Sunday 31 May 2009 8:54:10 pm

A Line is There to be Broken: Constructing Sites

Urban Edge Workshops: Centre for Urban & Community
Research, Goldsmiths, University of London

A Line is There to be Broken: Constructing Sites
Saturday 27th June 2009 10am-4pm

Tristan Fennell, David Kendall, and Gesche Würfel

What could link the Lower Lea Valley in East London, Dubai,
and Tokyo? London and Tokyo are long established so-called
Global Cities whereas Dubai is an emerging one. Quite
commonly, Global Cities host mega events like the Olympics.
All these cities attract tourism and there is a strong desire to
maintain and develop leisure spaces and sports facilities that
present and publicise each city as an attractive, well-maintained
destination to visitors. Over the course of the past 30 years
the Olympics have been transformed from a sporting to an
economic event with a focus on urban regeneration.

Urban regeneration has also been a major focus of London’s
Olympics 2012 application. As we are situated in London
this workshop will focus on East London where the 2012
Olympics will take place. The workshop will run in conjunction
with the exhibition A Line is There to be Broken at Viewfinder
Photography Gallery in Greenwich, London, SE10. The
photographs in the exhibition draw visual and spatial influences
from the following questions: How could people construct
improvised or temporary leisure spaces or sites? Who
has the right to do certain types of activities in these spaces?

Do sites exist or is it impossible for them to develop where
new barriers and material objects exclude access to the land?
How could physical barriers and objects become part of
this process? How could temporary leisure spaces become
public platforms or political tools that could influence planning
decisions and regeneration processes?

The workshop will consider how to answer these questions
photographically and will take place around the periphery
of the 2012 Olympic site in East London. In the morning we
invite participants to walk with us around the Olympic site in
Stratford-Hackney Wick and hear more about the ‘theoretical
implications’ of constructing this site. In the afternoon we will
return to Viewfinder Photography Gallery to view and discuss
photographs made during the workshop and discover spatial
and social links with the photographs in the exhibition.

A nominal cost of £10 is charged for the workshop. Booking
is essential: a.tu@gold.ac.uk and limited to 20 places. For
further information about Urban Edge contact Professor
Caroline Knowles, CUCR, Goldsmiths: c.knowles@gold.ac.uk

http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cucr