Hi Michelle,
You won’t believe what’s going on in Melbourne! Today we went swimming in crystal clear waters of the harbor at Dockland’s Sunset Beach and the water was warmer than in Barcelona.
We cheered for the ‘Dockland’s Longshoremen’ at their first footy game since they opened the brand new stadium in Fisherman’s bend. A huge terraced panoramic square replaced the old Etihad stadium and has become the city’s favorite vantage-point. People come by the hundreds. Just like in Pompidou’s Square the terraces are boiling with street-life under a gorgeous canopy of sugar gums.
Dad sat and read for a long time in one of long benches at the Docklands seashore. Along the walk there are shops and restaurants every 20 meters. The ‘Vapporeto’ that took us from the docks to St. Kilda in a journey that reminded me of Manhattan’s circle cruises.
Little John had a great time playing at the beach with the children from docklands primary school. At sunset he went mad when little penguins arrived. Maria went kayaking up at Moonee Ponds Creek with some faculty friends.
We may stay here forever,
Love,
Maria
Docklands suffer from ‘social neglect’. Melbournian’s hardly known them or go there.
Docklands has arts but no public, has ties but no kids, has banks but no schools, it has wealth but little social mixture, it has sea but you can’t swim, it has squares but little benches, is has little parks and even less trees, it has the order but it lacks the appropriation… and it has LOTS of semi-empty bars and restaurants were you pay to sit.
At the same time, Docklands are such an unequalable urban setting: huge water bodies, Km of seashore, wonderful sunsets, exceptional skylines, proximity to the center…
Docklands is missing something of a BEACH. Beaches are melting pots, are playful & engaging, are free and equal to everyone. Beaches have clean water were you can swim and are the doorway to sea. Beaches are the most magnetic place on earth and can transform the character of a whole city as happened in Barcelona.
PIXELBEACH is NOT an artifice; there are already plenty of them in the Docklands, pixelbeach is a statement, a question. Pixelbeach is a social prototype, were people are invited to appropriate the docklands in a different way, unpredictable, playful, gratis, just like you are or feel, without suits.
Pixelbeach is a stage is not an art form, people makes it. In Pixelbeach people brings the color, the agenda and the meaning. Pixel is not beautiful, nor is poetic, pixelbeach what people wants is to be…
Pixelbeach can be programmed and transforms at down. It has a its own tune and a night ‘light suit’
Pixelbeach is a brick for a social claim, is a dream. The dream is edited into a Postcard that you can send to the Mayor suggesting another possible future docklands and it reads like dreamed city in a family letter.
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