how we shape cities, and cities shape us
Greif situates fitness culture at the nexus of several contemporary threads: the relentless quantification of everything, the drive to optimize the self, the decline of public space—and, of course, “wellness,” as the concept has come to be known. We all want to be “well,” or should want to, at least. But why?
Matter
It's not only UK dance music of the Nineties that is associated with cities; the whole history of popular music is about urban scenes. It's no accident that Motown started in Detroit, house in Chicago, hip-hop in New York… Cities are pressure cookers which can synthesise influences
quickly and in a way that is both collective and idiosyncratic.
... See moreþÿMark Fisher,Darren Ambrose • þÿK-punk
Instagram and TikTok have facilitated easy, superficial connections that placate the human need to truly connect to people, art, and ideas. Comparing ourselves to strangers' highlight reels flattens our self-worth.
Consuming content about cultural events gave the impression of relational connection, when in reality, I'd just watched a 15-second... See more
Consuming content about cultural events gave the impression of relational connection, when in reality, I'd just watched a 15-second... See more
You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people.
Olivia Laing • The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
“Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and in this hasn’t changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.”
―
John Berger
―
John Berger
A quote by John Berger
The story of humanity is an urban one, a slow 20,000 year drift towards a largely urban condition. A city does the same thing to individualism that a natural ecosystem does to a tree — thriving there is about living well with people who are not like you. Just as a tree revels in those multifarious interdependencies, so we do with cities.
Medium • 11: Post-traumatic urbanism and radical indigenism
The West Village Girl is probably the best example of this sort of zombie formalism, deeply self-obsessed moment. West Village is an NYC neighborhood that serves as a production set for an optimized lifestyle. You can live your entire life within a five-block radius: Pilates, three-drinker dinners, charm bars, espresso martinis, run clubs,... See more
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
n Hannah Black’s essay for Artforum, “Go Outside,” she describes the possibilities illuminated by 2020’s riots, emphasizing a return to social life and public space. A riot, she writes, is “just something that can happen when a lot of people are outside in the same place.” She continues: “By providing new uses for public space—by uprooting street... See more