Johannesburg Trolley Pusher Protest (2008)

posted by Ismail Farouk at Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Trolley pushing activity in the city provides a necessary service for people wanting to transport heavy baggage through the city. Most trolley pushers charge a fee of R20 for a single load, but are seldom paid more than R5 by streetwise customers who know that trolley pushers are in no position to bargain. The problem with the activity has been the illegal nature of the trolleys used as they are stolen from supermarket chain stores. However, the trolley pushers are not responsible for the theft of trolleys. Trolleys are supplied to pushers on the street by gangsters for a fee of R50.

Harassment by the police is also a problem. Every time a raid occurs, trolley pushers are fined R300 and trolleys are confiscated. Lately, raids have been occurring on Fridays, with trolley pushers being arrested over the weekend.

The trolley pusher protest was orchestrated in collaboration with the the trolley pushers of Joubert Park. The objective behind the action was to mobilize support for the formalisation of a representative trolley association. The protest took place at the vehicular entrance of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), a location synonymous with police activity. Since the protest, weekly meetings with the trolley pushers have been organised in aid of formalising their activities in the city.

Labels: Creative Response, Informal, JAG, Johannesburg, protest, Trolley Pushers, video art

Urban Future Initiative (UFI) Fellowship Program

posted by Ismail Farouk at Wednesday, May 07, 2008

I've been awarded the Urban Future Initiative (UFI) fellowship, a new initiative at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, which is focused on contemporary urban issues.

I will be traveling to LA later this year where I will collaborate with practitioners who have furthered an understanding of spatial justice. I am interested in interrogating the kinds of criteria that can be used to measure and map spatial justice across diverse scales.

Ultimately my aim is to build an online mapping application, which will connect cities and practitioners globally, through the mapping of spatial justice and also as a means for mobilising a collective response to local urban struggles.

Read more...

Labels: architecture, Awards, fellowship, Johannesburg, LA, Los Angeles, spatial justice

Recycling a City

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Aryan Kaganof posted this extremely relevant article by Mary Corrigall on the regeneration of Johannesburg:

http://kaganof.com/kagablog/2008/02/12/recycling-a-city/

Labels: Johannesburg, property, public art, regeneration, urban research

Bad Buildings, Urban Management and Crime Control: The Case of the Fashion District

posted by Ismail Farouk at Sunday, February 24, 2008

Case Study by Ismail Farouk for the Migrants Rights Monitoring Project, special report No.2: Migrant Access to Housing in South African Cities. Report by Jennifer Greenburg and Tara Polzer, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Fashion District in downtown Johannesburg is a contested inner city space. Despite signs of economic development, the ownership of many buildings is disputed, infrastructure is crumbling and levels of crime have long been high. The predominant business activity is controlled by Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees who have taken control of high rise 'bad buildings' and adapted them to limit interaction with the dangerous sidewalk. The organisational structure within these buildings presents an innovative model for inner-city community-based crime and urban development management.

At the forefront of these initiatives is a refugee-run NGO called the 'Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association' which was formed after an Ethiopian trader was killed during a robbery in 2006. Through partnerships with the South African Police Services and the Central Johannesburg Property Company, the organisation is paying for supplementary security services which consist of 25 private guards who patrol an 8 block radius. The monthly cost to the organisation is R150,000, to which every trader and formal business in the area contributes. As a result, crime has been drastically reduced and business in the area is booming.

South African investors and chain stores are beginning to notice the business potential of the area served by the Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association, now that crime has been controlled. The development value of the area is on the increase and there is much activity by private sector housing companies who are redeveloping residential buildings for middle class South African families. However, for the Ethiopian and Eritrean businesses which started the crime-stop initiative, their success at starting the urban regeneration process may lead to their displacement. Many of the businesses are run by people who have not been able to access asylum or refugee documents, due to backlogs at the Department of Home Affairs' Refugee Reception Offices. This means they are unable to secure formal tenure or ownership of buildings, have no access to loans or local government economic development support, and are in practice confined to small geographic areas in the city for fear of being arrested and deported. In spite of the Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association's substantial private investment in security, its members and businesses are in danger of being pushed out rather than integrated into the future of the Fashion District.

