# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Maider Lopez's urban football field

Here is Maider Lopez's proposition for Sharjah's (Emirates) 2007 biennal. She hijacked a public space to transform it into an hybrid square/football field.
I always believed that public spaces could die just with a panel "ball games forbidden" as there are more and more in our city so this is actually a proposition I like a lot !

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Banksy

# Evolo 2009

Fourth evolo skyscrapers competition's winners have been announced. Like every years, some of them stand in a conservative trend, but some others like this "instant high rise" by Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Jerome Frumar bring some new refreshing idea justifying the persistence of this competition.
See the three winners and fifteen mentions on official website.

# Multiscapes sculpture by Pilm Palsgraaf

Following few works of Pim Palsgraaf, a young dutch artist.
He's dealing with the icone of the city wich is carried by dead animals or randoms object. Its a interesting status of immobility but with the suggestion of things that used to move...
His worked had been remarked at Art Rotterdam 2009 last week.


more here

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Flash Mobs

Flash Mobs are evanescent gathering of people who do not know each other and who participate to a "gamy" action for about five minutes before leaving the place as fast as they arrived. Flash Mobs are a direct product of the possibility of instant spaming messages like emails or sms and amaze people for their evanescence as much as their uselessness.

Nevertheless, for five minutes a public space is considerably changed by this gathering and become an instant dreamlike vision of common space becoming social space.

For those who read French, here is an article by Valérie Chatelet, called La ville en fete et en délire (quoting Edith Piaf).

Here are two videos from the same place (Liverpool Street Station in London) during two different flash mobs. Freeze or Silent disco, choose your side !

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Surveillance vs Resistance

Nowadays, living in western metropolis and not being monitored by any mean is becoming almost impossible. Without falling into the total plot paranoia, the potentiality for an authority to be able to survey any inhabitant of these cities is truly frightening. Balance between liberty and security is likely incontrovertible and a lot of industrialized countries seem to agree more and more to add weight in the security plate.
Here are two examples of possible resistance against an orwellian world. First is a group called the Surveillance Camera Players which cleverly understood that you can't be killed while hugging your enemy. In fact, they are totally acknowledging the surveillance camera's presence and perform little plays in front of them. (see a video here)

With the help of this same group and some others (New York Civil Liberties Union, Surveillance Camera Project, Eyebeam Atelier Workshop), the Institute for Applied Autonomy has developed a software called Isee Manhattan which list all video cameras in Manhattan and try as most as possible to propose ways not to be recorded.

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Guerilla benching in London

Guerilla benching is an illegal operation from four Londoners setting up benches in public space. In fact, benches have became more and more deleted from common space by authorities in order to prevent them to be colonised by homeless people. This phenomena is obvious in Paris' subway for example, where benches have been hypocritely replaced by so called "designed chairs"...

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Violence interrupters in Chicago

Violence interrupters are former gangs' members patrolling in Chicago's streets in night time and looking for fight scenes. In fact, these guys take advantage of not being cops to try to minimize the violence of those fights. They can, for instance, advice a man about to shoot another that beating him up would be enough or suggest to gangs that a local war would not be good for their business.
This operation could probably be considered as outlaw, but this is actually a good example of an efficient negotiation with the law, resulting to real results and Chicago's authority seems to have understood its interest in this operation.
If you are interested, you can read a long article in NY Times magazine (see picture) from may 2008.

# Big big JR in Kibera

French photographer JR just achieved his biggest work in Kibera, Nairobi's biggest slum. 2000 square metres of pictures were set up on the houses' roof and a train.
Good way of decentralizing and globalizing (I happenned to see his work already in Paris, London and Berlin's streets).

Thanks Winston !

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Fight Club

...When we invented fight club, Tyler and I, neither of us had ever been in a fight before. If you’ve never been in a fight, you wonder. About getting hurt, about what you’re capable of doing against another man. I was the first guy Tyler ever felt safe enough to ask, and we were both drunk in a bar where no one would care so Tyler said, “I want you to do me a favor. I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
I didn’t want to, but Tyler explained it all, about not wanting to die without any scars, about being tired of watching only professionals fight, and wanting to know more about himself.

About self-destruction.

At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything down to make something better out of ourselves. I looked around and said, okay. Okay, I say, but outside in the parking lot. So we went outside, and I asked if Tyler wanted it in the face or in the stomach.Tyler said, “Surprise me.”
I said I had never hit anybody.
Tyler said, “So go crazy, man.”
I said, close your eyes.
Tyler said, “No.”
Like every guy on his first night in fight club, I breathed in and swung my fist in a roundhouse at Tyler’s jaw like in every cowboy movie we’d ever seen, and me, my fist connected with the side of Tyler’s neck.
Shit, I said, that didn’t count. I want to try again.
Tyler said, “Yeah it counted,” and hit me, straight on, pow, just like a cartoon boxing glove on a spring on Saturday morning cartoons, right there in the middle of my chest and I fell back against a car. We both stood there, Tyler rubbing the side of his neck and me holding a hand on my chest, both of us knowing we’d gotten somewhere we’d never been and like the cat and mouse in cartoons, we were still alive and wanted to see how far we could take this thing and still be alive.
Tyler said, “Cool.”
I said, hit me again.
Tyler said, “No, you hit me.”
So I hit him, a girl’s wide roundhouse to right under his ear, and Tyler shoved me back and stomped the heel of his shoe in my stomach. What happened next and after that didn’t happen in words, but the bar closed and people came out and shouted around us in the parking lot.
Instead of Tyler, I felt finally I could get my hands on everything in the world that didn’t work, my cleaning that came back with the collar buttons broken, the bank that says I’m hundred of dollars overdrawn. My job where my boss got on my computer and fiddled with my DOS execute commands. And Marla Singer, who stole the support groups from me.

Nothing was solved when the fight was over, but nothing mattered..."

Chuck Palahniuk's novel and David Fincher's movie presents an amazing "club" rejecting any from of social contract. In fact, acting against every artefacts decoy-ing humans from their ability to feel life and death, what Tyler Durden tends forward is a return to natural state for humanity. He imagine a city invaded by jungle and the way of life it implies. Far away from gently and politicaly correct sustainibility, he gives himself all means to succeed.

And to prove you, Durden is not just a novel/movie character, here is a video of a live hijacking of last week end's super bowl, by a 30 seconds porn video !

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Introduction

This month's thematic, FIGHT WITH TOOLS borrows its name from a Flobots' album. It tackles a problem not so far away from december and january's thematics but imply a form of urban guerilla flirting more or less with illegality. It is thus a difficult topic because the law is the base of the Social Contract which holds human relationships in a supposedly civilized way. Therefore, we would like to question these actions and their impact on public space.

picture: La Commune de Paris in 1871

# Rio slum barrier plans spark outcry in The Guardian

Yesterday, Transit-City's blog was publishing an article from The Guardian about the construction of a new unfortunate barrier in the world. This one will be in a Rio favela, Dona Marta and is suposed to prevent the rain forest from the illegal occupation of the slum. Ecology is thus the new pretext of Brazilian authorities to act against the poorest of its population.

Here is the article.