By BAILEY BAERWOLF, 3/28/2016. Can the city be hacked like an iPhone can? If the city is already produced, then is this actually the best way for urbanites to reclaim agency, rather than fighting for their ‘right to produce the city’?
Clearly, Jordenn and I are still asking questions to try to get at the heart of our research question. In fact, after recently attending the Spatial Politics of Work weekend-long workshop with such an amazing group of scholars, researchers, and designers, I’ve only been asking MORE questions.
While on a FaceTime call with Jordenn, I filled him in on some of the major themes of the weekend, one of which being ‘hacking’. As I learned, hacking culture is huge in Shenzhen. This raised the question: what other than phones and computers can be hacked? A system? A building? What about the city?
This is right in line with our interest in the idea urban resistance, but we agreed that they are not necessarily one in the same. Nevertheless, this is the path we are taking for the time being.
Later that week, I received a few answers to my many questions in a thoughtful discussion I had with a friend I met at the workshop—artist, anthropologist, and longtime Shenzhen resident Mary Ann O’Donnell. When I told her about our desire to look at ways people are resisting, or hacking, the city of Shenzhen, she looked at me as if the answer was written on my forward. “The beauty of China is that its designed to be hacked.” She explained that so much of China—everything from cable TV to a water bill—is expected to be hacked into by its citizens, making it socially acceptable and common behavior. “Non-compliance is an art in China.” Mary Ann finished these statements by prompting me to consider how much of this is just “coping” rather than acts of resistance or defiance.
What a thought! This made me realize that we must question everything, even our own assumptions. Back to the drawing board for Jordenn and I…