“Cities and Patterns”

From day one, the correspondents in Labs and Projects post images on the PAPAwebsite. After one week we recognize patterns in the total amount of photographs the group of photographers have uploaded. In every lab we drew four mindmaps of the patterns we found. Look at the mind map as you would look at a photo. Allow your eye to wander from text balloon to text balloon. Then read the accompanying text. See it as collective knowledge, gathered by a group of photographers. Knowledge that you can apply in an intuitive manner, which shows the similarities and differences.  The mind maps are time images as well. If you repeat the procedure after a few years you can find the patterns have changed.
Explore the mind maps of Lagos, the unplanned city, São Paulo, the informal city, Rotterdam, the regulated city, Bishkek, the patchwork city.

Qalandia -  All spaces are very marginal What we mean, it is all is just a little bit used. A little bit of business, a little bit of industry, almost no children…
Lino Hellings – 50 Villages Qalandia

Dhaka -  It’s amazing how resilient the people are that you meet on the street here in Bangladesh. They are living under conditions that many of us would not endure for…
Lino Hellings – Dhaka Lab

To set up your shoe repair shop on less than a square meter in the middle of the sidewalk while pedestrians squeeze themselves past you, requires a high degree…
Lino Hellings – Dhaka Lab

The very first thing you notice as a foreigner are the murals and other expressions in paint and/or sculpture everywhere in the city. As large scale ads are forbidden in…
Lino Hellings – Sao Paulo Lab

Inside out or Real/Unreal talks about the constant building activity in Rotterdam The fact in the second world war (1940-1945) the centre/ heart was bombed. Rotterdam is still trying and…
Lino Hellings – Rotterdam Lab

We drew 4 patterns after the first week of posting photo’s (80) as a result from the shared photo walk.Walking in the streets of Ramallah you are made…
Lino Hellings – Ramallah Lab

As well as for the people from Ramallah as for all Palestinians as for all world citizens Qalandia is the place where you can see the Palestinian reality in its…
Lino Hellings – 50 Villages Qalandia

How is the public territory organised in Rotterdam? How do the inhabitants of Rotterdam reclaim the space. Which owners can we detect? As we saw in responsability and regulation there…
Lino Hellings – Rotterdam Lab

There is no denying: big forces are at work in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Nature - the climate which causes the flooding of the land. The enormous pollution of the factories…
Lino Hellings – Dhaka Lab

How could such peaceful, contemplative people get involved in two recent revolutions (2005 and 2010) and ethnic riots (2010)? I began to understand the mechanism a little after I…
Lino Hellings – Bishkek Lab

Despite the overwhelming ways, life is controlled here (by the Israelis mostly) there are many irrationalities. Things that do not match. Families have a small child born in another country…
Lino Hellings – Ramallah Lab

To give a glimpse on the Tactics of Life we have encountered so far, it is good to know people attach great importance to the feeling that LIFE is NORMAL…
Lino Hellings – Ramallah Lab

Evident is that the big force is here Occupation of the Palestinian land. OK some things like where to build a house needs to be regulated. But then your own…
Lino Hellings – 50 Villages Qalandia

The Nigerians have a lovely way to deal with all the institutions that deliver badly. They change the letters in the acronyms into new sayings. In this way they made…
Lino Hellings – Lagos Lab

Everything is political here. If you call it Occupation it is a conflict between Palestine and Israel. If you see it as Colonialism there is more hope. Israel is coloniali…
Lino Hellings – Ramallah Lab

Life in Lagos is completely mobile. Everything that doesn’t work in Lagos – and that is a lot – is made operative by the people themselves. The shopkeepers and…
Lino Hellings – Lagos Lab

People, fences, houses, roads are made up of a patchwork. We recognise the traditional patchwork style in the quilts that are aired on early spring days. We see the…
Lino Hellings – Bishkek Lab

The public telephone book is omnipresent. Mostly job offers (tele marketing) or courses in English (Hot English). People living in the appartment buildings customize their the balconies. Store things like…
Lino Hellings – Bishkek Lab

São Paulo is one of the fastest growing cities of the world. It is doing very well economically. Every block of four one- or two-storey houses that falls into…
Lino Hellings – Sao Paulo Lab

Rotterdam used to be the biggest harbourcity in the world. It has been a transit city and a city in transit for decades. Hotel New York and Hotel Manhatten makes…
Lino Hellings – Rotterdam Lab

’Non Stop’ is the central notion to the Users script of Asira ash Samaliya. It is a constant moving back and forth between past, present and future. You cannot…
Lino Hellings – 50 villages Asira ash Shamaliya

The only state that is considered real is real estate is a slogan here in Palestine. Perseverance is the next key. You create space for the future whether it is…
Lino Hellings – 50 Villages Qalandia

A lot of the life in Lagos is performed in the streets. In the West it is considered inappropriate and it is even forbidden. Here there is a wide variety…
Lino Hellings – Lagos Lab