New Interview by Marc Geli about the Paral·lel in Barcelona

Our team member Marc Geli has published an interesting interview on Pleasurescapes in Barcelona. For the Catalan magazine „Ab Origine“ he met three local stakeholders to talk about the myth and leisure at the forgotten margin of the Paral·lel.

His conversation partners are experts on the history but also the present of the Paral·lel. The researcher Enric H. March has recently published the book „Barcelona Freak show“ about the history of travelling „sideshows“ like clowns, musicians, illusionists, „human phenoma“, and wax museums in Barcelona. Jordi Rabassa is a historian and local councilman. Also present was Pablo Perez from the Arnau Itinerant Project, which is trying to reclaim the old Arnau Theatre as a building and in its use for the neighbourhood.

You can find the complete interview online in the history magazine Ab Origine [article in Catalan]!

7th Pleasurescapes workshop in Barcelona

The fifth Pleasurescapes workshop took place in Barcelona from 6 to 8 April. Finally, we had the opportunity to visit the historical pleasurescapes along the Parel-lel and in El Raval for real. Especially the guided tours with the residents of the neighbourhood were very exciting and informative. We were also able to discuss the planned exhibition with the museum director Joan Roca on site. The play is also making great progress. We were already able to enjoy a rehearsal.

Out now: Interactive maps of Hamburg’s historical pleasurescapes

Laurenz Gottstein and Alina L Just have conducted a comprehensive mapping of historical address data to identify Hamburg’s pleasurescapes of the past. The maps visualize the spatial entertainment hub of Reeperbahn, but they also shed light on largely forgotten entertainment quarters from the early 1900s. Along with the maps, and in cooperation with the PortCityFutures research group, Laurenz and Alina have published a blogpost explaining their methodological approach for this mapping initiative. Have a look here and here and have fun exploring!

26 November – Pleasurescapes panel at the „Stadt nach Acht“ Conference Berlin

On 26 November you can meet part of the Pleasurescapes team live in Berlin. Our Hamburg researchers Lisa Kosok and Alina Just will present our project at the „Stadt nach Acht“ („City after Eight“) Conference. Together with Lars Amenda they will talk about our project and historical perspectives on key agents of entertainment culture in the pleasurescape of Hamburg St. Pauli. Tickets for the conference with many interesting talks on nightlife are available online.

More information: „Pleasurescapes: Pleasure and Nightlife as Driving Forces for Urban Development“ [Panel in English]: 26 November, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM, Holzmarkt (Säälchen), Berlin.

6th Pleasurescapes-workshop took place in Gothenburg

For the first time since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic our team is able and allowed to meet again for real! From September 29th to October 1st, 2021, the 6th Pleasurescapes-workshop is taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden. We discussed research updates from all sub-projects, explored the former sailortown pleasurescape of Majorna and met leading representatives from our local museum partners Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet Göteborg and Göteborgs Stadsmuseum. Find our programme of the workshop here.

Podcast „Pleasure in the port city of Hamburg“

Alina Just, researcher in our Hamburg team, was a guest on Philipp Jansen’s podcast „Anno PunktPunktPunkt“. In the one-hour episode „Pleasure in the Port City of Hamburg“, she presents our project and its background. Alina provides exciting insights into her research on St. Pauli, the Lunapark Altona and Hamburg’s „East End“. Here you can stream, download and listen to the episode for free [Podcast in German].

Webinar „Pleasure in Crisis?“

On March 16th, 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 (CET), we are giving a webinar together with our partner projects FESTSPACE and FESTIVERSITIES as well as our funding agency HERA: „Pleasure in Crisis? Resilience of public entertainment and festivity in the past and present“. The digital round table assembles representatives of the three projects to discuss the resilience of public entertainment and festivity during the crisis. The event will be held in English.

Free registration via eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/pleasure-in-crisis-tickets-141279658261
More info here: https://heranet.info/2021/03/01/hera-jrp-public-spaces-seminar-series/
Looking forward to seeing you!

Update: Please find the recording of the event here: https://heranet.info/2021/03/18/3401/

Spiritism as the flagship of Modernity – New article by our Barcelona-researcher Judit Vidiella-Pagès

Spiritism was a popular field of entertainment, and port cities had an important role in the spread of spiritist ideas. The just published article „Spiritism as the flagship of Modernity: Port cities and uncanny communications“ by our Barcelona-researcher Judit Vidiella-Pagès explores this exciting Pleasurescapes research field. The full article is now available on the PortCityFutures blog.