Urban programmers

I walk around the city to observe people programming their space in and around the built environment. I started to appreciate how they interpret urban space. Interpretation is necessary to make an intervention, and a systematic intervention leads to programs. They are not only ‘space hacker’ who breaks law to create temporary autonomous zone. They are producers of their own urban space. Therefore, I call them ‘Urban programmers’. They understand the spatial codes, the abstract languages that operate the space, and decode it. These people are not programmers of grand scale, such as urban planners, architects, or politician. They are everyday people who exercise urban programming in the most pragmatic level. They refuse to become an end-user of urban space, customer of the built environment. Instead, they contribute in making the urban space to meet their needs. These are few selections from my field book.

1.PLUG IN: Movable office
This picture was taken in Euijungbu station. A person is using a locker as a temporary office space. Judging from the documents she was reading, she might work in the real estate business. It is also fair to assume that she goes around to other subway station and use other locker as an office space. She might or might not carry the chair around.

2.PRIVATIZING: homeless architecture and squatters
In Jongro 3rd station, there are hundreds of homeless people at night time. They bring cardboard boxes that have been fabricated, which are easily assembled into a temporary housing. They appropriate the public space temporarily into a private space.
Squatting is living in an empty building without permission of the owner. They practice Do It Yourself ethics. They share knowledge about maintaining space and contribute in making a community.

3.CULTIVATING: Guerilla farmers and community garden
Guerilla farmers plant seeds to harvest vegetation in a commonly under utilized spaces. They find space, and creatively reprogram to make crops for themselves and the community. Another form of urban gardening is community garden, which are more stable and operate in long term.

4.Spectacle WITHOUT society: Flash mob
Flash mob is a cultural phenomenon of the early 2000’s, where a group of strangers gather for a short time to do an amusing activity. I participated and lead few flash mobs for personal amusement and also as a commercial work for marketing company. On the surface, it looks similar to a political rally, except it lacks the politics and violence completely. In that place, there is a desire for amusement. Participation does not mean communication of an idea. Collective use of the urban space leads to temporary occupation, but it is not designed for social change. Flash mob is like a code without meaning, action without consequences, joy without happiness, thus a very empty act.

5.Ultimate CONSUMER: Tourists
Tourists are consumer of spatial program. They come to purchase experience, which are fabricated by the mass media and tourist industry. They make no contribution in to the city’s culture, except to fuel the tourism economy.

Urban programmers

I walk around the city to observe people programming their space in and around the built environment. I started to appreciate how they interpret urban space. Interpretation is necessary to make an intervention, and a systematic intervention leads to programs. They are not only ‘space hacker’ who breaks law to create temporary autonomous zone. They are producers of their own urban space. Therefore, I call them ‘Urban programmers’. They understand the spatial codes, the abstract languages that operate the space, and decode it. These people are not programmers of grand scale, such as urban planners, architects, or politician. They are everyday people who exercise urban programming in the most pragmatic level. They refuse to become an end-user of urban space, customer of the built environment. Instead, they contribute in making the urban space to meet their needs. These are few selections from my field book.

1.PLUG IN: Movable office
This picture was taken in Euijungbu station. A person is using a locker as a temporary office space. Judging from the documents she was reading, she might work in the real estate business. It is also fair to assume that she goes around to other subway station and use other locker as an office space. She might or might not carry the chair around.

2.PRIVATIZING: homeless architecture and squatters
In Jongro 3rd station, there are hundreds of homeless people at night time. They bring cardboard boxes that have been fabricated, which are easily assembled into a temporary housing. They appropriate the public space temporarily into a private space.
Squatting is living in an empty building without permission of the owner. They practice Do It Yourself ethics. They share knowledge about maintaining space and contribute in making a community.

3.CULTIVATING: Guerilla farmers and community garden
Guerilla farmers plant seeds to harvest vegetation in a commonly under utilized spaces. They find space, and creatively reprogram to make crops for themselves and the community. Another form of urban gardening is community garden, which are more stable and operate in long term.

4.Spectacle WITHOUT society: Flash mob
Flash mob is a cultural phenomenon of the early 2000’s, where a group of strangers gather for a short time to do an amusing activity. I participated and lead few flash mobs for personal amusement and also as a commercial work for marketing company. On the surface, it looks similar to a political rally, except it lacks the politics and violence completely. In that place, there is a desire for amusement. Participation does not mean communication of an idea. Collective use of the urban space leads to temporary occupation, but it is not designed for social change. Flash mob is like a code without meaning, action without consequences, joy without happiness, thus a very empty act.

5.Ultimate CONSUMER: Tourists
Tourists are consumer of spatial program. They come to purchase experience, which are fabricated by the mass media and tourist industry. They make no contribution in to the city’s culture, except to fuel the tourism economy.