Mapping Pittsburgh:
Art, Space & Alternative Culture
A collaborative art project, a portrait, a resource, an ongoing archive…
I'm an artist/musician/promoter/DJ/and instigator of chaos debauchery and global ruckus. I dig diy culture, ridiculousness, (global-punk, indie rock, old country, hip-hop, ethnomixology brands of) music, drinking, dogs and more. I am a resident of Bloomfield and these are my current top 5 for Pittsburgh!!!! 1) The public pool: It’s only $15 a person for a year pass and $4 (or so) for a day. Totally worth it. There are 12 or so pools around Pittsburgh right now that are open from 1pm-7:45pm weekdays and 1-5:45pm weekends. Going to the public pool is a blast. 2) Bloomfield: Crazy Mocha/Dreaming Ant/Paul’s CDs. Crazy Mocha is a coffee shop in Bloomfield on Liberty Ave. that has a crew of regulars and crazies that are fun to hang out w/ or just sit and watch. The coffee is good too. In the back there is a DVD rental store called the Dreaming Ant. I believe you can rent films there and watch them in-store. They specialize in foreign films, indie and experimental. Definitely my fave in the city. And third but not least is PAUL'S CDs. They have an amazing selection of music for such a little store. I spend countless hours every week digging for stuff. The staff is nice and if you ask their opinion they’ll give it to you. Paul’s has a great selection of indie rock, blues, world music, local bands, and great DVD’s and magazines. Paul’s and Crazy Mocha are right across from one another on Liberty Ave in Bloomfield. A definite a must-go for music and film buffs. Plus both have A.C. in the summer. 4) The Doublewide Grill on Carson Street in the South Side. Coming from Oakland make a left of the Birmingham Bridge and it's about 2 blocks on the left. Best vegan wings in town. I’m not vegan, but these vegan wings are good. I eat both meat and non-meat, sometimes in the same meal. They have a great beer selection too. It’s an automotive themed restaurant. Kind of like Quaker Steak and Lube, but w/ a good beer selection (and it's not a chain). Their burgers and sandwiches are o.k., but a bit garlic-y. Good veggie and meat-eaters selection. 5) The last is a hard one. I like the Quiet Storm coffee shop (pictured right) on Penn Ave. in the Garfield neighborhood. Best place to go for Sunday brunch, good vegan and veggie selection. Next is the Taste of India on Penn in Bloomfield/Lawrenceville. Great Indian food and the staff are pretty nice too. Cheap and good. Near the corner of Penn and main. And finally is Foodgloriousfood. It’s a bakery that's only open on Saturday mornings from 10am-2pm. They have the most amazing biscuits ever. Ask to see the cooler. It’s on Bryant Street in Highland Park. And finally is my favorite bar in alls of Pittsburgh, GOOSKI's (in Polish Hill on Brereton Street). It has an amazing selection of beer and is dirt cheap. On the weekends you will probably see a crowd of locals going crazy over Pittsburgh’s best underground rock and roll. They also let me book shows there from time to time for weird gypsy bands. It’s always a party at Gooski's. They’ve got pool tables, ping pong, and a great jukebox filled w/ 70's punk, glam, metal, and even some Balkan Beat Box. How could you beat that? |
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The altWarhol MapHub is an ongoing project to document the past, present, and future of the underground, DIY, and alternative cultural resources of Pittsburgh. The interactive map was created by MapHub and the initial collection of data was collected by the Warhol staff who collaborated on this project. This is a collaborative map; visitors may add comments, photos, or places. The only limitation is geographic: the map currently only shows Pittsburgh to the city limits.
View the altwarhol maphub.
Please note:
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| Cultural Probes Observations can tell you about what people do, but less about what they feel. What is really important to them and what just mundane? Cultural probes are one way to access environments that are difficult to observe directly and also to capture more of this 'felt life'. |
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| the street changes forever everywhere
On the streets of downtown Pittsburgh PA in May 2004: street art from Canada, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Thailand, Brazil and the United States.
Read about the Street Art show |
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About the projectMapping Pittsburgh: Art, Space and Alternative Culture is a portrait and an ongoing archive of the unique culture being created in Pittsburgh. The site is designed to expose the pockets of active artists, spaces, places, and non-traditional landmarks that are part of our daily lives and make visible the hidden assets of the city from the viewpoints of creative people living and working here. The project was inspired by the traveling exhibition, The Downtown Show: the New York art scene 1974-1984, which came to the Warhol in the summer of 2006. The show included artworks, ephemera, photos, video, clothing, and other objects; it depicted a period and a place in which creative people came together in an environment that encouraged experimentation, collaboration, and the cross-pollination of ideas. This activity was almost completely off the radar at the time it was unfolding, but has since proved to be an enormously influential. In Pittsburgh, there is no particular neighborhood or area where creativity and independent culture are concentrated. Our neighborhoods are spread out, separated by hills and water. However, scattered throughout the region is a thriving grassroots culture of artists, activists, writers, filmmakers and activists, bringing their interests and abilities to the needs and resources of this city and creating a unique local cultural stew. Perhaps because of our topography, which keeps neighborhoods separated, many of the things going on here are unconnected—people work in their own little bubbles, and many paths never intersect. We became curious what would happen if we gathered some of the people who are active in the local scene and got them talking about what they see in the cultural landscape here, and what we might do help it to grow and flourish. We invited people to brainstorming sessions and asked them, what do you see here? Where do you like to hang out, where are the odd places that you love? How would you portray your city to others? What we heard at those meetings, and in many conversations since, has lead to the creation of the Mapping Pittsburgh website. The site reflects a beginning rather than a comprehensive picture. Deep Local’s web tool MapHub allows visitors to check out neighborhoods on the interactive map and add comments or additional landmarks and contribute their own. On the Projects page are more detailed looks at Pittsburgh’s art/alternative cultural landscape from artists and activists within the community, which we hope to see flourish through vital and ongoing submissions. Pittsburgh is much more quirky, funky, and varied than the official portrait would have you believe. The city’s assets are not always the well-known ones that everybody’s heard of; here, we try to show the hidden side of Pittsburgh. About the collaboration Mapping Pittsburgh ” is a collaboration between Leslie Clague and Pete Spynda, Artist-Educators at The Andy Warhol Museum; Carl DiSalvo and Nathan Martin of the artists group Carbon Defense League and their alterego and business MapHub and Deep Local and a group of community partners that includes artists, writers, curators, and activists The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum hires practicing artists as educators to develop and teach programs in the Museum. Artist-Educators bring the approaches and interests of their disciplines to their projects at the Warhol. Carbon Defense League Carbon Defense League is an art collective presenting interactive work in tactical media. On the business side, the same individuals run Maphub and Deep Local, producing simple online mapping software, enabling communities to identify their asset and more effectively target resources. Community partners These people attended brainstorming meetings and met with us individually to lend their perspectives. We thank them for their time and support. Lauri Mancuso (formerly of Garfield Artworks, Paint and Body and ON) |
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