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+ The New Map of Tbilisi
+Nomads in the
Netherlands
The New Map of
Tbilisi aims to show the effects of planning policy, land
deals and development proposals on the future of Tbilisi
.
It will be produced
by collecting data from institutions, companies and citizens.
With the New Map, links and relations between the various
plans are put into perspective, potential conflicts brought to
light and spatial impacts revealed.
The New Map
clarifies who wants to do what, where and when. By making the
plans for the future to Tbilisi transparent the New Map hopes
to foster public debate, empower Tbilisi ’s citizens and
contribute to sustainable planning policies.
Within the
framework of the New Map, exhibitions, public forums, seminars
and workshops will be organized.
‘...The first
were my parents who live in Overtoomse Veld. A few years ago,
they got a letter in which it was explained that their
building was going to be demolished. So they had to look for a
house, pack their belonging and move out from our home. The
year after that, my brother received the same letter. He lived
in an apartment block in Osdorp with his wife and children.
They have been looking for a house for two years. ... Two
weeks ago they finally got a house in Osdorp, at the end of
the tram line...I thought I was lucky but in 2003 I also got a
letter with the announcement of the demolition!’
Quote
from an interview with Ms A. Slotermeer August 2007
In the Netherlands, urban
issues have commanded policy attention for decades, with
different spatial approaches in fashion over time. One of the
recent urban policies, introduced in 1994, is called ‘Big City
Policy’ and seeks to fighting the concentration of low
income/immigrant populations.
In Dutch political discourse, areas
with large concentrations of immigrants have become synonymous
with areas that suffers from economic, cultural and political
backwardness and lack of social cohesion. Therefore, specific
urban policies have been put in place to (dis)solve these
areas.
The proposed solution, under the
slogan of ‘mixed neighborhoods’, aims at dillulte the
concentration of poor households in some areas of Amsterdam by
attracting more middle and higher income people to the
problematic areas. However, this appealing idea of 'upgrading'
the areas with the ‘injection of the middle class’ has a
significant side effect: It creates a massive displacement of
poor households, such that it “solves the problem” in one area
by transfering it to another area.
The implementation of ‘renewal’
policies in poor areas
displaces a large section of lower-class households.
This phenomenon is theoretically and practically unavoidable
because alternative accommodation cannot be offered to
everybody in the same area due to policy makers' choices.
These considerations lead to reflect on this paradox: Dutch
urban renewal policies may have the effect of
institutionalizing the very situation they was designed to
improve, namely strengthening the socio-economical situation
of the
marginalised parts of the population by bringing them
into the widening society.
The areas in the Netherlands which
are targeted for top-down transformation are mainly the
postwar garden neighborhoods. In these districts immigrants
are setting up. Small businesses ,are flourishing, and local
economies are developing. As a result, the neighborhoods and
the community benefits from the insertion of these
independents initiatives.
The urban structure of the garden
districts doesn’t function in the same way as the city center,
Its closed building blocks structure, clearly defined streets,
squares and shopping areas. Allowing the immigrant-run
businesses to settle in marginal shopping squares and strips
and in little business spaces scattered around and hidden in
the neighborhoods. The rent of the space is cheap and the
customers – mainly residents of the neighborhoods - know their
way around in this closed circuit of suppliers and
clients.
+The Atlas of the Conflict
Israel-Palestine
Israel is one
country, with two systems. One system is being built
based on the Zionist ideology while the other system is
being destroyed, erased from the map. The conflict
between the two systems exists, manifests and operates
through borders, walls, checkpoints, seam lines and an
unequal allocation of resources. The presence of these
two systems had, and continue having, an extreme and
direct impact on the shape of the territory and on the
life of its inhabitant.
In the Atlas, the confrontation between
the two political entities, Israel and Palestine, is
shown through the ever changing state of borderlines,
the distort use of demographic data, the partisan
allocation of resources such as land ownership, hilltops
control and water, the suffocating geography of control,
the appropriation of cultural heritage and the
schizophrenic abuse of planning and architecture.
The use of space and the act of planning
is not neutral and it implies a constant reflection
about the past and visions about the future. The
analysis of the bold situation on the ground reveals a
matrix of control and a physical strangleholds that have
transformed the territory in a web of settlements,
strips, unrecognized villages, demarcation lines, fences
and no man’s lands.
The Atlas is a unique collection of more
then 200 maps that unfold the territorial,
demographical, social and cultural aspects of the
Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
The Atlas will be published in 2008,
further information will be available online
soon.
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Placemarks
++will be updated
soon . . .
World Up is an interface (and concept) aim at mapping
(also) the unmapped, the unseen and the officially “non-existing”
landscape and cultures of our world.
Its layers constructed as a seamless network of
existence and have their own logic of interaction.
World Up is a democratic platform of (also)
visualization of our world’s beauty but also its
problems.
With World Up we hope to make the pixelized images of
Google Earth (due to lack of economical interest, security or other
nationalistic aspirations) visible and to give everyone an equal
space of manifestation and expression. With World provides a
platform and new know-how and assistance in documenting people’s
living environment, creating communities, uploading and downloading
stories, photos, drawings, films etc or giving empowering tips to
the ones who deals with oppressing power systems (also individuals,
professionals, ordinary people and
communities).
We Hope that World Up will empower people and
communities who strive for recognition (political, cultural,
environmental or else). We hope our platform will be able to link
individual and community who seek for help with organizations that
can help them (or just with other individuals like
them).
World Up database consists of manuals, stories,
statistical information and visual documentation (texts, drawings,
photographs, films, audio files
etc).

Following our ongoing research into the spatial and cultural
processes of transformations caused by nation-building. We started
researching the South Caucasus . A
region that has been in chaos since the collapse of the Soviet Union .
With
the aim of digging into various disciplines in order to understand
social, cultural and spatial phenomena that determines the shapes of
our living world, we have come together with Partizan Publik and
Dirk Jan Visser. We traveled to Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia.
The
project consists of a wide scope of social, cultural and territorial
research projects, workshops and exhibitions.
Placemarks
++Check out other
placemarks . . .
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