A device to read the city

By reading we mean finding another possible form of seeing, moving, listening

Concept: The project starts from a concept that an urban environment can be read, analyzed and criticized as a text. By aimlessly wandering and drifting we can name exactly what we see, hear. List making can make very explicit what is missing, and who is not present or what is succesfully hidden. If the city can be read it can also be annotated Posters, newspapers, graffittis, clothing, performances in public squares, protest, traffic serve as footnotes, annotations with very diverse comments.

What is it? (physical description)

A physical device and a publication closely connected, working together. (Used as a method to encourage chance discovery and unproductive inefficiency, activated by a workshop)

Components:a device

• a tube that can be carried with you and accompany your walk
• a tilt sensor
• device is multifunctional, can be used to observe and to listen to
• what material its made from? fabric

publication - a guide

• a mannual for the device
• collect scripts

workshop (scripts writing, a walk, exchanging and performing scripts and rituals, sharing the "unsmooth" encounters)

• scripts writing
• a walk to perform scripts

documentation of the workshops and the project

Why make it?

In a smart city ruled by obsession with perfection, maintenence and efficiency, how do we measure to whom those spaces are serving? And who decide what is the norm? This project is an attemp to find new forms of observing the city, to understand who is present in a particular space and what are their real needs and desires? What kind of city do we accualy want?