Labels: Citizenship, Community, fashion district, gentrification, immigrants, Informal, informal trade, Johannesburg, migration, refugees, social networks, spatial justice, urban research

The Freedom To Dream

posted by Ismail Farouk at Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Recently I was invited by Zayd Minty, who is a cultural practitioner from Cape Town, to respond to his research paper, 'The Freedom to Dream, Urban Transformations through cultural practices in Douala,' at an event hosted at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Doual'art is a non-profit cultural organisation based in Cameroon. The organisation is responsible for a highly sophisticated art making process which aims to provide basic urban infrastructure through creative practices. One of Doual'arts projects is the implementation of a water pump on an open expanse of land in a neighborhood called Bessengue. Beyond serving its primary function, the water pump serves as a location for important social interaction.

Read Zayd Minty's full text here: Freedom2dream.doc

In responding to Zayd's research and the approach and success of Douala' arts, I thought it would be most beneficial to further an understanding of development issues by applying his primary research question to the context of Johannesburg:

Do cultural practices have the capacity to engage society for positive urban transformation by engaging citizens in public space?

Yes, I believe that they do, however, culture as interpreted by mainstream development seems to promote unevenness.

Driven by the inner city regeneration strategy, and the imperative to attract new investment, Joburg’s plan is to address urban blight and other socio-political problems such as unregulated street trade and the overcrowding of buildings by representing business interests through the prioritising of Business Improvement Districts (BIDS).

The primary objective of most BIDS is to implement a wide range of services to support the perception of cleanliness and safety. BIDS concentrate power for the property owners who benefit as a result is the surge in property prices in the area. However, this has no benefit to the poorer residents on the sidewalks who are engaged in 'criminalised' informal economic activity. BIDS result in the end of a livelihood for poor people.

There are two major ways in which culture is misused within the BID environment in Johannesburg. First, culture is used to as a place making device, where spaces are branded and identities are imposed. Here, culture is used as a means of privatising management for the primary purpose of attracting new investment opportunities. Secondly, culture is mis-used by an unimaginative city administration, who commission public art with a narrow view of producing physical structures which compliment the ideals of area development. The problem is that these ideals seems to contradict the needs of poorer communities.

The corollary to the misuse of culture in urban development is the use of culture to further spatial justice issues. Spatial justice is the study of how resources such as money, access to economic opportunities, educational facilities or health care are distributed in urban space. Resources are not distributed evenly and so the battle for spatial justice is primarily about looking to see what can be done to meet more equitable ends.

There are not too many art projects in Johannesburg which represent the needs of the most marginal sectors of society. One project in particular which stands out in recent history is the Cascoland Motor Mechanic Street Bench Project. The benches were constructed for immigrant motor mechanics, who derive their livelihood by providing motor related services to taxis and private motor vehicles on the sidewalk. This economic activity is in direct contravention of the city by-laws. For most immigrants, harassment by the police is a constant fear, which has led to the criminalizing of activities and a sense of non-belonging.

Listen to an interview with a Mozambican motor mechanic here.

In response to the situation, artists Jair Straschnow & Bert Kramer constructed seating, working and tool lock up facilities all built into a fence, a physical barrier meant to keep people out. The artists did not obtain permission to produce the work in public space so they designed the benches so that they slide in and out of the fence. The importance of the project cannot be overstated as the fence provides a space for social networks to operate from.

The project represents a positive case study of much needed urban infrastructure developed by a culture programme. As such, the benches provide some sort of agency in a world otherwise characterised by alienation and social exclusion.

Labels: immigrants, Johannesburg, social capital, social justice, social networks, spatial justice, urban research

Mistrust: Contemporary Visions of Southern Africa

posted by Ismail Farouk at Wednesday, November 21, 2007

I submitted this image called 'Mistrust' for the Contemporary Visions of Southern exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum. It was taken in Yeoville in 2004 and it formed part of my research project which looked at the mapping of social networks in the suburb.

Here is a link to more from the Yeoville 2004 photo set.

Labels: Citizenship, Creative Response, Exhibitions, gentrification, Johannesburg, Network Approach, Photography, social capital, social networks, Yeo, Yeoville

Teaching: Market Photo Workshop

posted by Ismail Farouk at Friday, November 09, 2007

I've started teaching a course at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown. My class focuses on developing an understanding the city using multi-burst photography and digital animation as rhythm analysis tools.

