Category: punk

Not My City: songwriting as research text

Posted on Posted in Conferences, punk, SubcultureTagged , , , Leave a comment

8 July 2020 (conference postponed to 2021)
KISMIF: Keep It Simple Make It Fast, Conference. Porto, Portugal.

in the dark on empty streets deserted parks and alleys […]

The future-oriented utopian cities of urban planning imaginaries sit in stark contrast to actual or existing cities. Behind policies for beautification and rejuvenation is the socio-political ugliness of capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and racism. In some of the most depressed and ugly parts of the city, we can find spaces of resistance based in camaraderie, mutual-aid, care, and joy. My doctoral research looks to marginalized and alternative urban groups for ways to reinterpret, resist, and refuse mainstream urban narratives and planning practices.

Continue reading “Not My City: songwriting as research text” →

Ask a punk: from informality to anti-formality and anti-authority and when to say fuck

Posted on Posted in Conferences, punkTagged , , , , Leave a comment

10 February 2018

Presented at: Curating Resistance: Punk as Archival Method, Los Angeles CA

Sometimes you can’t design your research. Sometimes the city is what happens while you’re busy making plans. What are the linkages between tactical approaches to punk place-making and punk knowledge-making? As a doctoral candidate researching punk space in the city, specifically as it intersects with formal urban planning processes, I find striking analogies between my academic struggles and punk place-making. The qualitative-(re)turn in the social sciences has extended legitimacy to a variety of alternative research methods. In the process of formalization and institutionalization, in many instances the underlying conceptual and ethical arguments for the diversification of methodological approaches are buried if not entirely lost. Continue reading “Ask a punk: from informality to anti-formality and anti-authority and when to say fuck” →

‘Parking Lot Citys an Ugly Place’ Punk Inverted Images of Capital City

Posted on Posted in Conferences, punkTagged , , , , Leave a comment

11 April 2018

Presented at: American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New Orleans LA

Does Ottawa even have a punk scene? Yes, buried beneath the carefully curated and manicured image of the National Capital, the punk scene hides… in plain sight. What about our image of punk and our image of Ottawa make their coexistence in the same space so unimaginable? Perhaps more importantly, from whose perspective and for whose ends are those images constructed? While the planning interests of “town and crown” notoriously and continually conflict, they are allowed to coexist and together form and reinforce the city’s identity. Perhaps it is because both agree that the National Capital ought to uphold the Great Canadian myth of multiculturalism and neoliberal democratic expectations of a safe, inclusive, and accessible city. Continue reading “‘Parking Lot Citys an Ugly Place’ Punk Inverted Images of Capital City” →

“Fuck gentrification” is the new “fuck the man”: the desirability of undesirable punk space

Posted on Posted in Conferences, punk, SubcultureTagged , 1 Comment

21 September 2017

Presented at: 1st International Conference of Anarchist Geographies and Geographers (ICAGG) Reggio Emilia, Italy

Urban planning as it formalized throughout the twentieth century offers a particular relationship and conceptual continuity between the social, spatial, and political that structure the relationships between people, space, and institutions and connects city-making with both place-making and citizen-making. But the city-making project of planning has a “darkside”; one that draws a line between desirable and undesirable people, and between desirable and undesirable spaces. Planning becomes plagued by contradictions and conflicts, both internally and externally, as it tries to reconcile its progressive role and utopian vision with the capitalistic, liberal and democratic systems under which it was formed and continues to operate. The internal inconsistencies are frequently exacerbated to the level of crisis when planning is further confronted with the seeming irreconcilability with another significant part of its ontological heritage—the moral and ethical imperative to act in the public interest. Continue reading ““Fuck gentrification” is the new “fuck the man”: the desirability of undesirable punk space” →

Fattal fest: Be fucking respectful aight

Posted on Posted in blog, punk, SubcultureTagged , , , , Leave a comment

A local punk festival is coming up and the Facebook event page has more than a few gems that hint at why I find punk space so interesting.

This is from the event description:

fattalfest

Unlike pouzzafest—MTL’s more formal (but still awesome) punk festival earlier in the summer—I take it fattal fest maybe takes the attitude of “fuck the permits and red tape”. But lack of respect for officially regulated permission to use space is not to be confused with disrespect for using space or others in neighbouring space. be fucking respectful aight!?!?!?! This killer combo of unapologetically irreverent but deeply considerate is a quality I’ve noticed in these spaces and among many of the people I’ve met therein.

Here’s a comment posted by the host:

secretlocation

For unofficial venues, there’s such a lovely contradiction between publicizing shows and keeping them secret (to officials and outsiders, at least). It really is a quintessential case of hidden in plain sight and visible-invisible. The event location is simply listed as fattal@fattal—either you know where that is or you know someone who can tell you. but SVP ask in private. It’s not a well guarded secret but it does roughly in very broad strokes define who is invited.