The rhythms observed from an apartment window, seen from the window', to be pedestrian...
Several recurring themes emerge in Henri Lefebvres Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life Continuum (London, 2004): the difference between repetition and rhythm; the nature of cyclical and linear repetition and rhythm; the focus on the body as the source of multiple 'natural' rhythms; and the dialectical play of different rhythms, particularly the tense interplay of rational, industrial, linear time with natural, cyclical variants.
Some people just drift through the place, automatically lead there from Amsterdam Centraal, which is described with the word “derive” by the French artist and Situationist Guy Debord.
(Some of his work is exhibited in “mapping the city” in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
By doing this exercise we realized how many cctv cameras from the police are installed in the district and that people are hardly aware of that they are monitored all the time.
We got a high response from civilians, interested in what we are doing, doesn’t seem to bother them to much being captured. Amongst them, an American researcher who lives in Haarlem, the Netherlands and who and was interviewing artist working in Chinatown. He publishes everyday about the perception of art on his website www.ArtAndPerception.com
Standing out on the street at night, at the crossing point between Chinatown and the red-light district, gave a completely different picture than we had during the day. As soon as the light goes down, the audience changes. And surprisingly, you hardly see any Chinese people anymore.
The same cars were passing in every few minutes, with dark windows and men inside looking suspicious at us, and realized that now we became highly monitored ourselves. The rhythm gets definitely faster at night and the redlight district reaches its arms into Chinatown.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
EVERYDAY SHOPPING
by studying Walter Benjamins arcade project i found this link worth sharing with you:
http://www.othervoices.org/gpeaker/Prostit.html
http://www.othervoices.org/gpeaker/Prostit.html
Monday, March 5, 2007
Amanda Lear - Queen of Chinatown
The Music video Odyssey continues... For this week, retro-active aesthetics and heavy bass vocals by Amanda Lear!
Seizing the day
Friday we went to Amsterdam to work with our rythm analysis.We wanted to film at three scales simultaneously, capturing one event from the detail to its context. Originally we wanted to have one camera on street level, and the other two in a slightly higher position in order to get a better view. That proved difficult, though, so we ended up having all three cameras on street level.
Camera 1 was placed in one of the alleys between Chinatown and the Red Light District, directed towards a window in which a prostitute was working. Camera 2 was placed in the Zeedijk, where it intersects with the alley, capturing people going in and out of the alley. Camera 3 we put on a tripod in Nieuw Markt, directed towards the Zeedijk.
We captured people, mostly men, passing in the alley, looking at the women in the window, pausing to consider whether or not to go inside. Some did, some didn’t, some changed their mind and come back.
We saw herds of tourists walking from the alley and up the Zeedijk, we saw chinese women and men carrying shoppingbags from one of the chinese supermarkets in the area, a man picking up trash, police on bicycles, a horse and buggy.
We saw more tourists, cars running, people going in and out of cafes, people stopping in the street talking to eachother, a woman with a baby stopping to talk to us.
At the end of our day in Amsterdam, the pace of movement seemed to change a little, in a way everything became more dense, concentrated, focused. Many of the random tourists are gone by this time, the ones that are left seem to have more of a purpose. Taxis were almost the only kind of veichle passing in Zeedijk, though passing isn’t exactly the right word, because almost all of them stop at our intersection, letting people on and off. When the everyday-life is coming to an end and leaves the place to the every-night-life, it takes with it a lot of the activites and the people performing them, and the activities brought by the night don’t quite make up for the loss.
Camera 1 was placed in one of the alleys between Chinatown and the Red Light District, directed towards a window in which a prostitute was working. Camera 2 was placed in the Zeedijk, where it intersects with the alley, capturing people going in and out of the alley. Camera 3 we put on a tripod in Nieuw Markt, directed towards the Zeedijk.
We captured people, mostly men, passing in the alley, looking at the women in the window, pausing to consider whether or not to go inside. Some did, some didn’t, some changed their mind and come back.
We saw herds of tourists walking from the alley and up the Zeedijk, we saw chinese women and men carrying shoppingbags from one of the chinese supermarkets in the area, a man picking up trash, police on bicycles, a horse and buggy.
