License More, Worry Less. Negotiating Playful Commons in Public Spaces
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| Part Number | 150 | |
| Number of Parts | 177 | |
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| License | CC Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Germany: You are free to use, adapt and copy, distribute and transmit the work or content in adapted or unchanged form for any legal purpose as long as the work is attributed to the author in the manner specified by the author or licensor and the work or content is shared also in adapted form only under the conditions of this | |
| Identifiers | 10.5446/31901 (DOI) | |
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| Production Place | Berlin |
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Regulator geneGame theoryXMLComputer animation
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AreaLecture/Conference
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Multiplication signCASE <Informatik>Video gameSign (mathematics)Service (economics)Data managementPole (complex analysis)ThumbnailMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
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Hydraulic jumpRight anglePole (complex analysis)Meeting/Interview
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Sheaf (mathematics)Dean numberMultiplication signLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Film editingRule of inferenceSpacetimeMixed realityLecture/Conference
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Set (mathematics)Sign (mathematics)Traffic reportingPole (complex analysis)Meeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
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Mixed realityZirkulation <Strömungsmechanik>DataflowPhysical lawMereologyInheritance (object-oriented programming)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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FluxCivil engineeringVirtual machineObject (grammar)Data conversionDataflowWage labourZirkulation <Strömungsmechanik>Regulator geneInheritance (object-oriented programming)Meeting/Interview
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Medical imaging2 (number)
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Game theoryRegulator geneWhiteboardMoment (mathematics)SpacetimeGroup actionLecture/Conference
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Event horizonGroup actionAsynchronous Transfer ModeSpacetimeQuicksortFunctional (mathematics)CuboidMonster groupGame theoryRegulator geneProjective planeMultiplication signLecture/Conference
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SpacetimeShift operatorLecture/Conference
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Game theoryUbiquitous computingOvalInterpreter (computing)Theory
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Type theoryInterpreter (computing)Game theoryGroup actionBuildingOffice suiteLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Video gameBuildingOffice suiteLibrary (computing)Vector potentialCountingRegulator gene
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Table (information)Regulator geneSpacetimeMeeting/Interview
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Neighbourhood (graph theory)QuicksortRegulator geneGroup actionLecture/Conference
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AreaGroup actionDispersion (chemistry)Constructor (object-oriented programming)Category of beingSoftware frameworkOrder (biology)Time zoneMappingMusical ensembleProjective plane
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Computer architectureGroup action
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CAN busRegulator geneTransportation theory (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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WeightSpacetimeState of matterLecture/Conference
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Modul <Datentyp>Computer virusMultiplication signIterationLecture/Conference
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Interpreter (computing)Category of beingPhysical systemTerm (mathematics)JSONXMLLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Shared memoryRegulator genePhysical systemLecture/Conference
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SpacetimeFormal languageRule of inferenceMeeting/Interview
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Attribute grammarMedical imagingInternetworking
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Spacetime
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Coefficient of determinationSpacetimeDifferent (Kate Ryan album)NumberCategory of beingOffice suiteStorage area networkMultiplication sign
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Regulator geneSpacetimeComputing platformRight angleMeeting/Interview
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SpacetimeLine (geometry)Online helpRevision controlSystem administratorTerm (mathematics)Formal languageRadical (chemistry)
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Goodness of fitExterior algebraTerm (mathematics)SpacetimeSign (mathematics)Uniformer Raum
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Natural numberSpacetimeProjective planeMereologyCoefficient of determinationDrill commandsNetwork topologyRight angleLecture/Conference
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Process (computing)Right angleProjective planeScaling (geometry)Term (mathematics)
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MereologyMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
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Computing platformAssociative propertyProjective planeCategory of beingInheritance (object-oriented programming)Lecture/Conference
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ImplementationAssociative propertyMeeting/Interview
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Projective planeSpacetimeLecture/Conference
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Module (mathematics)Table (information)Projective planeSpacetimeMultiplication signRight angleMeeting/Interview
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QuicksortProjective planeLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:03
Thank you very much. We're excited to be here today to present to you the very first steps
00:23
of what we think is going to be a big idea. But before we dive into it, we have a few questions for you. We call this regulation quiz and you can play it. It's a really simple game to warm everyone up. So imagine you're at JFK airport and you have a new religion that you just
00:42
thought up, or a new philosophy, and you wrote a book about it, and you want to distribute it to everyone at JFK airport. Do you think this is something that the regulations of JFK airport allow? If you think so, please do like this. If you think it's not allowed, do like this. If you think it's not mentioned, please do like this. Okay, no, no, no. Up, up, up, up.
