2001-frankfurtress ghettoblast
fGb/ frankfurtress Ghetto blas
A computer game as a strategy for mapping the global city was developed in collaboration with sociologist Regina Bittner during a fellowship residency at the Bauhaus Kolleg, Dessau.
Part of the three-phase research programme set up by the Bauhaus Kolleg for the site of the European Quarter in Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
On site research was focused on three levels: the cognitive maps and spatial scenes of Frankfurt that form the social image of the space, the architectural strategies for the creation of themed urban spaces and the everyday practices of creating places as interactive spaces.
Frankfurtrss Ghetto Blast transposes these ideas into the aesthetics of computer games ( the arcade style games). The game world (the play environment) is a cartography of the global city. It is s a multylayered spatial platform, consisting of 10 spatial plateaux which represent different sectors of urban condition, from the very centralised to the outer region.
The ten plateaux are: citadel, ghetto, inner city, red light, neo-urban, para-urban, neo-rural, old-rural, airport and deportation zone.
Alongside the spatiality, another entry into the game is through identity. I differentiated identity kits that can also be described as avatars. I list them: tourist, neo-urban, post-fordist middle-class, metro businessman, young urban entrepreneur, declasse, old rural, vagabond, neo-rural and hacker. What distinguishes these types is their living and working quarters as well as their model of urbanity.
Presented at:
Bauhaus Foundation Dessau and Monsotourm Frankfurt,
‘Brandscapes’, Hochschule Der Kunst,
Berlin ‘Time and Space in Megalopolis’,
City Gallery Prague
Infoscapes: City cartography - Informational Navigation’, 5th Graz Biennial of Media and Architecture, Graz, Austria.
Published in:
(2002) Roush, P., ‘Frankfurt Ghetto Blast’ in ‘Glocal: Event City 1′, Catalogue, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau
(2002) Roush, P., ‘Effects of Locality: Frankfurtress Ghetto Blast’. In ‘Event City’, Edition Bauhaus Campus Verlag, Frankfurt /New York.
city stripping
Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen
computer games. posters and installation
2001 �
Gallery and street installation of ‘Frankfurtress Ghetto Blast’ a translation of critical urban theory into the aesthetics of a computer game, illustrated by the example of Frankfurt Main, as a global player in the international financial world. Animated sequences of the game were presented in lcd screens on a ‘ bed for games’ installed in the gallery. Maps and avatars developed for the game spilled into the street as a series of posters
Frankfurtress Ghetto Blast
Bauhaus Foundation Dessau and Monsotourm Frankfurt, ‘Brandscapes’, Hochschule Der Kunst, Berlin ‘Time and Space in Megalopolis’, City Gallery Prague and ‘Infoscapes: City cartography - Informational Navigation’, 5th Graz Biennial of Media and Architecture, Graz, Austria.
2001-2002�
Development of the concept for a computer game in collaboration with sociologist Regina Bittner as a strategy for mapping the global city. Part of the three-phase research programme developed by the Bauhaus Kolleg for the site of the European Quarter in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. On site research was focused on three levels: the cognitive maps and spatial scenes of Frankfurt that form the social image of the space, the architectural strategies for the creation of themed urban spaces and the everyday practices of creating places as interactive spaces.�
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