Maynooth University Department of Geography invites you to attend a seminar presented by Dr Rachel McArdle.
Liquid Urbanisms: Dublin’s Creative Activist Landscape
How can we talk about the landscape of activism in Dublin? In this paper I argue that Dublin’s landscape of creatives, artists and activists are connected in ‘liquid’ ways. In this talk I outline the meta-theory of liquid urbanisms, which is how I understand the provisional places that exist/ did exist in Dublin, as an ecology. Liquid Urbanisms are provisional places and/or projects that may have short-term timeframes, but which are often connected to other activist projects in intangible ways. I researched fourteen case studies as part of my PhD research (2014-2018), including: squats, festivals, art exhibitions, art studios, community gardens, networking groups, autonomous social centres, and occupations. In this talk I will focus on just three: Granby Park, the pop-up park created by the artistic collective Upstart in 2013; Block T, the art studio located in Smithfield (2010-2016), and relocated to Basin View in 2016; and finally Grangegorman Squat (2013-2016), which used a site that was for a time under the control of the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA). Using the typology of creative, community-based and autonomous urbanisms, and the tributaries of networks and place, timespaces and rhythms, use values and urban commons, and political beliefs and institutional relationships, I analyse these three places and frame them using these types and tributaries, and explain why I needed to create this framework to understand these places and projects fully. How does this build on and differ from the literature on temporary urbanisms and autonomous geographies? From this understanding, what can scholars learn by looking at provisional places as ‘liquid’?
