SWIMMING IS WINNING - Research Paper
UXUC Journal, User Experience and Urban Creativity Journal
Abstract Journal
In the long and ongoing process of planetary urbanization, urbanity has appeared as a ubiquitous topic in disciplines ranging from sociology, urban studies, and economics, to literature, design, and contemporary art. As the chosen environment for most of today’s cultural, economic, and academic elites, urban space constitutes an ever-present backdrop for unfolding posthumanity. How to live together in todays’ cities, how to confront challenges together, and how to think about urbanization as a global phenomenon, have become pressing and ongoing questions that stir the curiosity of researchers, artists, politicians, and contemporary urbanites alike. In the face of multiple crises, we are confronted with the cascading effects of climate change, intercontinental migration as well as political and economic uncertainty. Meanwhile, urban centers with their cultural capital, innovative potential, and economic power appear as ideal places to look for inspiration, change, or maybe even revolution. As an approach that takes the ubiquity of the urban into account, the concept of planetary urbanization tries to describe urban existence as interwoven in international networks of production, consumption, and sociocultural interaction that span the entire globe. Hence, the urban is understood as an all-encompassing concept, which holds the potential to change the world and how we experience it.
Published: 2024-12-21
Abstract Swimming is Winning
How do we want to innovate lived urbanity in a more and more commodified city centre? From a social design and urban anthropology perspective, the paper explores the co- creative use and therefore enhancement of urban liquid structures as open access common spaces, using the example of the Swimming Association of Vienna’s Danube Canal (Schwimmverein Donaukanal - SVDK). SVDK started o[ as a collective of four social designers at the Academy of Applied Arts Vienna in 2020. As of today, it has grown into an open, bottom-up, non-profit and non-partisan cultural association with around 250 members between the ages of 13 and 79 years. SVDK’s aim is to revive the urban swimming culture in Vienna’s Danube Canal, a side arm of the Danube River that flows through the very city centre. Unbeknownst to most Viennese citizens, this practice is not a novelty but indeed a revival, as the canal has been a popular bathing and swimming spot until the 1920’ies. The authors, both active swim association members themselves, will trace the blossoming and weaving processes of a community within the local context and the steady pop-up of community-created urban swimming infrastructures as well as various artistic, creative and environmental interventions. Moreover, the paper will look at collaborations with fellow urban bathing initiatives across Europe as due to climate change, urban open water swimming becomes relevant for a growing number of cities. Ultimately, the project seeks to examine how disruptive, yet inclusive interventions can lead to a more liveable coexistence in the 21st century city.
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In the long and ongoing process of planetary urbanization, urbanity has appeared as a ubiquitous topic in disciplines ranging from sociology, urban studies, and economics, to literature, design, and contemporary art. As the chosen environment for most of today’s cultural, economic, and academic elites, urban space constitutes an ever-present backdrop for unfolding posthumanity. How to live together in todays’ cities, how to confront challenges together, and how to think about urbanization as a global phenomenon, have become pressing and ongoing questions that stir the curiosity of researchers, artists, politicians, and contemporary urbanites alike. In the face of multiple crises, we are confronted with the cascading effects of climate change, intercontinental migration as well as political and economic uncertainty. Meanwhile, urban centers with their cultural capital, innovative potential, and economic power appear as ideal places to look for inspiration, change, or maybe even revolution. As an approach that takes the ubiquity of the urban into account, the concept of planetary urbanization tries to describe urban existence as interwoven in international networks of production, consumption, and sociocultural interaction that span the entire globe. Hence, the urban is understood as an all-encompassing concept, which holds the potential to change the world and how we experience it.
Published: 2024-12-21
Abstract Swimming is Winning
How do we want to innovate lived urbanity in a more and more commodified city centre? From a social design and urban anthropology perspective, the paper explores the co- creative use and therefore enhancement of urban liquid structures as open access common spaces, using the example of the Swimming Association of Vienna’s Danube Canal (Schwimmverein Donaukanal - SVDK). SVDK started o[ as a collective of four social designers at the Academy of Applied Arts Vienna in 2020. As of today, it has grown into an open, bottom-up, non-profit and non-partisan cultural association with around 250 members between the ages of 13 and 79 years. SVDK’s aim is to revive the urban swimming culture in Vienna’s Danube Canal, a side arm of the Danube River that flows through the very city centre. Unbeknownst to most Viennese citizens, this practice is not a novelty but indeed a revival, as the canal has been a popular bathing and swimming spot until the 1920’ies. The authors, both active swim association members themselves, will trace the blossoming and weaving processes of a community within the local context and the steady pop-up of community-created urban swimming infrastructures as well as various artistic, creative and environmental interventions. Moreover, the paper will look at collaborations with fellow urban bathing initiatives across Europe as due to climate change, urban open water swimming becomes relevant for a growing number of cities. Ultimately, the project seeks to examine how disruptive, yet inclusive interventions can lead to a more liveable coexistence in the 21st century city.
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LINK TO JOURNAL: READ HERE
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