Taking Back Streets: Documenting Barcelona
Also: On NFTs Book Launch, New NYT vs OpenAI arguments, and The Art-ification of Media
I love cities. I also love cities that prioritise people over cars. I also love cities that do this in really smart ways that still allows the presence of cars, but deprioritises them. Barcelona is one such city and it’s in the midst of a great re-imagination. I hope it inspires more cities. When I visited it recently for the first time, I took the opportunity to document it for myself.
In 2016, Barcelona started a small experiment called a “superblock”, the aim of which was to reduce through traffic and increase public spaces. It started in Poblenou.
Cars can come in, but exit in a one-way direction. So, cars *can* reach inside the superblock, but, essentially, there’s no through traffic. It was a big success and Barcelona started adopting a grander strategy of pedestrianizing more of the city under the broader “superilla” program. Instead of blocks, it would be axes. Cars and motorbikes are deprioritised across various parts of the city..
One of the first pedestrianized such thoroughfares is in Carrer del Consell de Cent. Good chunks of it finished construction in 2023. I walked a good length of it and put it side by side for comparison to how it changed.
The area around Girona metro:
And then, some more shots from elsewhere on the street:
~104 Carrer del Consell de Cent
~403 Carrer del Consell de Cent
Somewhere in the middle of the pedestrianized street.
~415 Carrer del Consell de Cent
This is not one of the plazas, but where there is a thoroughfare (the shot I took is me standing in the street).
It’s all so generally lovely. Imagine Manhattan with Superblocks? Especially in car cultures. All cities could do this. Upzone & Superblock. Have you been to Barcelona? What do you think?
Sources:
https://twitter.com/Qagggy/status/1155524108232192000
https://www.barcelona.de/en/barcelona-superblocks.html
https://www.elperiodico.com/es/mas-barcelona/20160905/superilla-poblenou-realidad-5361399
https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en/
Bonus Content!
I’m back home and catching up after a busy month of travelling. Glad to get running again properly. I ran quite a bit during my travels, more than I expected, but nothing beats being the meditative energy of falling back into your local running route!
On NFTs Launch and Curation
The final part of my travels took me to Paris to attend the On NFTs book launch by Taschen. Some of my work is included in the 600+ page compendium. Really grateful for that!
I was also really happy to finally meet Rhea Myers in person at the event. She was one of the first people who didn’t dismiss the experiments I started back in 2014. Her work has always been an inspiration.
I’m glad a book at this scale was made. That being said, it brings about an interesting set of thoughts, personally. The NFT + blockchain art space seems to really crave recognition of established art and design institutions at the same that it lets more native curatorial endeavours fail (RIP JPG). Works from artists like Takens Theorem begs the question: if we are using a technology with indelible provenance, to what extent is existing curation necessary?
The harder job is to re-imagine what curation could be when your medium already includes all the necessary records that continues to grow at its own pace.
Books are great. I love books. They are checkpoints and provides a wonderful perspective. The act of editing such a massive tome is a lot of work and effort. It’s important and I’m glad that Robert Alice and co made it with Taschen! I love it. I also hope that books aren’t the only way we recognise and catalogue all that’s happening.
The Art-ification of Media
Speaking of curation. Mackenzie from Ensemble gave a run-down of some film-makers experimenting with using their medium more as an art-form first. Click through to see of the films/videos!
In this case, the terms film and art both fit, but there are very real reasons that most of these filmmakers have primarily opted for the term art to describe their work, and artists to describe themselves. People are not used to collecting films, but they are used to collecting art. Additionally, the term ‘art’ is a better frame to introduce an audience to these works- which are generally more abstract than films most are used to watching.
and then:
What has emerged is a completely new form of funding films- films are viewed by audiences on social media (not new), and supported by collectors on NFT platforms (new), disconnecting the act of experiencing the film from paying for it.
I find this compelling because art usually attracts a premium as a form of media. Whether it’s deserved or not (eg, one can argue that art generally tries to condense meaning), in the current milieu of media, it’s sometimes easier to imagine making a living from art-ifying media vs retaining its characteristic of only being entertainment. Whether the media changes to fit the art narrative might happen, but I even think that one can retain a piece of media in its original form and then resorting to art derivatives. eg, making a film and then making art about the film.
The same goes for music. Don’t make songs as NFTs, but rather the vibes of music. Gigamesh knows what’s up.
New NYT vs OpenAI Arguments
I found this take by Lee and Grimmelmann on the NYT case vs OpenAI to be quite compelling. Using examples from MP3.com, Google Books, and Texaco, the case is made that fair use is often considered holistically. In generative AI, the law looks at both the inputs (training) and the outputs of it (is it infringing or not).
Judicial opinions are framed as technical legal analysis, but they are often driven by a judge’s gut feeling about whether a defendant has created a useful service or is merely seeking to profit from the creative efforts of others.
An argument here that I think adds to their case is that last year’s Supreme Court decision on the fair use of a derivative of a photo by Prince by Warhol was NOT fair use. Because, even if it’s transformative, if it still replaces the work in the context of the original’s use, it’s not fair use. In other words, the modified photo of Prince, licensed as a magazine cover is too close to the purpose of the original. In other words, the eventual impact extended beyond the original scope of transformative fair use to include the overlap of the intention of the derivative.
Andres recommended reading this follow up take. I think hinging the argument on whether LLM’s memorize feels a bit off, personally. They absolutely do represent what looks like memorization, but it’s not in line with previous concepts of mechanical reproduction and copying. There’s no “copy” in the machine, so to speak.
Either way, curious to see how this all unfolds.
Men I Trust - Billie Toppy
One of the YouTube comments describes this well.
80's dark wave undertones, driving bass line, breathy vocals. Yep. Another hit!
Yes. Totally vibes. Love it.
That’s all for this week, folks! Thanks for reading. Hope you get to enjoy a lovely sunset.
Simon