The Skateboard, The City, and Socio-Spatial Censorship

Here Architect Iain Borden discusses "skateboarding and socio-spatial censorship in the late twentieth century city" in his article "An Affirmation of Urban Life." Says Iain: "Cities are always places of contestation and contradiction, conflict and counter-cultural engagements. ... But of course cities are also places of power, and the contradiction between homogenization and fragmentation of urban space is continuously fought over, as urban managers of all kinds ... seek to dictate the character of social space. The urban practice of skateboarding is one such area which they seek to control." (Full Article) Search *
    (Categorized under 2003 Archive)

A Performative Critique of the American City: the Urban Practice of Skateboarding, 1958-1998

About skateboarding, cities, and urban culture. An amazing essay by Iain Borden on the interrelationship between cities and skateboarding, in which the author seeks to "focus on the compositional and representational mode of skateboarding, to consider how it represents the city without maps, and how it speaks something of the city, without recourse to theory or texts." Quote this in your term paper and make your teacher happy. (Full Article) Search *
    (Categorized under 2001 Archive, Museums/History)

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