Reykjavík, July 2010

Meðlimir ÚRBANISTAN hafa komið sér fyrir í Alliancehúsinu við gamla Slippasvæðið á gömlu höfninni, á svæði sem hefur verið okkur hugleikið lengi. Óður til Slippsins Mikill léttir að þetta hús fékk að standa. Sjá til dæmis þessi grein frá 2006 eftir Helga Þorlákssno,Alliance í Ánanaustum um í hvað stefndi á sínum tíma.
HUGMYNDAHÚSID Where Entrepreneurial Thinkers Unite!
An article in Grapevine about HUGMYNDAHÚSIÐ here

Copenhagen, June 2010

Bridging Boundaries: Public Art in Cape Town since 1997. Cultural producer and researcher Zayd Minty (ZA) presents the organisation Creative Cape Town and its work in the context of the broader city of Cape Town and introduces various public art projects that have attempted to bridge boundaries. Ásta Olga Magnusdottir (IS/ZA) will question The Cape Town Challenge: How to tap into the energy and playfulness of the real Cape Town when on the other side of the coin there is danger and poverty? And Metropolis in Cape Town: How could the Metropolis experience contribute to some of Cape Town’s agendas? Jay Pather (ZA) Choreographer and Associate Professor, Drama Department, University of Cape Town. Can one resist the temptation of site-specific interdisciplinary performance that engages with key nodal points of urbanism, development, visibility and economy? Jay wants to propose a kind of new dramaturgy that captures the edginess and reinventions of live art in the post colonial city of CapeTown.

URBANISTAN´S ASTA AND ANNA'S INDIVIDUAL PROPOSALS IN THE HARBOUR COMPETITION WERE BOTH AWARDED:

SECULL (MAGNET) - BY ASTA and HILKE ZIELBAUER
An environmental work of art that builds on ideas about a user interface in space. A proposal that can take form in diverse artistic events fusioning the harbour, its visitors and new media applications. Jury's mention: "An interesing and professionally detailed idea" .

A BRISK SWIM - BY ANNA
A poetic vision from the future - describing how the area will change and be experienced in a future afternoon. Jury´s mention: "A simple and beautiful proposal".

Úrbanistan participates in the July discussion on the Synapse elist which, throughout 2008, is investigating the leading-edge of art and science research collaboration. The discussion is focused around changing landscape of cartography and surveys the innovative work being produced at the cross-roads of art, mapping, geography and the social body. Organiser: The Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT). Read more…

Úrbanistan participates in Conflux 2007, the annual New York festival for contemporary psychogeography, “the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological and social practice...” Read more…

Two new exchange centres for city walks will be kicked off, one in Cape Town and one in New York. As we celebrate everyday walks we use them to trigger the imagination...
Read more about Recipes for Unique Everyday Experiences

Metropolis Thinking Lab, urban interventionists from all over came together to rethink the city through experiments of various sorts.
Ásta and poet Jan Hatt-Olsen (Urban Artscape) practiced the Urban Alchemist...

ÚRBANISTAN has opened a new weblog!
Step in our steps in the cities we live in, the cities we visit and the cities of our minds... Click here

The Icelandic turf house is a unique vernacular building tradition certainly inspiring for the future. The turf house does not stand out from the landscape but is an integral part of the landscape and the terrain. During a recent seminar on turf house heritage, everything from preservation methodology and building techniques to aesthetics and future perspectives was discussed. While being a local tradition, the turf house is indeed interesting from the point of view of architectural history that reaches far beyond the local perspective. As an example, the turf house has to be built and rebuilt over and over again. This continunous making and remaking of the turf house indicates some affinities with japanese architecture and urbanism. It has also been pointed out that the turf house has the structural form similar to Laugier´s primitive hut!

