Research Brief

КООП. Cooperative urbanism

This is a brief introduction to activism in Moscow, both city-wide and district specific. It is for workshop participants to explore and understand tactical thinking, media, technology and data for activism. The idea is not to direct your projects, but instead to suggest areas we have identified through preliminary discussions and research that you can further develop. We suggest participants examine these issues by trying to understand its citywide importance, while looking at a district specific case. Participants should pay specific attention urban tactics, media and social ecology. An on-going survey of city activists will inform and support different aspects of your work.

INTRODUCTION: CONNECTING DISCUSSIONS ON AND OFFLINE

In Moscow, or Russia more specifically, the internet has served as a forum for public space; a space where public discussions and gatherings are held. There are several ways in which media is being used to engage and understand the city. Although there are limits to accessing (and in availability) of online data, the proliferation of information and communication technology allows real issues to be examined and local tensions to be explored and addressed. This raises the question: what are the links between virtual and physical spaces in the city?

Understanding media ecologies offers insights into opportunities to support tactics and activism. Websites like Vkontakte for instance are less about social networking and more of sharing communities; it functions differently from Facebook. Similarly, looking at the problems from an urban tactics point of view creates room for solving issues.

Spatial and textual analysis using user generated data allows us to focus on places with real challenges blooming. But it’s also important to rethink all aspects of what we think is data and how data connects and informs a bigger picture, and how efforts at various scales and across issues in the city can be synthesized and synergized.

Additionally, there are other low-tech ways of sharing and generating data: posters and signage, graffiti and street art, stenciling etc. Posters and banners used during the occupy movement in Moscow form another statement in public space.

There a variety of forms of data, real and potential roles in which media, technology and research can support urban tactics and district level as well as city level activism. Some questions this raises are: What is reliable and user generated data? How can technology be used to connect and activate citizens? How can people become better engaged? What information emerges from data gathered across issues and districts? How does this data enable new ways of understanding the city ? What are the physical, visible, invisible, online, offline and tactile forms of data?

There are many forms of data: photos, maps, letters, which are an almost overlooked form of communication but emerge from a soviet tradition. Data generated through ethnographic research can be of all types, and we will continually examine what media and technological tools are enabling, in terms of data generation and sharing in Moscow.

The workshop will operate on two levels throughout; participants should consider both a city-wide and highly localized intervention to support activism. We will discuss site specific civic action across the city through an examination of information generated by Occupy Abai; local community and district level activism in Troparevo-Nikulini; site specific, highly contentious highway construction and the tradition of forest conservation and contemporary activism across three districts in close physical proximity; issues of food, space, gentrification and preservation at the Red October Chocolate Factory site.

The research from each of these will inform creating a tool for crowd-sourced and independently accountable civic action, from urban repair to interventions — the high-tech version of Partizaning mailboxes.

Connecting citizens, activists and leveraging government involvement as required. But the aim is to find and address weak spots and fill in for the lack of effectiveness and participation in local government.

A. The Need for SynchroniCITY: A Technological Tool for Civic Engagement and Activism in Moscow

“For the last couple of years, activists in Russian cities succeed with numerous of creative actions in order to protect old buildings, forests, promote cycling and pedestrian culture etc. But, many of them are effective only as media interventions or direct, local activism. To solve problems on a city-wide level, we need special tools for sharing experiences and synchronizing activities.”

In Russia, forums for social media expression online include: VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and Flickr. Social Media tags can be used to explore user generated and share information. These tools and media are being used in different ways by different movements.

There are already several groups of active citizens and movements who work on issues across the city, but they remain disjointed and un-synchronized, with few opportunities to collaborate or join forces. In the last several years however, grassroots activism and engagement has been emerging and is an important space for urban intervention.

We have identified the following areas used by local activists to engage each other:

1. Based on real / immediate issues (district specific ex: targeting infrastructure improvements)
2. Based on shared concerns (environmentalism)
3. Based on events and projects

Different sorts of problems exist on a micro/local and citywide scale; these are issue based, event based and type based. People need to be connected and to share data and information and they need a tool to direct them to get the best information to solve it themselves. We envision an online tool for empowering users. Based on discussions with experts and activists, we propose the following projects or areas for city wide urban intervention tools:

Prototyping a Citizen action Tool

What is needed?

