@_counterpoint
Winter 2014
COUNTER POINT
URBAN issue five birmingham in pictures - cycling in edinburgh - mapping manchester - global cities
Counterpoint is an online publication featuring thoughtful journalism, photography and illustration. Counterpoint is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The fifth issue of Counterpoint is themed Urban. This issue examines modern cities how we see them, how they shape the world, and how we can improve them.
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Open source cycling How Scottish designers and hackers are changing the way cyclists interact with cities
10 Birmingham through a lens
A tour of Brum through the eyes of one of the city’s most exciting young photographers
22 Curated Capital
Edinburgh is one of the world’s cultural capitals. We distill its essence using records, poetry and books
24 Mancunian way Two Manchester-based illustrators share their perspectives on the Northern metropolis
26 Rise of the global city Global cities are disconnected from their national contexts. Are they truly independent? CONTACT counterpointeditor@gmail.com @_counterpoint counterpointjournal.co.uk Cover: Jack Spicer Adams
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Open source cycling Counterpoint speaks to Cyclehack, the global design movement that is changing the way we cycle across our cities Words: Sam Bradley Pictures: Bethany Thompson
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The Innocent Railway is a four-mile stretch of cycle heaven in Scotland’s capital. Originally built to transport coal from Midlothian mines to Morningside hearths, the route is a cyclepath connecting the stark Lothian coastline at Portobello beach with the centre of Edinburgh. The route begins with a downhill tunnel which burrows deep beneath Arthur’s Seat, then surfaces in the middle of Holyrood Park. It offers a side of Edinburgh that few tourists are likely to see; a winding, wending way through copses, motorway underpasses and the backs of housing estates.
With well-kept cycle lanes and low traffic, Edinburgh is a comfortable city for cyclists who are willing to overlook the dour Scottish weather. Yet it says a lot about modern Britain that an abandoned mining railway is about as good as a cycle route gets. The recent spike in popularity for cycling as a sport - in part due to triumphs on the track and tarmac by Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome - has not led to any meaningful improvement of Britain’s cycle infrastructure. Recent census data released by the Office of National Statistics has showed that the number of commuter cyclists has stayed static over the last decade; rather than inducting a new generation of riders onto Britain’s roads, modern popularity has elevated recreational cycling from a hobby activity into a status symbol. A recent survey by cyclescheme. co.uk found that office workers who
A recent survey found office workers who cycled were more likely to get promotions. Cycling, the Telegraph claims, is the new golf commuted by bicycle were more likely to receive promotions. Cycling, the Daily Telegraph claims, is the new golf. The main recipients of the new cycling boom are boutique companies like Rapha, who cater for affluent, middle class riders. They market their products as lifestyle accessories aimed at white-collar weekenders heaving their carbon-fibre frames over Pennine fells as a stress-busting activity, rather than those who see their bikes as a means of transport. Yet for the majority of cyclists, bikes are a way of getting from A to B - a necessity, not a luxury. And Britain’s cycle infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired for those cyclists, a fact underlined by the numerous blogs charting cycle lanes to nowhere or the passive aggressive parking habits of drivers. In the past, the job of improving the lives of cyclists and other road users has been left to the political grassroots; road safety campaigners such as the eccentric Bill Boaks, a full-time activist
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who ran on a road-safety platform in dozens of parliamentary by-elections throughout the Sixties and Seventies. Today, there are campaigns which aim to pressure and lobby politicians into promoting better transport infrastructure, such as the group behind the annual Peddle on Parliament event, or local activist groups like Spokes, based in the Lothians. But in order to eke out any concessions from local government, groups like Spokes rely explicitly on the goodwill of politicians - and elected representatives are typically unlikely to favour further investment as long as cyclists make up a minority of the electorate.
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“For me, it’s not about conversations over policy, infrastructure or determining which cycle paths go where. We want Cyclehack to be focused on the small innovations.”