Anna wraps up from a recent seminar at Hólar in Skagafjörður, Iceland, on radio RÚV. (Icelandic)

Torf í arf á RÚV - fyrri hluti
Torf í arf á RÚV - seinni hluti

(May 2007)

Anna María continues talking about architecture and urban culture in the radio program Víðsjá throughout February.

The topic last week was city mapping.
How can unusual mapping guide us around our cities?
This week Anna visited the Architecture Department at Reykjavik Art Museum.

Kortlagning borga - hlusta á RÚV
Byggingalistasöfn - hlusta á RÚV

Næsta miðvikudag, þ. 28.02.07 í Víðsjá: Að leggja strandlínur fyrir framtíðina

(February 2007)

What are the lights in the city like? How do they affect us and who is in charge? Anna María talked about lighting in the city in Víðsjá on radio RÚV last week.
Ljósin í bænum - hlusta á RÚV

(February 2007)

Athugasemdir til Skipulagsfulltrúa Reykjavíkur varðandi Slippa-Ellingsenreit í Reykjavík
Lesa bréf frá Úrbanistan

(January 2007)

We spent most part of 2006 in South Africa and USA, working and travelling. Here we were witnessing incredible transformations of the urban landscape - and started to document these transformations in Cape Town and Miami. Step in our steps observing transformations in Miami and Cape Town.

(January 2007)

Industrial areas around the world find themselves on a frontier between the old and the new. More, click here
More discussion on this topic on urbanaffair.blogspot.com

(December 2006)

Úrbanistan vill exhibit at the Space, Art, Environment - Sensi/able Space Exhibition in Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2006.
More about the project Slippurinn-bank, click here

(1.st march 2006)

Úrbanistan gives a lecture on the projects City Experiment I and Ode to Slippurinn to students doing Urban Studies at the Reykjavik Art Academy.

(10.th january 2006)

Gleðilegt nýtt ár og takk fyrir það liðna!
Við áramót má segja að nýársheitin og nostalgían mætist. Því er eins farið með SLIPPINN í Reykjavík núna því að þar eru stórtækar breytingar framundan – ákvarðanir um framtíðina hafa verið teknar – en hið gamla stendur enn.
Meira um kveðjuhátíðina hér

(1.st january 2006)

At the time being we are situated in Copenhagen and New York.
The next Úrbanistan event will take place in Reykjavik around the year shift 2005/2006.

(14.th october 2005)

Morgunblaðið
"BORGARSKIPULAG og lýðræði hefur verið í brennidepli síðastliðna áratugi með áherslu á aukna þátttöku borgara við sköpun eigin umhverfis...
...Í Evrópu eru listamenn oftar en ekki orðnir nær sjálfsagður hluti af þeim hóp..."
Lesa meira

(24.th september 2005 )

Hafnarhus, Reykjavik: Exhibition Halls A, B 9 September - 2 October 2005

Visitors are encouraged to bring their own creativity to the Úrbanistan laboratories, to create the city of the future. They can also present their ideas by sending in their own text- and images message through a free phone number, 1855. See more

See photos from the opening on Úrbanistan Blog.

(9.th september 2005 )

In collaboration with the Reykjavík Academy.
Úrbanistan var á Málþinginu Borgin : minnisvarði menningar á Listasafni Reykjavíkur
Fjallað verður um borgina sem eitt áhrifamesta og örlagaríkasta framlag menningarinnar til sjálfrar sín. Fjallað verður um framlag vísinda, lista og heimspeki til þeirra þátta sem þróa og móta borgir samtímans. Markmið þingsins er að efna til umræðu um skipulagsmál og borgarmenningu þar sem kallað er eftir skoðunum og hugmyndum sérfræðinga sem og hópa sem síður hafa verið áberandi í umræðu um borgaskipulag.

(6.th february 2005)

Urbanistan has received a travel grant to go to Reykjavík, February 4th – 12th 2005, in the purpose of research and building of network with actors in the field of urban planning and spatial art in Reykjavik.

(1.st february 2005 )