The cost of a basic studio flat starts at R400 000. Whilst this may not seem like a huge sum of money for property these days, the price excludes most of the existing tenants. In fact, 60% of the building has already been vacated and the remaining leases are not being renewed.

The developers have already sold 80% of their show units. Whilst this is very impressive, I am not sure how many new investors are initially planning on living in the building themselves. I think its a case of initially buying to rent and waiting for the wider redevelopment of the city to make an impact before moving in.

The Ponte Development presents an interesting case study of gentrification in the inner city. It demonstrates the vision for the redeveloped inner city, primarily as a place for formally employed South Africans. I left my students thinking about questions around 'the right to the city'. Where to from here for those who are not desired?

Labels: Citizenship, gentrification, Johannesburg, Ponte, Projects, urban research

The Network Approach To Urban Regeneration: The Case Of Yeoville

posted by Ismail Farouk at Monday, July 30, 2007

Here is the abstract from my Masters Research Report which focussed on the mapping of socail networks as an alternative methodology for the urban regeneration of Yeoville. I am in the process of publishing 2 papers from my report. More later:



Yeoville presents a particular context of the inner city in decline and has been identified by the city as a suburb in need of regeneration. In 2004, The Yeoville Rockey/Raleigh High Street Development was conceived as the urban regeneration strategy for the upgrading of the suburb. The objectives of this strategy were to upgrade strategic public facilities and to improve urban management of the area over a period of five years.

Through the prioritisation of a privatised urban management system, the aim was to attract a new middle class back into Yeoville (gentrification). However, the absence of a plan for dealing with the socio-economic challenges faced by the existing poorer residents has led to cultural and class conflicts.

International experience has shown that in order to achieve the long-term, strategic regeneration of poorer neighbourhoods, social networks and community development should be prioritised. An effective regeneration strategy should budget for capacity building from the outset and should involve citizens in the design and decision making process in order to ensure that the needs of all the local actors are met and that all possible resources are mobilised. At the forefront of this approach are alternative methodologies like social network analysis, which aim to reconnect the social, cultural and economic dimensions of society to rhythms of space and time. The focus on the mapping of existing social capital resources helps to pinpoint the opportunities, and constraints presented within neighbourhoods and ultimately guide the restructuring process in a meaningful and relevant way.

Labels: Citizenship, Johannesburg, Network Approach, social networks, urban research, Yeoville

Johannesburg: Development Context

posted by Ismail Farouk at Monday, July 30, 2007

An important catalyst in the development of the inner city has been the successful bid to host the soccer world cup in 2010.The success of which is highly dependent on the effective urban management of the city. The creation of development zones is the city's response to the management of the diverse urban typologies and activities present in the city. Development zones are 'place making' or marketing research exercises, which impose an identity onto a development area. The clustered developments are a means of privatising management of the inner city for the primary purpose of attracting new investment opportunities.

The development areas located to the east of the city (denoted by broken lines) is where the 2010 soccer world development is making an impact. This is where the sporting infrastructure is located. Investment in the inner city has also being encouraged by the creation of an Urban Development Zone (UDZ), which provides economic incentives to private developers who invest within the development zone. The potential benefits of the world cup combined with the financial incentives of the UDZ and the availability of vacant floor space is changing negative perceptions of the city as indicated by the growing number of new businesses and residences currently being developed in the inner city.

Despite the perceptions of increased investor confidence, apartheid has left a lasting legacy and inner city residential neighbourhoods are still segregated culturally. Commonly, for the diversity of residents the city is a place where crime and the fear of police persecution still pervade. Compounding problems are thousands of people pour into the city on a daily basis in pursuit of financial success. Most are forced into the informal economic sector as the only viable economic activity and over trading is placing strain on the city's infrastructure as street traders jostle for optimal operating spaces.

Labels: Johannesburg, urban research

JHB626GP

posted by Ismail Farouk at Wednesday, May 02, 2007

JHB626GP is a representation of Johannesburg city using a unique combination of digital photographs, video and archival film, and kinetic ... all » flash animations which illuminate the urban rhythms of Johannesburg singularly. The movie not only deals with the historical legacy of gold mining and apartheiid, it also highlights movement patterns and conflicts associated with informal economic activity. Johannesburg like most developing cities globally is struggling with the contradictory goals of economic realignment and needs of the urban poor. JHB626GP attempts to highlight these contradictions and the endangered vibrancy of Johannesburg street life in the face of the enforced privatised city.

