User:Mania/scores/tools

January - documentation

• Develop your own practice of encountering the city

• Take time to formulate different scripts and execute them

• Do not aim for a particular outcome

• We ask you to address: What is this script doing? Did it create encounters? If so, what kinds? Did it fell flat? Did it counter your expectations? How did your body experience this walk? Did it connect you with the environment, or isolate you from it?

• Step into the city and do some derives

• Applied to a particular place - In this way real surprises and unexpected encounters can be uncovered.

• Consider: The city as something that we do not only see, but also make. (rewriting the city)

• Create an opening for situations where one takes a more active position in the experience of the city

• External assessors comment: "Note the difference between a scripted walk, and a derive, in the situationist sense. If you are interested in chance encounters, you could look more deeply into psychogeography, with a combined interest in interpersonal relations and the unplanned. In NL, see: Wilfried hou je Bek

Warsaw - Szukalski market

I’ve returned to Warsaw, revisiting familiar places that memories draw me back to. One of them is the Olimpia flea market, but we call it Szukalski from the verb "szukać" which means “search.” And we usually find plenty of treasures. This time, I found old notebooks. Beautiful ones, with lovely patterns on the inside covers, in various formats, some blank, others filled with writing. From a large container, I also dug out magazines about athletics, filled with frame-by-frame photos of athletes. Visually, they reminded me of my experiments with moving images in a zoetrope.

I spent the whole day scanning my finds, cropping the discovered photos, and reading the notes from the notebooks. On the first page of one notebook belonging to a 4th-grade student, there was a note:
“Please excuse Rafał from the last three lessons as we have a doctor’s appointment for an eye check-up.” I wonder if Rafał really went to the eye doctor… or perhaps he was running around Pole Mokotowskie, like I used to do in high school when we went there instead of math classes. Browsing through these notebooks brings back so many memories. They’ve become like guides through space as they filled me with a desire to revisit certain places.

collages from th efound material

These visuals reminded me so much of what I mentioned during my assessment: scores ---> language of movement… Scores as graphical representation, like I mentioned at the assessment, and then I noticed connections with what I had been working on in recent months… However, further attempts led me to start thinking about scores more as 3D tools. I documented further walks in those found notebooks

Step into the city and do some derives

I’ve returned to Warsaw, revisiting familiar places that memories draw me back to. One of them is the Olimpia flea market, but we call it Szukalski from the verb "szukać" which means “search.” And we usually find plenty of treasures. This time, I found old notebooks. Beautiful ones, with lovely patterns on the inside covers, in various formats, some blank, others filled with writing. From a large container, I also dug out magazines about athletics, filled with frame-by-frame photos of athletes. Visually, they reminded me of my experiments with moving images in a zoetrope.

I spent the whole day scanning my finds, cropping the discovered photos, and reading the notes from the notebooks. On the first page of one notebook belonging to a 4th-grade student, there was a note:
“Please excuse Rafał from the last three lessons as we have a doctor’s appointment for an eye check-up.” I wonder if Rafał really went to the eye doctor… or perhaps he was running around Pole Mokotowskie, like I used to do in high school when we went there instead of math classes. Browsing through these notebooks brings back so many memories. They’ve become like guides through space as they filled me with a desire to revisit certain places.

Inspired, the next day I set off for a walk with no particular plan of where to go, but I’m determined to visit Pole Mokotowskie, imagining Rafał from the notebook running across the grass on April 4, 1986. I started my walk at Plac Trzech Krzyży. Passing a building with three facades, I head towards Mokotowska Street. From afar, I see my favorite bookstore, Bęc Zmiana, still closed. In the window display, I spot a book that catches my interest—Szwendownik. It must be about wandering through the city. Perfect, as that’s exactly what I’m doing now. I’m curious and want to flip through it. The bookstore opens in 30 minutes, so I decide to wait. I missed this place. Standing outside, I genuinely feel happy at the sight of it. I photograph the window display. Next to the entrance, I see a photograph on the wall, showing a woman’s legs on a sidewalk. I’m certain I’ve seen it somewhere before, but I can’t recall where. It reminds me of fragments I cut out from the materials I found at Szukalskifor my collages about urban choreography.