We saw more tourists, cars running, people going in and out of cafes, people stopping in the street talking to eachother, a woman with a baby stopping to talk to us.
At the end of our day in Amsterdam, the pace of movement seemed to change a little, in a way everything became more dense, concentrated, focused. Many of the random tourists are gone by this time, the ones that are left seem to have more of a purpose. Taxis were almost the only kind of veichle passing in Zeedijk, though passing isn’t exactly the right word, because almost all of them stop at our intersection, letting people on and off. When the everyday-life is coming to an end and leaves the place to the every-night-life, it takes with it a lot of the activites and the people performing them, and the activities brought by the night don’t quite make up for the loss.
On prostitution in Amsterdam in general
After having talked to the Ghanese girl (a prostitute in the Red Light District), we wanted to check her story by talking to some “reliable source”. Maybe it was our prejudice against prostitution that was so strong that even though our girl gave no signs of being a liar, we felt we had to get her story confimed. Is it really true that most of the girls work there without having someone pushing them into it? Or is that just something they tell us and themselves in order to make their lives more bearable?
The sex industry is probably one of the businesses with most prejudice connected to it, and the woman at the Prostitution Information Center (PIC) was quick to inform me that most of them are based on myths. Of course there exist women who are being exploited, but the big majority of the sex-workers work there out of own (free) will, and aren’t forced to do so by anyone.
The renting of the windows works more or less like a mall, she tells me. There are about 60 different landowners renting out windows in Amsterdam, providing the sex workers a place from which they can sell their services. But quite as a mall it doesn’t seem. The women pay up front per shift, each shift lasting 8-12 hours. Depending on the location of the window, the time of day, and day of week, the prices vary from 50 to 135 euros per shift. A normal start out price for a 20 min session is 50 euros. As in everything else, there are good days and bad days, sometimes you barely make the rent, sometimes you go home with your pocket full of 50-euro bills.
For the time being the market isn’t too good and there are plenty of empty windows. This might be the reason why some owners now start to ask for a week’s payment in advance- in order to secure their own income. Of course, this for the women is not such a good idea- if they fall sick one day, they loose the money. It’s less risky for the prostitutes to pay per day, of course, which also allows them a bit more freedom of movement. But it also means that in the beginning you must be prepared to move around a bit, taking one shift here and one shift there. When you’ve established a good relationship with the owner, and they know that you show up when you’ve said you will, chances are you’ll get a more permanent spot.
The window-owners, or the bosses as the woman at the PIC somethimes called them, are licenced by the government. They are obliged to provide a security service for the women working there. Every window is equipped with an alarm-button in case the prostitute should be in any kind of emergency. Even though customers very seldom get violent, there might be some minor quarrels, or there might of course occur some kind of health emergency. The bosses have people on their staff that come to help in these occations, only seldomly the police is called.
The bosses also often have offices where the prostitutes can by safe sex supplies. Everyone is responsible for his or her own health, so there are no compulsory check-ups for the girls. Hopefully both workers and customers are being responsible, but as with everything else, money makes a difference for some. Some customers are willing to offer double payment to put their own and the prostitute’s health at risk, and a strained economy sometimes make the women accept such an offer. The authorities are trying to provide information and help, and there are free clinics available. There also exist special teams that go around to clubs and brothels, to make it easier for the women to have their health checked.
The nationalities represented in the Red Light District varies a lot with the political and economical situation in the world. At least on the worker side. You have to be an EU citizen to work there legally, so most of the women are from European countries, or they have traveled through Europe in order to get a European passport. Since the Eastern European countries joined the EU, there’s been a boom in prostitues from these countries. Changes in the economic situation in different countries manifest themselves in changes in the number of workers from each country.
When it comes to the customers, it’s seems to be a bit more stable. The clients are mainly toursist and men in Amsterdam on business, and there seems to be an overwhelming majority of British men. Most Dutch customers go to one of the many other Red Light Districts in Holland or Amsterdam, avoiding the largest one. If you do see a Dutch man in “our” Red Light District, chances are that he’s there for one special woman only.
Check out website: www.pic-amsterdam.com
The sex industry is probably one of the businesses with most prejudice connected to it, and the woman at the Prostitution Information Center (PIC) was quick to inform me that most of them are based on myths. Of course there exist women who are being exploited, but the big majority of the sex-workers work there out of own (free) will, and aren’t forced to do so by anyone.
