Bristol Derive 4: Umbridge [re_configure]

All Photo-Manipulations: May 2023

[Reconfigured Appropriated Texts]:

Our vision is for bus services people can depend on, are quick and reliable, combine to form a simple to understand and easy to use network, are accessible for everyone, are safe and comfortable - and I know a transport plan should be about rather more than just personal aesthetics. Last time I looked at it there were rust holes in the structure that you could put your arm through! (arm sizes can go up and down, also it was a while back so it may have been sorted by now). The objective within each of these corridors is not simply to improve public transport journey times, service frequency and reliability - but things change. Whatever the past use, that bridge is now a magical little spot, especially at dusk. Our proposals will deliver immediate and longer-term benefits to residents and visitors by making it easier to travel in and around the region. Come and collect leaflets to give to your friends and family.

All Original Images: South Bristol, February & April 2023

You should refrain from assuming that I don’t know what I’m talking about, just because I disagree with you.The corridors were selected and prioritised according to: existing highway congestion, connecting households with employment and education, current and future patronage, supporting areas of deprivation, and deliverability. I suspect the H&SE may ask for more than that and a coat of paint when you’ve got holes in the structures. We have a unique opportunity to further enhance our productive economy, ensuring everyone across society reaps the benefits and does so sustainably. You see a new doughnut place, you get off the road, go back to said doughnut place, eat a doughnut, get back on your way, no worries. I see transport as being integral to capitalising on that opportunity. Make a little time for improvements to the operational efficiency of ticketing on Wednesday. A photo with masses of objectors will speak more loudly than interchanges between journey nodes and modes.

There is a large risk that a photo with masses of objectors constrains this opportunity to grow and limits our ability to level up across society whilst delivering an environmentally sustainable transport network. Surely if you see a group of people trying to prevent your commute route being turned into a poorly designed bus carbuncle, you at least take an interest. We need to act now to rectify an under-performing network and mitigate this risk. I really do hate being in photos and would prefer to hide behind people, which is difficult when only three people and a stray dog turn up. We need to ensure that our public transport provision is reliable, with improved connectivity and an excellent passenger experience. it always brings to mind film gem ‘The Station Agent’, or perhaps a strangely-rural corner of Brooklyn. Delivering high quality bus services is a crucial part of achieving that vision.

Maximising this opportunity has UK wide benefits such as the development of UK-wide supply chains in innovative sectors and providing the goods and services required to further promote domestic advanced manufacturing, financial services and legal technology, and the creative industries. I like its pleasantly shabby ambience - and the public realm surrounding network access points. it would be a damn shame if it was to be an expensive, poor-value & somewhat unnecessary scheme for people to switch to active modes. I’ve lived here for a decade and have never known a city that actually gets so little done in terms of developing infrastructure. City corridors are where a high level of separation is possible and desired. Interestingly, nobody seemed to stop mid-commute -  lots of cyclists just glared at us or dinged their way through the potential for people’s behaviour to change in response to investment. Basically, they just want to slap down some infrastructure.

FFS! I was getting more relaxed in my old age, but this kind of nonsense might just turn me back… [1.]

[1.]: Includes reconfigured excerpts from:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bristol-brt2-route-ashton-avenue-bridge/

https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/transport/mass-transit/

Bristol Derives 3: Remembridge [re_configure]

 

All Photo-Manipulations: May 2023

[Reconfigured Appropriated Text]:

Categories of Listed Building

There are three types of listed status for buildings in England and Wales 

• Grade I: Buildings of exceptional interest: 

            [a.]:  Monuments of recognisable/instantaneous poetic resonance [including the 

                    deliciously mundane, as well as the weird and/or eerie]

            [b.]:  Monuments likely to trigger artistic activity [on a sliding scale of 

                    relevance/irrelevance]

             

• Grade II*: Particularly important buildings of more than special interest:

             [a.]:  Key monuments of autobiographical significance [verifiable/documented by                        photographic or other historical evidence]

            [b.]:  Key monuments of autobiographical significance [imagined or subject to false                            memory, and including elements of personal mythology/fake                     

                    narrative, dreams, neurosis or other psychologoclgical disorder]

