All Blog Posts (16)

I have to confess that I must have been walking around for the last... umm.. 21+ years with my eyes closed!  I have always taken photos of people, or animals, or even situations... maybe at a push 'arty' shots of landmarks.  But never have I actually looked at urban architecture and thought, 'I'll get a shot of that'.  This all changed when I was in London this weekend.  I was actively telling my party (I say party, it was my Mum, her friend and my daughters) to…

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So, I've had my first Geography lesson of the year, looked at lots of maps (love old maps!) and discussed the models used to discribe the growth of settlements and urbanisation.

I've decided to join the site's #Urban100, - and have been shamelessly flogging the idea to anyone who will listen.  I'm even making my Guide unit do it as part of their 'out and about' badge.  This way I will have a few different collections of pictures.

The idea I have suggested to my…

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I have been offered 4 places to study various forms of Geography at universities in the South West (stayingg local, carbon footprint and all that)

Before I can do that though, I need to pass my Access course... and while I am LOVING geography, the other courses are stressing me out slightly.  There has been no geography home work and I have been buried under english lit and creative writing.  So as an outlet I am going to give myself a little bit of Urban Geography homework.  Once…

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In late February, Dan took up my offer to produce some maps for his series of urban story walks, an exploration of London using open government datasets to plan his routes. The aim of these walks was to see how the physical environment related to the highs and lows of government statistics. Naturally, like all the best projects, the request was made at the last minute.…

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In advance of the Urban Story: Degrees of London mass exploration of London I'm really pleased to be bringing this website back to life. It's the perfect way for us to meet, plan explorations and share what…

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107 posts from many different people (mostly in a snowy UK) for the first URBAN TWEET DAY.. You can see all of these on our URBAN TWEET DAY tracker above.



Taking out a few tweets and drawing it all into a fluid narrative.. here is what the days looked like for those who took part in chronological order.. if you would like to play with these words to come up with a story that is structured a different way see this… Continue

Geographies of Colonial and Postcolonial spaces: Research Paper



(Re)presenting the postcolonial city: Urban Earth Mumbai



Introduction



Visual technologies, in particular photography, play a crucial role in constructing geographical imaginations and shaping our perceptions of place (Schwartz and Ryan, 2003), yet have also often been deeply implicated in colonial power relations (Ryan, 2003). This essay will analyse a novel of mode of representing the city – “the… Continue

A frame from URBAN EARTH: MANCHESTER that features in the first URBAN EARTH: MASH



Most URBAN EARTH films have no music. Music definitely changes feelings towards a place may it (the music) be dark, euphoric or chilled - that is why the music is left out... yes it makes an easier and in many ways 'better' experience to have a good tune to the images as they come towards you, but the films resist the desire and want to conform to… Continue

This account of the walk across Tynside was emailed to me by Dick over the weekend. I find it inspirational and actually is what brought about the idea for URBAN EARTH: DAY (twitter). I hope you like it as much as I do. Great work Dick.



UrbanEarth walk across Newcastle upon Tyne

Sunday 25 January 2009

Word's by Dick Palfrey



The plan was to walk across the entire conurbation of Newcastle, from North West to South East, as another in the series of… Continue

21 de enero de 2009, dos días después de descubrir esta iniciativa global de Mr. Daniel Raven-Ellison, estoy enviando invitaciones y comentando con amigos. Entusiasmo a veces, muchas preguntas también.

Se vale en carro? en bici? Estaré averiguando y pondré las respuestas aquí.

Cómo se hacen los videos?
En Windows, en los foros mencionan un software que se llama MonkeyJam. Bastante fácil de usar y los resultados son inmediatos (casi).
Sobre Mac, iStopMotion.

You may have noticed that Christelle (who found out about Urban Earth from Anna who was on the Mexico City and Guadalajara walks) is organising a walk across Thies in Senegal. If you're in the area why not pop along. A few have already agreed to take part. The following day on the 24th we will be walking across Newcastle in the NE of England too.



On another note check out these two films "Rural Earth" by Noel Jenkins and "Coastal Earth" by Richard Allaway. Fun… Continue

Very cool news. We're going to apply for some funding to create an installaton for an urban exhibition in the first half of next year... we might just get lucky and if we do it could help to fund some open walks across cities... so watch this space as we'd love to have members on board. Let me know if you're thinking of doing a walk where you are as some different media organisations are asking quesitons too.



There is real stuff too though - check out Joe's trial run in Seattle… Continue

I'm delighted that the first four films are now out on the web. It's been a long time coming. This first wave of films show what URBAN EARTH is about and hopefully how easy it is to make these things.



Walks in Newcastle and Manchester are being organised for the first half of 2009... but there is chatter about walks in Istanbul, Senegal and Birmingham in England too. It you're up for doing a walk - don't be shy.. let's use this social network to get together walking across more… Continue

Only a couple of days now until the walk across Bristol. So far there will be around ten of us, but all going well there will be a map in the Bristol Post which will really open up the level of participation. If you're around and can make it to Bristol check the event listing to let us know that you'll be making it.. otherwise see you at the start.

Breaking Bristol into five equal groups of deprivation the most deprived occupy around… Continue

Listen Wisconsin Public Radio's programme about URBAN EARTH here.

URBAN EARTH... a simple, inclusive event. No high-brow education or special equipment is needed to do this, you just find an urban mass then walk across it. In my case I recorded my journeys by taking a photograph every eight paces to be set together in a stop motion film, allowing the audience to zoom though the city. In the case of Mexico City this meant counting to eight over 6,000 times. You could just draw a straight line and that would make an interesting journey, but for me that is not a… Continue