In response to the provocations and group discussion that took place at the Civic Infrastructure on 28 July, Olivia wrote the following.
They are architects and librarians,
CEOs and funders and community development officers;
they are reimagining high streets and working to empower.
They are designers and students, (2 PhDs in one group? I don’t have a PhD, do I still belong here? Yes, you belong here),
citizens and friends,
sweltering in the summer heat, in singlets and t-shirts, sunlight filtering through drawn curtains and skylights.
They are here to maintain the world - to repair, remake, rebuild, reimagine:
They are the infrastructurers.
They know that infrastructure isn’t stolid or staid—
it isn’t boring or banal,
doesn’t get in your way or block the road. It lifts you up,
helps you breathe, helps you walk, helps you sleep, heal, dream, connect.
Infrastructure can weigh on you, drag you down, stifle you - especially if it’s not made for you.
But it can also be a street-lamp constellation that lights the way in the dark.
Just as it can turn structures of power to stone,
entombing us in its dark corridors and the twisted maze of its bureaucracy,