Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 11 Jun 2004 14:27

With Antwerp named as World Book City in 2004, residents and visitors are being invited to create a biography of the city by SMS.

While over 70% of Belgians have a mobile and 65% of them regularly send text messages, SMS is mostly used mostly to chat and flirt. The ‘Stadschromosmen’ (Citychromosomes) project aims to gather thoughts and impressions of particular points around Antwerp that can be shared by SMS.

There are 25 ‘text points’ around Antwerp and its districts, each inviting the submission of impressions about that place by SMS. (See below for some examples).

A selection of the submitted impressions will be regularly retrievable at the text points around the city, in the media and on the website. People can also read an impression written by somebody else simply by texting the key number displayed at each text point.

The venture was kick started at the begining of May with a selection of impressions that were written during a series of creative writing workshops that were held in venues across the city.

At the end of the project in September, a selection of the submitted impressions will be compiled in a booklet combined with the focus on the different ‘text points’ and giving an alternative view on Antwerp and its districts.

The ‘text points’ have been chosen be a cross section across the social layers of the city that are connected with one another.

‘Stadschromosomen’ is twinning with CityPoems in Leeds who are running a similar scheme.

www.stadchromosomen.be

www.blinkmedia.org

www.citypoems.co.uk

Some examples of the messages

Antwerp, you're so... Sorry, give me some time, I have to invent some new nouns, verbs and adjectives for you.

A pink carpet under my feet. Birds embrase touchable rays of light. Next to me a stone fortress, protecting painted impressions of color.

Too much wind and too many questions. But again, together in the pavement café, neither of us wanting to breach the subject….

WALKING with immigrants through my city. I guide them through the past. They show me the future.

Fresh and fruity female beauty. Men hop behind. Bellies of bronze, faces of gold. Springtime in Antwerp is gorgeous!

DOWN IN THE CITY. Down under. Being an abo, hated for what he is. Show me light. Pat me on the back and tell me you will no longer oppress me.

HAMMER AND SLEDGE BLOWS workers are licking their salt wounds. The sound of metal forces its way through their heads of stone.

In the 9 trees of my square, the sparrows and the doves are chattering. Under every tree a turd, on which the flies feast greedily.

Strolling with a head like a paving block, wet with lust for a decent pint of beer. Angels do exist.

On the bench, a quiet gentleman without pretension. His cane twisted between thin thighs like a 3rd leg. His hands marked with honest work and time.

W8ing for the bus. W8ing for nice weather. W8ing for pierced bellies. Sometimes, w8ing hurts.

She is standing right behind me, with her pierced bare belly. The better the weather, the scantier the clothes. W8ing makes sense again.

You intrigue me, you make me laugh and cry. You crawl deep under my skin. Or is it all just theatre?

I think the theatre is important to learn Dutch well. Because they talk so clearly there.