ART AND THE CITY
GLOSSARY Archaeology - Archaeology, or archaeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artefacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes.[2] Speleology - Speleology is a cross-disciplinary field that combines the knowledge of chemistry, biology, geology, physics, meteorology and cartography to develop portraits of caves as complex, evolving systems. [3] Flying Flaneur - The city experienced from the point of view of superhuman individuals flying through the city. E.g. Spiderman, Batman etc. This perception of the city should not be confused with the bird’s eye view, which connotes a much more detached overview of the city. Smart Archaeology - Archaeology at the finger tips, preferably on a smart device. Malleability - A necessary attribute to a material, physical or textual, to allow deformity in its form and enable lightness and imagination. Modernist materials - Materials that are rigid, non-malleable and stubborn about their purpose in form. Invisible cities - Urban forms that are defined by absence of physical form i.e. by its negative space. E.g. Forty two trenches in an excavation site at Keezhadi village on the southern bank of Vaigai River. Mass excavated site impending construction. Syzygy - The syzygy originally comes from astronomy and denotes the alignment of three celestial bodies in a straight line. In a pataphysical context it is the pun. It usually describes a conjunction of things, something unexpected and surprising. Serendipity is a simple chance encounter but the syzygy has a more scientific purpose.[4] Reverse 3D printer - A tool for making negative forms and not a tool for collection. E.g. a scoop, a digger. Schrödinger’s Urbanism - Thought experiments designed to imagine extreme and opposite social, cultural and economic situations for an urban condition. The parameters of the urban conditions need not always present a binary supposition. For example “To be or not to be”, “Is the city dead or alive?”, “Should the artists be involved in urban planning or not?”, “Post Gentrified propositions versus Community building propositions”
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CITY OBSERVER | June 2016