> Connecting people with activists and local problems. Creating partnerships within communities. Creating a visual network that facilitates engagement for the Delai Sam marathon in Moscow by showing different actors and their projects / area of activism. This will mean examining issues of Participation, Local Activism and wiki, engagement and empowerment, the limitations of activities organized by Eco-loft / Eco-wiki and projects like Wiki parliament and Delai Sam, (identifying the limitations of the wiki for instance).

> Creating the wire frame for a crowdsourced urban intervention network which enables activism as well as DIYism. synchronize those who want to but they don’t know what to do is a huge untapped potential – people write and say they want to do something so we just need to show and define what they want to do. How do you get people together to clean something, or gather together on an issue for instance.

Questions to consider:

1. How do we connect tactical urbanism, media ecologies and engage citizens (participation?) Is the virtual space the new public? How do we visualize and enable local activism and community engagement? Who are the people that need to be connected?  What about people that are not technologically connected or smartphone users?

2. How can activists and social movements organize events and meet up with others working on related themes and issues. Ex: Delai Sam? How do you visualize the connections to understand where people connect in interests, projects, resources and people?

3. In conversation with other researchers and deputies, we have found that although municipal’s would like the same tool for themselves, it is actually more useful and powerful to create such a tool for citizens in a specific community.How do we support citywide and district level activism through a technological tool? What do we learn if we critically examine use by Dom Dvor Dorogi, Gorod, streetsjournal to understand how a crowdsourced / DIY / urban intervention tool might be more useful?

4. Using high-tech vs. low tech interfaces – what is better to categorize, share and engage? Or a combination of both (ex: cowdsourced / ushahidi and a PDF or bulletin?)

5. What are limitations of the existing websites and forums?

Resources:

Partizaning Presentation

Hi-Tech:
For good aesthetics and interface design examples:
The Civic Crowd
Open Source Maps:
Open Street Map
Ushahidi:
Crowdmap
Pre-Ushahidi Project involvement:
Grakon

Low-Tech:
Occupy NYC Project List

B. Site Specific Case Studies

1. Theme: City wide activism + Open education

The Occupy Abai Movement in Moscow
Site: Chistie Prudi (Clear Ponds), Metro: Chistie Prudie
Problem: Mass falsification, social and political crisis
Urban Tactics: Camping, Guerilla Gardening, Public Lectures, Living Rooms, Walking, Cycling
Media Ecology: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Media interviews
Social Ecology: Artists, intellectuals, social ‘elite’

Moscow’s Occupy Abai is a distinct stream of protest; it differs in its demands as well as in its tactics. As a case study, participants can explore what their messages / activities / locations reveal about the movement. Analyzing their use of social media and technology, posters, stenciling etc. (FB statuses, twitter hashtags, fb events). Participants can help to create a robust social media plan for local activists to engage with one another and with their city. They can explore through data the ways in which occupy is on the one hand connected to occupy movements across cities in the world, but also a unique response and desire for urban change in Moscow. They can also look at connections between the virtual and physical public spaces and try to map the sites / squares where protests and discussions are being organized – Arbat, Barrakadnaya etc. – to understand their role as a tactic. Students will attend one of the occupy assemblies on Sunday, July 15th to gather data and analyze the ongoing discussions surrounding education in an effort to understand how the group functions. They will also explore issues of space, activism and education; practices of everyday life in public; self organizing; and the right to space in the city. They should consider occupy in the context of recent internet censorship laws as well as legislation that now prohibits groups of cyclists and picnickers from advertizing and gathering online, to consider what remaining spaces for activism exist in the city and how this relates to urbanism.

    

Research Questions:
How is data being used? In what forms? (Media Ecology)
How is space being used and what does this suggest? (Urban Tactics)
Who is involved? (Social Ecology)
What are suggestions and strategies that could help achieve the goals of this movement?
How can good strategies be shared across occupy movements? How do you go from being elite to involving minorities and marginalized to voice their concerns in public?
There are many different types of occupy – so how do we engage fringe populations?