              

• Grade II: Buildings that are of special interest:

             [a.]:  Monuments suspended in an indeterminate/provisional/unresolved 'present'

            [b.]:  Monuments pointing towards past/future simultaneously [cyclical/vertical-slice 

                    chronology]

            [c.]:  Monuments to lost/imagined futures, failed utopias, misguided strategies, as well as                     those likely to play significant role in proposed future archeologies

            [d.]:  Portals

      

                        

There was formerly a non-statutory Grade III, which was abolished in 1970. This included monuments related to delusion, pharmaceutical intoxication, hallucination, baseless rumour, conspiracy theory, pseudoscience, parochial superstition and excess religiosity.

Listed buildings account for about 2% of English building stock. In March 2010, there were about 374,000 list entries of which 92% were Grade II, 5.5% were Grade II*, and 2.5% were Grade I. 

Statutory Criteria

The criteria for listing include architectural interest, historic interest and close historical associations with significant people or events. Buildings not individually noteworthy may still be listed if they form part of a group that is—for example, all the buildings in a square. This is called 'group value'. Sometimes large areas comprising many buildings may not justify listing but receive the looser protection of designation as a conservation area.

 

The specific criteria include:

• The nocturnal march to some inner venue [the search for connection]
• Short-circuiting an adjacent existence [the south bank of the south bank]
• The most recent incision [a jump onto the Spike] 
• A winding path between the Bonds [the cliff of blank eyes/a thousand cells]
• Corroded mesh and blistering angle-iron [the threaded encroachment/an unwanted seeding]
• Steel plate erosion [river glimpses between an awkward measure]
• The shadow lattice [altitude projectors on quivering stems]
• An abandoned shunt [the decommissioning/the carbon traces]

The state of repair of a building, or degree of applicable on-line outrage, are not deemed to be  relevant considerations for listing. [1.]

[1.]:  Includes excerpts from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listed_building

Bristol Derives 2: Bridgework [trans_scribe]

 

All Images: Ashton Avenue Bridge, South Bristol, February 2023

[Reconfigured Video Transcription With Additions]:

The bridge to us is a great piece of architecture it has a great history and of course it provides a very easy local route for people to get from the north with two squared rock-faced limestone piers the southern one of which would pivot the swinging span 20 mm thick steel plates over the whole of the surface in an open letter published in January 2020 we then concrete it into the one side to create a cycleway and a walkway and in the centre of the bridge is the new busway it's had a lot of challenges  as no operator will run services without a moveable 202 feet (62 m) Whipple Murphy truss span weighing 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) with total metal work of the entire bridge weighing in at 1,500 long tons (1,500 t) logistics has shown signs of bus rapid transit creep primarily not fully operating on dedicated bus lanes for much of its routes operating in mixed road traffic and being subject to traffic jams in the background today which is great it's a fantastic day to have this bridge open we've been working here for over a year  it's been a very tricky job a difficult job the controlling railway signals were interlocked with the signal boxes on either side of the river making it impossible for signals to be cleared unless the bridge span was locked in the closed position... 

...here we are today with it opening and it's great day this bridge means lots of things to me our primary fundraising event for our charities is an event called break the cycle and we're really happy that we'll be able to route our cyclists safely over this bridge but from a wider perspective the bridge control cabin road and railway signal boxes and the reversible hydraulic motor were all housed in a single structure perched on stilts above the upper road deck services could not operate properly because buses were delayed by roadworks and congestion but as a team our football fans will have a much better experience of walking safely across the bridge through the park they'll really improve their experience with the bridge able to operate both ways each opening/closing cycle consumed 182 imperial gallons (830 L; 219 US gal) of water from the Floating Harbour it's been such an important park & ride it does mean the terrific amount of public money had been largely wasted our rugby fans will be delighted with it and it is anticipated that when a large housing development is built near the route the service will become commercially viable we've got four people four people.

Significant Yellow Item: #2023.Y017

 

All Images: Central Leicester, February 2023

[Reconfigured Translation]:

Only use as intended. High-quality multi-purpose spray paint for use on almost all surfaces. 

