A Guide to Combustible City

Adam Bobbette

Jul 16 – Aug 16, 2012

A Guide to Combustible City is made of five printed tours of New York City which illustrate Michael Serres' thesis that “objects are flames frozen by different time-scales.” These tours demonstrate, at four different spatial scales, the agency of combustion in shaping the city’s architecture, infrastructure and imaginary. The tours traverse, for instance, the perimeter of the great fire of 1835, exemplary sandstone buildings, the former sites of fire towers in Manhattan, the banality of fire prevention in the everyday, the regional water system, and fire-prevention models at Randall’s Island. Additionally, the tours recount the history of the fireproof building, the epistemological relationships between panoramas, hot air balloons and fire towers, the changing shape of water in the city, and the hyperreality of prevention. Together, these tours reveal another city nested within New York City, a city in plain view but rarely considered; this city is co nstituted by and through the management and care for its own inherent fragility, this city is named Combustible City.

The five tours will be on display at common room 2. A limited number of copies will be available to take away.

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common room 2
www.common-room.net

465 grand street, rear lobby, ny 10002
+1 212 358 8605

open hours: mon-fri 9am - 6pm
or by appointment

Directions: Take F train to East Broadway stop. Exit at rear of platform if coming downtown or front of platform if coming from Brooklyn. Walk East on East Broadway just past Pitt Street. Use Rear Entrance on East Broadway.

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common room
www.common-room.net

usa: 465 grand street, 4c, new york, ny 10002
+1 212 358 8605

belgium: sint-mariastraat 9/32 | rue sainte-marie 9/32, 1080 brussels
+32 470 56 83 42