01:06
Okay, it looks like a lot of people think it's not allowed. Actually, it's allowed. You just have to notify the airport 24 hours in advance, and you can distribute your books in certain areas. What about sleeping? Let's say you're really tired, arriving at the airport,
01:21
missed a flight. Is sleeping something that's allowed or not? Up, yes. Oh, this is split. It says 50-50. It will help if you come into the light more. Yeah, hold your thumb into the light really high. Okay, so sleeping... Shine your phone on your thumb. Sleeping is generally not allowed. Sorry. You can ask the manager for a special permit to sleep,
01:48
but you might not get it. So, last one for JFK, using a stick or a pole to support a hand-carried sign. You know these people that hold signs that say like Mr Muller or Limousine Services XYZ when you come out? Let's say you're one of those people and you want to put a stick on your
02:02
sign, it's really heavy. Is that something that's allowed? Not mentioned, not mentioned, not allowed, not allowed. Ah, you're getting the hang of this, very good. It's not allowed, you're right. Let's jump to Zuccotti Park inside New York City. You know Zuccotti Park, we just saw it, it's the place where Occupy Wall Street started. Using a stick or pole
02:22
to support a hand-carried sign there. What do you think? It's incredible. I think it's mostly... I think it's a tie. I don't know. You see quite a lot of allowed over there. This is the nay section, this is the yay section. Yeah, well, we didn't find it anywhere actually,
02:44
so it might be a loophole if you want to do something there in the future. What about skateboarding? Skateboarding there? It should be simple. Yes, skateboarding was never allowed, will never be allowed, just not going to happen there. Lying on the ground.
03:03
This one is an interesting one because it used to be not mentioned but in the middle of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the owners of Zuccotti Park decided to come up with new rules for this space and disallow lying on the ground together with camping equipment, putting up tents, etc. But what about passive recreation? What is passive recreation? I have no idea,
03:25
but what about it? What do you think? Passive recreation. Okay, mixed. It used to be not mentioned but in the new rules it's allowed in Zuccotti Park, so interesting place. Even encouraged. Even encouraged, yeah, it's a place for that. Okay,
03:40
we're in Berlin now, Hammond Platz, it's quite close by, walking from A to B, is that allowed? It should be easy. Yeah, you're right, it's allowed and it's actually allowed for everyone. Using a sticker pole to support a hand-carried sign at Hammond Platz. Yeah, yeah, it's allowed as long as it's a protest. You do have a problem if you write
04:03
something other than a protest on it. No marriage proposals. Yeah, like commercial activities or something. Such as marriage proposals. Well, okay, that's not what I meant. Lying on the ground on Hammond Platz, what do you think? No, I think there's actually more yeses. Very mixed audience here. Yeah, well, it's not allowed, I'll get to why later and
04:24
passive recreation on Hammond Platz. What is passive recreation? I don't know, I still don't know. Uh, nobody knows. It's also not allowed. And the reason is actually this, and this is a part of the Berliner Strassengesetz, the Berlin street law, which specifies what
04:41
all the public streets in Berlin are to be used for, and it defines a concept that's really important for a lot of cities around the world, which is common use. And common use is defined for Hammond Platz and for all the streets as Fakir, getting from A to B. And everything that goes further than that needs a special permit. Yeah, this is actually not unique for Berlin. Many big cities around the world are all about flow and circulation.
