About Intertexture

Sept. 11, 2011. San Francisco via Black Rock City via Yale.

What is intertextural? An edible garden thriving in an empty urban lot might be. Or a living wall that grows from a slab of grey concrete. How about an interactive fountain that collects rainwater and doles it out again? Or maybe it's an engaging streetscape where signage is art, seating is sculpture, and commute slows down to become community . . .

But what else can it be?

Creative Placemaking has entered the popular lexicon as a strategy for injecting tired landscapes with "vibrancy," but what does that really mean? And how can we push the trend to manifest in its fullest incarnation -- as a practice which unites people, place and excess capacities in the creation of something new and never-before-seen?

Intertexture describes those most compelling human enterprises — the most exciting science and technology, most gripping art, most compassionate social initiatives, and the most captivating physical places — that have transcended the boundaries between substance and space. It is a way of constructing our environment so that what we imagine in our wildest dreams can become what we experience in our every day reality. Intertexture can be found blooming wild in the dark, fertile chaos left behind by the familiar forces we recognize as shaping our world, and here – in the underground city, the abandoned spaces, the places that have quietly struggled it identify themselves – it should be protected. But elsewhere, it can be cultivated for its miraculous ability to refresh, restore, and reinvigorate the world around us – not something to be applied as ornament, but rather, a method of thinking, of creating policy, of empowering people, that allows stronger, more connected, more resilient communities to grow from the ground up.    

About Me

I graduated from Yale University with a degree in architecture and a concentration in urban studies.

I believe in greater possibilities, indeed responsibilities, for the role architects and urban planners play in shaping our communities. Our job is not merely to create space, but to imagine potential. In an academic sense, I was taught that  design determines action  in much the same way that an enzyme facilitates a chemical reaction — a specific shape causes specific movements in the elements surrounding it. But if we truly wish design to catalyze action, we cannot simply trust a static space to do the job.

Placemaking must be an active process that not only deals with the physical shape of things, but with integrating ideas, providing programming, and reshaping policy, as well. 

Architecture provides an excellent toolkit for collecting, analyzing, synthesizing and disseminating ideas about how to occupy the world around us. My commitment to an architecture more broadly conceived has informed my work in traditional firm environments, as well as a huge number of related fields, including journalism, public art and non-profit arts education, theatrical design and performance, event design and planning, community organizing, and initiatives in social justice and sustainability.

As a design team member, I’ve helped to envision everything from a first-of-its-kind green arts district on a college campus to the decommissioning of a major interstate highway in order to create opportunities for  neighborhood access and involvement, mixed-use recreation, and walkable tree-lined boulevards.

I’ve traveled to all sorts of unconventional communities to study permaculture, organic farming, alternative technologies and natural building.  In Oakland, I’ve championed adaptive reuse and a return to creative culture, serving as a representative and liaison to government councils and organizations looking to improve opportunities for artists, entrepreneurs and small-scale industry.

I’ve studied the urban fabric of informal settlements cropping up in cities across the world, and have made the case for the inherent value of creative, need-based, bottom-up solutions provided through consensus and iterative action.

I know a thing or two about engaging the public in art and cultural activities, from my immersion in Oakland’s industrial arts movement to my study with political street theater groups like Bread and Puppet Theater. I’ve created settings for large festivals, intimate events, and performances of all sorts. I have taught children’s programming in art, dance, and theater, led enrichment classes at an equestrian therapy center for kids with disabilities, held workshops in natural building, and lived on a veggie-oil powered schoolbus caravan, planting trees and teaching African drumming and “Eco-Hip-Hop.”   

I believe that the best way to change the world is to help people experience it in new ways, whether by teaching a skill, sharing a story, or creating vibrant, engaging spaces that promote participation and innovation. 

Emily Appelbaum

em.appelbaum@gmail.com

My Current Projects:

Program Director, Ingenuity Cleveland

Art Director, Brite Winter

Crazy Mastermind: Cleveland Creative Collaborative (more coming shortly!)

For more information on my services, please visit

here