ABSTRACT
Imagine a city, a concen tra tion of creat ive prac ti tion ers – artists, fashion design ers, musi cians, graphic design ers – at work in studios, a profu sion of old and new galler ies and museums to offer inspir a tion, to display work and to attract visit ors. This culture support ing and suppor ted by a network of educa tional insti tu tions, low-rent live-work spaces, startups and informal pop-up venues that display emer ging talent. Imagine another city, where knit-graf fiti, tagging and street art create a vibrant street-scape, where skate boarders and parkour prac ti tion ers find a home and where tactical urban isms turn street corners and vacant lots into small gardens with benches and social spaces. Imagine a third city, where the old ware houses are clad in steel and glass and occu pied by those able to
afford price-tags in the millions, where every corner shop has been replaced by a tapas bar or a boutique coffee-shop, and where the only traces of industry remain ing in the deadly quiet streets are those repurposed to make attract ive flower beds, or the ship ping contain ers craned in to serve as pop-up cock tail bars, barbers or cinemas. Imagine a fourth city, a city of possib il it ies of sensory sugges tion, where the unex plored and over looked are ripe for discov ery, where surveil lance is an invit a tion to subver sion and where the city is a space to be hacked, repur posed and reen gin eered. Far from anti thet ical, these contrast ing creat ive city imaginar ies coexist in many of today’s urban spaces.
