co+labo Radović @ Keio University

co+labo radović     Asian Urban Ordinaries - Mn'M follow-up at Re-Do Conference in Århus   

In November 2013, Mn'M - Measuring the non-Measurable, the most ambitious research project hosted by co+labo so far, has ended with definition of several  follow-up research themes, to be followed and advanced by small groups of Mn'M members. One of those  Mn'M threads followed the theme of Asian Urban Ordinaries. Professor Davisi Boontharm, the coordinator of that group  and its core members (Darko Radović, Heide Imai, Milica Mimonović and Issarathumnoon Wimonrart) have presented the results of their work at Re-Do Conference On Sustainability and Culture’s Role in Sustainable Futures, organised (28.10 ‐ 31.10 2015) in Denmark by Århus University and Århus 2017.
The panel focused at urban places and practices of Tokyo and Bangkok, emphasising the importance of banal, everyday dimensions of urban life for definition multiple identities of those Asian urbanities. The presented papers, Requalification of urban bazar (Boontharm), Ordinary place identity (Muminović), Ordinary Spaces - taking back streets, alleys and other everyday niches (Imai), Ordinary spaces: reuse for creative activities (Issarathumnoon) and Places of/for stability in the times of flows and eddies (Radović) have attracted a sizeable audience and generated good discussion. The core team will work at the proposal for special issue of research magazine devoted to this interesting theme, to be edited by Davisi.

In response to some of the discussions at Re-Do, Darko focused and the necessity to define  and contextualise "new ordinary" and core issues of cultural sustainability - authenticity and identity. In order to set polemological atmosphere and, ala de Certeau, help "force theory to recognise its limits", he presented the perennial co+labo theme, the importance of ethics in work with/about/as the Other. This post brings several slides from that impromptu presentation.