Alternative Culture & Urban Space (video)

Here’s the video from the Budapest conference “Alternative Culture & Urban Space” which many of us attended. Lude made a great video presentation out of it. Now we all can enjoy the clear answer what the “Urban Studies” and “Alternative Culture” stand for. The only thing that I wish to be changed is writing Belarus instead of “Byelorussia” (the country that doesn’t exist anymore, at least officially).

Ben, c’etait un superb introduction au sujet!

more about "video Urban Space – budapest, hongrie…", posted with vodpod

Thank you Lude!

 

Urban Disaster: Minsk Sea-City

Today, July 24, 2009, due to the heavy rain, certain areas of Minsk (Niamiha, Kamarouka, vul. Jakuba Kolasa, andothers) got literally under water – blocking the city traffic and driving crazy car owners who happened to be seized by the flood. The event was a true sublime in its clash between the forces of nature and the civilization of the city. It was interesting to see how quickly citizens of Minsk started to post pictures of the flooding in different online communities and forums More pictures here:

 

Urbain Studies in Belarus: In Search of Belarusian Chamberlains

Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Mayor of Birmingham

Apart for the Center for Cultural Studies and it’s leader S. Hall, a British city Birmingham is known to Belarusian intellectual public for its prominent mayors -   Joseph Chamberlain (father) and (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (son) who, for some mysterious reason, became a source of inspiration for the participants (urban researchers) of the round-table which can be accessed (regretfully, in a mixture of Russian and Belarusian languages) here

Please, spread around a word about this ‘Chamberlains phenomenon’ in Belarusian urban studies

P.S. What’s the fame  and legacy of Chamberlains in his home country?

 

Vilnius: Culture as a Driving Force in City Development

Last week, on June 19, we’ve been fortunate enough to look, to listen and even to talk to the mayors of the European cities at the International Mayors Forum in Vilnius titled “Culture as s Driving Force in City Development’.

In a strange mixture of academics and urban bureaucrats, some of the Critical Urbanists  managed to pass across their message as to what a city could be without municipal authorities intervention in a city space.

Even though the translation into major languages was provided, i.e. Lithuanian, Russian, French, German, etc., still the translation from the academic language to the bureaucratic one was definitely missing.

Have a look here for the FORUM PROGRAMME

 

Minsk as European Capital of Culture

Hi all,

Find below the EHU students’ project on imagining Minsk as European Capital of Culture.

This is part of the course on critical urbanism taught by Ben and Siarhej at EHU.

Comments and questions are warmly welcome. For your convenience the file is also attached.

However, please, do not distribute the file without authors permission.

 

Urban Studies in Belarus: presentations & discussion

Hi there,

A rather unique event for Belarusian intellectual life: presentation of 5 editions devoted in different ways to urban studies related to Belarus and neighboring countries.The presentation is followed by an expert discussion on the state of Urban Studies in Belarus. Check out the detailed information – (запрашэнне_на_прэзентацыю_і_дыскусію) (приглашение_на_презентацию_и_дискуссию)

Books to be presented:

 

Vilnius, Music, and Optimism

В субботу 2 мая в столице Литовской республики состоялся традиционный ежегодный фестиваль уличной музыки. В рамках фестиваля в городе проходили выступления как профессиональных, так и любительских музыкальных коллективов из Литвы и других европейских стран. Фестиваль стал также частью программы культурного развития «Вильнюс — культурная столица Европы-2009», в котором литовская столица принимает участие наравне с австрийским городом Линц.

Фестиваль уличной музыки в Вильнюсе

 

Current projects: Street Blog (web_0)

In Vilnius, we have introduced a new interactive street element:
it’s a Street Blog, where every passer-by can leave a message,
“post” a picture or take part in discussions.

 

Street music videos from Budapest & our Youtube channel

The Lab has now its own youtube channel which can be accessed here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/criticalurbanism

where you can fine some of the videos on street musicians in Budapest. Among other musicians, you might enjoy listening to some of the critical urbanists you already know of. If you have more video to upload on this channel, leave your request in the comments and I will give you necessary access information. Best!

 

“V” for Virilio and Vodolazhskaya (Library updates)

Hi! We have two more book updates in the library. P. Virilo Speed and Politics is available in the electronic form. Also, nother interesting books about small towns in Belarus names Igra v Goroda (Playing the Cities) has been recently pulished by T. Vodolazhskaya.  I highly recommend you to have a look at this book!