angles of my eyes were also video simulation reminisces. daddy long bones i like a lot though! www.myspace.com/daddylongbones or something.
- DOGTOOTH at the cinema. good, dark, bold, imaginative! perfectly paced, poised and greek.
- a film about people who'd been struck by lightning.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Jim Henson's passing away. I am a big fan of the Muppet's, in particular the Great Muppet Caper..
- I went to London and saw:
a photography exhibition by Richard Billingham
he wasn't exhibiting this photo but i've had it on my wall before and just realised it's his. the photos he does now are less enclosed - lowrylandscapes, but also different types of encloseds, like zoo animals.
i hate the zoo by the way and i will not go.
-
an exhibition at the Tate Modern about Theo van Doesberg --- which I really liked. dada is an affirmation and negation. it is the bird with four legs, the ladder with no rungs, the square with no corners... to say that dada is of destruction misunderstands life, of which dada is the essence.
i particularly liked the video installation of the 'la ballet mechanique' by fernand leger made in 1924. total anarchy and early early days of the vj set.
i get excited by the dada thing.
- saw Bath. a beautiful city, green and caramelcoloured.
- Coco Rosie in concert! at the Trinity, which is an old church.
- Cocorosie cover of Turn Me On
they are beautiful, sexy and i wish more girls would sing about girls in this way.
- Tonight I am going to be seeing: Peggy Shaw and the Clod Ensemble: MUST
the clod ensemble
as part of Bristol MayFest....
I am also really enjoying Nicola Bernedetti, Mahler's Spiegel Im Spiegel and other classical musics...
Life affirming stuff ey.
Recent things I Have Seen:
- The insides of people's houses on the Montpelier Art trail
- Daddy Long Bones at the Attic supporting an all girl band from Oz who were dull & performed like Sims and made me feel like I was at a Sims rock concert. the camera angles of my eyes were also video simulation reminisces. daddy long bones i like a lot though! www.myspace.com/daddylongbones or something.
- DOGTOOTH at the cinema. good, dark, bold, imaginative! perfectly paced, poised and greek.
- a film about people who'd been struck by lightning.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Jim Henson's passing away. I am a big fan of the Muppet's, in particular the Great Muppet Caper..
- I went to London and saw:
a photography exhibition by Richard Billingham
he wasn't exhibiting this photo but i've had it on my wall before and just realised it's his. the photos he does now are less enclosed - lowrylandscapes, but also different types of encloseds, like zoo animals.
i hate the zoo by the way and i will not go.
-
an exhibition at the Tate Modern about Theo van Doesberg --- which I really liked. dada is an affirmation and negation. it is the bird with four legs, the ladder with no rungs, the square with no corners... to say that dada is of destruction misunderstands life, of which dada is the essence.
i particularly liked the video installation of the 'la ballet mechanique' by fernand leger made in 1924. total anarchy and early early days of the vj set.
i get excited by the dada thing.
- saw Bath. a beautiful city, green and caramelcoloured.
- Coco Rosie in concert! at the Trinity, which is an old church.
- Cocorosie cover of Turn Me On
they are beautiful, sexy and i wish more girls would sing about girls in this way.
- Tonight I am going to be seeing: Peggy Shaw and the Clod Ensemble: MUST
the clod ensemble
as part of Bristol MayFest....
I am also really enjoying Nicola Bernedetti, Mahler's Spiegel Im Spiegel and other classical musics...
Life affirming stuff ey.
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