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Public space and public debate
Public space and public debate
by Anthony McInneny
A kilometre down the Yarra River from Speakers Corner, in the undercroft of Hamer Hall, Architects for Peace claimed public space for a conference, installation and performance program about the city, identity, conflict, democracy and peace. With no finance, a mountain of energy and the generosity of speakers artists and performers we endeavoured to present a new form of engagement with the city by, for and of its citizens. IntentCity took place in November last year.
Unlike industry and sector conferences, IntentCity was free. The quality, breadth and depth of this engagement were equal to any. The other distinguishing feature of IntentCity was that organisers, speakers and artists alike were united in a belief that the war in Iraq and Australias involvement was unjust and unjustifiable.
In the tradition of Speakers Corner and Melbournes history as a political and democratic city, IntentCity was consciously staged in an open and accessible public space to engage both those within the professions of the built environment and the general public. The notion of a democratic city was put to the test and into practice as vast array of speakers, practitioners and artists from all facets of the built environment presented controversial, provocative and engaging papers, exhibits and performances.
Underpinning IntentCity is a fundamental belief that the city and urban environment is created through citizens active participation in its making and use or an abdication of this responsibility, right and privilege.
Melbourne has undergone massive changes in its social, environmental and built form. The creation of Birrarung Mar as the first public park to be created in Melbourne in over 100 years and the debate around both the Docklands and Federation Square as public spaces form a backdrop to the broader local, national and international topics addressed through IntentCity.
Attendees and the public were treated to a journey of civic engagement, from the personal to the collective, from the neighbourhood to the other side of the globe and back. Public health, identity and expression in inner city communities was narrated as a dialogue between Dr Kit Lazaroo and Liz Coleman.
Mark Purcell from Oxfam Australia drew the threads that bind the development and restoration of civic infrastructure in Timor Leste through the Timor Gap Treaty and Australias historical amnesia and paucity of imagination and generosity. The memory of cities that remain after destruction through man made and natural disaster and the reconstruction of civility in these urban spaces was traced by both Dr Darko Radovic and Beatriz Maturana who spoke of Mostar in the former Yugoslavia and Managua Nicaragua respectively.
Geoff Hogg followed the path of a practice in public art works that spans Siel in Turkey, Xian Yang in China to arrive in West Meadows in the north east of outer metropolitan Melbourne. Mick Pearce drew analogy and structural inspiration from spiders that breath under water, termites and the thermal qualities of the site of IntentCity to demonstrate the principles of environmentally sustainable design for multi storey buildings in city centres. Su Mellersh-Lucas asked us to consider the ethical application of sustainability principles to professional practice while, in this so called Aged of Terrorism, Anoma Pieris challenged our understanding of terrorism, women and political struggle.
The international implication of the way we live is rarely brought into focus much less placed at the centre of our daily lives, cities or in the middle of our leisurely weekend. At the centre of a city in a country engaged in an unjust war, the task of bringing this home was made all the more necessary and challenging through IntentCity.
In a city like Melbourne, where conflict and catastrophe is virtually unknown, the tranquil banks of the Yarra River provided the canvas for a range of temporary public artworks, spontaneous constructions and posters demonstrating the social and ethical responsibility and relevance of the visual arts. Rae Eastons work explored multiculturalism and its manifold implications. 100 houses, a collaborative installation by Shelley Freeman and Melissa Bright recycled the mechanisms of recycling and brought the propagation of clippings from one hundred households in St Kilda to central Melbourne. Ceri Han, Gita Sivagnanan and Imm C. Chew assisted Paul Irving in the construction of gigantic, organic weavings to be hung like crustaceans from the Victorian Arts Centre and wheeled up Swanston Street. Posters and Graphic Designs for Amnesty International from Roger Dunstans Graphic Design course at the University of Newcastle adorned temporary structures in the promenade between boathouses and the South Bank precinct with the idea of social conscious design.
What is a City without music and dance? Tango, the dance born in the streets of Buenos Aires was displayed in the spring afternoon of Melbourne. Martin and Jose Taliana performed the scandalous, sensuous and beautiful moves of an artform that rose from the brothels to the high society of Argentina and most of 20th Century Europe. Ken Murray, whose interest and promotion of both Australian guitar music and Australian guitars generously offered to tailor his performance to demonstrate his other passion through the music of Latin American composer as a complimentary body of works.
Spoken word and multi media works allowed us to pause in the day for a point of reflection. Ali Alizedah's poem Your Monster read by Toby Heydon, expressed from the receiving end, the ignorance and arrogance of Australian society of other cultures and our incomprehensible need to project our fears and create the Other as scapegoat. The un-sponsored reconstruction of an urban public space in Barcelona needed no sub titles as the poetry of ownership and creativity filling a discarded void were documented in the short film Forat de La Verganya (Hole of Shame) by Robert Iolini.
Just for a moment on one day in November the joggers and cyclist, pedestrians, families and citizens strolling along South Bank were asked What is our responsibility as citizen of a city? IntentCity provided the opportunity to explore this question and provide, if not answers to the many facets of this question, a forum through which we can, as active participants in our city, reclaim our right and responsibility to influence the shape that this city will have and the collective memory it harbours.
Architects for Peace is embarking on a second conference for 2005. Under Construction is framed around the question of engagement in the reconstruction and development of the urban environment in the developing world by professionals of the built environment in Australia.
