IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B

Abstract

924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, CA, deemed Gilman, exists as an inter-generational, anti-discriminatory, all ages site of music experimentation, autonomously organized and operated by punk youth communities. Gilman has withstood the swell of urban entrepreneurialism and the neo-liberal gentrification of the San Francisco Bay Area for 36 years, ever in an ideological state of becoming. And yet, the accelerated austerity of land investment suggests an impending vulnerability to this site, given that the building is not owned by the Gilman community. Taken a step further, city planning has co-opted the vernacular aesthetics of Gilman with a mimicry of banners that promote the district to an influx of culture consumers. This pageantry introduces the process of reterritorialization: Gilman’s legacy and authenticity are simultaneously embraced and effaced. What contributes to Gilman’s resiliency when so many cultural community projects dissolve into the folds of social and spatial redevelopment agendas? What tools will support vulnerable cultural sites in countering the impacts of gentrification? This proposal adapts critical design and subverts archival practice to contend with these questions. It activates the Murray Bowles photographic archive, along with maps and records, to explore a new method of constructing place identity through the facilitation of a counter-archive. In the hands of Gilman’s non-expert participants, extensive photo-documentation of Gilman’s legacy will serve as both symbol and proof of a galvanized, place-based identity. By delving into the past to co-create new visual forms, exhibited and distributed within the district, Gilman might bolster their position and counter encroaching hegemonic interest.