[-empyre-] "Urban resilience"

Mon Mar 5 02:39:45 EST 2012

I have to agree with Ana here.

Resistance and resilience are different things, and cannot be
collapsed onto one another or interchanged.

Still, we need to assess in what way they are different if we want
this to be a productive discussion.

On the one hand, Ana's examples of non-conformist practices in Eastern
Europe during the Cold War are apt: in that context, open resistance
wasn't futile, it was a suicide (and not a very useful one at that).
So activists, artists, and cultural producers at large had to come up
with other, more cryptic, and less obvious tactics.

On the other hand, Ethel started this discussion with the examples of
Tahir Square, Acampada Sol, Occupy Wall Street. I definitely agree
that these movements are of a new, previously unseen nature: they are
examples of a certain swarm logic, networked practices that define
their social space online before intervening and occupying actual
physical spaces. While a great deal of the early success of the '99
Global Anticapitalist movement was owed to similar tactis (I'm
thinking about the early Reclaim the Streets actions in London and
especially in Seattle'99), it is only now that we're witnessing
practices which go beyond distributed activist tactics and into
distributed social and political practices.

In terms of actual practice, my impression of the Acampada Sol
phenomenon in Madrid was that it was, indeed, a "resilient" structure,
at least in the sense that Ethel points out: there was a clear
awareness at all times that any direct confrontation, any kind of
violent action (any kind direct "resistance") would render the
movement helpless and defeat its very purpose. In this sense, the
structure was, indeed, resilient.

(I spoke about this, from a cultural perspective, in this article
here: http://www.a-desk.org/spip/spip.php?article968 Spanish only, I'm
afraid...)

But this awareness is not uniform, nor is it perceived in a uniform
manneer. Many participants in theese occupations still adopt the
tactics of the past, and expect (and propose at the public assemblies)
a final heroic act of resistance of one kind or antoher.

The general public, people not involved with the movement but who
sympathise with it, expect to see clear proposals, a clear political
agenda, some kind of political "party" as the end result of this.

But, no, the 15M movement in Madrid was resilient enough to not only
not do any of these things, but to actually lose its centre (the
occupation of Madrid's Puerta del Sol) and move back to distributed
action (local assemblies, online discussion and practice).

In this sense, I'd speak of the strange bazaar, the shanty town that
took over Madrid's main square last summer as a resilient structure:
in the sense that its organisation was already put in place online
before actually occupying the square, and in the sense of it being
intelligent enough to retreat from the urban space when its very
presence was threatening to render it helpless.

This notion - of retreat, of losing the centre - is something I'm
researching right now in terms of art practice. I haven't gone very
far in this sense, but I'm envisioning something.

Now, if only things could be that simple. In the wake of all the
#Occupy movements, I see that many people have started doing research
and mapping out their ideas. I think we're treading common ground
here, but it's interesting to see how we're all mapping things out
differently.

In October 2011, I was contacted by Ibon Aranberri, a Basque artist
currently teaching a Fine Arts M.A. course in Stockholm. Ibon was
bringing his students over to Madrid on a cultural visit, and asked me
to take them around the main sites and places of Acampada Sol. This
turned into an interesting dérive throughout the city, and the
conversations and discussion we had afterwards lead to me to get in
touch with Olav Westphalen from Stockholm.

Now, this thread prompted me to review my notes and documents and,
ouch, I should check my references before posting more often.

Olav is researching the notion of  "recalcitrance" as applied to these
phenomenal. "Recalcitrance" as a resistive act, but not an act of
resistance. In a sense, it would be Bartleby's "I would prefer not to"
to The Spanish Republic's "No pasarán".

In a conversarion with Valeria Graziano (here:
http://www.kkh.se/index.php/sv/undervisning/performing-recalcitrance/1423-an-emailed-conversation-between-valeria-graziano-and-olav-westphalen)
Olav diferentiates the two terms in the following manner:

"Revolt is the reaction to the form of power that Foucault described
as discipline. Discipline shapes forms of life through giving orders
through hierarchical chains, establishing norms and procedures,
delivering punishments. What revolt wants then is to break the
machineries, interrupt the flows (logistical, communicational) and
fight back or flee from punishment. Recalcitrance on the other hand is
the reaction to the form of power that Foucault describes as
government."

One interesting aspect of this notion of recalcitrance is that it can
also engage other forms of revolt - like the riots in London last
summer, which appeared way too disorganised, unfocussed and violent
even to the A15M and Occupy Wall Street activists.

So, sorry, I'm actually adding another term to our discussion here.
Now we've got the "Three R's", and it's not getting any easier:
Resistance, Resilience, and Recalcitrance.