Johanna Holtan has decided to take matters into her own hands. Holtan is the co-founder of Cyclehack, a design collective founded earlier this year which aims to help cyclists ‘hack’ their bikes. The central idea is to improve cyclists’ experiences on a more personal level than policy could ever aim to do - small improvements that help make better the act of cycling on a day-today basis. When I interview Holtan over her lunch break, she explains the ethos behind the group: “For me, it’s not about policy conversations, conversations about infrastructure or determining which cycle paths should go where. I think there’s a lot of tension and we just kept thinking, ‘There must be something positive we can do that’s small.’ It can be small, but it can make a huge difference to the way we cycle. So we wanted Cyclehack to be focused on these small innovations. People could look at their own experience and say ‘Let me prototype something.’ And we found that cyclists have loads of ideas, and we wanted Cyclehack to be way for them to prototype them.” For Holtan, Cyclehack was a way for her to begin finding solutions to the sorts of problems that everyday cyclists face. “I’m pretty passionate about this. I only started cycling a couple of years ago - I’d hated cycling since my family would make me do huge cycling trips as a kid, and they never understood why I didn’t want to do it. But it’s so nice here [Edinburgh]. I don’t have a car, I don’t like the bus, so it’s a great way to commute.
“It’s not just about the digital kind of hacks - developers for instance - it’s about getting people to own their own cycling experience” “When I first started cycling, I couldn’t find any role models. It’s either like... middle-aged guys in lycra or the people on the Cycle Chic blog... beautiful women with long blonde hair and flowing skirts. And both are quite expensive and both are quite inaccessible. And I want to wear my jogging shorts that I paint in.” That feeling of alienation from the new role models of cycling led her to start looking for alternatives. “That’s why I created my blog, Bikable Jo. I found that the more I started talking about cycling the more people started talking to me about cycling. I wanted a place to share the stories of ordinary cyclists. You can feel really intimidated at stoplights by the people at either end of the extreme.” Cyclehack wasn’t born from mere frustration, though. Holtan explains the genesis of the idea: “I went to hear Mikhail Anderson from Copenhagenise talk at the Edinburgh Cycle Festival last year. He was looking at using cycling differently, approaching it from a
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design perspective. We [Holtan and cofounders Sarah Drummond and Matt Lowell] were talking about this when she just looked at me and said, ‘Let’s do a hack.’ I didn’t even know what a hack was, but I said: ‘Let’s do it.’”
In one way at least, Holtan is luckier than the tooled-up Telegraph readers or angelic Danes of Cycle Chic. Her daily commute from Musselburgh into Edinburgh takes her along the wooded, winding route of the Innocent Railway. “It’s a beautiful trail,” she says when I mention the path. Holtan says that commuting via bicycle has change the way she sees her adopted city: “Oh my God, I get poetic about it. I think it’s not only that you become intimately connected to your daily route, whether that’s the views or the potholes, but you have this kind of vulnerability as a cyclist, which whilst dangerous, means you can say ‘Excuse me’ or ‘Hello’ to people. You can have chats at stoplights. A kind of intimacy with strangers. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” By the time that Holtan, Drummond and Lowell came to organise their first ‘Cyclehack’ in Glasgow earlier this year - a two day confluence of product designers, DIYers and bike enthusiasts - the idea had already been picked up across the world. The first event linked up with two other Hacks in Melbourne and Beirut, something Holtan says was “so cool.” When she elaborates on that initial feeling of success, she still sounds surprised: “And then we
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“We found that cyclists have loads of ideas, and we wanted Cyclehack to be way for them to prototype them.” went accidentally global. Melbourne and Beirut joined in, so we had three Cyclehacks running all over the world, on the same weekend. So, really, it started and grew by accident.” Since Cyclehack held that first event in Glasgow earlier this year, the idea that Holtan, Drummond and Lowell sparked has gone further than either of them could have imagined. There are now Cyclehack groups operating in 32 cities across the world, and next June when Cyclehack returns to Glasgow, it will also simultaneously run in Edinburgh, Cape Town, Mexico City, Toronto, Seattle, Belfast, Hamburg, Istanbul, Milan and Geneva. In October, Cyclehack was shortlisted for a Lighthouse Design Impact Award.
The open source ideals behind Cyclehack, and its obvious adaptability, both as a model for creative events and as a way of sharing solutions to cycling problems, have been key to its adoption in other cities. “Half the people had never been to a hack before. We spoke to people outside of that community, so
“It’s created a community of people who want to make changes we want people to hack the hacks.” we had quite an array of people at the event.” “I mean, at what point in your life do you have access to amazing, talented people that will say: ‘We’ll just knock that up for you.’ We learnt a lot about how people view the hack - it’s not just about the digital kind of hacks - developers for instance - it’s about getting people to own their own cycling experience. And it’s created a community of people who want to make changes - we want people to hack the hacks. I cannot wait to see what’ll be like to have cities all over the world [doing Cyclehacks]. It’s overwhelming.” “All of these cities are at different points with regards to cycling infrastructure, so it’ll be interesting to see where Edinburgh or Glasgow fit in with cities like Minneapolis. It was such a labour of love, and now it’s other people’s labour of love.”