The renting of the windows works more or less like a mall, she tells me. There are about 60 different landowners renting out windows in Amsterdam, providing the sex workers a place from which they can sell their services. But quite as a mall it doesn’t seem. The women pay up front per shift, each shift lasting 8-12 hours. Depending on the location of the window, the time of day, and day of week, the prices vary from 50 to 135 euros per shift. A normal start out price for a 20 min session is 50 euros. As in everything else, there are good days and bad days, sometimes you barely make the rent, sometimes you go home with your pocket full of 50-euro bills.
For the time being the market isn’t too good and there are plenty of empty windows. This might be the reason why some owners now start to ask for a week’s payment in advance- in order to secure their own income. Of course, this for the women is not such a good idea- if they fall sick one day, they loose the money. It’s less risky for the prostitutes to pay per day, of course, which also allows them a bit more freedom of movement. But it also means that in the beginning you must be prepared to move around a bit, taking one shift here and one shift there. When you’ve established a good relationship with the owner, and they know that you show up when you’ve said you will, chances are you’ll get a more permanent spot.
The window-owners, or the bosses as the woman at the PIC somethimes called them, are licenced by the government. They are obliged to provide a security service for the women working there. Every window is equipped with an alarm-button in case the prostitute should be in any kind of emergency. Even though customers very seldom get violent, there might be some minor quarrels, or there might of course occur some kind of health emergency. The bosses have people on their staff that come to help in these occations, only seldomly the police is called.
The bosses also often have offices where the prostitutes can by safe sex supplies. Everyone is responsible for his or her own health, so there are no compulsory check-ups for the girls. Hopefully both workers and customers are being responsible, but as with everything else, money makes a difference for some. Some customers are willing to offer double payment to put their own and the prostitute’s health at risk, and a strained economy sometimes make the women accept such an offer. The authorities are trying to provide information and help, and there are free clinics available. There also exist special teams that go around to clubs and brothels, to make it easier for the women to have their health checked.
The nationalities represented in the Red Light District varies a lot with the political and economical situation in the world. At least on the worker side. You have to be an EU citizen to work there legally, so most of the women are from European countries, or they have traveled through Europe in order to get a European passport. Since the Eastern European countries joined the EU, there’s been a boom in prostitues from these countries. Changes in the economic situation in different countries manifest themselves in changes in the number of workers from each country.
When it comes to the customers, it’s seems to be a bit more stable. The clients are mainly toursist and men in Amsterdam on business, and there seems to be an overwhelming majority of British men. Most Dutch customers go to one of the many other Red Light Districts in Holland or Amsterdam, avoiding the largest one. If you do see a Dutch man in “our” Red Light District, chances are that he’s there for one special woman only.
Check out website: www.pic-amsterdam.com
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Creative Practice Workshop
Asignment:
Find a place in the Faculty of Architecture that you’d like to change. Movement patterns, behavior, focus. Make an intervention that you think will lead to this change. Document it. Document what happens.
Result:
We picked our spot in the cafeteria, and wanted to create more order. We tried to change peoples routines for cleaning up their own mess, andt raise some environmental awareness. This is what happened.
A girl from Ghana
Subject: Prostitute in the red light district. To where and who is this subject connected? Our scope is to be able to untangle the threads attatched to this person, make maps of her movement and her connections, see how she uses the city.
Going around in the red light district we worked up the courage to try to talk to some of the sex-workers there. A girl from Ghana agreed to talk to us. She’s a quite nice-looking girl/woman, I’m guessing she’s in her mid-twenties, she doesn’t look so tired as so many of the other women in the area. She told us she came here seven years ago with her father. Three years ago she began working as a prostitute, simply because it seemed like the easiest way to earn money. Easy has to be an exaggeration, at least according to my idea of it. She said she’s working 18 hours a day, from 10 am to 4 am, six days a week. Not exactly my idea of easy money.
Working 18 hours a day means that she doesn’t really have time to use the city she’s living in , to experience it. For us it also means that our mapping of her will have to focus on other things in addition to her movement during the day. Finding out how the business is organized, what her clients are like, from who she rents her window etc, are all quite interesting factors.