05:05
This is what Dr. Nicholas Blomley, who is a super important legal geographer from Canada, he calls this pedestrianism. The sidewalk is all about flow and circulation. You can't stop the machine of the city. You can't stop the circulation of labor or the flow of capital.
05:24
You have to go from A to B. You cannot stop and have a conversation. You definitely can't get together. You definitely can't put an object on the ground in the city and on the sidewalk. It's all about moving from A to B, not just people moving from A to B, but also the idea
05:41
of the entire city as a machine on a constant flux, on a constant flow. This is the way that the regulation sees the city. This is the way civil engineers who make the regulation see the city. This is the way they want us to use the city. But the actual way we want to use the city and the actual way we are using streets today is actually more like this. And not
06:02
just us want to see cities look like this more, but city branding often kind of uses images of parkour, of graffiti, of kind of like the deregulated use of the sidewalk. They often promote it in their city brands as well. Another kind of illegal activity
06:21
that is taking over the world, this is No Pants Day, started by Improv Everywhere. It's a playful activity. This is the kind of activity that makes you pause in your place. This is the kind of activity that while you're flowing circulating from A to B in the city, you pause for one second. That second is when you start to think, you start to question,
06:43
you start to become an active citizen in a space, you start to look around, you start to think about new possibilities for that space. This moment is super important. This moment is why this playfulness is important for our cities and why we all recognize it across the board, us and regulators alike. This is another playful activity from a game design group in
07:07
Berlin called Invisible Playground, which Sebastian belongs to. Maybe you want to say something about play? Yeah, I mean it's just funny because five years ago we started this group Invisible Playground and we've been running playful events in Berlin and all around the world
07:22
and we've been constantly kind of trying to get these allowed or doing them illegally. And one of the things I learned in these projects is that in play you introduce new functional definitions of the city, which are very hard for a regular just to understand. So, for example, if you do a game about monsters walking around in the Fusgängatzorn here, this is a person in a costume, suddenly this kind of traffic thing,
07:45
this box in the back becomes a really important thing to hide behind. You might have never seen it before, suddenly it becomes a new function. And this sort of mode of appropriation, of playfully taking over a space and defining it for a certain amount of time,
08:00
is something that's really, really important in these kind of practices. And there's a lot more of this stuff, of course, going on around the world. Yeah, this is an extreme example for a temporary practice. It's there for one hour, then it's gone, but for that hour it completely shifts the space and completely changes the imagination of the people around it.
08:20
Kind of a more permanent but still illegal use of space or recoloring space or reimagining space is, of course, graffiti, which we know from everywhere. Urban pervasive games, another game from Invisible Playground Festival. The fun theory, which is kind of the interpretation of play as known by
08:43
Volkswagen, the car company. They want to encourage people to take the stairs with their own efforts and they do that by introducing this piano stairs, which are, they got very famous a few years ago and this is their interpretation of fun city. Another type of intervention and
09:05
repurposing of public space is 72 Hour Urban Action. It's a group that I am involved with together with architect Kerem Halbrecht. This is an installation of a whispering game outside a school in Batyam in 2010. This is a defunct office building then turned into an old people's
09:24
home, giving new life with a very easy fabric intervention. This is a library from an Occupy camp. This is an important example because cities bear the potential of knowledge exchange. Cities
09:41
bear the potential by chance encounter to learn something new and by learning to grow yourself as an individual. And this is an important aspect that regulations are fighting against, unfortunately. And this is another intervention. It's a community kitchen table from Terni, Italy.