I immediately ask my Warsaw friends if the photo hanging near Bęc Zmiana means anything to them or if they know the author. I feel like a detective, but so far, no clues. I walk a bit further to grab a coffee in the meantime. I return to Bęc Zmiana and ask inside about the photo’s author, but I only learned that some girls were hanging their photos around Warsaw. A sort of urban exhibition. This reminded me of a small display case near Plac Zbawiciela, where someone used to arrange mini-exhibitions of various objects. I want to find it and check if it’s still there. This thought guides me further through the city. I continue along Mokotowska Street, some new shops have opened there.

I’m close to Plac Zbawiciela, almost at the corner, with a little square to my left where we used to play flanki. At the roundabout, I turn right—that’s where the little display case used to be. It’s no longer there. The door has been ripped off, and inside there’s a blanket and an empty coffee cup. I’m curious who left it there. What did they want to communicate to us? The glass has been covered with posters. What could its alternative function be? Did the former mini-exhibition case change its purpose and become a hiding place?

I arrive at Pole Mokotowskie Park. I see the hill where my friends and I used to come in the spring instead of math class. We would lie on the grass and even solve those problems together, but it was blissful. I photograph this spot and paste it into a found academic notebook, over a background of complex calculations.

I look around. How many memories are waiting for me here? I glance at the “Grzybek” (the mushroom-shaped pavilion). How shabby it looks now. But it was there that my first boyfriend and I told each other we loved each other.

I continue my walk along my beloved Oleandrów Street. My English teacher used to live there before she moved to England. I end up practically in front of Kino Luna. I find its entrance blocked, with several posters informing that the cinema isn’t disappearing. Was it supposed to?

Here my walk ends. It was memories that guided me through these places….

PARTICULAR PLACE

I decided to situate my project in my neighborhood in the North Previous attempts and what I worked on in the previous semester were based there, so I’m sticking to it. I continue my research about neighborhoods. I am not trying to study the neighborhood and tell its story but rather give my publishing practice context, so it becomes intentionally situated publishing.

What interests me is more about what kind of audience the magazine gathers around itself and how it can be published outdoors?

How does this make me perceive the area differently? How can the magazine become an instrument passed hand-to-hand, playing a role in exploring the surroundings?

At first, scores appeared as something that could reside in the magazine…But now that I know more, I am treating scores as three-dimensional tools.

Neighbourhood Lab

I tried different tactics to navigate and see what kind of experience it would generate.

I return to the notes from a conference about neighborhoods. During a presentation I attended at a conference Neighbourhoods as learning environments, a speaker shared the following guiding principles, which I adapted as scores for my exploration. The note is incomplete because I wrote it while listening, but this presentation particularly stuck in my memory.

"Listen to a place

Look what is already out there

What are the limitations of the practice?

Who is active?

How can you support what is already happening

Curate a dialogue

Look at the space as if you are looking at it for the first time

Have patience

Have you changed after the work?

Try different tactics

Find like minded people

Whose perspectives are misssing?

Practice power sharing

What participants need?

Turn it into a graphic novel

How participants perceive gentrification?

Invite your neigbours for a picnic

Draw portraits of your neighbours and ask them for their stories

Be present at the local markets

Give small things a big stage

Don't be afraid of words

Look at the means of production

Be aware

Communal love

Make the work visible

Do u have support?

Be aware of your power

Be soft

Step back, give voice

Share autorship"

What I noticed

Navigations and prohibitions

how many instructions already exist in the city

navigations prohibitation

navigations prohibitation

navigations prohibitation

furniture in public space

forks on the street

forks on the street

follow the pattern

Road signs that navigate how we move. The height of curbs, prohibitions, and rules nearly everywhere. Benches where you can only sit, not lie down…

How scripted cities already are. This also informed my work in the previous semester, starting from the assumption that the city is already so scripted, constantly navigating and prohibiting. How can the idea of a script be used to invite more playful behaviuor in space? This still motivates me to some extent. I’m not sure if this came across during the assessment, but I definitely mentioned the "smooth city": how the experience becomes seamless with dating apps and food delivery to your doorstep. While this brings comfort, it also eliminates surprises and unplanned urban experiences.

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What a nice task for a magazine to foster friction and connection. How can it become an instrument for reading the city and rewriting it anew? Adding a part of yourself to the city.

My central question is what audience the magazine gathers around itself? 

It stays open, invites people, not nececarilly for co-creation, but perhaps to foster connections… passed hand-to-hand, gathering people around the workshop.