We discover that our girl is not only a subject, she is also very much objectified. Not merely as an object of lust for certain clients and bypassers. By confining herself in such a narrow space that a red-light window is, she limits her own possibilites to affect her environment, she is very much dependent on people coming to her.
But obviously, in other ways she’s as much a subject as anyone else. She tells us that she’s working independently, not being organized in any way, no pimp watching her back and taking his share of the money. So if she sometimes decides to not come to work, that’s her choice. How long she stays at work, is also her choice. She tells us that she normally works very hard to make her rent, and that she allows herself a bit more slack when she has secured the day’s profit.
I must admit that what we discover by talking to this girl, is very different from what I expected to find. I was imagining that by interviewing a prostitute, a whole spiderweb of connections and relations would reveal itself to us. I was expecting to find unexpected connections of some sort, seeing that everything in this city is somehow tied together. Ok, I was perhaps hoping for too much. But what we’ve found actually contradicts all my assumptions. At least I would think that the Red Light District and Chinatown would be connected, if only by the fact that our girl would go to one of the chinese restaurants in the area. Of course these connections might still exist even if we haven’t discovered them yet.
But honestly, I don’t think we’ll find these links through our prostitute. In the little free time she has, she sometimes goes to a nearby bar to get a cup of coffee with one of her friends. They’re all prostitutes, for as she says, when should she have time to meet anyone else? So she seems to be operating in a very limited space, and the people connected to her aren’t making it a whole lot bigger. Tomorrow we’ll try to find her again (contrary to our assumptions she’s not in the same window every night, we recently discovered), and ask her more about her father and sister. Maybe that will be the link we need to a bigger web. Maybe.
Going around in the red light district we worked up the courage to try to talk to some of the sex-workers there. A girl from Ghana agreed to talk to us. She’s a quite nice-looking girl/woman, I’m guessing she’s in her mid-twenties, she doesn’t look so tired as so many of the other women in the area. She told us she came here seven years ago with her father. Three years ago she began working as a prostitute, simply because it seemed like the easiest way to earn money. Easy has to be an exaggeration, at least according to my idea of it. She said she’s working 18 hours a day, from 10 am to 4 am, six days a week. Not exactly my idea of easy money.
Working 18 hours a day means that she doesn’t really have time to use the city she’s living in , to experience it. For us it also means that our mapping of her will have to focus on other things in addition to her movement during the day. Finding out how the business is organized, what her clients are like, from who she rents her window etc, are all quite interesting factors.
We discover that our girl is not only a subject, she is also very much objectified. Not merely as an object of lust for certain clients and bypassers. By confining herself in such a narrow space that a red-light window is, she limits her own possibilites to affect her environment, she is very much dependent on people coming to her.
But obviously, in other ways she’s as much a subject as anyone else. She tells us that she’s working independently, not being organized in any way, no pimp watching her back and taking his share of the money. So if she sometimes decides to not come to work, that’s her choice. How long she stays at work, is also her choice. She tells us that she normally works very hard to make her rent, and that she allows herself a bit more slack when she has secured the day’s profit.
I must admit that what we discover by talking to this girl, is very different from what I expected to find. I was imagining that by interviewing a prostitute, a whole spiderweb of connections and relations would reveal itself to us. I was expecting to find unexpected connections of some sort, seeing that everything in this city is somehow tied together. Ok, I was perhaps hoping for too much. But what we’ve found actually contradicts all my assumptions. At least I would think that the Red Light District and Chinatown would be connected, if only by the fact that our girl would go to one of the chinese restaurants in the area. Of course these connections might still exist even if we haven’t discovered them yet.
But honestly, I don’t think we’ll find these links through our prostitute. In the little free time she has, she sometimes goes to a nearby bar to get a cup of coffee with one of her friends. They’re all prostitutes, for as she says, when should she have time to meet anyone else? So she seems to be operating in a very limited space, and the people connected to her aren’t making it a whole lot bigger. Tomorrow we’ll try to find her again (contrary to our assumptions she’s not in the same window every night, we recently discovered), and ask her more about her father and sister. Maybe that will be the link we need to a bigger web. Maybe.
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