Remix the City: Jason Eppink visits Remix the City

spoiler

Spoiler Alert

Today, our Remix the City class was lucky enough to hear Jason Eppink talk about his work. A million thank you’s to Angela for making this possible. She’s the best. I first became aware of him about two years ago, when he spoke at Conflux Fest about a few of his projects (including his Pixelator, the chair dropMP3 Experiment, and a few others). Gotta be honest – he had me hooked.

He carefully balances his work in the gray zones of the law (by that, I mean his outdoor projects are typically ephemeral, easily removed, and thus don’t directly break the law). Working within that gray zone, his interventions tend to expose our assumptions of the power dynamics of shared public spaces. I realize this is a very vague statement, so to clarify – Jason does things like building a small bridge over a sewage-covered sidewalk. It’s not directly illegal to build a small bridge, but it inspires questions like who has access, who has authority and who should feel responsible for the spaces we inhabit? You? Me? Jason Eppink? Even if his stuff doesn’t rock your world in terms of challenging notions of authority, it’s good for a laugh at the very heart of it.

Earlier today, my geography professor said “The built environment reflects the power structure”. I thought about that a lot during Jason’s talk. I think Jason’s work is rad because it provokes the existing power structure, without necessarily jamming it. It draws our attention to environments we take for granted and thus inspires us to question them and our authority within them (like this). It’s humorous, intelligent and yet still critical. What a rad combination.

If you like Jason’s work, check out these other sick urban interventionists (whatever that means):