Articles:
Occupy Data NYC
Russia Protests: Activists Occupy Moscow Plaza
Rebel Cities: The Urbanization of Class Struggle
Moscow Protests Recall Situationist Ideals

2. Theme: Strengthening Local activism and Public engagement
Site: Troparevo-Nikulino, Metro: Yugozapadnaya
Problems: ‘reconstruction’ of a local forest, parking, building a new church, cycling activism infrastructure.
Urban Tactics: Mobile cinema, Partizaning mailboxes, DIY cycling path mapping
Media Ecology: Facebook groups, E-mail / Phone connectivity, letters
Social Ecology: Local community, groups of activists, local authorities, individual activists

       

Troparevo-Nikulino is a quiet neighborhood with several typical microrayon building types – extremely high-rise, dense residential spaces and little street or night life. It is the last stop on the metro red line and has a strong local community. Part of the district is home to a former Olympic village. The district has a strong, active local community and several issues in their neighborhood. They have a beautiful boulevard where weekends see families and cyclists gathering, but also face a growing number of cars. People are antagonized by the proliferation of cars in the area.

Issues they face include parking because of an increase in cars and also the lack of commuting options from so far away, as well as the reconstruction of their local forest using non native, non climate or ecologically appropriate trees. People have written letters to express the desire for a car free zone and also to identify issues in their neighborhood. Every weekend, they organize a community event with a concert using a mobile venue that has become a cinema and discussion forum in the community. There is an interesting political dynamic in recently plans for a new church were drawn up that are in conflict with a space that was proposed for cycling paths and infrastructure, pitting two groups against one another.

The role of participants in this district would be to identify or select an issue within the local community and support their activism through an intervention, strategy or proposing a solution for improved dialogue. For instance, car free days or parklets, helping them to plan a public or street art festival,  with the Ministry of Culture to activate any unused space in the neighborhood could be one option. There is an abandoned constructivist like structure which used to be a bar and will likely become a future site for street art. Recently, this site was revitalized by participants of interactive Moscow urban intervention project.

The benefits of working with this district are that we have established contacts, we have a lot of mail received with maps and data and Partizaning is already known and trusted in the community. There are no major, contentious issues, just a need for small, practical solutions.

Participants can also examine the mailbox strategy we use and suggest improvements. Troparevo was the site of our pilot mailbox project, which is a form of tactical urbanism. This tactic has a history of letter writing rooted in a soviet tradition and is a method of activism that is low-tech and extremely participatory. So far we have not used a PR strategy, only word of mouth from local activists within the community. The tactic of the mialboxes is to use an unsanctioned low tech intervention, looking official but stating its by the citizens and for the citizens. There is no illusion, but it helps to be taken seriously. Using official looking signage to communicate something different and engage people in a different and unusual way. The interaction design could be considered here. The idea is that perhaps marking favorite locations in a community or neighborhood signifies a space in which people could gather for productive public discussion to solve the problems which they face in different areas. This mailbox letter mapping can become the basis for the Coop Citizen Engagement Tool as well. Participants can help us by suggesting: what is the best way to share the data? How can the intervention be improved and crowdsourced? How can this project be improved?

We have noticed skaters who lack facilities in the area. Recently, a popup movie theater was installed in the community. Cyclist activism is visible in the neighborhood and in the greater area of Yugozapadnya, which has been proposed for a pilot cycling infrastructure and intervention space in the city. One possible area for intervention by students can be collating and enabling mapping and DIYism for cycling activism in an area of Moscow where the first cycling pilot project is being proposed. On Wednesday, participants can meet cycling activists at a cycling conference will be held at Strelka.

Research Questions:
How can highly localized activism be synchronized and supported through technology?
How do you connect, catalogue and organize low tech interventions?
How do you connect physical and virtual data?

Articles:
Expanded Moscow
Realtor Names Most Promising Areas of Moscow
Muscovites Against the Felling of Trees, Farms and Construction of New Roads
Low Scale Activists

Readings:
Collaborative reprogramming by Filippo Bazoni

3. Cross district activism against city-wide projects + district level synchronizing between groups
Site: Koptevo, Shukino, Voykovski
Problem: building a highway (North-West Chord) and issues of deforestation
Urban Tactics used so far: signage on fences, protests, letter writing, fliers
Media Ecology: Facebook groups, blogs
Social Ecology: locals, activists, municipals, city officials

Cataloguing the tactics, typologies of building, future data, analyzing the text of the letters and discussions.

