CityScapes - Reports from the Invisible City

The Goethe-Institut New Zealand has asked three young 'urban bloggers' from Auckland to share their views from deep inside the city as part of an international project CityScapes - Reports from the Invisible City.

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We live in an urban world. By 2030, more than five billion people will live in big cities, and more than 500 cities worldwide will have more than one million inhabitants.

The cities of South-East Asia / Australia / New Zealand and of Europe are as diverse as they are fascinating. They share more common features than one might expect, but each and every one of them has to face specific challenges. They all demonstrate their own styles, in terms of individual and common lifestyles, fashion and the arts, and in tackling global problems, to which many of them are finding individual solutions and responses.

While each and every one of those cities may have its own public - even glossy - reputation, there may still be other stories to tell: What is the untold story of this city? What is not easily visible? Where do our perceptions of life in this city diverge?

We have asked young bloggers to share their views from deep inside their respective cities. The emphasis is on views from the underground, views from outside and views beyond the common and commercial aspects of urban life.

The Goethe-Institut New Zealand is working with three young "urban reporters" from Auckland:

Ri Williamson / text blogger

Ri Williamson is an installation artist currently based in Auckland. Her work is best described as being suspended between art and architecture. Since graduation from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 2003, Ri has travelled extensively, working on research investigations abroad that inform her practice.

Ri loves big cities and her practice is fuelled by the socio-spatial dynamics of urban environments. Her projects, such as "In Search of the Nomadic State", ”Airside | Landside‘ and ”Architectural Membranes and the Proximity of Lives‘, have explored the cross•over of global mobility, communication technology, digital rendering, high-density urban development and architecture. Ri is currently studying Architecture at the University of Auckland and is a member of the Auckland City Council‘s Advisory Panel for Public Art. She is represented by Starkwhite.

Jonathan Brooking / photographic blogger

Based in Auckland and educated in Wellington, Jonathan‘s relationship with photography is to express his view on the cultural and social landscape. With his keen interest in subcultures and areas that often have little light shone on them, Jonathan explores and investigates how others inhabit the city and its surroundings.

Recent projects have ranged from Senegalese immigrants working and living illegally in Buenos Aires, Argentina, or lone fishermen in small towns in Peru, to a book published in South America investigating the major cities including the concept of human urbanisation. Not working exclusively with digital photography (educated during the cross-over from analogue to digital) Jonathan is confident with various visual platforms and currently uses stop motion and stills to explore different forms of visual storytelling.

Sahar Lone / multimedia blogger

Sahar Lone has reported for a magazine style news show on commercial radio for three years. Trained as a journalist, she also works in marketing for the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival. An Aucklander from birth, she is an avid explorer of the city and hopes to become better acquainted with its far reaching tentacles through the CityScapes project.

Sahar explored international environmental and trade issues while writing green business stories for www.nzherald.co.nz and is actively pursuing more work as a foreign correspondent since a visit to Kashmir, Pakistan. Reporting during the floods in 2010 left her with a desire to report on humanitarian issues.

At the end of the project each urban reporter will be invited to the

Grand Final

All participating journalists will be invited to a final meeting in one of the cities, where they will meet each other and experts from the field of urban studies, architecture and other topic-related fields. Travel expenses for the final meeting of the urban reporters will be covered by the Goethe-Institut.

Participating Cities: Auckland, Bangkok, Berlin, Hanoi, Istanbul, Jakarta, London, Manila, Prague, Saigon, Singapore and Sydney.

Through one central moderator overseeing the project for the duration of one year, each city team will be given a monthly topic and task. The team will contribute one text and one multimedia entry and one series of images relating to each topic per month for the duration of 2011.

Throughout the year this will create a kaleidoscope of opinions and comments, of research and impressions on any given topic. It will accentuate differences in response to the topics œ and of course allow the wider participating audience to access and discuss valuable and interesting cross cultural information.

Topics for January and February 2011:

• January: My year in the city -Work, play and get out of here!
• February: Going Local -Neighbourhood, Kiez, suburb in my city

Find the blog on: www.blog.goethe.de/cityscapes

For more information on the Goethe-Institut visit: www.goethe.de/nz

CityScapes - Reports from the Invisible City is a project of the Geothe-Institut - Germany's cultural institution.