They are spaces where their use as actual PLACES, is not yet decided; or maybe there are mutiple uses and multiple users; so it looks like some groups of people have different ideas from others about what should be going on in the spaces.
And I would add, that a great many of these are spaces of contestation. There is a battle going on between users.
Like places which are squats, or places which have been 'done up' and then graffittied.
Having seen for myself so many examples in Berlin, where these sites are definitely spaces, not really places, I was relieved to see that they have not just been written ON, but also ABOUT, (on websites), and in this book
Berlin has the most amazing amount of graffitti.
It seems a lot of people have a lot to say and that they want to say it in ENGLISH ...
(...Sometimes for obvious reasons...)
and that they want to say it BIG and HIGH.
Here we see 'Ampelmann' , the usually cute figure at the traffic lights ...
...who appears as a meme in a number of guises round Berlin. (I will explore this meme later.)
There were so many spaces of uncertainty that it made me feel that the whole of Berlin is a city that is more uncertain than others.
A city on the brink of something.
A city with so many edges, so many margins, and then so many centres.
It is true.
Which is not surprising really.
As it once had the most huge edge the world has ever known, and the West Germans wrote all over that edge.
Where will it all end?
There is more to say about the graffitti in Berlin as well as the spaces.
We will continue on Wednesday, as, of course, Tuesday is SHOPPING day.
1 comment:
Ah ampelmann
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