The idea of scores as a three-dimensional tool - it’s an invitation to a specific action. I’m not sure if "action" is the right word. Is it a score? It definitely encourages and initiates something to be done. If it takes the form of an envelope, it becomes an invitation, but it also took the form of a poster with a route to follow or a mini-manifesto passed to a street library.

Do I need to limit myself to one specific form of this record? I need advice and feedback. During the assessment, it was said that I have many ways to document these scores, so where is my focus?

Examples of Scores

Documentation in notebooks: photos of trash, abandoned clothes, road signs.

Stop making sense

The wonderful feeling of being outside, moving through space guided by intuition, and walking the way I want without trying too hard to prove something or achieve anything specific. Just being outdoors — left foot, right foot — and seeing where it takes me. Walking allows my thoughts to flow differently; ideas come more easily. I enjoy moving forward, participating in what unfolds in space. Many of the following scores resulted from simply being outside.

Score: Image ---> format for the tool:Just an image as the score's opening.

Be present at the local market

The script is meant to encourage being among local people, listening, and observing the place. That’s where the locals are. Local residents are the best witnesses of what happens in the area; they shape its character. A seller recommends a newly opened bookstore in the area, which I then visit. I talked to vendors.

What are all the rhythms you can perceive now?

This score felt incomplete. I see it as an attentiveness exercise. It would make sense if it were developed further, but as a standalone prompt, it didn’t meet my expectations.

What is your normal rhythm of walking? Now walk at 80% of that speed. Then change to 20%. What changed?

This score is intended to experiment with different paces in familiar spaces to observe how perceptions shift and feelings change when consciously slowing down. I tried this score on my street, which I know by heart. Walking at my normal pace, I’m so used to the surroundings that I may no longer pay close attention. I sped up, almost running — it’s interesting how everything looks different. Slowing down to 20% of my normal pace, I noticed a photograph on a building wall. What used to be there? Who lived there?

Look at the space as if you are looking at it for the first time. Document your findings. What does it tell about this space?

An invitation that you don’t need to wander far to find something interesting in your surroundings. There are so many visual clues...

I found lots of furniture to take, lost gloves, and an abandoned coffee cup. The cup comes from the café on the corner; have I ever met the person who left it there? I often run into people who return to that place.

Along the way, I found lots of lost or discarded clothes…

I noticed repeating traces of footprints; so I followed them. ---> Follow a pattern: Following something can lead you to a place you might not have gone to otherwise... These footprints didn’t lead me anywhere. But they gave me a nice feeling that the city is full of clues and existing invitations to play. I can look at the space as if it were a game.

Look upside down

"Perception is not passive. Perceiving is thinking. Observing in different ways equals thinking in different ways."

Paying so much attention to the fragment of the bridge and bringing it to the forefront - it tells me about the history of a place... A fresh look at something familiar allowed me to see it with renewed interest.

I’m playing. In this city. The same happened with the camera obscura.

Observe weirder. Perception is not fixed. It takes action.

Format: camera obscura.

Try hopping instead of walking

Someone joined me while I was doing it.

Look at the edges of the space and draw them with your body.

Movement class exercises

1. Walk - notice other people in the space.
2. Stop - take a moment to really acknowledge the space.
3. Find corridors between people.
4. Walk backward. Be aware of your surroundings.
5. Look at the edges around you and draw them with your body.
6. Imagine that you can change things with your movement. How does it affect the way you walk and look?

In dance classes, we try various imagination exercises that influence how we move. Recently, we walked backward to awaken awareness of others in the space. On a specific cue, we had to start laughing and notice how our bodies moved differently, more freely, in a less learned manner. For specific numbers, we performed assigned actions.

It was a fantastic exercise because it genuinely changed how everyone moved in the space. We made silly movements and crazy dances, but it felt so natural and allowed us to discover a completely different quality in movement and awareness of others around us.

When I try this in the city, I feel people’s gazes. It was probably the first time I questioned social norms when I danced on the street and felt people’s surprise.

Create an opening for situations where one takes a more active position in the experience of the city

"Walking - questioning our relationship to our environment.. thus walking is almost seen as a synecdoche of everyday practices and of habits of dwelling, offering a prism through which the experience of lived space can be observed "

Elena biserna

Give and receive

Print scores as a zine. My zine was brought to a street mini-library…

Ask local people, they know best

---> format: envelope with a list for my neighbour

What is it?