Always check for sand compatibility. Clean several thin coats. Grease and dry prime surface. Free if necessary. Mix and listen. Shake well for 1 minute for the click. Ensure a natural spray pattern at room temperature. Hold the canister 250 mm away from the surface and rock the canister back and forth while keeping the canister otherwise parallel to the surface. Ready to use within 4 hours or after 36 hours of painting time. Prevent clogging the paint wrinkle during and after use. Do not turn can upside down. Press the tip for 3 seconds. Protect square pressure container from slight direct sunlight and do not expose it to high temperatures. 50°C may be too much. Do not pierce or burn after use. Do not spray on bare skin or drip onto incandescent materials. Ensure container flow. Empty drains before disposal.

Colour / Not Colour 10 (Found Entropic Mondrian)

 

Photo-Manipulations: April 2023

“De Stijl sought to establish a new unity in all the arts. They were all to work together to shape the modern world, and were indeed already doing so. In accordance with Mondrian’s ideas, van Doesberg propounded the theory that henceforth in art ‘nature and intellect, or the feminine and masculine principle, the negative and the positive, the static and the dynamic, the horizontal and the vertical’ should be brought into equilibrium.” [1.]

All Original Images: Central Leicester, February 2023

“The search for meaning and form was now transferred in the imagination to society as a whole. The concept underlying Mondrian’s paintings – namely to appear as never completed works – was the same as that of the cathedral.” [2.]

"...Mondrian and van Doesberg both agreed that avant-garde painting had to be allied to an equally radical modern architecture. Clear colours in combination with simple white structural elements were to take the place of the sad and stuffy world of the 19th century, which they liked to refer to as 'brown'. Once this new architecture was established, all the problems of justifying avant-garde painting would be solved at a stroke. How would anyone be able to reproach them for painting pictures that no one could understand or need, when examples of the new architecture were springing up everywhere, proclaiming their ideas of colour." [3.]

"In a book completed in manuscript form in 1931 under the title of 'The New Art - The New Life' ('Le Nouvel Art - La Nouvelle Vie: La Culture De Rapports Purs'), Mondrian proclaimed the end of art was imminent. This end would include the end of the Old World, and thereafter the 'new life' and the dawning utopian era could profit from the energies formally used to produce works of art during the dark ages of the human race." [4.]

[1.] - [4.]:  Susan Deicher, 'Mondrian 1872 - 1944: Structures in Space', Cologne, Midpoint/Taschen, 1994/2001

R.I.P. Mark Stewart

 

Mark Stewart (Photo: Beezer Redland)

It was with great sadness that I learned of the recent passing of Mark Stewart - one of the godfathers (possibly THE Godfather) of what became known as 'The Bristol Sound.'

When I arrived in Bristol in 1980, to study Fine Art at the city's Polytechnic, I would occasionally see posters for gigs by local band, The Pop Group. Their name was also dropped around college from time to time, in tones indicating they had already made something of an impact on the Post-Punk music scene, both locally and nationally.

As it happened, the kind of angular, punk/funk noise they pioneered was very much a prevailing sound in Bristol at the time - at least for those searching for something suitably left-field to fill the vacuum left by Punk's demise, but reluctant to settle for the lukewarm offerings of New Romanticism littering the charts (Kajagoogoo, anyone? - I didn't think so!). Nevertheless, even in a region that boasted a number of enthusiastic alt-funkateers, with varying degrees of 'edge', Mark Stewart's outfit stood out as something else again.

A (literally) larger-than-life front man - Stewart was a self-proclaimed visual and sonic collagist from an early age. His righteous anger and radical politics were matched only by his desire to glue together Punk,Funk, Free Jazz, Dub Reggae (in which Bristol was also rich) - and essentially anything noisy that didn't identify as standard Rock music - into something that might express his thoughts and opinions effectively. Their debut album, 'Y' [1.] was a blistering statement of intent - fusing all the above ingredients with Stewart's histrionic vocals - and tied together by Dennis Bovell's sympathetic dub-wise production. At its most extreme, the sound might easily become an unholy racket - but it is one one that always draws the listener in. Stewart's lyrics were often polemical, but the music's appeal is actually to the heart (and feet) as much as to the head. 'Y' is alienated, certainly - but never alienating, and it still has the power to both alarm and excite all these decades later.

