NEWARK 2010

From January 30, 2010, Linda Pollack will be in residence in Newark with Habeas Lounge, at Rupert Ravens Contemporary art space in downtown Newark on Market Street, as part of the ongoing show "Vessel".

Photo by Derek Jensen

Auld Lang Syne

Thursday Night - Talk Bicycles and Public Transportation in LA at the Habeas Lounge Closing Party @ DTLA Art Walk

For the past two months at the HABEAS LOUNGE, we've discussed healthcare, history, housing, galleries, small business, and youth in the context of DTLA as it exists right now....all while creating individualized maps of the city based on our perceptions, expeditions and ideas. One idea of course which we haven't gotten to discuss is transportation, specifically the relevance of bicycles and public transportation to DTLA as it exists today and in the future.

HABEAS LOUNGE Art Walk Closing Party and Perspective Group no. 10 - Bicyclists and Public Transportation

How does downtown exist as a hub for MTA riders and bicyclists in the city? Celebrate eight weeks of mapping and conversations during the final night of HABEAS LOUNGE: A PLURALISTIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, taking place during the DTLA Art Walk on Thursday, November 12 from 5-9p.m.

Mapping Workshop no. 7 - Mapping Public/Private Space - Saturday, November 7 - 2-4pm

Image of Audi Street Ad - June 2009

Courtesy of blogdowntown

When we are in a crowd and out of our homes, it is natural to assume that we’re in public! But are we really? In this mapping activity, we’ll walk downtown for an hour and scout out which places are public and which are private by looking for signifiers and divisions. From quasi-public corporate plazas to advertisers cleaning the public sidewalk to spray-wash their logo into the dirt, the boundaries between private and public space are fuzzy. What public spaces actually feel private – a tunnel, a bus shelter, the Central Library?

Veteran Downtown Economic Developer Hal Bastian of the DCBID Will Lead PERSPECTIVE GROUP No. 7 on HOUSING- Wednesday, November 4 from 6-8PM

Photo of Chapman Building at 8th and Broadway in Sept 2006 by Maryam Hosseinzadeh

The seventh HABEAS LOUNGE perspective group will explore housing in downtown Los Angeles. The real estate bubble of the past ten years helped to solidify downtown's redevelopment and the bubble's pop is having an effect on downtown too. Completed projects are facing major challenges in leasing and sales, eight projects have gone into bankruptcy protection, and more are still under construction. The housing market in DTLA is changing, but how and what will be its future. Could these economic changes in fact be leading to a more economically-inclusive downtown? What are your thoughts?

Mapping Workshop no. 6 - Mapping Fear - Saturday, October 31, 2-4PM

Photo by Ismail Farouk

On Halloween, map wrangler Katie Bachler will lead a walk where we will attempt to explore and map fear - fictive and actual, spatial and emotional - in downtown Los Angeles.

From places with reputations as "haunted" hotels like the Alexandria to dark tunnels, Skid Row and our fear of "the other", what places in the city make us feel fear? Does remedying this always come down to mechanisms like the Safer Cities Initiative, gentrification, an increase in police patrols, and installing street lights and security cameras? We want to discover how feeling scared manifests itself in DTLA's places and its community formation, and we need your help!