What do you think?

Best,

Kamen

P.S. Olav Westphalen is also organising the Performing Recalcitrance
event in Stockholm this month:
http://www.kkh.se/index.php/sv/undervisning/performing-recalcitrance).
If I were you and I wer ein Stockholm, I wouldn't miss it.

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 3:32 PM, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I see the point following Ethel's proposal and discussing the differences
> between resilience and resistance. I remember attending a meeting in Prag,
> where we met the president Vaclav Haverl (my good friend Alicia Migdal was
> also there, I hope she remembers the discussion too). Havel stressed the
> Charta 22 and all the other movements in East Europe were movements of
> resistance, they had developed quite sophisticated strategies of uproar and
> rebellion, but they had not developed a culture itself, with own premisses
> and conditions.
> The conditions were imposed by the "other", it means there Sovjet. But they
> had not yet created a culture of it's own.
> I thought about it often seeing the pictures and the videos of Acampada Sol,
> Tahir Square and other big demonstrations. How can we go further to the
> deeper level of creating alternatives to the corrupted democracy we abhorr?
>
> Ana
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 3:02 PM, <lgm at theorbiolchem.org> wrote:
>>
>> How about discussing Urban resistance?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Quoting Ethel Baraona Pohl <ethel.baraona at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> I'm really glad to fin some good friends on this discussion!
>>>
>>> @Aristide Antonas: I find quite interesting the difference you remark
>>> between "resilience" and "resistance" and the opposition between positive
>>> and negative connotations. But is not adaptability a kind of "passive
>>> resistance"? In case we understand "resilience" as *?the capacity of a
>>>
>>> system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as
>>> to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and
>>> feedbacks?*, maybe we can find common links with the movements like the
>>>
>>> #15M in Spain, where resistance doesn't include any kind of implicit or
>>> physical violence.
>>>
>>> @Kamen I'm aware about your reservation of the proliferation of the term
>>> "resilience". Just as every concept that starts reaching its
>>> *tipping-point,
>>>
>>> * it is under the risk to becoming "trendy" and loose its real
>>> importance,
>>> as has happened before with terms like "sustainability" or
>>> "participation".
>>> But this fact only reinforces the interest to discuss here the importance
>>> of urban resilience going further and far away of becoming "the new
>>> black<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_new_black>".
>>>
>>> I completely agree with you that the movements we're witnessing nowadays
>>> are truly networked phenomenon and maybe is in the uses of these new
>>> technologies that we can find the new basis of resilience.
>>>
>>> If we go back to the referenced text of François Roche and his idea that
>>> resilience lies in the recognition of nonlinear systems in nature as a
>>> potential for emergence, we can go on talking about this phenomenon
>>> (#15M,
>>> #occupyingwallstreet) as examples of
>>> swarm intelligence (or the organic relations mentioned by Ana) and
>>> emergence, in the way that DeLanda focus on the term
>>>
>>> "emergence"<http://books.google.es/books?id=F5wvXkJwFwkC&lpg=PP1&dq=inauthor%3A%22Manuel%20De%20Landa%22&hl=es&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false>:
>>> *"**the emergent properties of a whole can now be explained as an effect
>>> of
>>> the causal interactions between its component parts." *According to this,
>>> the interactions between *citizens [net]working together* are creating a
>>>
>>> new resilient model in the urban context.
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>>
>>> Ethel
>>> ---
>>> Ethel Baraona Pohl | dpr-barcelona <http://www.dpr-barcelona.com/>
>>> twitter @ethel_baraona <https://twitter.com/ethel_baraona46> |
>>>
>>> about.me<http://about.me/ethel_baraona>
>>>
>>> ethel.baraona at gmail.com
>>> (+34) 626 048 684
>>>
>>> *Before you print think about the environment*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Kamen Nedev <kamennedev at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hola, Ethel,
>>>>
>>>> I'd turn your question upside-down: "Is resilience the new resistance?"
>>>>
>>>> By now, you must have gathered I have some serious reservation about
>>>> the proliferation of the term "resilience". But I think there is a
>>>> good reason for this phenomenon. We're all struggling to grasp the
>>>> real implications of current social movements and their acts of
>>>> resistance. The many, and diverse "occupy" movements appear to be
>>>> beyond the reach of the tools and concepts we have been handling
>>>> hitherto.
>>>>
>>>> Thus, the attempts to relate the so-called "Arab Spring" to the
>>>> Spanish "#15M" movement to the recent upheavals in London tend to fall
>>>> short on the ground.
>>>>
>>>> In my opinion, what we are dealing with here is a truly networked
>>>> phenomenon: these movements and spaces are first constructed online,
>>>> and only then move on to the "bricks-and-mortar" urban space. But this
>>>> doesn't mean that this phenomenon is new and unknown.
>>>>
