Bowerbird Courtship

This is the sweetest courtship display. The female looks so lovely and excited by the male's dance. I couldn't resist posting here. What does it have to do with urban design? Well, if these adorable little things find beauty in the exotic and exciting, then why do we feel okay living in bland, depressing places?...or something like that...

All the Single Ladies

Wow! My friend Jen Gamber sent me this video today. Spontaneous dancing in Piccadilly Circus, London. I love it, and I wish that I was one of these off-the-shoulder-leotard-clad dancers. More than wish...I am insanely jealous of these hot ladies. That's what I call Urban Revitalization. For anybody out there who is on the fence of joining my awesome Non-Invasive Urban Revitalization group, this is exactly the kind of thing I want to do, but instead set in an under-noticed area and not product endorsement (this is a promotion for some brand of gum). Come on! I'd look ridiculous out there alone. You know you want to dance in random places in Chicago with me! And if you're not a dancer...I'm also quite interested in public art, sports, whatever. The sky is the limit. The point is: public spaces are meant to be used for more than walkways and lunch spots -- they are stages with unlimited potential to brighten someone's day and challenge our understanding of place.

I Started a Group

I started a group that consists of creative types (dancers, musicians, urban planners, scientists, and so forth...) who would like to see Chicago's under-used spaces reinvigorated through non-invasive techniques. This group would brainstorm spaces we'd like to see re-invigorated, develop a cool intervention, and then follow through. This is not for pay, just for fun, and maybe something to put on your resume. :-)

Please read spiel below:

"There is un-tapped potential in Chicago's talent pool and its underused urban spaces.
Back in the Los Angeles drought of the 1970s, a group of teenage surfers, the Z-Boys, took skateboarding to another level by using drained swimming pools to practice moves when the waves were flat. In these pools is where aerial skateboarding was born.

McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn, NY was abandoned and unused for years until choreographer Noémie Lafrance used it for a site-specific dance piece, "Agora". This performance brought attention to the space, which was then used for film screenings and music concerts. The Borough of Brooklyn saw the potential in this space, and decided to re-make it into a public pool. Of course some people would have liked to see it remain as an arts venue, but this in an important case study that suggests that bringing attention to a space can change it."

About me: I have my Master's degree in Urban Design (Landscape Architecture) and my undergrad degree in art, and am obsessed with cities and the details of place.

If you are interested, please email me with your background, why you are interested, and if you have any questions.

M Ward

M Ward plus skyrail pulls at my heart strings. Enjoy!

Liam Finn -- Second Chance

Angus Sutherland directed the video below, for Liam Finn's "Second Chance". It's like a stereoscopic view of the past. I like posting videos with dream-like images, because we see our world through our memories and experiences, and react in the present accordingly. I think it can be devastating to return to a place we remember from our childhood to find it gone or severely altered.

Biking Like a Grown-Up

Satorialist-Style Bike Fashion (New York Times)
I spend a lot of time thinking about bikes and clothes and clothes on bikes and the different postures we assume while riding our bikes. I have a hybrid (part road bike part mountain bike) that my family so generously pitched in to buy for me for completing my undergraduate degree. It's great, because the large wheels are suitable for city riding, and the frame/wide tires allow me to go off-road if I need to. The hybrid has never been a fashionable bike, because it's not great at one thing, it just has the potential to do everything at a mediocre level. This bike has always worked for me, first of all, because I think about how sweet my family is to have pooled their money together to buy it for me. Secondly, I don't care if I look cool on my bike. My concern, though, is that I now live in Chicago. Chicago, unlike other cities I have called home (Virginia Beach, Philadelphia, Tucson) doesn't have nearby trails that I would need the mountain bike part for -- and my back starts to hurt from being hunched over all the time. As you may have guessed already -- I want a Dutch bike. I want to sit upright; I don't want to worry about getting chain grease on my clothes; I want to wear a skirt without having to either tie it in a knot so it doesn't get caught in the chain, or have to wear pants underneath because I'm hunched over. I like to ride slowly through the city. There are too many chances to hit the door of a parked vehicle or to hit a pedestrian, so I take my time. The extreme hunched position of road bikes and track bikes (fixed gear) give the impression that the rider is a predatory cat, a puma. They balance on their wheels at stop lights, ready to pounce. These bikes are great for getting around the city quickly, and this is why bike messengers ride them. But people look so classy and relaxed on a Dutch bike. They are made for utility, not speed, and we are encouraged to wear our regular clothes on them (remember just jumping on your bike as a kid, without the spandex or special shoes?). The New York Times published an article about Dutch bikes (my friend Ben Raines alerted me to this), as the new status symbol of the recession. Seriously -- add up the cost of car insurance, parking, repairs, and gas, and the $1,500 price tag of a Dutch utility bike looks very appealing.

William Forsythe

William Forsythe, along with Merce Cunningham and Noemie Lafrance, is one of the people who initiated my interest in the relationship between site-specific work and the built environment. A native New Yorker, he is currently the resident choreographer of the Frankfurt Ballet. The amazing thing is that his dancing style is not classical ballet -- it is deconstructed ballet. For instance, he will start with a movement, like a plié, and rearrange it so that the move is still considered ballet, but is refreshed and reworked. It's like taking pancake batter and pouring it into a waffle iron -- it's still the same food, it just looks and feels different. He is known for his dance notation technique and for using architectural elements, like a table in his pieces. I recently visited his website and saw that he has a piece at Ohio State University. I was prepared to find a way there, to see a legendary performance, but the piece is actually an interactive web project, Synchronous Objects. Check it out.