JHB626GP was produced for the Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the London School of Economics and features original compositions by Johannesburg based electroacustic composer Dimitri Voudouris

Labels: Creative Response, Johannesburg, Movies

Research: Johannesburg Emerging Diverging Metropolis

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, April 03, 2007

In February 2006 I was hired as an exhibition researcher for the exhibition, Johannesburg Emerging / Diverging Metropolis' which was held in Medrisio, Switzerland. Below please find the official text from the exhibition:



With an approximate metropolitan population of 3,5 million (of a total for South Africa of 40 million), a large share of its Province (Gauteng)'s 33% contribution to the country's GDP, a high level of infrastructural and technological development, a cultural and creative vitality that radiates throughout the entire country, and a growing significance in the global economy, Johannesburg is demographically and economically not only a leading metropolis on the African continent, but it also constitutes an illuminating point of reference when trying to understand the new global urban system under way.

Furthermore, Johannesburg also brings together with particular intensity all the problems inherited from a dramatically divided past under the apartheid regime: territorial and urban fragmentation, ageing infrastructure, a slowing industrial economy based on mining, economic and social polarization, a tremendous shortage of dwellings and services in the most disadvantaged sectors, the proliferation of new informal settlements, etc. It is no wonder that many of the most significant urban and architectural projects in the country are concentrated here.

The exhibition here outlined offersa - gainst the backdrop of an outlook comprising the serious problems inherited from apartheid - an overview of the transformations under way in the city and its metropolitan area, and a selection of the most interesting architectural and urban projects completed or under way in the last ten years (1995-2005).

The common denominator of the best of these projects is twofold: firstly, they implement architectural and planning practices to overcome the social, political and cultural divisions of the past and to respond to the fluidity of the post apartheid landscape; secondly, and simultaneously, they contribute to develop South Africa's enormous economic potential and to make its principal cities (most particularly Johannesburg, but also Cape Town and Durban) international points of reference.

In addition, the exhibition also includes a selection of daring projects by former students of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of University of Witwatersrand, dealing with some of the most pressing and often intractable issues that the city faces.

Finally, an extraordinary series of photos by David Goldblatt documents and portrays how ordinary people are responding to these projects, and their agency in transforming the city; how their initiatives and the necessities of their lives (economic, social and cultural) rewrite the public and private spaces of the apartheid city (streets, parks, apartment blocks, traffic intersections, vacant land) into a fluid and contested urban terrain; and how, in the face of this, other citizens are retreating into private, parallel worlds, behind gates, fences and guard houses.

With its multi-dimensional approach, the exhibition shows how the transformations under way are often the scene of serious conflict between, on the one hand, the will to develop an urban policy that prioritizes the objective of greater justice and social and territorial balance and, on the other, strategies and large specific projects aimed at transforming an industrial economy to a financial and services based economy and at increasing competitiveness and profitability - strategies and projects that very often mean consolidating the territorial and urban guidelines handed down by apartheid.

By this token, beyond its intrinsic interest, the current South African experience, and more specifically the Johannesburg experience, speak to other 'emerging' countries and cities that are reinventing themselves in the wake of complex and divided pasts.

Labels: Exhibitions, Johannesburg, Mendrisio, Projects, urban research

Johannesburg Exhaust Sculpture: Mendrisio, Switzerland

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Minibus Taxis are the most popular means of transportation in the urban areas of South Africa. The taxi industry is largely informal and is characterised by competing Taxi associations. This informality is also reflected by the service industry related to the maintenance of taxis. Taxis are predominantly serviced by immigrant populations who provide specialised motor related services on the immediate sidewalks, in direct contravention of the city by-laws.

For most immigrants, harassment by the police is a constant fear, which has led to the criminalizing of activities and a sense of non-belonging and subsequent transient nature of life. Popular strategies of survival from police harassment include the falsification of identification documents, which is a thriving business in Johannesburg. Other strategies for survival include the speaking of Zulu by Zimbabwean residents. Most Zimbabweans claim to come from Kwa-Zulu Natal as a strategy for survival.