>>>> @Ana Valdés: you should locate and talk to Olaf Westphalen from the
>>>> Fine Arts Faculty in Stockholm. He has been researching the notion of
>>>> resilience as applied to current social resistance movements quite a
>>>> lot, and has some interesting ideas on the subject.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>>
>>>> Kamen
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 5:58 AM, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > Hi Ethel and I am so happy you introduced yourself in such a
>>>> > flamboyant
>>>> way
>>>> > :)
>>>> > I am not familiar with the Occupy Movement (the two cities I live
>>>> between,
>>>> > Stockholm and Montevideo, are very lawful cities :) nobody occupies :)
>>>> > But I know a bit of the Arab Spring, I have been in the Middle East
>>>> > ten
>>>> or
>>>> > twelve times and I am familiar with Amman, Nablus, Ramallah and
>>>> Jerusalem,
>>>> > Damascus and Tel Aviv. Have friends who are living in Cairo as well.
>>>> > My reflection is: the cities on the Middle East (Tel Aviv is the
>>>> exception)
>>>> > are among the oldest cities in the world, they have been populated for
>>>> > several thousand years. The population have an organic relation to
>>>> > their
>>>> > city, very similar to the cities in the European Middle Age Henri
>>>> > Pirenne
>>>> > described.
>>>> > In the centers of the cities people still cook, mend, repair, forge,
>>>> > all
>>>> the
>>>> > professions are there on the streets, in small shops, near the souks.
>>>> > It
>>>> was
>>>> > not necessary Twitter or any high technological skill to convocate the
>>>> > people to Tahir Square. The same happens in Homs.
>>>> > People swarm to the squares to yell their discontent and their rage.
>>>> > And swarms are still non explained by any rational means, it's good,
>>>> > we
>>>> need
>>>> > some mysteries left :)
>>>> >
>>>> > Ana
>>>> >
>>>> > On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 8:56 PM, Ethel Baraona Pohl <
>>>> ethel.baraona at gmail.com>
>>>> > wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Hello everybody at empyre,
>>>> >> I'm Ethel Baraona Pohl, architect, researcher and publisher living in
>>>> >> Spain, where the current sociopolitical and economic situation is
>>>> driving
>>>> >> architects to focus again in concepts like "resilience", as Ana
>>>> >> pointed
>>>> two
>>>> >> days ago when she introduced the topic of March. I want to go further
>>>> and
>>>> >> use a quote by François Roche to discuss the urban relationship
>>>> >> between
>>>> the
>>>> >> terms "resilience" and "resistance":
>>>> >>
>>>> >>> "The stuttering between Resilience (recognition of vitalism as a
>>>> >>> force
>>>> of
>>>> >>> life and innovation) and Resistance ("Creating is resisting") will
>>>> >>> be
>>>> the
>>>> >>> goal . . . 1+1=?"
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Is resistance a new way of resilience? If we understand the city as
>>>> >> the
>>>> >> scenario for resistance, movements like the Arab Spring and Occupying
>>>> Wall
>>>> >> Street can be understood as the urban capacity to respond to
>>>> perturbation.
>>>> >> Going deeper, I want to discuss here which are the similarities and
>>>> >> differences between this two concepts.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Looking forward to hear your thoughts and comments!
>>>> >> ---
>>>> >> Ethel Baraona Pohl | dpr-barcelona
>>>> >> twitter @ethel_baraona46 | about.me
>>>> >>
>>>> >> ethel.baraona at gmail.com
>>>> >> (+34) 626 048 684
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Before you print think about the environment
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > --
>>>> > http://www.twitter.com/caravia15858
>>>> > http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
>>>> > http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia
>>>> > http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/
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>>>> > http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/
>>>> > http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0
>>>> > http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/
>>>> >
>>>> > mobil/cell +4670-3213370
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth
>>>> > with
>>>> your
>>>> > eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always
>>>> long
>>>> > to return.
>>>> > ? Leonardo da Vinci
>>>> >
>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>> > empyre forum
>>>> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> http://www.waitingforcargo.net
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
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>
>
>
>
> --
> http://www.twitter.com/caravia15858
> http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
> http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia
> http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/
> http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/
> http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/
> http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0
> http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/
>
> mobil/cell +4670-3213370
>
>
> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your
> eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long
> to return.
> — Leonardo da Vinci
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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