Author: Corinna
Circular metabolism (podcast), Brussels (2019)
The fly that tried to save the world: saproxylic geographies and other-than-human ecologies
Cities in deep time: bio-diversity, metabolic rift and the urban question
City 22 (1) (2018): 96–105
Natura Urbana: the Brachen of Berlin (2017)
Why make a film about wastelands or Brachen as they are referred to in Berlin? I’ve long been fascinated by urban landscapes, and especially the marginal spaces, brimming with life, that characterise many cities. Somehow these “accidental gardens” are so much more interesting than the designed and manicured forms of urban nature that characterize pervasive landscapes of speculation, function, and control.
At key moments in its history the landscapes of Berlin have been radically transformed to produce an array of unusual or unexpected biotopes: the post-war years were dominated by strange rubble landscapes that became a focus of intense cultural and scientific interest; the geo-political division of the Cold War years transformed the “island city” of West Berlin into an intense experimental zone; and with the fall the Wall in 1989, a series of new void spaces were produced among abandoned buildings and along the former “death strip”.
In Natura Urbana I conceive of Berlin as a living book where every street corner is a potential part of our story. The film is divided into a series of chapters that are loosely chronological but also highlight a number of interconnecting themes such as the changing meaning of public space, the role of ecological knowledge in urban politics, and way in which marginal spaces have served as a source of cultural and scientific inspiration. In particular, I have wanted to give a sense of the interplay between cultural and scientific aspects to urban nature, and develop a “double history” that weaves together changes in Berlin’s landscape as well as the wider geo-political context that has produced such distinctive spaces. Our protagonists featured in the documentary draw on a mix of experience including teaching, writing, activism, and scientific studies; they are all people whose thinking has been profoundly shaped by the marginal spaces of Berlin. Natura Urbana captures a distinctive period in the city’s history, that broadly spans from the post-war era to the most recent phase of intensified construction activity, in which many of these fascinating spaces are rapidly disappearing, a process that has gathered momentum over the last few years: some of the sites that we filmed in 2015 have already been lost.
But what is an urban landscape anyway? Even a cracked pavement or neglected parking lot, with its own ecological dynamics, can serve as a kind of small-scale landscape beloved of urban botanical excursions. The idea of landscape is very much connected to the human sensorium, the sense of intrigue or exhilaration experienced by unfamiliar spaces, and also the role of distinctive vantage points such as bridges, buildings, or even aerial perspectives. In Natura Urbana, however, we are often immersed in the multi-sensory dimensions of close encounters including the distinctive acoustic landscapes of the city. There is an attention to the details and textures of space, including individual leaves, material fragments, or the jewel-like appearance of insects in the urban fabric. These fleeting moments also belie my own presence in these spaces as a geographer and urban field ecologist who has studied some of the sites that appear in the film.
In making Natura Urbana I have been very fortunate in receiving funding from the European Research Council, which carries a certain obligation for me to reach out to a public audience beyond the academy. The challenge, therefore, has been to craft a film that is intellectually rigorous yet accessible to a wider audience. I have also worked with an outstanding team of collaborators who have brought their own expertise to the project, whether in terms of aesthetic contributions such as sound design or meticulous archival research to uncover fascinating traces of the city’s past.
Negative luminescence
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 107 (5) (2017): 1090–1107.
Urban atmospheres
Cultural Geographies 24 (3) (2017): 353–374.
Entropy by design: Gilles Clément, Parc Henri-Matisse and the limits to avant-garde urbanism
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 37 (1) (2013): 259–278.
Marginalia: aesthetics, ecology, and urban wastelands
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103 (6) (2013): 1301–1316.
Queer ecology: nature, sexuality and heterotopic alliances
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30 (2012): 727–747
Neo-Bankside
Architectural Design 82 (1) (2012): 50–54.
Where does the city end?
Architectural Design 82 (1) (2012): 128–132.
Landscape and infrastructure in the late-modern metropolis
in Watson, S. and Bridge, G. (eds.) The new Blackwell companion to the city (Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2011) pp. 57–65.
Reflections on a Berlin corner
in Gandy, M. (ed.) Urban constellations (Berlin: jovis, 2011) pp. 149–152.
The ecological façades of Patrick Blanc
Architectural Design 80 (3) (2010): 28–33.
Urban flux
Architectural Design 79 (5) (2009): 12–17.
Above the treetops: nature, history and the limits to philosophical naturalism
Geoforum 39 (2) (2008): 561–569.
Landscapes of disaster: water, modernity and urban fragmentation in Mumbai
Environment and Planning A 40 (1) (2008): 108–130.
Liquid city (2007)
Liquid city (2007) (30 mins; English, Hindi and Marathi with English subtitles).
I directed and produced the documentary film Liquid city based on my research into water and urban infrastructure in Mumbai. The film was developed in collaboration with PUKAR, funded by the AHRC, and has been shown in many cities including Boston, Budapest, London, Manchester, Minneapolis and Mumbai. It was premiered in Mumbai and was also shown at the London Documentary Film Festival held at the Barbican (December 2008).
https://files.geog.cam.ac.uk/index.php/s/bzpC4zNbMat6qS7
Riparian anomie: reflections on the Los Angeles River
Landscape Research 31 (2) (2006): 135–145.
Planning, anti-planning and the infrastructure crisis facing metropolitan Lagos
Urban Studies 43 (2) (2006): 71–96.
The drowned world: J.G. Ballard and the politics of catastrophe
Space and Culture 9 (1) (2006): 68–71.
Zones of indistinction: bio-political contestations in the urban arena
Cultural Geographies 13 (4) (2006): 497–516.
Cyborg urbanization: complexity and monstrosity in the contemporary city
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29 (1) (2005): 26–49.
Learning from Lagos
New Left Review 33 (2005): 37–53.
Landscapes of deliquesence in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 19 (2) (2003): 218–237.
The Paris sewers and the rationalization of urban space
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 24 (1) (1999): 23–44.
Contradictory modernities: conceptions of nature in the art of Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87 (4) (1997): 636–659.
Visions of darkness: representations of nature in the films of Werner Herzog
Ecumene 3 (1) (1996): 1–21