Moscow is expanding, with plans to now grow to 2.5 times its original size and part of the strategy for moving people and easing car congestion is to construct fast moving highways (which have their own environmental and sustainability implications.) The construction of the Chord highway (10 lanes) which would run through several districts is particularly problematic. On the one hand, in their immediate problems: they disrupt pavements and roads, making it uncomfortable for pedestrians and cyclists to move around. On the other hand, the highways will ultimately facilitate more cars and air pollution. Although suggested, it is not following the railroad (circular) and is in fact a straight line highway whose construction and physical presence will likely be highly distruptive and negatively affect people’s health in the long run.

Forest preservation, conservation and activism is particularly important in Moscow. In recent years, the Khimki Forest and its activists and particular form of protectionism have pitted city authorities against environmentalists as well as created a significant divide in the society in terms of opinions. Several ‘extreme’ activists have had to leave the country and seek asylum for their activities. Nevertheless, they are seen as heroes for standing up to and attempting to preserve the forests. In this context, emerges other forest preservation activism and movements that are against the development plans which are being led by the city. It might be interesting to consider urban tactics, data gathering and possible intervention by first doing research about other forest preservation efforts and activities – what has worked and what has not?

Activists in several districts – from locals to municipalities – are beginning to rally around the issues. They are active on facebook, using listservs and blogs for discussion. Recently there was a project by Cornell University architects in the area to revitalize space by looking at the busy area around the metro – however their project came under criticism from locals for its non consideration of cycling or pedestrian / community engagement. Voykovsk, which is a district affected by the construction and located near Koptevo and not far from Shukino, has a fb group as a protest which began public discussions on the web and online. Activists have now started a campaign against the highway: maps, interviews, how does it change the sensing of the city? In Shukino for instance, over 60 letters protecting the forest areas have been written (50 letters are required to warrant a public discussion) and were sent to the local deputy. We have installed mailboxes in each of these districts but could use different forms of data to understand the issue, people’s perceptions of it (obstacles to pedestrianism for instance) and how the construction of the highway and deforestation requires synchronization of activities among people across districts while remaining a district specific issue.

In Shukino the media strategy has included public protests, fliers and blogging from residents, activists and even the deputy, Max Katz. Other salient social issues in Shukino are the forms of construction, which are privatizing and increasingly creating gated communities. Interviews with local residents revealed that for many people, the beach is now inaccessible because of highrise, private luxury residences – which function more like microcities within the neighborhood. There is a Ministry of Defense building which has gates and fences that obstruct access to a play ground. There are tensions therefore with gatedness and construction in this district.

Other complications include that this is not just a district specific case  and although it directly affects at a district / local level, citizens need to on some level cooperate with the government and also people living in other districts. An intervention could perhaps use data to describe the future of these spaces – less trees, more roads, and the practical impact – noise pollution, air pollution, obesity etc. A media campaign to raise awareness of the impact might be interesting. There is a sports stadium and a park in Shukino which are now virtually inaccessible because of the highway construction.

The main engineer of the highway has said it may be rerouted in some areas as a result of the activism by 200+ people attending public meetings and the over 60 letters written – but how can low and high tech media further facilitate strategic activism?

Practical Challenges:
We have a limited amount of time.
The existing situation is not good and it warrants an intervention; on the other hand, it is complicated for a short time period. Since construction of the highway is part of the genplan for Moscow, it is more difficult to address.
Alternative ideas could be proposing highspeed commuter railes, cycling and pedestrian friendly infrastructure. What are some of the other solutions that citizens can propopse? This case is further complicated because it needs people to work with architects urban planners and other as a requirement for alternative proposals. There is potential to use data to show that the highway is not necessary and is not good for health (and maps.) Although a problem is uniting two districts, do they and can they work together? Can data be used as an arguement for the negative impact of highways, correlating the increase of cars and decline of pedestrianism?

Need to understand the motivations of the construction and political nature of the decision – how do we address the root? Would a satirical media campaign work? How do we use data effecitvely in this case and what are reliable forms of data? Before and after media campaign – this once was / negative impact of tree removal and asphalt. neighborhood nutrition facts?