10:02
And yeah, these kind of uses that allow us to reinterpret the space. They're super important for capturing the promise of the city. And one reason why this works is because it's an opportunity for people to come together and collectively define what they want and how they want to use the city. And these groups of people sometimes are seen by city marketers and
10:24
by regulators as adding value to a certain neighborhood. So I think everyone kind of nowadays wants to see this sort of activity taking place in their neighborhood. But there's other gatherings that are being regulated out, basically. And there's other people that maybe don't have nice costumes and paint to make a beautiful construction over there that are just kind of
10:44
being worked against. So one great example is really dispersal zones in London. I don't know if you know about this, but the UK introduced antisocial behavior orders which is a legal tool which allows police to disperse groups for basically reasons of being antisocial or a nuisance to other people, and they have to leave an area and not come back for 24 hours. This is a
11:08
great example of dispersal zones and other zones where temporary new legal frameworks are put in place to, yeah, kind of increase the value of the property because that's what it's about. This is another great example in another group that's being actively worked against. We all
11:23
know that living in the city means appropriating it, making it your home, figuring out how the city can meet your basic living needs such as lying down, resting, sleeping. Now, there's a lot of work actively preventing people from figuring out how to make the city meet their basic
11:42
needs. This is going on also, of course, in the realm of benches and transportation. If you go into the Espaen in Berlin, they have benches that you can't really sleep on, and they have regulations that explicitly disallow lying on the ground or looking in trash cans. On the other hand, this is allowed. So these are the people that are queuing up for buying
12:05
an iPhone. They're also camping on the streets. They actually look like homeless people. I don't know how they can afford an iPhone. They're probably spending all the money they have on the fucking iPhone. And this is public space being appropriated for commercial interests. And this is an amazing picture from the wake of the Ferguson protests,
12:26
demonstrations in Mall of America against a racist police department or a racist police state where it's suddenly not allowed to appropriate private spaces for public needs. Yes, just allowed, not allowed. Allowed, not allowed. This is very important to realise.
12:50
So we promised a big idea, but firstly we want to reiterate someone else's very big idea that's been with us quite a long time. Everybody knows Creative Commons. I see
13:01
someone with a Creative Commons T-shirt. Hello. So basically it's a modular licensing system, right, that allows owners of intellectual property to decide on which terms their works are being copied online or otherwise, and to decide for themselves how that
13:22
reappropriation will be dealt with. I mean, I think there are many interpretations, but generally that's the main goal of Creative Commons. So what if we could apply this idea of a modular system defined by owners, by users and owners alike to this?
13:44
We give you playful comments. What if we could come together, regulators and users of public space alike, discuss and share ideas on what we want to see in these places, how we want to imagine them, how do we want to open them, or maybe we want to change them
14:02
completely? What if we take this to a diversity of places? Every city around the world, every rule, village around the world can come together and collectively define how they want to imagine the future of their own public space. We're talking about a common language to describe
14:22
the diversity of spaces around the world. What if we could do this? Nice idea, right? But it's also kind of hard, but it's hard. It is tricky. So if we take a step back and think about Creative Commons for a second, why did Creative Commons take off? Why was it needed at all?
14:43
Well, it's copying. The internet came along, suddenly everything could be copied really easily, and suddenly there was a way to do this. I mean, we could sell you this image by Monique Marcus, crazy hair lady, which is only licensed under CC attribution, so she doesn't care if we sell it to you for $100, or if we make a comic out of it, but this only works because
15:04
we're not selling the original. We're selling copies, or we're remixing copies into something completely new. Now, look at these spaces. How many of these are there, and how hard is it to copy this space? Now, I think, when we play with spaces, we kind of copy them in our minds
15:22
together, but we still have this very, very limited resource which is actual physical space that we as a world population are collectively struggling on how to organise. So this is difference number one to Creative Commons, really important. There's only one space. We're talking about the original, we're talking about licensing the original. Another difference to Creative
15:41
Commons is the people that are in charge of the spaces are quite different from the actual users of the spaces. So this is Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris. I can imagine that once a year, maybe, she has time to actually sit there at the Seine and do a picnic like that. This is Dennis Friedrich, the CEO of Brookfield office properties.
