PRACTICE
Before explaining it, I would like to make it clear that this is the practical articulation of my TCC and, considering that I started to elaborate it after my main focus (theoretical research), it was never intended to be finished. I still have doubts to be better resolved, just as I do not seek to address all the complex socio-spatial issues that are related to access to the city and are already rooted in contemporary society. The idea of experimenting with the elaboration of a claim practice joined with the interest of countercartographic practices. From now on, I present the “means” of the elaboration of this counter-cartography and, whoever feels interested, feel free to collaborate with ideas and suggestions.
OPERATION OF THE "GAME"
COUNTERCARTOGRAPHIC SPACE
- Each virtual counter-cartography will be an articulation of a physical space “X” in the city.
- This physical space “X” can be either a corner or a square or, as Rosalyn Deutsche said, a museum and even a non-physical space.
- For each location there will be a different page on the website or in the application for the assembly of the countercartography.
- Anyone can request that a new page be created for a certain physical space that they want a counter-cartography to be articulated and the “game” to begin.
FIRST STEP
Answer an initial questionnaire to understand what kind of displacement that person usually has in the city, as well as their relationship with the public space “X” and their desires in relation to it. Some considerations that can be made:
- Approximate location of residence or where she spends most of her time, if she does not have a residence.
- Which other neighborhoods in the city usually pass through or frequent in their weekly displacements.
- What type of transport do you use for these weekly trips.
- Frequency in that physical space “X” (daily/weekly/monthly/annual/never).
- Usual frequency of attendance (morning/afternoon/evening/dawn/all).
- Justify your frequency (passage/leisure/shelter/rest/work/study/physical activity/contemplation/protests...).
- If they would like to frequent and use that space “X” more.
IF YES:
- Times they would like to attend (morning/afternoon/evening/dawn/all).
- What prevents them (time/shame/fear/discrimination/safety/prohibition...).
OBJECTIVE
As one of the speakers of the documentary “Espero tua (re)volta” says: “the space can even be public, but not everyone can go”. And also as seen in the features “Chega de fiu fiu” and “O hate”, everyone tries to circumvent material and symbolic barriers in order to acquire spatial capital , that is, the right and power for their bodies to have more mobility, territoriality and visibility in the city. In the “public space” axis, I talk about the issue that, in most cases, people from the urban periphery are the ones who suffer the most in relation to their mobility and the socio-spatial practices that are stigmatized and often denied by politics, a form of production of the city and by society itself.
My counter-cartography proposal is to virtualize these spatial assemblages so that, through a dissenting game – in which the recombination of signs allows for estrangement and divergence –, it leads individuals to reflect on their power of spatial capital in relation to that of others. In addition, that, somehow, this power of spatial capital is redistributed to act in the physical city.
HOW TO BE PART
- From the reading of a QR-Code, inserted in each physical space “X” in the city.
- Through geolocation that, when passing through the physical space “X”, launches notifications on the smartphones of people who frequent or pass through that place.
- Scanning the QR-Code or geolocation notification will lead to:
1- If it is the first time accessing the platform: it will direct to the website or to download the application.
2- If it's not the first time: straight to the counter-cartography page of that space “X”.
SECOND STEP
The second step will be a more “free” way than the first, in which the individual can include some media or write a short text, which summarizes or represents some of the questions raised in the questionnaire. Examples: its frequency or non-frequency in that space “X”; what he is to you; what prevents you from using it; their mobility around the city.
TRAINING OF CONTRACARTOGRAPHY
Through a program made for this counter-cartography, instantly the data collected from each new person will promote a new cartographic rearrangement on the map, so that people from different contexts, frequency in the location “X” and displacements around the city, come into contact with each other. the others. As in the performances and installations by the artist Santiago Sierra and in the relational antagonism of Laclau and Mouffe, these unlikely associations would create unexpected links, perhaps clashes between different realities, causing strangeness, discomfort and, thus, generating scenes of dissent and highlighting some existing or erased tensions. of this physical place “X” in the city.
In the “participation” axis, I bring an explanatory passage: “This relational antagonism would be based not on social harmony, but on exposing what is repressed to sustain the appearance of this harmony. This would thus provide a more concrete and controversial basis for rethinking our relationship to the world and to each other.”
