Be In Bristol

Whiteladies Road, Bristol, August 2024

I’ve just returned from another of my regular short trips to Bristol. Over the last couple of years these have been largely dedicated to collecting material for what has slowly coalesced into my ever-expanding ‘The Basin’ project. That ‘ever-expanding’ quality explains why progress has been slower than originally envisaged (as is so often the case when I dig myself into something). Fortunately, ‘steady’ is also an applicable adjective, and the project continues to feel both relevant and rewarding.

However, it’s definitely time to stop ceaselessly collecting visual raw material, and imperative that the project should now solidify into a more tangible statement. A number of posts on here have featured first drafts of the written ‘chapters’ around which the project is to be structured, and pleasingly, I’m now starting to see some distant glimmers of light at the end of that particular tunnel. Consequently, this most recent trip featured relatively little photographic action around the Cumberland Basin site itself, and rather more general daytime drifting around a wider sweep of Bristol territory, with a few writing hours put in on the laptop once back in the hotel room.

As is inevitably the case, (indeed - the whole point really) drifting leads to observation, reflection and unpredicted leaps of imagination. Here then, are a series of random musings, separate from ‘The Basin’, and connected only by the serendipitously found text appearing in these images:

• Reflection: To simply ‘Be in Bristol’  involves a three-hour motorway drive each way, plus the price of a mid-range hotel room and sundry refreshments. The cost implications of making the state more permanent are intimidating. As one walks away from the estate agent’s window, the undeniable attractions of these streets exerts itself all over again. The old cost-value/quantity-quality dilemmas crash in. 

• Irony: When I was here, in a previous life, education was supported and my income dependant on hand-outs. Housing support covered the rent on a cheap room, at a shabby address, in a charming quarter. It was another century.

• Memory: The landlord carried a replacement refrigerator on his back, up three flights of stairs.

• Cartographical Reflection: Slight diversions reveal the fractal details of the street plan. Hidden lanes, tiny cottages, the obscure climb up to the World’s End.

• Irony: Such newly-uncovered places lie within the shadow of previous homes. It has required intervening decades and a conscious recherché to unfold them from the map.

• Reflection: The economy of this place appears to function through refreshments, relaxation, and the deferment of mortality. Every neighbourhood offers a choice of coffee, tapas, running gear, and beauty fixes. Nail maintenance and the Pilates Zone are readily accessible. Those not drawn in there appear to be renovating heritage properties at a leisurely pace. The suspicion is that far more lucrative flows must operate through subterranean channels.

• Observation: A middle-aged woman on the table adjacent. Exhaustive/ing account (in clipped tones) of her daughter’s recruitment to a rapidly-expanding digital start-up (the interview process, starting salary, share options, possible relocation to New York). In production of what? She’s clearly what they were looking for but the drive to an out-of-town HQ may prove tedious.

• Observation: A man in his dynamic years, with suit jacket over one arm. The other extends a phone to his ear. Street food, cocktails and coffee are imbibed around him in early evening sunlight. Indifference to the detritus building at his feet. Negotiations last longer than the ordering and consumption of several meals.

• Physical Accomodation: At a certain age, the knees of the flaneur require endless perambulation to give way to the cafe table with street view. Close the paperback and laptop for the second coffee. Simply Allow the city to come to you through an open window.

• Observation: The two nearest tables are dedicated to accounts of recent trips and the planning of the next (the perfect Air B&B, the secret restaurant, etc.) On the third, a man in late middle-age scrolls through his screen and quietly dictates the salient points into his phone. The subject is inaudible despite the proximity. His murmur layers into the ambience.

• Observation: At 11.00 am, the vast majority of tables (at all venues) are occupied by ranks of the active elderly (see above). Loose sleeves, khaki shorts and sun hats predominate. The proximity of the first cataract operation make sunglasses obligatory. They settle-in and business booms. Early-release funds and property portfolios have been generous.

• Danger! Irregular Terrain: In this city one always looks up or down. Perspectives become contingent upon elevation. Cliffs and abutments of pastel facades stack overhead. Roofs cascade down the hillside below. The intended goal lies beyond the fugitive crest of any given street. Progress comprises a series of stumbles, jars and barely-internalised curses, amongst arbitrary cobbles and irregular steps. Certain slabs appear to function as trapdoors. One might regain lost fitness or equally succumb to injury here.

• Observation: Pause for expensive beer at an unsteady pavement table. Two legs stand on an irregular iron cellar hatch. Each passing pedestrian footfall creates a seismic event - clattering my glass loudly.

• Observation: A paint spattered decorator emerges onto the pavement, agreeing by phone to terminate his leisurely pub lunch. He crosses to the most bourgeois hardware shop imaginable (situated opposite between Japanese food and smart coffee). 90 seconds pass. He emerges, clutching a single one and a half-inch glossing brush. The artisans handle themselves somewhat differently in this neighbourhood. 