band and a penny. A result of the idea-sharing process kickstarted at the Glasgow Cyclehack, the Hack is simple: use the weight of a penny, held in place with a normal rubber band, to gather up your skirts into temporary shorts - and voilà - a way of cycling whilst wearing a skirt. It’s this sort of communicable, open source solution which Holtan, Drummond and Lowell are passionate about. Cyclehack are currently in the process of prototyping a saleable product from the concept, and plan to donate the proceeds of all sales to the Afghan National Women’s Cycling Team. “We think that change and innovation has to be complicated, but Penny in Yo’Pants is the opposite of that, I just love it,” says Holtan. “It’s changed my life. It was liberating - I wore one every day.] And it’s not just about skirts - it’s about something bigger. We have this tiny innovation - a penny and a rubber band - and it’s making a difference to women’s journeys. It’s helping women all over the world to kick butt.” For those behind Cyclehack, making improvements to the cycling experience isn’t merely a matter of product design - it’s a means of empowerment. “I live in a tiny flat, and I need bike storage,” she remarks. “And it’s so empowering to think: ‘I have a problem’ and then be able to create the solution to solve that problem yourself.”
If there is one particular ‘Hack’ which encapsulates the ethos of Cyclehack, then Holtan says that it would have to be Penny in ‘Yo Pants - an ingenious innovation requiring only a rubber
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Secret Birmingham Birmingham is the UK’s second-largest city. These images show the hidden side of Brum - neglected, intriguing spaces a world apart from the modern hub. Pictures: Jack Spicer Adams
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Edinburgh Jacqueline (cover) T he F ire E ngines
Josef K was the first band I heavily associated with Edinburgh, and Sorry for Laughing is just the sort of post-punk misery I sometimes crave.
Discovered The Fire Engines when they covered Jacqueline from my favourite Glasgow band, Franz Ferdinand, back in 2005. They’re a scuzzy riot.
Over and Done With Th e P roclai m e rs
Hustle L AW
The Proclaimers are no longer a novelty to me. I listened to this a lot when I was disappointed about the referendum result. Felt very Scottish. Felt very Edinburgh.
If you get the chance to see LAW live, grab it immediately. I must have done three or four times now, not including her pre-LAW days as ska band frontwoman at the Jazz Bar. I raved about her for weeks then; seems I haven’t ever stopped.
in music
Sorry for Laughing Josef K
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Can You Ever Trust a Man Who Thinks Matt Damon’s Really Cool? T he Spo o k Scho o l No, no you can’t. I like The Spook School for many reasons: the primary two being because they could feasibly be described as “angular”, and because they sing about gender a lot.
Counterpoint investigates which poems, albums, novels and EPs evoke Scotland’s cultural capital.
Words: Elyse Jamieson Pictures: Bethany Thompson
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Mu riel Spa rk
in literature
I wish I could break the mould and recommend some other Spark, but there’s a reason it’s always The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: it’s fantastic.
Whit Lassyz Ur Inty Ali s on Fle t t
McLevy: The Edinburgh Detective J a mes McLevy
Alison Flett lives in Orkney now, but this collection is pure Embra, dealing with sex and gender and politics in an almost impenetrable form of modern urban Scots orthography.
Quite a bizarre little collection of crime stories from James McLevy, a real detective working in Edinburgh in the mid-1800s. The stories are all based on real cases he dealt with – so if you’ve run out of Rebus, I can recommend this
Skagboys Irv i ne We lsh
One Day D avid Nicho lls
The prequel to Trainspotting is the first (only) Welsh book I read while actually living in Edinburgh. I was naturally a bit apprehensive, but it lives up to and possibly even exceeds, the expectations that Trainspotting creates.
A cringey choice, I know – but I read this while applying to Edinburgh University and was desperate to associate with the places they talked about. I think I’ve ticked them off now!
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Illustrators Steph Coathupe (above) and Charlotte Cotteril (right) share their perspectives of modern-day Manchester: great street food, rainclouds and the landmarks of a contemporary, dynamic city.
