It’s 2049 and London has become a city of perpetual commotion, dedicated to those who like living life in the fast lane. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, some Londoners have chosen to defend themselves against future shock and put the brakes on.
In an evening of live performance, multimedia, debate and play, Livingmaps presents two very different visions of life in London in 2049. Which one do you prefer – or do you have other ideas? What would you restore, hold on to, get rid of or create to make this future London your kind of town?
After you’ve heard the arguments, you have the opportunity to contribute to three rooms in the Museum of 2049, each one featuring responses to a different scenario of urban shock:
The Incredible Shrinking CityAfter Brexit, the flight of City money sets off a housing market crash and sends the economy into freefall. The map of London now reflects an alternative economy – but what does it look like? A game in which you have the chance to reshape that map.
We Can Stand the HeatGlobal warming has sent temperatures rocketing, raised the level of the Thames and made extreme weather a run-of-the-mill occurrence. The built environment has had to adjust to cope – how has it changed? Unleash your creative/destructive urges and help us redesign the city.
Revolution in the StreetsThe decades between 2018 and 2049 were a time of social and political unrest and transformation. What were people demanding in the Great Protests of those years – and what did their demonstrations look like? Imagine being part of that glorious resistance and fill the room with placards, slogans and actions.
This salon is curated by Livingmaps, a network of artists, activists and academics committed to developing a critical and creative approach to social cartography: www.livingmaps.org.uk
Curatorial Team
This salon is curated by Livingmaps, a network of artists, activists and academics committed to developing a critical and creative approach to social cartography. We run a full programme of talks, walks, screening and workshops and are also involved in a number of participatory mapping projects, including Groundbreakers, a series of audio trails around the Queen Elisabeth Olympic Park and a Citizen’s Atlas of London. We also publish an on-line journal twice a year. Further information: www.livingmaps.org.uk and www.livingmaps.review
Stuart Bowditch
Soundscape Artist
Stuart Bowditch is inspired by location and the people, experiences and objects he encounters, highlighting the auditory as a defining factor in how we experience a particular environment. In particular he is interested in sounds associated with place, and the overlooked and overheard noises of the everyday.
Projects include field recordings, public art installations, sound design and musical compositions. He has contributed compositions, recordings and soundscapes to many films and art installations, phone apps, games, events and consultations.
Phil Cohen
Writer and Urban Ethnographer
Phil is the co-founder and current research director of Living Maps and editor–in-chief of its online journal. He is the co-author of Knuckle Sandwich: growing up in the working class city, Finding the Way Home: young people in London and Hamburg , London’s Turning : the making of Thames Gateway and London 2012 and the Post Olympic City. Recent single authored books include a memoir Reading Room Only (Five Leaves), a collection of poetry and prose, Graphologies (Mica Press0 and On the Wrong Side of the Tracks: East London and the Post Olympics (Lawrence and Wishart0. Archive that, Comrade! Left Legacies and the Counter Culture of Remembrance is out from PM Press in the Spring of 2018. Website and blog: www.philcohenworks.com
Nicolas Fonty
Urban designer and map maker
Through research, activism, practice and volunteer support, he has been involved in many initiatives of civic mapping for community-led planning including justMap in London, http://justplace-london.blogspot.co.uk and Paris www.occupy.fr + http://cartodebout.blogspot.fr
He is member of Civic Wise, an international network for civic design and a section editor of Living Maps Review, http://www.livingmaps.org.uk dedicated to critical cartography and participative mapping. See also his work until 2015 on the greater Paris at local and metropolitan scales : http://fonty.nicolas.free.fr
Debbie Kent
Writer and Artist
Debbie makes work around walking, sound and the city. She is half of a collaboration called the Demolition Project (with Russian artist Alisa Oleva) which has most recently produced a site-responsive walk for the Ural Industrial Biennial in Ekaterinburg, as well as making work for festivals and galleries in Moscow, Krasnodar, Vilnius, Berlin, Belgrade, London, Leicester and Manchester. In 2018 the Demolition Project will be helping to deconstruct Leeds at Compass Festival. She is currently researching the soundscapes of regeneration in Blackwall and Silvertown for a PhD at Goldsmiths and a member of the Livingmaps think tank for the Citizens Atlas of London..
Jina Lee
Visual Artist and Ethnographer
Jina’s artwork and research is concerned with the collapse of territorial boundaries between social, political and geographical space. These are elements which, she believes, are increasingly in a state of fluidity under the impact of local and global migration. Her work asks, exactly how do people experience this movement, and how can these invisible collapsing boundaries be visualized and mapped? Jina’s observations and findings, made through various modes of drawing and the creation of ‘talking maps’ seek to open the possibility for unsuspected interactions between the known and the unfamiliar.
Blake Morris
Walking artist and researcher
Blake is a founding member of the Walk Exchange, a cross-disciplinary walking group based in New York City and London. Along with Clare Qualmann (Walking Artists Network), he co-edits ‘Lines of Desire’ for Living Maps Review,. His work has been shown at Ovalhouse Theatre (London), Bogart Salon (New York City) and Superfront Gallery (Los Angeles, Detroit, NYC). He currently works as a visiting lecturer and researcher at the University of East London, where he focuses on walking as an artistic medium.
John Wallett
Designer and educator
John has worked with arts, education and community organisations in East London for over twenty-five years. He is a founder of the ‘Common Knowledge’ network and the East Anglian community cinema project ‘Moving Image’. He is co-founder of Livingmaps Network and has been responsible for the design of many of its community projects, displays and web-based platforms. He is currently working with the Science Museum Group on ‘Energy in Store: Exploring the Futures of Science Past and Present’ a year-long AHRC funded knowledge exchange project investigating the heritage and future of large stored artefact collections within the SMG.
Credits and Acknowledgements
Script and project management : Phil Cohen
Performance and Workshop facilitators: Debbie Kent and Blake Morris
Soundscape: Stuart Bowditch
Graphic design and workshop facilitator: John Wallett
Cartographic support : Jina Lee and Nicolas Fonty
Multi-media: Marko Resurreccion
Livingmaps would like to thank Lauren Parker, Holly Elson and the rest of the Museum of London City Now, City Future team for their creative input and support. Thanks also to Sue Finn of the Wivenhoe Bookshop for her voice and Jean McNeil for video recording.
SOUNDTRACK NOTES
The following music was sampled:
Abul Mogel Everything Imagined has been forgotten
Arseny Avraamov Symphony of Factory Sirens
Steve Reich City Life
In Town Tonight BBC Archive
John Adams Short Ride in a fast machine
Arvo Part Spiegel im Spiegel
Raphael Irisarri Fragile Geography
Venue: Museum of London