• Reflection: Glimpsed between facades, or at the point where an elevated street curves away, certain distant windows suddenly catch the eye. Teetering attics are stacked amongst precarious roof-scapes. How does the city appear from that vantage? Could one be in that room? 

Acknowledgement:

The influence of Georges Perec on this post cannot be overlooked - both as a master observer of the everyday, and a noted conoisseur of urban spaces. Between composing these fragments, I consumed numerous chapters of:

Georges Perec, 'Species of Spaces and Other Pieces' (Ed/Trans. John Sturrock), London, Penguin, 1974/1997.

Bristol Derives 1: Basin/'Getting In Is The Easy Part' [trans_scribe/trans_late]

 

All Photo-Manipulations: April 2023

[Reconfigured/Translated Video Transcript]:

Bristol needs to build more places to live the big question of course is where not in the current scheme of things on a delicious green field know what the fuck planners like are brownfield sites Brunelz bridge overlooked by the expensive properties of Clifton and hot wells so thanks dat shitz found just dat the area ta be known as da Western Harbor Stallions it's always been called Basin...

All Original Images: Cumberland Basin & Surrounding Area, Bristol, April 2023

...what is a brownfield site well shiiit according to the urban planning definition its land which has been previously developed but is not currently in use Bristol’s Floating Harbor shipping moves in and out of the harbour through these locks whilst the Avon is diverted along the New Cut waterway constructed to take the title river through South and East Bristol dat shitz a place dat can wit' very high tides be prone ta floodin' forgetting in & out of Bristol an area full of structures reflecting the city's maritime heritage...

...Ballard has listed building status but dat shitz not just a collection o' old relics from da past dat shit has itz own community people live here what has the City Council proposed for this area at the moment nothing for certain call a visioning report which is full of thoughts and aspirations what the fuck who the fuck... 

...the area's 1960s road network needs major and very expensive refurbishment heavy traffic techniques toll on the mainly elevated reinforced concrete structure piles ta da 1965 Plymouth Soul Swing Bridge which doesn't quite operate at the speed da traffic accused when it opens for shipping probably which it did dat shitz been suggested that before tens of millions of pounds is spent why not see if the current road layout in the area is still fit for purpose the riverside garden centre was initially rather concerned as there was a thought to put a new dual carriageway right through the middle o' dat shit... 

...and should a new bridge be built in a different place further down the even gorge but if that happens could classic view and housing land here be used for the construction of new homes and businesses what about the three former tobacco bonded warehouses which dominate the area what the fuck part could they play in all dis... 

...how tha fuck does dat shit all tie in wit' da cityz plans to encourage people to use public transport and cycle and walk more and what about its cleaner air objectives the public and interest groups have given their muthafuckin' opinions on Bristol City Council’s initial vision n' a masta plan fo' what the fuckz ta be proposed this unique and historic area is to be worked on between the end of 2022 and the spring of 2024 so many questions with as yet no answers…

Emergence Experiment [trans_scribe]

 

All Original Images: West Leicester, August 2022

[Amended Audio Transcription]:

The word is emerging colloquially to eat something like butter/ giving rise to or becoming a parent (but in murdering)/ emergence and convergence are technical terms/ so today I want to explain what physicists mean by emergence/ which is also the way that the expression is open/ but not always used by philosophers in reference to novel types of behaviour (in systems with many interacting constituents)/ a good example is the aloha way that you sometimes see in the audience of sporting events/ it's not something you can do all along/ it only becomes possible because of the interactions between people and their neighbours/

 

in many condensed matter systems the interactions between atomic constituents give rise to certain types of collective behaviour/ examples of this are sound waves/ sound waves are really just a simple collective description for atoms in a gas that move periodically and so create a propagating mode of quantum mechanics/ wave salsa particles are the other way round/ this is why in condensed matter systems one can have quasi-particles which behave like particles with quantum properties of wave behaviour (and all that)/ but actually a collective that moves together emerges from the interactions of many fundamental particles/ the most relevant property of something emergent is only emergent if it comes about from the collective behaviour of many constituents of the system (be that people or atoms)/ if something is emergent it does not even make sense to speak about individual elements of the system/ quantities in physics are in emergence/ think for example of conductivity/ conductivity is the ability of a system to transport cards from one hand to another/ it's a property of materials but it does not make sense to speak of the conductivity of the electrode/ it's the same for this course (80-80)/ 

even something as seemingly simple as the colour of a material is not a property you find if you take apart a painting into elementary particles/ it comes from the band structure of molecules/ it's an emergent property/ discuss two types of ammonia/ there is strong emergence and weak emotions/ this week's emergency means that the emergent property can be derived from the properties of the system's constituents and the quark  may not have a conductivity/ but in principle you can calculate holidays for atoms and molecules and metals/ the conductivity is a consequence of this/ the only type of emergency we have is weak convergence with strong philosophers/ refer to the hypothetical possibility that a system with many constituents takes place in normal behaviour which cannot be derived from properties and interactions of the constituents/ there is not a single known example of this in the real world/ I can think of photographic mosaics/ there are photos made up of smaller photos/ if I give you all the photos and the properties you have no idea what the emerging picture will be/ however this example is hardly a natural phenomenon/ to make a photographic mosaic you start with the emergents she wants to get in there and you look for photos that will fit/ in other words the strong emergence which we have here works only thanks to an intelligent designer who had a master plan/ 

