Kensington Market: Place of Tolerance and Acceptance

Kensington was originally poluated by eastern european Jewish immigrants aroung 1910. It was a cluster of densely packed houses, and was one of the poorest areas in the city.

During the 1920's and 30's there were over 60, 000 jewish people living in the area. The market originally sold goods imported from easter europe and provided furriers, tailors and bakers.

After WWII, a lot of the Jewish population moved north to the suburbs. This vacancy made room for immigrants from the Azores archipelago, along with immigrants from the carribean and east asia. Many political refugees of the Vietnam war from the US also came to Kensington at this point. Kensington was quickly becoming a diverse area, with many people seeking refuge.

Kensington continues to be a place of tolerance and acceptance. Today, you could find foods and trinkets from almost any area of the globe. The neighbourhood also serves many purposes. Some people come to the neighbourhood to live, shop, hang out, get a coffee, eat lunch, buy groceries, fire spinning at night, giving free hugs, smell the musty army surplus clothes, smoke some pot in a cafe or just to lay down in the park. It has become a place where those who have been exiled can be welcomed. You can find people of all socio-economic statuses, ages, genders, orientations etc.

Sean Kennedy overheard two guys arguing about who was the craziest person in the park.

Oh, Kensington.

1924

Lake Victoria: Cichlid Diversity vs. Nile Perch

Nile Perch

Cichlids!

Issue: Life will cease to exist in Lake Victoria, if no preventative action is taken.

Cichlids

Context: The Nile Perch was introduced to Lake Victoria in the 1950s. It is a predator that feeds on fish (including its own species), crustaceans, and insects. It is in the top 100 worst invasive species list. It is respinsible for the extinction, or near extinction of several hundred species native to the lake. Its diet consisted mainly of the cichlids, but due to declining numbers, now has to eat minnows and shrimp. The Nile Perch has now been over fished, and any remaining fish are running out of food. This gives a chance for the cichlids to repopulate. However, the ones that repopulate are the ones whose diet consists mainly of algae, due to a lack of carnivorous food sources. The biodiversity of the cichlids was accomplished in only 12,000 years. Many studies were being conducted about the cichlids, when they became endangered.



This is a problem to us because this fish is a top-chain level predator. We can see what it is capable of doing to a foreign ecosystem, yet not much is being done. This fishing industry of the Perch has replaced the fishing of cichlids, which were initially sun-dried before being shipped off. The perch requires smoking in order to prevent spoiling because of its high fat content. This requires the use of fire wood in an area that faces deforestation and soil erosion. Also, the nets required to catch a perch are not made locally, and importation costs a lot. This industry was supposed to increase the economy, but has only brought the people farther into poverty.



The algar biomass of the lake has increased exponentially. This has caused the oxygen levels to become supersaturated near the surface, becoming less fit for many types of life. It has also caused the water to become colder in the shallower areas, due to lack of circulation, where the juvenile fish stay. The increase in algae can be attributed to the soot, ash, and waste being disposed of into the lake, since the introduction of the perch. Most of the nutrients required for repopulation are found at the very bottom of the lake, which is unaccessible to many fish. Also, the influent rivers do not send enough nutrients for a lake of this magnitude.The fertility of the lake is dependant on the decomposition rate of the dead fish, since the algae does not deteriorate at a fast enough speed.The population of plankton has increased due to the feeding needs of the cichlids. This has created a parallel cycle that goes back and forth between the plankton and cichlids. The introduction of the Perch killed the cichlids that were responsible for regulating the algae levels of the lake. This helped cause the extinction of many cichlids due to the high oxygen levels.


The British saw the 500 species of cichlids as an oppourtunity to make money. They were too boney to eat, and the only two species of tilapia did not produce as much income as they would have liked.They needed a lake as large as Lake Victoria, and a predator in order to increase the value of the cichlid stocks.



Some reasons for the introduction of the perch

•  to ease the tilapia stocks,
•  to control the populations of cichlids,
•  it would create an off shore fishing industry,
•  in the lakes the perch was present it happily coexisted with the tilapia fish,
•  the perch was once native to the lake, observed through fossils,
•  and the large fish would provide tourist oppurtunities for sport fishing.

Reasons against

• The Nile perch was very inefficient for the lake, being a predator it required more consumption in order to survive, compared to a vegetative fish
• There was no way the perch would only consume the cichlids, and not the tilapia. (It was at the top of the food chain, it would eat anything)
• It was impossible to predict the outcomes, since tropical lakes are very complex and diverse.