Anthony McInneny is a Cultural Development Officer with local government, also an artist who works in the fields of large scale public art commissions. Recently he has been appointed as a member of the City of Melbourne Public Art advisory committee.
afp@architectsforpeace.org
http://www.architectsforpeace.org
This article has also been published at Arts Hub: http://www.artshub.com.au/ahau1/news/news.asp?Id=75092
by Anthony McInneny
A kilometre down the Yarra River from Speakers Corner, in the undercroft of Hamer Hall, Architects for Peace claimed public space for a conference, installation and performance program about the city, identity, conflict, democracy and peace. With no finance, a mountain of energy and the generosity of speakers artists and performers we endeavoured to present a new form of engagement with the city by, for and of its citizens. IntentCity took place in November last year.
Unlike industry and sector conferences, IntentCity was free. The quality, breadth and depth of this engagement were equal to any. The other distinguishing feature of IntentCity was that organisers, speakers and artists alike were united in a belief that the war in Iraq and Australias involvement was unjust and unjustifiable.
In the tradition of Speakers Corner and Melbournes history as a political and democratic city, IntentCity was consciously staged in an open and accessible public space to engage both those within the professions of the built environment and the general public. The notion of a democratic city was put to the test and into practice as vast array of speakers, practitioners and artists from all facets of the built environment presented controversial, provocative and engaging papers, exhibits and performances.
Underpinning IntentCity is a fundamental belief that the city and urban environment is created through citizens active participation in its making and use or an abdication of this responsibility, right and privilege.
Melbourne has undergone massive changes in its social, environmental and built form. The creation of Birrarung Mar as the first public park to be created in Melbourne in over 100 years and the debate around both the Docklands and Federation Square as public spaces form a backdrop to the broader local, national and international topics addressed through IntentCity.
Attendees and the public were treated to a journey of civic engagement, from the personal to the collective, from the neighbourhood to the other side of the globe and back. Public health, identity and expression in inner city communities was narrated as a dialogue between Dr Kit Lazaroo and Liz Coleman.
Mark Purcell from Oxfam Australia drew the threads that bind the development and restoration of civic infrastructure in Timor Leste through the Timor Gap Treaty and Australias historical amnesia and paucity of imagination and generosity. The memory of cities that remain after destruction through man made and natural disaster and the reconstruction of civility in these urban spaces was traced by both Dr Darko Radovic and Beatriz Maturana who spoke of Mostar in the former Yugoslavia and Managua Nicaragua respectively.
Geoff Hogg followed the path of a practice in public art works that spans Siel in Turkey, Xian Yang in China to arrive in West Meadows in the north east of outer metropolitan Melbourne. Mick Pearce drew analogy and structural inspiration from spiders that breath under water, termites and the thermal qualities of the site of IntentCity to demonstrate the principles of environmentally sustainable design for multi storey buildings in city centres. Su Mellersh-Lucas asked us to consider the ethical application of sustainability principles to professional practice while, in this so called Aged of Terrorism, Anoma Pieris challenged our understanding of terrorism, women and political struggle.
The international implication of the way we live is rarely brought into focus much less placed at the centre of our daily lives, cities or in the middle of our leisurely weekend. At the centre of a city in a country engaged in an unjust war, the task of bringing this home was made all the more necessary and challenging through IntentCity.
In a city like Melbourne, where conflict and catastrophe is virtually unknown, the tranquil banks of the Yarra River provided the canvas for a range of temporary public artworks, spontaneous constructions and posters demonstrating the social and ethical responsibility and relevance of the visual arts. Rae Eastons work explored multiculturalism and its manifold implications. 100 houses, a collaborative installation by Shelley Freeman and Melissa Bright recycled the mechanisms of recycling and brought the propagation of clippings from one hundred households in St Kilda to central Melbourne. Ceri Han, Gita Sivagnanan and Imm C. Chew assisted Paul Irving in the construction of gigantic, organic weavings to be hung like crustaceans from the Victorian Arts Centre and wheeled up Swanston Street. Posters and Graphic Designs for Amnesty International from Roger Dunstans Graphic Design course at the University of Newcastle adorned temporary structures in the promenade between boathouses and the South Bank precinct with the idea of social conscious design.
What is a City without music and dance? Tango, the dance born in the streets of Buenos Aires was displayed in the spring afternoon of Melbourne. Martin and Jose Taliana performed the scandalous, sensuous and beautiful moves of an artform that rose from the brothels to the high society of Argentina and most of 20th Century Europe. Ken Murray, whose interest and promotion of both Australian guitar music and Australian guitars generously offered to tailor his performance to demonstrate his other passion through the music of Latin American composer as a complimentary body of works.
Spoken word and multi media works allowed us to pause in the day for a point of reflection. Ali Alizedah's poem Your Monster read by Toby Heydon, expressed from the receiving end, the ignorance and arrogance of Australian society of other cultures and our incomprehensible need to project our fears and create the Other as scapegoat. The un-sponsored reconstruction of an urban public space in Barcelona needed no sub titles as the poetry of ownership and creativity filling a discarded void were documented in the short film Forat de La Verganya (Hole of Shame) by Robert Iolini.
Just for a moment on one day in November the joggers and cyclist, pedestrians, families and citizens strolling along South Bank were asked What is our responsibility as citizen of a city? IntentCity provided the opportunity to explore this question and provide, if not answers to the many facets of this question, a forum through which we can, as active participants in our city, reclaim our right and responsibility to influence the shape that this city will have and the collective memory it harbours.
Architects for Peace is embarking on a second conference for 2005. Under Construction is framed around the question of engagement in the reconstruction and development of the urban environment in the developing world by professionals of the built environment in Australia.
Anthony McInneny is a Cultural Development Officer with local government, also an artist who works in the fields of large scale public art commissions. Recently he has been appointed as a member of the City of Melbourne Public Art advisory committee.
afp@architectsforpeace.org
http://www.architectsforpeace.org
This article has also been published at Arts Hub: http://www.artshub.com.au/ahau1/news/news.asp?Id=75092
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