BERLIN.placeinplaceof.net is a web-based project which uses the weblog format to present concurrent and collaborative investigations and interpretations of Berlin, from Then and Now.
BERLIN.placeinplaceof.net began in June of 2005 during the course of a three-month artist residency at the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany. We utilized the blog format as a rich medium to understand and document the city, and to present concurrent and collaborative investigations and interpretations of Berlin. That was Then.
This is Now. Newly re-settled in Philadelphia, USA after several years away, we have both been thinking often of Berlin—memories sparked equally by the noticeable similarities between the two cities and the inevitability of nostalgia that anniversaries can invite. Place and memory are inseparable companions (I wrote my thesis on this, after all): to remember is to exist is to be in some place. So it makes sense to continue this Berlin project in spite of—no, because of—living in Philadelphia and expand the field of our investigations of that city to the complex ways in which we remember it and recreate the memories of it.
BERLIN.placeinplaceof.net is the first functional iteration of Place In Place Of, a loose network of web-based projects developed by Jeremy Beaudry (and in collaboration with others) that instigate concurrent and collaborative investigations of place. PHILADELPHIA.placeinplaceof.net is the second iteration of the network of projects. For more detailed information about the original (not yet realized) project proposal, please visit: http://placeinplaceof.net. Proposed there is a collaborative web project that will juxtapose simultaneous blogs authored by participants in several locations throughout the world.
Comments regarding the project, the functionality of the website, or anything else are very much appreciated and may be directed to .
J. Meredith Warner is an artist, activist, curator, and educator from Philadelphia. As part of the think tank that has yet to be named, she is the Director of the Department for the Investigation of Neutrality. For more information about her work, please visit: http://knittingcommunity.org.
Jeremy Beaudry is an interdisciplinary artist and designer currently living and working in Philadelphia, USA. Most recently he has taught a summer workshop at the Transart Institute, a low-residency MFA program, and was an artist-in-residence at the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany (where this project was begun). He currently serves as the Director of the Department for the Investigation of Meaning with a think tank that has yet to be named. Areas of interest and research include: architecture, contemporary notions of place, vernacular landscapes, urban cityscapes and post-industrial sites, visual culture, the intersection of critical theory and practice, and memory as a constructive agent in the production of meaning. For more information about his work, please visit: http://meaning.boxwith.com.