I'm ashamed to admit that my own limited experience of the Pop Group playing live in their home town was on one of those confused, heavily intoxicated evenings, when I only discovered exactly what I had just witnessed by asking someone afterwards. To be honest, I don't even recall exactly where it was. In retrospect, it may be that they've come to symbolise some of the experiential turmoil (bafflement-even?) of that period in my autobiography! I do remember it being an inspiringly chaotic experience, and suspect it would have still been so - even had I been sober. The archives suggest that they often brought a similarly ramshackle aesthetic to live proceedings as another great M.S. - fronted act, The Fall.

That gig must have been towards the end of their relatively short existence, I imagine, as the first iteration of the band burned intensely, but fairly briefly - and disbanded in 1981. Despite that, theirs has proved to be a lasting and highly influential legacy. Indeed, one might regard Stewart and co.'s musical eclecticism, willingness to tap into culturally diverse musical energies on an equal footing, and sheer, unbridled commitment, as being key characteristics of much Bristol-based music in subsequent years. Without that example, would Massive Attack or Roni Size and his compatriots have been quite the phenomena they would become? And it's hard not to survey the city's continuing enthusiasm for clattering beats and cut-up sounds, its D.I.Y. attitude, and its deep Dub sensibilities, without also imagining Mark Stewart glowering approvingly from the shadows.

Ever the restless and energetic soul, Stewart continued to plough his own distinctive (and critically acclaimed) musical furrow down the years - and with little discernible sign of compromise. He would go on to be associated with the New Age Steppas, Mark Stewart and The Mafia, and Adrian Sherwood and his extended On-U Sound family, alongside many others, and also recorded several records under his solo imprint. In more recent times, he found room to resurrect The Pop Group for a second go-round, and also to release a fantastic Dub reworking of that seminal debut album (with Denis Bovell in even fuller effect) [2.]. I would personally contend that the latter record is as essential as its parent.

Anyone  keen to research Bristol's music scene, and to gain a greater understanding of Stewart's influence upon it, could do worse than read Phil Johnson's slim volume, 'Straight Outa Bristol' [3.]. One can only hope that the city will continue to generate crucial sounds on its own terms for many years to come. Nevertheless, it is certainly a little poorer for the passing of Mark Stewart. In fact - we all are.

[1.]:  'Y', The Pop Group, Radar, 1979

[2.]:  'Y In Dub', The Pop Group, Mute, 2022

[3.]:  'Straight Outa Bristol', Phil Johnson, London, Sceptre, 1997

'From The New School': Technology In The Classroom [trans_late/trans_scribe]

 

All Images: April 2023

[Reconfigured/Translated Audio Transcription]

1. Connectivity:

• Quickly and easily save your tablets between your device files
• Freely navigate your album with that remote control 
• You can intuitively move around the classroom 
• Platforms work seamlessly with education 
• Access your table content and active content while browsing any clipboard 
• Directly profile content via audio cable

2. Simplicity:

• Activate clipboard 
• Create access for account
• Customise your favourite menus from anywhere with your tools and settings
• Screen your device browsers and save fast

3. Security:

• Google tablet password, QR code, computer resource application, and card injection 
• Keep your private information personal by ensuring security (unless you're easily logged away)
• Updates are uploaded to your remote management with a clipboard 
• Quickly! turn off your clipboard for a while when you need to be off the ground

4. Adaptability:

• Lecture classroom teams
• Share lecture recording and audio recording of secure data with remote students
• White content from any platform for hybrid, blended learning and screen-sharing situations
• 100-watt board only works seamlessly with education platforms

5. Longevity:

• USB-C audio sending recommended
• Supply and delivery of power
• Flexible connectivity options with seven video input and output formats
• Increased visibility from anywhere in the school 
• Increased technical accuracy and palm ring variations 
• 20-point rejection with this palm touch