Wasteland Sydney is happy to announce a new project: Wasteland Sydney Satellites: Wasteland Satellite Beaconsfield As mentioned earlier http://wasteland-twinning.net/blog/fenced-off/ the Wasteland in Surry Hills will be inaccessible for the next two years. In order to reflect on the fast changeing cityscape of Sydney I have nominated the first sibling wasteland to the Albion St land. The first wasteland satellite is in the tiny inner-city suburb of Beaconsfield. It is located ... more »
Using a dredging device made from our beloved Heris fencing, builders mesh and scrapped tire chains, this initial experiment attempted to carry out small scale excavations of material from the bed of the river Spree. Predictions: Will Foster predicted that the device would get stuck while I really wanted to pull up a red children’s bicycle. The Spree riverbed was littered with glass and other deterrents to those contemplating an ... more »
As a way to present Wasteland Twinning I organised an afternoon workshop with students from Lawrence Technological University, Detroit, under the benevolent eye of their tutor Steve Coy. We bumped into Steve and Dorthe Coy on the Köpi Brache a few weeks ago and discussed giving a short presentation of the project and coming Fallow Games. Students were encouraged to bring broken objects, machines and discarded materials from the city to ... more »
A series of experiments using long distance communication. Questions and answers have been flying across the river Spree and through Skype with project partners The Islanders in Nottingham. Semaphore flags made from Heris fencing were provided for wasteland users with examples of semaphore code while we took up position on the opposite bank to conduct ad hoc interviews. Interviewees included a small family who were ‘Suchen für schatz’, ‘on a ... more »
I have been making more tools of the trade, my approach at the moment is to simply adapt found objects on the wasteland and leave them for people to use. In some cases I am playing with an already existing function; for example people have already used several Heras fences to climb the wall into the ice factory. I took one of the Heras fences and adapted it into a more conventional and sturdy ladder shape. I’m curious to ... more »
Today I began the process of producing a series of rounders bats (similar to a baseball bat) for a forthcoming research method involving game play and sports on the wasteland that reference the idea of the adventure playgrounds, reckie and the ‘dangerous’ play areas of youth. This sporting event moreover serves another function as a research method; it is designed to create a temporary space with an alterior rule-set unbound ... more »
Objects found on the Island and the Köpi Brache Documented By Will Foster and Rebecca Beinart. November 2011 The exclamation “Snap!” is occasionally used in conversation and has a similar meaning to “Me too!”, denoting a similar experience being had between two parties. ‘Snap AKA Egyptian Ratscrew (commonly known by Egyptian War, Egyptian Rat War, ERS, Egyptian Rat Slap, Slaps, Acid, and many other names) is acard game of the matching family of games, reminiscent of Slapjack and Beggar-My-Neighbour)’
I visited Berlin Wasteland in fall. The site is huge! Next to the river Spree it is located between the famous Köpi Squat and the Media Spree development. I was welcomed by Will and he showed me the anglers, gardens, home made half-pipe and warned me about the dog poop. The space was very inspiring – large overgrown areas framed by the studio and the old ice cream factory next ... more »
The Ghost of Eastside Yet To Come As we continue our investigations into the Wasteland’s strange past we have news of the wasteland’s future. From the Nottingham Evening Post: “TESCO has abandoned its bid to build a superstore on the city’s Eastside development site, near Sneinton. The company withdrew plans to build an Extra store earlier this year after Nottingham City Council officers recommended they be refused.” The full story ... more »