Presented as part of
State of Tyranny by Theo Deutinger

March 29th – May 4th, 2019

97 Kenmare Street, New York, NY

 

Tyranny Trail Guided Tour Dates:

Saturday, April 13th:

11 am–1 pm

3 pm–5 pm

with Ingrid Burrington

 

Friday, April 19th

3 pm–5 pm

with John Michael Kilbane

 

Saturday, April 20th

11 am–1 pm

with John Michael Kilbane

 

Friday, April 26th

11 am–1 pm

3 pm–5 pm

with Rebecca Manski

 

[READ ABOUT TOUR GUIDES BELOW]

 

[RSVP HERE]

 

All tours are free of charge. Guided tours depart from Storefront for Art and Architecture’s gallery space and end at the 9/11 Memorial. The estimated duration of the tours is two hours. Please wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to walk in areas with high pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

 

How do we understand tyranny? Tyranny defines contemporary culture, and though it is often talked about conceptually, its more subtle spatial manifestations have a real impact on our cities and public spaces. Despite a steady rise in street-level activism, hostile and defensive design have gradually and quietly transformed our buildings, parks, and homes into sites of surveillance and societal control.

 

As part of the exhibition State of Tyranny, Storefront presents the Tyranny Trail, which follows a route through the streets of Lower Manhattan, beginning at Storefront’s gallery space and ending at the 9/11 Memorial. The trail, developed by Theo Deutinger, highlights methods of control such as roadblocks, wedge barriers, and other anti-terror measures. It also highlights smaller-scale “quality of life” interventions that are more inconspicuous in our urban context, such as anti-skateboarding devices, anti-homeless bench design, and anti-graffiti paint.

 

On four dates in April, guided tours will be led by experts whose work addresses related issues. Guides include: Ingrid Burrington, a researcher and writer who explores the often-overlooked physical landscapes of internet and surveillance infrastructures; John Michael Kilbane, a photographer who has recently documented hostile architecture in New York City; and Rebecca Manski, an independent researcher and educator whose work in the Wall Street area considers issues of displacement, occupation, and decolonization.  

 

For those who cannot attend scheduled tour times, the Tyranny Trail can be walked as a self-guided tour. Detailed maps of the route, available at Storefront’s gallery space, contextualize each stop of the tour, enabling visitors to explore the Tyranny Trail on their own.

 

A PDF map of the trail is also available for self-guided tours here.

 

Read more about State of Tyranny here.

 

ABOUT THE TOUR GUIDES

Ingrid Burrington writes, makes maps, and tells jokes about places, politics, and the weird feelings people have about both. Much of her work focuses on mapping, documenting, and studying the often-overlooked landscapes of the internet (and the ways in which the entire planet has become, in effect, a “landscape of the internet”). Her areas of inquiry vary widely, from the open-pit mines where minerals are extracted to create hardware, to the quiet insinuation of fiber optic cable and antennae into urban environments. By examining the political geography and embodied realities of living on a networked planet, she seeks to demystify these technologies for non-technical publics and to reframe technology’s underlying politics and power dynamics. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Popula, e-flux journal, and other outlets. She is also the author of Networks of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide to Urban Internet Infrastructure. Ingrid has previously taught at Rhode Island School of Design, the Cooper Union, and the School for Poetic Computation.

 

John Michael Kilbane is a photographer from Illinois. He studied literature at Marquette University and University College London and has since held jobs in publishing and at an independent bookstore in Brooklyn before entering the General Studies program at the International Center of Photography in 2016. His photographs are made out of a close observation and attention to the human-shaped world. See his work at www.johnkilbane.com.

 

Rebecca Manski is an independent researcher and educator specializing in the history of the Wall Street area, currently based at the South Street Seaport Museum. She first became intrigued by Lower Manhattan during her years with Occupy Wall Street’s Press Working Group. Before moving to New York to complete an Interdisciplinary Masters in Public History and Middle Eastern Studies, Rebecca lived in Palestine, doing media and advocacy work with a plethora of Palestinian organizations between 2003-2008. Having also lived the first five years of her life in Jerusalem, Rebecca’s thinking has always been informed by issues of displacement, walls, borders, liminal spaces, zones of indistinction, the Commons, and decolonization.

 

SUPPORT

State of Tyranny is supported by Creative Industries Fund NL and the Federal Chancellery of Austria.

 

Storefront’s programming is made possible through general support from Arup; DS+R; F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc.; KPF; ODA; Rockwell Group; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by Storefront’s Board of Directors, members, and individual donors.

 
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