Between Realities: Collective Mapping of Public Space

The multiplication of staged and imagined realities can be felt most intensely in urban public spaces where layers of tourism, entertainment, consumption, art, work, leisure, history, policies, and politics come together. It is precisely in these spaces that we can see how people live between realities and how they cope with its complexity.

Naomi Bueno de Mesquita has developed an application for smart phones which allows the public to collectively explore and map the communal environment in real time. The emphasis is on searching for hiding places: where in the centre of Prague can one hide or escape the tourist hordes?

Collective mapping practices with digital means allows us to engage with public space while negotiating with it. This means of mapping is performative and participatory. Collective mapping is furthermore not a process of getting any supposed reality right, it is a way of constructing forms of knowledge that can cope with multiple perspectives on reality.Visitors to PQ are invited to participate in a series of collaborative mapping sessions. Through mapping we want to introduce participants to a novel way of studying/ engaging with public space and its potentialities. A different strategy will be mapped every day. After each tour there will be time to share experiences and observations.

Curator: Platform-Scenography
Designer of exhibition: Naomi Bueno de Mesquita
Other collaborators: Sigrid Merx (dramaturgy)

Naomi Bueno de Mesquita - curator, assistant professor
N. Bueno de Mesquita is a design researcher currently involved in the TRADERS European research project. Her research explores the relationship between digital means and collaborative forms of mapping in the construction of and debate about public space.

photo: Naomi Bueno de Mesquita

photo: Naomi Bueno de Mesquita

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