Friday, April 29, 2011

So many memories

On my return from the eddBE conference this afternoon I wandered through the MOB on Ann Street to look at the collection of Robert BrownHall.

Reminding me of the pallate of Jeffrey Smart, many paintings immediately ellicted memories of brisbane and the sunshine coast. Besserblock walls. External pipework. heat. light. rain. wind. pavement.
Blown head gasket immediately reminded me of the time I blew the head of my parents' old mitsubishi nimbus at Dickies Beach.
One work immediately reminded me of the work of Pieter Brughel:







In another, the yellow light was so accurate that I could feel the humid afternoon heat on my neck:







And this last one took me immediately back to the front verandah in the January rains:






Beautiful memories resound instantly from these and the many other paintings like it.
When i find this pleasure again in my memories of Brisbane, I wonder afresh what it is that defines this place. It's not a gateway to everywhere else - a 'non-place'... it does have a magnretism, an attraction, a pace, a place for me...
.. but is ever so elusive and difficult to define for some strange reason. Is it the sound of cicadas that greet you at the airport in summer, or the crisp breeze in winter? or the ghostly raggedy gum trees irregularly formed and placed, each with their own face and story to tell?

EddBE2011 - best paper award

"PLAY in the CITY: Parkour and Architecture" recieved the prize for best paper at the close of the inaugral postgraduate sustainable wellbeing conference. In the last few days I've given two phone interviews and tomorrow I will be interviewed by Phillip Smith live on 612 ABC breakfast radio. It's so encouraging that the research is finding fertile reception.

This week has been very exciting, and a dramatic learning curve for me in many respects.

Thank you very much to Craig Cowled and the organising comittee for the conference at QUT. Thank you also to Mirko Guaralda, my supervisor, for his encouragement and guidance.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

eddBE 2011 inaugral conference

Today was the first day of proceedings for the inaugral 2011 eddBE conference focusing on sustainability and wellbeing in the built environment. Papers and speakers presented a lot of interesting research from different fields, from the design of underwater oil pipelines and the aeronautical fibre-reinforced-plastics coatings, to the design of aged care homes and night clubs.

I have been privelidged to present my paper on Play and the City, and the QUT media did a write up with photos of me jumping off stuff at qut.



http://www.news.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/News.woa/wa/goNewsPage?newsEventID=35715

By being a part of this event, I have recieved a lot of encouragement and support from my peers and mentors. Many thanks to Mirko Guaralda, Craig Cowled, QUT and my friends and family who I have lived life with.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Privately Owned Public Space


Reading around I found some cool links which document the extent and location of privately owned public space throughtout NY and LA. There are also some intersting discussions.



I have been meaning or some time to document the extent of POPOS in Brisbane city, and also cataloguing their methods of governance and their behavioural exceptions as a result of city ordinances.

One such example is the Queen Street Mall, and whose operation exists under seperate legislation entitled The Local Government (Queens Street Mall) Act 1981 and is subject to management ordinances not found elsewhere in the city.
Similarly South Bank Parklands is entirely owned by The South Bank Corporation, operating under the auspices of the South Bank Corporations Act.

Some rules and regulations surrounding behaviour in these public places have since been repealed by the new Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000.

The results of this can be seen in discussions within the parkour community, and in Maps they have generated for comunicating places of potential (desire), and places of conflict (fear).

The POPOS in the photo described above was the first place in Brisbane to 'ban' parkour and 'parkour-like' activities: Mincom Plaza.

Again, we find hidden terrains of desire and fear imbedded deep within our city.