Effectiveness of involving municipalities vs. being unsanctioned and how you strike a balance. How can alternative transport solutions be prpoposed? “Sensible solution is not to build this road but to develop an alternative route”
This project could involve mapping the problem and solution. (Relevant information: Drew a line for a new road (mimics history of St. Petersburg Moscow road by Tsar Nicholas)Effectiveness of letter writing and fliers. Low tech solution and data gathering (including for advertizing) in the area. Possible media strategy to raise public awareness, as in the Red October case.It also links to the plans for greater Moscow, which is constructing un-people friendly neighborhoods from scratch, like near the Vnukovo airport. Little Moscow is  now part of greater Moscow but it doesn’t function for the people. Web forums are used for discussion but how can this shift into the physical and public realm?

Social Media:
http://vk.com/zuzino_shtab
http://shukino.livejournal.com/profile
http://maxkatz.livejournal.com/83485.html
Koptevo on FB

Articles and links:
Khimki forest timeline and visual
Shukino: Official Website
The Village that Time Forgot

4. Red October Chocolate Factory: Examining Creative Clusters and Gentrification in Moscow

Site: The Red October Chocolate Factory, Metro: Kropotkinskaya
Problems: Parking, lack of green spaces, lack of public spaces, lack of affordable foods
Urban Tactics: Occupy Parklets, popup picnics, mobile vending, Shrafstayanka
Media Ecology: Real estate developer’s website, Red October website, Real estate PR
Social Ecology: Art and creative institutions, galleries, bars and restaurants (for the city’s elite/trendsetters)

   

This is a case study that for the first day of the workshop proposes identifying problems and creating a quick intervention. Through trial and error, we hope that this prototype research may inform further work if someone chooses this as a case study.How do we understand the sociopolitical dynamics of a space? How do we look at the invisible layers like economics barrier? What spaces are accessible and contested? What are social issues and how can they be explored?

When considered, the seemingly ‘open island’ where the Strelka Institute is located may actually be quite closed: completely privatized, invisible barriers like face control and prices restricting who enters and what they access. What can data and its visualization reveal about the area? Who owns space on the island? What are problems this historic site now faces? What is rent / ownership breakdown and what can a visualization reveal? Can data be gathered and for what purposes can it be used?

The site of the former Red October Chocolate Factory is a historic space, where development has come under criticism. Data gathering could reveal several unseen connections, barriers and spaces for urban interventions. The site has already been the site of tactical urban interventions. In May of this year, #Occupy Parking  signs which were found around the island. Another more invisible issue is that of displacement and change. The signage for the Red October Chocolate Factory which is of historic legacy was recently replaced by an ad for cars.

Additionally, eviction notices have been given to several owners and renters which means that there is a lot of room to explore in terms of examining the data about rent and ownership. Finally, it is an interesting case of creative cluster led gentrification and of addressing issues in one’s own backyard, which tend to often go unnoticed. Participants can work to connect this island’s past, present and future more effectively while critically examining its development trajectory.

In 2011, a group of students at Strelka began to conduct some research into the issue:

Why analyze food spaces?
Connecting with the past of the space and in the context of the city.

Research Questions:
What are invisible and visible barriers and issues of accessibility on the island?
How does its history as a site for food production relate to the present and its future?
Is it in reality a creative cluster, or now simple a tool (part of) a longer term gentrification process in the city?
Who are the stakeholders? What are the guidelines for historical preservation?
Rather than demolishing and reconstructing building is there a way for other construction – like a new pedestrian bridge that directs food traffic – to re-brand it as an artists space and use the city to subsidize it permanently for the creative arts and as a creative hub?
How does the future of Red October relate in many ways to the future image of Moscow, ideas of a New Collectivism – and the need to preserve its past?

Discussion Notes from Research Day 1

Articles:
Moscow’s Architectural Heritage is Crumbling Under Capitalism
Russias Red October Chocolate Factory
Art and Design Creative Centers Transform Moscow
The Creative Clusters of Moscow: Forces of Change
Living a Lofty Lifestyle
Moscow’s Industrial Art Spaces
At Chocolate Factory Site, a New Kind of Luxury Box
Red October Goes West
Letter to Red October Shareholders

Readings:
Transformation of Industrial Territories in Moscow

Links:
Red October website
Guta Real Estate Projects