User:Lor.ensō/Final presentation
your individual contributions to the special issues,
BYTENOISE w/ Senka
/DOOR/PORT/
/TRANSPORT
POINXS
the development of your reading/writing practice across the 2 years,
DEFAULT ALPHA
CARE COLLECTIVE
SMOOTH CITY
the development of your prototyping practice across the 2 years,
your thesis (only a brief overview for context, as this has been assessed separately in depth),
RENDERDAM - THESIS ON CITY COUNTER-TEXTURES
your final work and research in the second year,
RENDERDAM
plans for final publication and grad show (with the understanding that you will continue to work on this after the assessment)
Renderdam is the rendered version of Rotterdam. A research project based on accessibility in and around the city. There are multiple thresholds in the provided interfaces that often limit the movements to either go from A to B or to get things done. In contrast, a lot of toxic positivity is found: Rotterdam, make it happen and The city of tomorrow, we build today. The futuristic image smoothens out the struggles based on i.e. accessibility, disability and affordance.
Renderdam is a collection of outcomes in analysis and critique around limited movements, innovation, marketing, artist impressions, personal stories and annotated drawings.
The presentation at buitenplaats brienenoord is going to be somewhat of a Renderdam Counterdesk. Consisting of the following elements.
RENDERDAM Counterplanner
The CounterPlanner is a parody on routeplanners like 9292OV, Google Maps.and also surfaces, interfaces and mechanisms of institutions like Trevvel. It is also a critique on neoliberal [automated] bureaucracy in relation to Rotterdam's Make It Happen slogan. The outcome of the work is not necessarily that nothing ever gets done. But it is merely about the limited moving capacity of when you are dependent on either wheelchair, mobility scooter, social taxi instances or policies of a (local) government concerning laws like WLZ or WMO. It emphasizes of the urgent needs of people like my brother and mother. The counterplanner does not have a space to fill in the A to B's. It uses a 'choose your own adventure'-layer which limited options.
The content of the counterplanner are a collectiong step-by-step storylines that reveal the u-turns and alternative routes that are needed to move in a reality of limited options and movement space, rendering a lot of spaces that seem public into an inaccesible liminal space / backroom. The information is based on true stories and carry a lot of depth.
RENDERDAM Critical Post Cards
The Renderdam Critical Post Cards are a way of showing what I call Contextures
a portmanteau of the following words
Con = "an instance of [deceiving] or [tricking] someone. / [persuade](someone) to do or believe something by lying to them." (Oxford). Context "the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood." (Oxford). Textures "the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance."(Oxford).
By these renders I mean: the images the city presents of itself. They do not represent the context of the city and give a false promise to potential buyers, visitors and inhabitants.
Of course there is no trust to be found in the artist impressions and postcard surrealities that are plastered on top of the wasteland from which the new buildings will emerge.
The drawings I made for my thesis Contextures,
are drawings that reflect on developments in the city They have annotations which I will shorten, for the postcards are a6 or a5 size.
The front will be the picture, the back will contain one or two paragraph-summaries of the annotation, redirecting to the thesis website.
Next to that, a tikkie-donation QR code will also be part of the postcards. [?]
RENDERDAM CounterBanner
The Renderdam Counter Banner is a poster-size image that drags the visitor into the renderdam universe. It asks the viewer multiple questions and has statements on how to position yourself in the future. To what degree is renderdam is tool for innovation and where does it use the same tool to demolish?
A bittersweet afternoon walk, feeling like I was part of Renderdam.
The City of Rotterdam casted into the virtual mould of hollow representation. Setting a scene based on future promise. The design of this promise is then turned into realization as the inhabitants of the city turn into their 2D predecessors in the announcement of the real estate company.
As this idea / interpretation of Rotterdam is realizing and takes shape from its virtual concepts. The streets turn into a design rather than the opposite. As I mentioned before in PolderPunk 2077. I see a lot of resemblance in certain games.
To me it's starting to feel that the commodification of the impression is more important because that brings revenue. Rather than realizing the value of the actual citizens. This idea of the new cool Rotterdam is of course not entirely negative. Considering the fact that its popularity rose in the last ~15 years.
The problem (I have) with this new angle is that it provides an image that lacks context. The lack of poverty (in Dutch context), proper (social) housing and *many other problems*. The idea of this metropolitan megacity is of course very attractive for outsiders. (Sub)cultures are well celebrated even though the spaces where they manifest are in constant argument about their existential rights. I'd like to crosslink/refer this argument with mine, because both have to do with municipal zoning plans.
Does it fit within our wishes
for what we want Rotterdam
to appear to be?
What value is there morally to be found
if the revenue exceeds the needs of the demanding people
When I see the announcements of new promising areas, the showcases of both private and public investors and instances. The hollow imagery of the promise misses the filling: The cities contexts and needs. Instead of that, Rotterdam™ or ***R***™ creates a representation based on these contextless imagery. Rotterdam is being and worn as costume and the city undergoes a virtual *seeming* metamorphosis or rather **stagnation** and casts into Renderdam.
ANTITECTURE
I am in a constant battle with new and old buildings. The old Rotterdam buildings are built with the idea that everything of the inhabitants body is working (both the human is functioning = working and its body can function without any disabilities) _properly.
SURREAL POSTCARDS
Next to the city marketing, Renderdam can also be spotted online at i.e. WoonnetRijnmond, (paraphrased translation from the website.
WoonnetRijnmond is the place for a new place! At WoonnetRijnmond.nl you can see all of the offers from the affiliated corporations in the Rotterdam area. The corporations advertise their offers only on this website, which are rental properties, owner-occupied homes, business premises, parking spaces and storage areas.
https://www.woonnetrijnmond.nl/detail/rotterdam/ijsselmonde/sluiskreek-394/100105126