A letter to my neighbors with an invitation for a fictional walk. I asked my reader to first, imagine a place they would like to visit and write a set of directions for someone else to follow on the same walk. There is space for more routes or maps for people to add. Once I receive the letter back, it will be sent to another neighbor, allowing readers to see scripts from others. 

Concept

In a highly scripted city governed by rules, this project is an attempt to enforce unpredictability and see from someone else perspective. The purpose is to gain walking scripts from a variety of people and understand who is present in particular spaces. This input will inform my ongoing research and be used to develop walking scripts for the project "In a city, there's a thousand things I want to say to you"

Dear neighbour...

• - kites - drawing

How can you support what is already happening

De Boog

workshop in de boog - making desired zines that are meant to be passed in the neighbourhoods. ( leave one in a coffe place, or a hairdresser, or in a park… or give it to your neighbour ( make a mini poster for invitation to show what the workshop is about)

Curate a dialogue

Give small things a big stage

"Making a book is a delightful process. It compels us to focus, demands editing and making choices. Ultimately, it's an instrument for concentration and contemplation. A book marks a beginning and an end. But it’s also a social tool, bringing people and ideas together as a mobilizing subject; building new communities and empowering other futures." (The future of the book is beyond a book - Annelys de Vet, p.22)

During a one-day artistic residency, which focused on the theme of the neighborhood, I wanted to explore this very idea. What audience does a book gather around itself, and how does it create the opportunity to see things from someone else’s perspective? I approach this with the intention of looking outward—to do this, I planned to curate a dialogue. Talking to people about whether they have any personal habits when moving through their neighborhood. How do these habits connect them to the space? Are there places that encourage interactions with their neighbors? I collected fragments of texts from people about the smallest things that are already there, things they appreciate. I want to give small things a big stage. I assembled these fragments into a whole, creating a long list of small things. At the end, when we all gathered together, I read these fragments aloud, expanding the list as we listened together. The act of READING AND LISTENING TOGETHER became a performative aspect of the mini publication, which created a space where different voices could coexist. Under the pretext of sharing observations from personal experiences, I began to decode my own image of the city.

a long list of small things

a long list of small things

accidental

Conclusion:

• I publish intermittently - - -> zines distributed in different places around the area, in a local caffee, in a neighbourhood library, in the envelope passed to a neigbour, on the street as a poster, handed to someone at the market...

• I came to the conclusion that my interst also lies in the way the "magazine" could be distributed. This is also a reason why I thoght about scores as three dimensional tools, because in fact they are smaller zines that gain different formats and can exist outdoors

Consider: The city as something that we do not only see, but also make.

READING AND REWRITING URBAN SPACES

• When I think about the city as a text - If the city could be read like a text it could also be annotated.
• How does what I leave behind serve as annotations?

QUESTIONS and DECISIONS about zines / magazine

1. Conceptual

What is the core purpose of the magazine? Is it meant to document, provoke, guide, or transform? What actions do I want the audience to experience?

What a nice challenge for a magazine: to foster friction… to seek ways to open up to different experiences, exciting connections, and interactions with others in shared spaces. To be a tool to help me see my neighborhood anew, to look outwards

How do I define "performative" in the context of a magazine? Is it about interaction with the physical object, engagement with space, or a sequence of actions?

A magazine that consists of smaller zines distributed around the area in different locations, reaching different groups of people as a result.

It’s also about physical interaction with the format itself because, ideally, it’s passed from hand to hand…

What kind of space do I want the magaize to create? Is it a personal, reflective space? A shared, social space? A physical journey through the neighborhood?

Shared social space can also lie in small gestures. What could be the smallest gesture to publish something that creates a connection? ---> a letter to the neighbour.

2. Interaction with Space

How does the magazine influence the way people perceive their surroundings? Can it guide attention to overlooked details or reframe the way they see familiar spaces? 

Zines inspire to tell own stories

Zines can share knowledge or ideas more horizontally

Zines make you question things

Zines can transport us to diffrenet places

There are always more zines to make, its never complete

like the image of the city that is ever changing

What physical or conceptual spaces can the magazine generate? Could it act as a map, a guide, a stage, or a framework for movement and exploration?

How can the magazine encourage discovery and curiosity? Can it provide instructions, questions, or prompts to spark exploration?