In negotiating a new vision for the city, It is often the economically disadvantaged who feel marginalised by the decision-making, because the vision is not theirs. In response to the situation, my construction of a car exhaust sculpture is a small gesture of recognition to the contribution made by the informal motor tradesman of Johannesburg.

Photo Credit: Pep Subiros

My brief here in Switzerland was to construct a freestanding visible physical element within a gallery context, which began to speak about the informal aspects of the city of Johannesburg. I was also asked to design a soundscape landscape and to produce an interactive map locating post-apartheid architectural projects in Johannesburg. With the generous help from a small family owned metal working company called 'Finke' here in Mendrisio Switzerland, a free standing exhaust structure constructed from car exhausts parts of Swiss origin was assembled. Sound equipment consisting of various car radio/tape players and car speakers were easily attached to the structure for the soundscape component of the brief. Lastly two 19" LCD screens were mounted on either end of the structure for the interactive mapping application.

My good friend Babak Fakhamzadeh who now resides in Thailand designed the mapping application. Babak's application allows me to map a location, add a description, tag associated images from Flickr.com and display relevant information related to a location through the use of Google Blog search.

For a first hand experience of the mapping application please visit the map page of this site.

Labels: Creative Response, Exhausts, Exhibitions, Installation, Johannesburg, Mendrisio

Dirk Bahmann's Minedump Furniture

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Dirk Bahmann is a Johannesburg architect and artist who has always shared a fascination for the minedumps of Johannesburg. As an architectural student, his master's thesis project focussed on minedumps as sacred spaces. As Bahmann elaborates, "The minedumps around the city seem to be part of the city landscape, yet at the same time they are dislocated from the activities of everyday life". Indeed it is this detached nature of the minedumps, which provides an opportunity for self-reflection.

It seems like the minedumps of Johannesburg have always been there. They are a constant reminder of the origins of the city from mining town to emerging Metropolis - the minedumps are an important part of the political economy of space. At the same time, the minedumps of Johannesburg are a contested space. Used as physical barriers to the city, the minedumps to the South West of the city were used effectively to divide the city from the South Western townships (Soweto).

And it is here, pressed up against the township side that the true nature of the Johannesburg minedumps are revealed. In tiny houses, the residents of Diepkloof Soweto struggle with respiratory diseases and continual dust, which has ingrained daily life. The minedumps are toxic landscapes synonymous for acidifying groundwater and radon gas. In recent years, many studies have been carried out looking at the potential of redeveloping the minedumps as potential areas for new housing developments. Other proposals seek to relocate minedumps away from the city to peripheral urban towns where they can be reprocessed. It seems like the minedumps of the city provides development value because of their proximity to the city. However, environmentalists warn that the dangers associated with radon gas are still apparent even though the minedumps are to be relocated.

In interpreting this shifting landscape, Bahmann was presented with the challenging task of recreating the minedump landscape of Johannesburg in a gallery context in Mendrisio Switzerland. His brief was to construct a type of furniture in the form of a minedump. According to the brief, the purpose of the furniture was to house exhibition related material, typically 2d graphic panels. Starting in early 2006, Bahmann's conceptualisation and design process was aided by Tom Chapman, an architecture student at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Early attempts to construct the minedump furniture resulted in failure. And so it seemed like an unenviable task, but strangely enough, it is funny how physical distance provides a new point of view, which often helps the creative process. In Bahmann's case, being here Mendrisio, away from the pressures of work and the big city, resulted in success. As new installation and building techniques developed with assistants from the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio all came together, culminating in impressive structures, which resemble the massive minedumps of Johannesburg.


In the gallery context, Bahmann's furniture seen in relation to one another seem to be shifting, their massive imposition, divides the gallery space, with visitors needing to walk on either side of the structures. Here in Mendrisio, a small town surrounded by the Swiss Alps, many parallels can be drawn between the impressive surrounding mountain range and the man made minedumps of Johannesburg. Perhaps many comparisons will be made through the mediation of Bahmann's furniture. And so ultimately, Mendrisio is not that far away from Johannesburg after all.

Click here for a slideshow presentation of the minedump furniture construction process.

Labels: Exhibitions, Johannesburg, Mendrisio, Minedumps