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Rise of the global city Today’s metropoles are increasingly independent of national cultural contexts. Can they be economically independent, too? Words: Riley Kaminer Pictures: Abigail Woodhouse
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“Is everything in Texas really so big?” “Are people in Portland really hipsters?” These are the sorts of questions Americans will inevitably face while abroad. The trouble is that I’ve never visited either of those places. Having lived in New York for the majority of my life, I’ve come across a few Texans, a few Portlanders – but mainly, I’ve seen a few films that take place in Texas and watched a couple of Portlandia episodes. After a few awkward moments, I recall a vague memory I have from childhood: an overweight couple I saw at a restaurant wearing matching auburn shirts with the text “Secede? You’re lucky we didn’t invade!” superimposed on a map of the Lone Star state.
Does New York have more connections to London than Detroit? My only experiences with these places are somewhat ‘foreign’ ones. Tourists coming to my city, allowing me to observe them. Media I watched on Netflix, a service which is available worldwide. A Londoner or a Parisian could have given similar insights, but is mine more valuable as an American? Can I confirm a stereotype better than a foreigner simply because my passport looks the same as people of the group which is being stereotyped?
We are all familiar with them. The British love tea. Americans are obsessed with guns. Spaniards consume more sangria than water. Whether they are true or false, these are common tropes of national identities. They are formulated ideas which become synonymous with our innate knowledge of a place and a people.
Trope tourism is like a game of Chinese Whispers - the further a rumour spreads, the farther it is from the truth Similarly, we also have stereotypes of major cities. Everyone in London is fewer than three degrees of separation from a member of the royal family. New Yorkers are in a perpetual state of rushing around. People in Madrid only own formal clothes. However, tropes of cities and countries don’t always perfectly dovetail. Guns are not only illegal to possess in New York, but also unpopular on the whole, considering the majority of voters are liberal, anti-gun Democrats. Tea is, of course, a traditionally important aspect of London life; but how many Londoners woud just as easily settle for a coffee? And while sangria is one of the most popular drinks for tourists in Madrid, a true ‘madrieño’ would likely think twice before ordering a pitcher.
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Some stereotypes may have been true at one point, but gradually lost meaning over the years. Trope tourism can be like a game of Chinese whispers: the farther a stereotype spreads, the farther it becomes divorced from the truth.
It’s possible to argue that economic globalisation has led to a world in which cities are no longer owned, managed or defined by the countries in which they are situated, but rather by their membership of a global metropolitan network. Does New York have a more meaningful connection to London than it does to Detroit? Is Madrid’s relationship with Paris more important than its relationship with Valencia? Social media and the web mean that the exchange of information on a global scale has never been easier. Yet despite this unprecedented capacity for cultural exchange, cross-border cooperation has not proliferated in the business world. As economists James E. Anderson and Eric van Wincoop note in Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle, Canadian provinces trade 10.5 times more between themselves than they do with neighbouring American states. Similarly, American states trade 2.6 times more between themselves than they do with nearby Canadian provinces. The ‘border effect’ - the idea that international boundaries discourage trade - seems to dampen the unique importance of the globalised city.
loosening: the migration of labour from the countryside to the metropolis. In China, the University of Washington’s Kam Wing Chan has calculated that “in the 30 years since 1979, China’s urban population has grown by about 440 million to 622 million.” Geographers believe that by 2025, over 1 billion Chinese citizens will be living in cities - three times the current urban population. This migration happens for economic reasons closely linked to the ebb and flow of the global economy: because there is a labour surplus in rural areas of the country, people go to cities to find jobs - usually in China’s huge manufacturing sector.
International communication has never been easier, cheaper or more accessable, yet fundamental misunderstandings between cultures still occur. Despite the fact that across the world, populaton trends show an inorexible shift from rural contexts to urban ones, economic trade is still hesitant to cross borders. The umbilical cord that connects globalised cities and their parent nations is still intact.
There’s another reason why the cultural ties between cities and countries are
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CONTR IBUTORS Words
Pictures
sam bradley
abigail woodhouse
elyse jamieson
steph coathupe
riley kaminer
charlotte cotterill jack spicer adams bethany thompson
Editors sam bradley bethany thompson you can read about our contributors at counterpointjournal.co.uk/writers or /illustrators
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GETT IN G IN VOLVE D The next issue of Counterpoint will be released in spring. We hope you liked reading our words and looking at our pictures as much as we enjoyed writing and drawing them.
We want writers, illustrators and photographers for our next issue. If you want to do something creative for Counterpoint, we’d love to hear from you. The best way to get in touch is to send us an email at counterpointeditor@gmail.com.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. The views expressed in this work are those of contributors and are not endorsed by Counterpoint or its editorial staff.
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