Events
staged events and happenings
Through a number of planned events, the active and engaging nature of informal urban sports was directly showcased.
Another challenge of the exhibition was to provoke Melburnians to creatively reconsider and reclaim their urban environment for social and recreational activity by becoming active participants themselves. We signaled this by stocking the gym lockers displaying design projects with sports equipment visitors could take out and play with at any time.
Melbourne Bike Polo Demo Game
The Melbourne Hardcourt Bike Polo Community showed off their skills but also had a message to the audience: These guys (and girls) struggle to find a space in the city where they are allowed to play. Any flat car park would be enough but they regularly get kicked out by security. This happens despite the fact that their play would actually enliven shady corners in the city and entertain the passersby.
Laneway Cricket Demo Game
Many social outreach programs, such as Urban Seed’s Laneway
Cricket, use sport to re-engage Melburnians who are drug addicted
or otherwise marginalised.
The guys from Cricket Credo came to the exhibition opening
to perform together with the audience a Laneway Cricket
demonstration game.
Spontaneous Play - Chair Polo
The real success was at the party that followed the symposium, when people discovered they could use the chairs left from the symposium together with the sports equipment! Spontaneously, a new game was invented. We called it ‘Chair Polo’ and it was the most important message. How exciting could our cities be if we push boundaries and engage with our space more creatively.
Local Music Artists performance
Following the symposium live music was played in the café space -
performed by the young local musicians
Adam Sherry - voice and guitar,
Sam Sherry - drums,
Joseph Foley - guitar,
Nicholas Jones - cello, and
Sydney Bertram - cameo appearance on floor tom.
Double Lecture
Black Holes in Megalopolis -
Prof. IA Bart Lootsma
University of Innsbruck
Nike-urbanism in Berlin,
Green Belt Frankfurt -
Prof. Friedrich von Borries
College of Fine Arts Hamburg