I read something really cool in today’s newaspaper. It’s about a group that makes ‘collective improv’. They are called improv everywhere and that is also their websites name: http://improveverywhere.com. They create chaos by collectively doing something weird and trying to get unaware passengers go along with their surreal collective.
For example, they went to The New York train station and let over 200 people ‘freeze’ at the same time for 5 minutes.
Their newest mission is faking an exhibition in the subway with posters and things that are always there, but by making a cloakroom, nametags, information signs and other things, people really think that there is an exhibition. Weird effects!!
I thought it could be inspiring…
This saturday (25th of april) they will be in Amsterdam, of you want to join, mail to amsterdam.improv@gmail.com, subject ‘count me in’ and make sure you can be in Amsterdam at about 12.
We started our meeting with a short discussion of our housework (content coming), followed by a presentation by Dimitri on the common line of evolution of Russian urban development: building blocks progressing from the Stalinist quarter to microrayon to larger microrayon to residential rayon.
After Dimitri’s lecture, Leslie Kavanaugh gave a inspiring overview of the development of “collective,” and the individual’s place within the world in philosophical terms (and also an essential reading list for budding philosophers).
Leslie started her talk with the thesis that politics is intrinsically linked to “city” (and thus ideas of how we should live together) from its linguistic Greek origins. She continued her presentation by giving an overview of major turning points in philosophical thought that are taken for granted in our modern world. Her final message was that how we organize ourselves economically is how we organize ourselves socially. She left us with the message that it is up to us to explore new ways of living together, that we should not shy away from being “political” as designers, and that there is a whole spectrum between the two extremes of Hypercapitalism and Communism.
Coincidentally, I read something related on John Thackara’s blog, Doors of Perception. He says:
John Michael Greer…suggests that the time may be ripe to change the question. “Oversimplifying reality into two rigid categories is probably the most pervasive source of failed thinking in the modern world”, he writes. “Rather than limit ourselves to a choice between two unpromising alternatives – “capitalism” and “socialism” – why not look at different frameworks, such as distributism.
Distributism. Right. Having paused to find out what distributism is, or was I return to find Greer writing about another novelty: the Druid notion of ternary thinking. “The basic practice is that when you encounter any classification of the world into two and only two sides (we call this a binary), think of a third option that isn’t simply a compromise between them. With practice you get very good at noticing the blind spots that make binary thinking seem to make sense. Yes, you can then go on to look for a fourth, fifth, etc.!”
Finally, we concluded with a mindmapping session. We split up into five small groups to consider the term, “ideal neighborhood.” Some major themes present throughout individual mindmaps turned out to be intangible qualities of neighborhoods that can manifest themselves in tangible ways:
safety, social control/neighborhood watch, responsibility, tolerance, connection, interaction and communication,
From Irony of Fate, 1975. This is a beloved Russian classic, based on the idea that everything everywhere is the same in Russia…from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Overture Cartoon
First minutes (FRENCH)
Please see here for the English version (watch 5:25 – 7:26 minute mark)
“A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Years eve. Occasionally too much vodka and beer makes two of them unconscious. The problem is that one of them (Sasha) has to go to Leningrad but another one (Zhenya) goes. Zhenya wakes up at Leningrad airport. Believing that he is still in Moscow he takes a taxi and goes home. The street name, building and even apartment number, the way an apartment complex looks the same and the key coincide completely – just typical Soviet-type ‘economy’ architecture. Imagine the surprise of Nadya when she enters her apartment and finds a man without trousers in her bed. What’s more – Nadya’s fiancé also finds him there…”