All Photo-Manipulations: August 2022

it's not only that we have no scientific theory for it/ it's worse/ strong emergence is incompatible with worry/ know about the laws of nature/ because if you think that strong emergence can really happen then this necessarily implies that there will be objects and these words/ behaviour is in conflict with the standard model of particle physics/ if that was not so then it really would not be strong emergence/ I think that consciousness or free will should be strong in merging/ but there is absolutely no reason to think that this is the case all week/ consciousness is as weakly emergent as any other collective phenomenon/ large systems thank you for watching/ see you next week/ we know a building inside-out with a co-star's inventory of properties.

'This S(c)eptic Isle': Notional Pride 15 [trans_late]

 

All Images: West Leicester, July 2022

[Reconfigured/Translated Audio Transcript]:

Renovations are out of the question, and rents and housing prospects are likely to rise. Picture: there are no quick or easy solutions to situations that have accumulated over decades. Nearly a third of British homeless could not find a home in the pandemic situation without a quick or easy solution. Release stress: remote work will increase flexibility in choosing where to live. Prices rose 10% between March 2020 and March 2021, and continue to rise 13% year over year, as remote work increases housing resilience. Private sector rents also rose to record levels. The latest figures show that average rents outside London are up 11.8% year-on-year, with a capitalisation rate of 15.8%, as most homeowners are homeowners, and attitudes toward housing inflation are disproportionate to rising energy, renters' food prices, or private buying intentions.

 

Good Ford said the greatest crisis in human capacity, especially the difficulty of buying a first home, is due to intergenerational injustice. This increase may mask the fact that many homeowners will benefit from the 25-34 age group in the long run. The proportion of homeowners, which fell from 59% in 2003, to 47%, said they deal with underrepresented minority homeowners and the lack of consensus on the UK issue. The housing crisis reflects Lauder's disagreement over public policy, and the conflict of interest between landlords and their actors (the gap in government data).

The government has never considered the impact of foreign investment on UK property prices. This type of buying is so common because it has raised prices and avoided certain areas. The Mayor of London said 36% of new buildings in London's decent suburbs had overseas buyers and were likely to be used as luxury properties in the Barents Sea utilities crisis. Homes become financial assets, and we need to change the tax system. Municipal taxes and capital gains rates are unlikely to be designed to increase the supply of social rental housing and empower tenants. In general, housing policy is no more problematic than it is lazy.

 

The slow pace of promises to dismantle the bureaucracy that hampers architecture appears to be more like a threat than a gateway. There are no quick and easy solutions in construction for decades to come. According to a new report, the Bank of England could be held responsible for the changes, and for a package of reforms in the interbank mortgage market.An important first step is to realise that in the decade since the introduction of the right to buy, the massive shift from public to private housing has been a disaster. The fact that it is growing faster than people's incomes adds to inflationary pressures and is a gross injustice and a mockery (two-thirds of the population will benefit from higher home prices).

Encourage progressive politicians to show they support the idea that housing, not profit should be the primary objective of the balance sheet. Patriarchy and dishonesty settle on the brave road. Residential landscaping, real estate, commercial real estate, and public editorials lease this content. Tap here to remove ads.

Music Re-View 12.1 (Remix)

 

All Images: February 2022

[Audio Transcript]:

A merchant garden and drinks poured I would not want to be in the story I am listening to it feels like from subway subway you pass recuperando undervalued ignores collapse into noise a subprime you can hear that one flooring stream-of-consciousness interstitial anthems expressionistic and open-ended Delirious the deliberate newton die verwendung Google when is your dramatist gestalt weird 

but wait human give the sense of journeying through an unfamiliar neighbourhood we're talking instrumental songs field recording experimental sounds skip blind County Johnson has taught channel 02 anticipating impending interruption of the global media system I fell for it and fell hard during the emotional turmoil last police brutality many found themselves asking whatever happened to the artist that could make music feel like it was made just for me 

concrete statements become more legible and it become somehow infected by urban dwelling general resorty organic o'nella a dark ambient melodies glide by landscape voices but they will only give you scrap from the banquet table to possibly be human wandering the streets making very human noises they sneeze cough inhale robot place you write at the edge of the production pushing the envelope another couple of inches into the places that you hesitate to go it feels as though you are really close up like being in the room sharing the same headphones with the Creator making the atmosphere is cold and dry microphone sounds at times like an explosion 

far away there is a wavering impossible to talk about the present without thinking of Lost futures it's raining a lot thing is not quite right in the story we are listening to the trans human is steam of a stable cyberpunk future government tyranny and genre spanning collection of extraordinarily detailed interludes I meant to use wiser already there's no one else making records like this it is better it sounds anything else quite like this and something that could be nice or coins or something else metallic rubbing against each other tap here to remove ads Audible: audiobooks & podcasts ads by Google stop seeing this ad why this ad?