16:04
This is the company that owns Zuccotti Park. So these people are in charge of the spaces, but they're not actually using. This is very different from Creative Commons where you have creators licensing for other creators. So, the thing is, in the work that we've done before,
16:22
we've managed to get permission for pretty crazy stuff, and we kind of want to continue this struggle and think that you can approach these people if you get the right tools. If we create a space which is between users and regulators between users and owners, we have hoped that Playful Commons can bridge this gap and create a new platform for something
16:43
in between. Common language. So in the near term, what we want to do is start a pilot program with people that own spaces, people that administrate spaces, to try out alpha versions of these licenses in certain spaces. We need a lot of help with this because every space is different. Also, creative practices are really different.
17:02
So, anyone that's interested in developing this with us, please come, approach us. Space owners out there, just line on up for this. We think it's a great opportunity to improve the quality of your space, and to try out something radical, something new. Be the first space owner to put a Playful Commons license on your space. This is a great idea. In the mid-turn, we
17:21
want to provide an alternative to this. So this is the good neighbour policy that was written by Occupy Wall Street, and pasted over the existing signs at Zuccotti Park. Maybe there's a way to agree here and create something in between. We're hopeful people. And it's actually happening in some spaces. So this is a space we stumbled upon quite close by here. This
17:44
is a nature experience space, a school project that explored what kids would like to have in spaces, and I'm just going to translate this down here. So the green part is what you're allowed to do. So you can explore, you can climb, you can jump, you can look at things, you can play, you can build, generally, you can dig, you can run, you can balance,
18:05
you can pick flowers, you can eat and drink, but please put the trash in the bin, you can watch the animals, you can fart. So this is why we're calling this the fart park. You can watch other kids, you can hide, play hide and seek, and you can play Indians, which I'm not sure I like, but I do like that you can play roles in role play. What
18:24
you can't do is put trash in, cut down trees, alcohol, drugs, poison is cool, weapons are to be avoided, don't destroy bottles, don't do disgusting things like molest children,
18:41
and don't throw with stones, make fire, grill, bring dogs, or destroy the homes of animals. Right. So this is, well... This was negotiated when they wanted to fence this piece of land, and they negotiated together with the school kids that their school is just adjacent to this park.
19:01
Right. So we actually want to implement this kind of thinking, this kind of process in long-term, big-scale, urban development projects, and change the legal landscape so that we find a way to include the idea of playful appropriation into the concept of common use. We think play should be the norm.
19:23
Yeah. So basically it all comes down to this. Do we want the cities of the future to look like airports designed by fear, or do we want the fart park designed by play? What does feel better to you? If it feels better to you to design it by play, join
19:42
us. Thank you. We'd love to have some questions if you have any. Yes, that's what I wanted to suggest. We have like two or three minutes for questions if there are any. Five. Five minutes. Five minutes. Do you want to see some hands
20:02
reaching up? Super clear, huh? Maybe some property owners. Maybe some critics. Do you have any projects in Berlin right now where you can... Well, this is the initial days of the idea. We're setting up an association for it, and
20:24
we're trying to create the platform where people can actually come together and experiment with these licenses. We'll be presenting this idea at the Make City Festival in June, and we'll be launching our association in a big, playful party and licensing workshop
20:42
in August. And in Berlin, or? In Berlin. Okay. Have you already talked to the people from the city and what they think about it? So I mean, the thing is this is coming from like a five to ten year experience with negotiating permits for cultural projects in public spaces, and we kind of always
21:01
start from zero when we do this, but you do get better at it and you do have experience. So, a lot of times when you go also in smaller municipalities, maybe this is the first large-scale public project that they're having, and you bring a lot of ideas on how to actually construct these permits to the table for the municipalities. And also for private
21:21
owners. So oftentimes we've had the experience that actually a lot of the problems can be solved on a more general level, and if you bring the right tools, if you bring ready-made standardized modules that they can use, it's not so hard to allow for more. A lot of people just don't know how. And this is exactly the same situation as before Creative Commons. When copyright was super complicated, no one had any idea how to actually license
21:45
their work to other people, and we just want to do this for spaces. Okay, any questions from somebody else? Okay, so thank you very much, very interesting, and good luck to you for your project. Thank you.