Comments on: The Street As An Urban Social Space

By: A Burner Lexicon: Esplanade | approximately 8,000 words - Kit O'Connell's Homepage

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:07:30 +0000

[...] between a city and an open feature of the landscape such as a body of water. One example is the Esplanade de Espana in Alicante, Spain, on the Mediterranean. It is a place for a community to gather where they can [...]

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By: The Thing

The Thing — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:36:35 +0000

I think it would be interesting to have benches on the esplanade designed sort of like teeter-totters, so if you’re alone (or not) you’d have to reach out to a fellow citizen in order to sit down. That would encourage some interaction within the community while allowing for some well-deserved rest and “spectating”. It also provides a sort of ice-breaker for those of us who are more introverted and need an excuse to talk to a stranger.

Too bad I can’t make it this year cuz I love the themes of urban planning and the big city. I love the buzz of those special streets in big cities where there is just so much interaction going on whether it be passive or active. The isolation of sub-urbia (though I realize affordability plays a factor) in newer (especially north american) cities has pretty much ruined the great vibe of the organized chaos of the “old city” as described by Kuukiechristo.

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By: Kuukiechristo

Kuukiechristo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:05:18 +0000

Jane Jacobs observes in “Death & Life of Great American Cities” that “this order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance–not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing off en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole. The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, an in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.”

This passage addresses the magic of a disorganized “old city” and how it works well when successful. The zoomed out BRC has a macro-level order which melts into Jacobs’ dance up close. This city, possibly more than any other, achieves some perfect semblance of that dance. When I come to the playa, have I come to life or art?

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By: jonathan

jonathan — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:58:22 +0000

I agree with the suggestion that Burning Man would benefit from more benches, on the Esplanade and elsewhere. One tip. Try to make the benches unsuitable for sleeping on. Nothing wrong with dozing on a bench, but then there’s no place for people to sit.

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By: Johnny Mac

Johnny Mac — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:08:41 +0000

Thanks Larry on your bench and spectator comments. I’m a newcomer (’05 & ’07, ’10 tickets in hand!) but have friends (hi Rhett) that go way back & I’ve felt the pulse of the playa for a long time. I have also felt the sting of ‘spectator’. My favorite was a naked spray-painted fire-juggling dude who didn’t like me taking a picture of that fantastic art scene. WTF! I’m like, take a pill or stay home or don’t spray paint youself and juggle on the playa OR embrace the stranger. Nothing to loose but the anger, everything to gain.

The bench concept promotes lingering (loitering in cop-speak) which can foster community OR trigger our US/THEM territory/ownership greed/fear basic instincts. What a wonderful setting to practice LOVE and INCLUSIVENESS. In a metropolis we must learn to share or become trapped with those fears.

So let’s offer a space to sit and a space to grow out of our everyday fears and prejudices about spectators/strangers and learn/teach/love/share with each other. Today’s spectator/stranger is tomorrows spray-painted juggler!

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By: MissMaidenUSA

MissMaidenUSA — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:35:07 +0000

Benches are kinda foreign to me. I enjoy sitting on the Playa, or gathering a bunch of bicyclists together with blankets and stretching out on the ground. Benches……not-so-much. If they are added, I will adjust, but I don’t think we need them.

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By: SkeletonMan

SkeletonMan — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:28:50 +0000

+1. Benches on the Esplanade would be a great addition. Anyone calling resting his bones a spectator malfunction, obviously, is not human. Or have a great physique.

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By: BrotherMichael

BrotherMichael — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:53:23 +0000

When Burning Man asked for our feedback after last year’s event, my coomment was that I really enjoyed the benches surrounding the Temple the year of Basura Sagrada.
It gave us a place to sit and contemplate the temple and the energy. There were no such benches last year.

I think the idea of benches at major installations or fronting theme camps is an excellent idea.

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By: larry harvey

larry harvey — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:22:50 +0000

This is a response to Glenn Lym’s first post. Thank you for your suggestion that the Esplanade be furnished with benches created by theme camps. We have previously lined the Keyhole with benches (and not ordinary benches, but art benches supported by an honorarium). Participants delight in using them. I think it would be quite appropriate to extend this practice to the Esplanade. Vesting this with theme camps seems only natural, since theme campers could best judge where to place them in relation to the frontage of their installations. To further this process, I’ve thought that we could encourage participants to submit designs that are easily assembled, sturdy and made from low cost materials, and these could be displayed for everyone to see on our website . This would spark creative thinking, especially if each theme camp were at liberty to decorate benches in a distinctive way that related to the theme of their camp. I believe that many people who stopped to rest while watching the world saunter by would eventually be drawn into the life of the camp.

To those who might maintain that public benches only increase spectatorship, I can only reply that such a view is simplistic. The “No Spectators” dogma that is sometimes advanced, when extended to its logical conclusion, produces a world in which everyone is displaying themselves or their works, and yet no one is watching – thus leading to a kind of social autism. Spectating is fully half of participation, especially if, as with this scheme of theme camp supported benches, it integrates into a larger social fabric. After all, meditating on the world in all of its endless variety is one of the signal charms of city life (there, I’ve said it: I am an inveterate spectator).

Regards,

Larry

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By: Pieter van der Vlugt

Pieter van der Vlugt — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:20:04 +0000

The problem with open public places & parks in Europe is that when a few folks get together to do (what ever) just like mushrooms popping up out of the ground so do the Cops, which is a little unnerving…..

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