Music Re-View 12

 

All Images: Central & North-East Leicester, February 2022

[The muted harrumph of a throat being cleared/ cans being opened and drinks poured]/ I would not want to be in the story I am listening to/ it feels like a depiction of the slow understanding that one's idealized love is slowly ebbing away beneath the day-to-day destruction of reality/ no opening line or expository declaration materializes in its wake/ remember when you disinfected each plastic bag after grocery shopping?/ the result is addictive/ yet disconcerting for reasons unknown; a soft gliding mixture/ from subway to subway, divining the thoughts of the denizens of each building you pass/ you feel as if you are Bruno Ganz hovering from apartment to apartment, you pass/ recuperando un approccio documentaristico che racconta la dimensione urbana attraverso un collage di suoni/ the forgotten, undervalued individuals that inhabit the night/ foresee that, as all the signals collapse into noise, a sub-primordial chaos entity will arrive.

Mixtapes/ let's quickly talk about mixtapes/ from the first track, you can hear that once-roaring stream of consciousness slow to a trickle and freeze over/ the second you change the language to mixtape, nobody cares/ these are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the current moment/ nach einem guten Jahr Pandemie bei Nachdenken uber die eigene Lage, bei dem Gewohntes neu in den Blick genommen und in Frage gestellt wird/ but wait, what exactly is a mixtape?/ it's human, but in a way that alienates rather than comforts, using processed, wounded-sounding samples to give the sense of journeying through an unfamiliar neighbourhood/ (we're talking instrumentals, songs, spoken word, field recordings, experimental sounds, skits)/ Blind Humpty Johnson has taught Channel Zero to anticipate an impending interruption of the global media system/ I fell for it and fell hard/ during the withering emotional turmoil of last year's uprisings against police brutality/ many found themselves asking: whatever happened to the artist that could make music feel like it was made just for me?

As the album progresses, concrete statements become more legible, and it becomes possible to delineate/ reverb-dunked guitar coming up against low scrapes of what sounds like cello and TV buzz/ the dubstep artist has gone silent/ electronic music, has become somehow infected by urban dwelling: beats are now part of our casual experience/ ogni brano ha un paessaggio timbrico interiore, sebbene il sound generale risulti organico nella sua dark ambience/ melodies glide by, carefully panning over a detailed landscape with a wide-angle lens/ they mostly resemble the progressive rock staple of the late 60s, where organs bridged an uneasy, at times even blasphemous, apocalyptic edge/ there are voices/ but they will only give you scraps from the banquet table/ they are too distorted and high-pitched to possibly be human. Empty corpses wandering the streets making very human noises: they sneeze, cough, inhale/ robots/ place you right at the edge of/ the production/ pushing the envelope another couple of inches/ into the places that you hesitate to go/ it feels as though you are really close up; like being in the same room, sharing the same headphones with the creator/ structure feels like/ a fishbone, rigged up to be kind of skitty, sharp.

Behind the concrete facades, there's a world of our own making/ the atmosphere is cold and eerie. The wind hitting the microphone sounds at times like an explosion far away.  There is a wavering sub-bass/ why shouldn't there be? The world has degraded to a dystopian shadow realm that's made it impossible to talk about the present without thinking of lost futures/ it's raining a lot/ as I write these lines/ it quickly becomes clear that something is not quite right in the story we are listening to/ the transhumanist dream of a stable Cyberpunk future, which seemed within arm's reach throughout the last decade, is now no more than a fractured desire/ it's somewhat of an occult idea, these parallel societies that create their own belief systems and ritualistic mythology/ nichts davon erscheint redundant/ we will inevitably look back at this time with grim memories about corrupt governments, tyranny and/ a genre-spanning collection of extraordinarily detailed interludes/ am Ende ist man auf diffuse Weise ergriffen.

It is a work for those already/ decommissioned and left to rot/ there's no one else making records like this/ it is better, it sounds real/ open your heart, and let it take you into the night/ it is unlikely that you will experience anything else quite like this for the rest of the year/ [water dripping and rain pouring... and something that could be knives or coins or something else metallic rubbing against each other].