Before the introduction of the perch, more species of tilapia were introduced.
The main difference was that the tilapia were vegetative fish.

The perch was introduced three times in the lake, in 54', 63' and 64'.

The introduction of the tilapia did not go well. They were not able to establish themselves for two decades. In the early 1960's, the rainfall rose considerably and increased the lake's volume and shoreline. This created shallower areas for the tilapia to spawn.

The cichlids were once 80% of the lake's biomass. Now, they are only 1%

Those fish need to occupy something...

cichlid


In 20 years, the cichlids have managed to adapt to the water's conditions. The gills of the fish have increased by 64%, along with the head, eyes and cheek bones, though the head has gotten smaller.

The solution would be to give the lake a rest and let nature do its job. So far, the cichlids have been growing in  numbers and have even adapted.

Sadly, this lake will probably see a cycle of development, and exploitation. Either someone will introduce a new species, bacteria or plant into the lake in order to "help" the lake return to its previous state, or the fish will be overfished and biomass lost. There is no way they will leave the lake alone.
All we can do is hope that the industry does not kill the lake entirely.

bioluminescent cichlid

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_perch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Victoria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cichlid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplochromis
http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=187
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/lake_victoria_sick.php

Philosophies of Urban-Fabric-Art Walks with Robigo

 

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.
Friedrich Nietzsche

And the political system is changing rapidly in this country, and we better realize that. The elephants or donkeys are not what younger people look to. They look at individual candidates' philosophy, and I think it's a different time and a different generation.

The violence had broken out in both sides, but our philosophy as a party was very, very clear.
John Hume

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.
William Godwin

My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say it, and get the hell out.
J. Michael Straczynski

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.
Friedrich Nietzsche

A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.
Friedrich Nietzsche

My philosophy is, don't take no for an answer and be willing to sacrifice your entire project for freedom.
Tim Robbins

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
Friedrich Nietzsche

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
Friedrich Nietzsche

It's kind of not about the quality of the art, as much as this is what I love doing and I'd have a worse time doing anything else. That's kind of as far as I think in terms of philosophy.
Jonny Greenwood

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.
Friedrich Nietzsche

I really believe in the philosophy that you create your own universe. I'm just trying to create a good one for myself.
Jim Carrey

There are no facts, only interpretations.
Friedrich Nietzsche

To be is the be perceived- Berkeley

'Evil men have no songs.' How is it that the Russians have songs?
Friedrich Nietzsche

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.
Friedrich Nietzsche

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.
Charles M. Schulz

"The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits."
~ Albert Camus, 1948, The Plague (Trans. Stuart Gilbert), p. 4

"Without awareness, we are not truly alive."
~ James F. T. Bugental, 1999, Psychotherapy Isn't What You Think, p. 257

I enjoy getting things done. My philosophy is the edge, the edge of something. There's where we have to go in local government, in not only the philosophy but the creativity in people around you. They have to go to the edge.
Richard M. Daley

Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
Ambrose Bierce

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche

There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
Charles M. Schulz

Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy.
Martin Heidegger

There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections.
Joseph De Maistre

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
Blaise Pascal

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Greek philosophy seems to have met with something with which a good tragedy is not supposed to meet, namely, a dull ending.
Karl Marx


Philosophy can be found in every aspect of life. During the Urban-Fabric-Art Walks, meaning could even be found in an alley. You just had to ask yourself... where does this lead? what history lies in the walls? could this bring me to an atlernate universe? Ask yourself any question.... and I bet that there are a few words of wisdom that could be matched up with that statement. For this reason, philosophy wll always be relevant. It can be considered stagnant, but also every changing. Everything that contradicts itself is probably a philosophy. Although, some are more wise than others....

Purpose: I assigned the quotes to the images based on either relevance or irrelevance. I matched certain quotes with certain people based on the probability of whether they would actually ever mention the quote. For example, I paired pictures of Sean with existentialism quotations since he is very interested in the philosophy of existentialism. I used other quotes to try to evoke a sense of humor. For example, I put a quote about art beside the "pin the tail on the beaver" picture since most would not consider this black and white child's game to be art. In this case, I have used the philosophy quote in order to challenge social norms and expectations. In other cases, I would animate objects by attaching personifying quotes with them. A clear example of this would be with the dead christmas tree. I would also use the quotes along with graffiti images in order to create a story within the image. It changes the intended story of the creator, and is manipulated into the story within the quotation. It is left up to the reader to interpret what the quote and image are trying to say.