Promising Home – The People’s History Museum, Manchester

From October 29th to January 13th The People’s History Museum, Manchester will host an IUD ‘temporary research space’ in its Community Gallery. The research space will make available a range of photographs and materials we’ve produced while documenting the changing state of council housing in Pendleton, Salford.

IUD Archive Image (2014)

Based in a tower block in Pendleton, we have been recording and researching the estate since 2004. The Community Gallery exhibit will highlight a wide range of images and research materials from this extended period of research that critically examines the estates recent transformation.

IUD Archive Image (2013) – Walk with Dr Simon Faulkner & David Reeb

Posted by IUD-john

Co-founder of IUD, cultural worker & educator

West of the Tracks (Tie Xi Qu)

Wang Bing’s immersive nine hour documentary epic explores the changing world of China between 1999 to 2001. Set in the North-East of the country in Shenyang, his observational style records the physical and social textures of the regions heavy industry in its final stages before closure through bankruptcy.

Divided into three sections (Rust, Remnants and Rails) the documentary uses a ‘direct cinema’ approach to faithfully witness the people caught up in the massive changes to their work and homes as a consequence of reform era changes to the former planned market economy. See Jie Li’s excellent article for a further analysis of the film’s context and cinematic style West of the Tracks – Salvaging the Rubble of Utopia.

West of the Tracks (2002)

Posted by IUD-john

Co-founder of IUD, cultural worker & educator

IUD visit Xiancun urban village in Guangzhou, April 2015

Posted by IUD Jane

Artist, Writer & Teacher, Founding Member of Institute of Urban Dreaming.

Architectures of Displacement – Salford, UK & Guangzhou, China – Temporary Research Space

IUD archive image. Close up from a council neighbourhood being cleared for private homes. Salford, UK: 2012.

Currently IUD is exhibiting in The Fire and the Rose curated by Tongyu Zhou as part of the Asia Triennial 14. The work is located in the Vertical Gallery, 3rd Floor, Benzie Building , Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University. We have created a Temporary Research Space, an invitation to spend time exploring selected materials from our archive, derived from fieldwork and other research in Salford, UK and Guangzhou, China. Also included are a small sample of related critical and fieldwork texts. The show is on until November 28th.

Posted by IUD-john

Co-founder of IUD, cultural worker & educator

Spatial justice and Urban De(re)generation

“Just as none of us are beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.” Edward Said, Culture & Imperialism

IUD Archive Image. Uneven Development research project. Public space next to a residential neighbourhood being cleared and gentrified with luxury high rise flats. Guangzhou, China: 2013.

Posted by IUD-john

Co-founder of IUD, cultural worker & educator

Focus E15 Mothers occupy council houses

Young mothers who were evicted from a hostel called Focus E15 in September 2013 are occupying vacant council houses in East London. The mothers, who were told to look for accomodation on the private rental market in Manchester, Birmingham and Hastings, joined together to resist displacement and fight for “social housing not social cleansing”. The group will be holding an open meeting about the conditions of the estate (recently their water has been turned off) this Sunday 28th September.

Posted by IUD Jane

Artist, Writer & Teacher, Founding Member of Institute of Urban Dreaming.

The Neoliberal City

David Harvey’s talk on the Neoliberal City 2007 at Dickinson College, sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. Harvey discusses the role that urbanisation has played in absorbing capitalist surpluses. It also addresses the implications of how the neoliberal city is being fashioned in the interests of the wealthy elites and its implications for democracy and governance.

Also look at:

Accumulation by dispossession by Harvey

Designs for a Post-Neoliberal City – e-flux

Image from Bustler.net

Posted by IUD-john

Co-founder of IUD, cultural worker & educator

Spatial Justice & Social Housing

Sarah Glynn – Where the Other Half Lives 2009. New York: Pluto Press.

The work considers the issues surrounding social housing in today’s neoliberal economic climate. The work ties in with key institute issues around spatial agency and spatial justice for people living in housing estates and in council housing.

Posted by IUD-john

Co-founder of IUD, cultural worker & educator

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