FOR EXAMPLE
- I will use Jardim de Alah as an example, on the border between the neighborhoods of Leblon and Ipanema. A "public space" that has been my object of study and project before and, therefore, which I already know part of its dynamics.
- I will consider 22 "fictitious" people who will enter the virtual space of the Jardim de Alah countercartography. Thus, a clipping of the “official” cartography (known to all), considering the location of a person's residence, will change places with the cartographic clipping of another person's residence and, then, they will be “connected” by a line that highlights the this exchange.
- When clicking on the clipping, its back will be shown (represented by the white squares), containing the media or text that each person chose to include in the website/application.
- By clicking on the line that connects the individuals, their information filled in in the first step will appear. In addition, a new connection line between them will also be visualized, no longer “straight” but connected by the point of the physical space “X” in question, showing the public transport route they will have to take, according to google maps, to get to that point of public space.
- New assemblages will be made in a determined period of time, so that there will always be different associations and reallocations of new individuals in the countercartographic space.
- With each new rearrangement, people will receive a notification by email or by the app, so that, if they are interested, they can see which new individual it was connected to.
- It is important to say that it is useless to try to guess how this countercartography will look visually, because, first of all, like Paola Berenstein's montage, it will be constantly changing and will not present a fixed final resolution.
ACQUIRED SPACE CAPITAL
These assemblages , in addition to promoting counter-cartography, in the virtual space, would also be articulated for the physical space in question. Based on parameters using the initial questionnaire, each person would have what could be called – according to my advisor Otavio Leonidio – “acquired space capital”. This kind of “score” would work as a way of allowing these bodies to be able, even if in a simple way, to redesign the physical city and redefine its systems and patterns.
Some parameters that can be considered:
- The relationship between the frequency of an individual in that space “X” and the distance of that space from the place where he lives;
- The displacement of this individual around the city, considering the neighborhoods frequented/"past by" during the week;
- Increased use of pubic transport.
- The reason he wants to attend and not.
NEW POWER GAME
The idea is that this acquired spatial capital can be accumulated according to the various countercartographies of different public spaces that people participate and, also, that it is not used individually, but collectively for common purposes.
But what kind of action will this space capital allow in physical space?
It could be linked to public policies, such as giving greater voice in assemblies and decisions involving urban space, for example, greater decision-making power of places to direct funds for infrastructure and public mobility. Or it could be a more local action, referring to the physical space “X” of the city in question in the counter-cartography, such as having greater decision-making power and acting on that space, in order to break certain existing socio-spatial barriers.
This articulation of data and counter -cartography assemblages for the physical urban space is still hypothetical and, once again, I do not seek to resolve all the issues that encompass the right to the city. However, it would be a great starting point for us to enter this dissenting space of countercartographies and imagine other ways of distributing powers for who knows, one day, this may in fact be applicable in physical space.
TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPORTS
A report released in 2019 by the Pew Research Center places Brazil as the leader in the use of smartphones among “emerging” countries, considering the use of the internet by 82.7% of Brazilian households. However, it indicated that 17% of the Brazilian population does not have access to any type of mobile technology. Although every day the portion of the world population that does not have access to any type of technological device that allows them to enter the virtual space is smaller, it is still not possible to say that this inequality does not exist and, therefore, it is important to emphasize that this practice countercartography, for the time being, will not cover 100% of the Brazilian population.
In an increasingly connected world, it would be naive not to adhere to the means used by the masses and to ignore these technological supports. Leaving the duality between technophiles and technophobes, these means of communication can bring good fruits and not alienating, according to Arlindo Machado, if “deprogrammed” from the technique and logic of the machine. Increasingly, artists have demonstrated the ability to re-propose the advertising uses of locative media and to distort their symbolic functions. Therefore, the virtual world – once again referring to the power of becoming – can and should be explored by the means of communication that the technological world provides us – in the case of my project, through the use of smartphones, geolocation, creation of websites, applications and QR-Codes. The choice of geolocation and QR-Code was the most democratic way I found, because everyone who passes through that place will be able to see and enter the virtual space, without depending on which dissemination methods make my website or application reach people .