Conflux Festival

Conflux is the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets.

Here are some examples of the great works that have been shown at this festival:

Have a Seat by Caroline Woolard



At night, Caroline Woolward fixed a dozen seats on street posts so people could take a rest:

I feel that this architectural intervention allows any pedestrian to experience the monotony of everyday life in a new way. Perhaps this small fissure in reality will open doors for the public to re-evaluate the status quo. [...]
Anyone can rest without removing themselves from the reality of urban bustle and going to a picturesque park.


Picture is from WMMNA where you can find also more info.


Waste Carrier by Gertrude Berg

Gertrude Berg made an outfit where she could store her personal trash sorted in different bags and carry it during the festival:
For the duration of one week I will wear this uniform to all occasions, except for sleeping, and any other circumstances that would make it impossible for me to wear it. My interest lies in the experience of the extra weight on my body accumulated by waste material that normally is put out of ones sight as soon as possible. As bags could easily be subjects for suspicion in public places and on public transportation systems in NYC, I am also challenged by the reaction I will receive from the public and the officials.

Picture is from WMMNA where you can find also more info.

Madrid Abierto

An annual event that gives artists the opportunity to place their performances and installations publicly in Madrid.



One of this years installations is by Dier + Noaz, Estado de excepción, a fake military post that alerts people of the fact that their living environment is changing through more and more security systems being set up.

Life is a Laugh

An installation by Brian Griffiths in the London Underground:

From the website:
Conscious of the transitional nature of both the site and its occupants the work taps into the character of this fleetingly captive audience, exaggerating a sense of expectation tinged with boredom, mental doodling and day-dreaming.

Michel Blazy's Post Patman installation

via We-make-money-not-art

Augmented Trashcan

A project by Urban Atmospheres/ Eric Paulos, Tom Jenkins


This trashcan can sense if something is thrown inside or taken out, can weigh the trash and projects its treasures back to the street.
Like this, people reflect more on the things they are throwing away and might even start playing.

Two questions from their website:

What representations and potential interactions with discarded human traces will intrigue, excite, disgust, and inspire urban dwellers into a new awareness and participation in this part of the city's physicality and their daily lives?

How can technology embedded within the city�s infrastructure facilitate and provoke story telling?

the house of water

A rainwater capturing installation by Christoph Roßner.

traffic sculpture in London

Here's one of my favorite funny art piece located near my place when I was in London. First I saw it, I thought there must have loads of accidents happen for sure. But I saw none!!! all the drivers seem to be able to manage it perfectly :-P

Work by Santiago Cirugeda

Strategies for subversive urban occupation
Public Domain Occupation with skips
Sevilla, 1997



House enlarging with scaffolding
Sevilla, 1998



Tree occupation with insect house
Sevilla, 2001


from his website:
Reasons for building one-self an urban reserve can be as many as citizens are, that dare doing it. What man can certainly say, is that this personal and intimate action takes place outside everything politicians and professionals may plan, it follows ways that are labelled by difference, by independence, and it makes obvious that the citizen plays a very important role in the development and construction of the environment he lives in.

Public gardening interventions

In Istanbul, 2005 via Culiblog:


Smack dab in the middle of the Üskudar ferry terminal, ad hoc growers have cultivated tomatoes in all of the planters.

City Farming Plant Modules by N55, 2003

Work by Forays

Forays is an art group that experiments with city hacking, mostly using materials that are available for free.

Cocoon

Cocoons from beach mats and bags for people to hang in trees or at scaffoldings

Swing


Swings illegally installed on scaffoldings

Interview on wmmna

NoPark

by Natalie Jeremijenko/ xClinic



NoPark returns “no parking zones”—mostly those associated fire hydrant placement- -to low growth mosses and grasses. These micro engineered green spaces prevent storm water run off, use foliage to stabilize the soil, and to provide a durable low maintenance surface cover.

Blinkenlights

by Chaos Computer Club



CCC transformed a large building in Berlin into a gigantic display that could be controlled online or via cell phones – for creating animations, messages, playing pong...

parasite architecture

by shahram entekhabi in collaboration with ewa potoniec, dorota klimczyk

An informal extension of the Bunkier Museum presented in the design of a "parasite" architecture, which feeds off the existing space and also offers another perspective on the notion of mass migration and the perceived existence of migrants.

Bird people

by Eelko Moorer

Map

by Aram Bartholl



Placing Google markers in the streets.

Campinski workshop

Workshop by osa - office for subversive architecture



Students were asked to transform selected locations in a predominantly industrial harbour area via precise interventions in the existing building structure using only simple igloo tents.

Simple City

by Jonas Liverod


The City of Lund's left-overs return. Is that a hut, a nest or a parasite emerging on the roof of the bank 
building?It´s shape is ephemeral, a temporary refuge. To the passers-by who happen to catch a 
glimpse of it, the construction may raise longing and curiosity. - What is it doing there? Who built it? Why? 
How do you get up there? An extension of the city, a manifestation of human longing or a result of housing 
problems? The city giving birth to the city.