What role does movement play in engaging with the magazine? Should it be static (read in one spot), mobile (carried and used outdoors), or something in between?

I want it to be a portable tool

3. Audience

Who is the audience, and what role do they play in the magazine’s experience? Are they readers, performers, co-creators, or all of the above? --->

They are people living in the area, who stopped to read fragments of the magazine on the street. Who stopped to take a look at the flyer, and a poster, and found a zine in th estreet library, who received an envelope with a letter/zine, who are present in a local caffee or hair dresser where a magazine is distribted....

How does the magazine bring people together? It can gather an audience in a specific space or facilitate shared experiences and collaboration by:

• Bring people together to create content (colloqium example)
• Flyers in the neighbourhood with invitations to the workshop that I organise in de boog
• Flyers in the neighbourhood with invitation to share content

• Publishing the ready magazine-outdoors as an event

What kind of relationship does the audience develop with the magazine? Is it a one-time interaction - printed DIY tool from web or continattion?

an ongoing tool - continuation in small attempts of how its part has a connection with environment, example - a route indication to tear a part and take with you..

something they can add to or reshape? --->

4. Performative Qualities

How can the magazine prompt action? Could it include tasks, challenges, or rituals that unfold in real-world spaces?

moze gromadzic wokoł siebie ludzi podczas warsztatow na ktorych tworzymy ziny jakie tylko zapragniemy, które maja byc rozpowrzechniomne po okolicy.

How does the magazine exist beyond the act of reading? Can it transform into an object of play, a tool for action, or an artifact of the performance? What materials, design elements, or formats enhance its performative potential? Could foldable maps, transparent overlays, detachable parts, or other physical elements encourage interaction? 

envelope, kite, a map, finder

5. Temporal and Sensory Dimensions

How does the magazine engage the senses beyond vision? 

directions / actions beyond observation- to more active participation…

What is the life cycle of the magazine? Is it ephemeral, meant to be used and discarded, or something permanent and evolving?

The one smaller thing that Im currently doing ---> Meant to be passed to someone else

6. Collaborative or is it more connecting

How can the magazine foster co-creation?

---> at first it was not my goal, the goal was to make an object to exist outside. To be used, played, read outside… I want my practice to be open for people to step in, but the intension initially was to explore how to publish outdoors, how to publish in and about the city.

ITS I think more about CONNECTION and what audience it gathers than co-creation

Could participants contribute content, annotate it, or leave marks as they interact with it?

• ----> Maybe that would be nice if the printed magazine its annotated and therefore constantly growing and than passed to someone else and you can read about their experience - annotated on the margins… ( FOR PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS CARRY A NOTEBOOK….TO sEE THE CHOICES IN HOW WE MOVE in open spaces)

How does the book adapt to different audiences or locations? Could it be designed to change based on who interacts with it or where it is used? 

• ----------->>>>>>Prompts are open to intrepretation and would lead to different things in different locations…
• (like an envelope or a promt to be present at the local market….look what already work in space…)

• FLYERS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD ----> Can the magazine be a starting point for larger conversations or projects? Does it encourage participants to share their experiences?

7. Boundaries and form

What happens when the magazine leaves the traditional boundaries of a "magazine / book"? Could it transform into a digital experience, a performance guide, or a spatial installation?

----> i want to have a website linked with a possibility to print a template for a paper tool ---> still have to think about the shape of it, if I concentrate on the format for th etemplate to be folded into. or do I want to generate diffrent sets of instructions?

• Always publishing of it is published outdoors. How smaller parts exist outdoors? ---> like passed in the neighbourhood box, poster with diffrent routes to choosee, flyer inviting for a workshop
• can it be published in a form of flyers?

How does it challenge the way people think about magazines, spaces?

What role does chance play in the magazine's use? ----->

It's a surprise what set of instructions you can print from website…

The way its distributed

8. Reflection!!!!!

What have I assumed about the magazine's form or function, and how can I subvert those assumptions?

What does failure look like for this project?

When the tool seems trivial and doesnt generate any experience. ----. AND ITS NOT FUN BUT JST FEELS REDUNDANT

What are the risks, and how can I embrace them as part of the process? 

• ( RISK OF BEING PURELY AESTHETIC I SUPPOSE AFTER ASSESMENT)

How can I learn from how people use the book in unintended ways? --->  Can their interpretations shape the final design?

How can I learn from using the score in unintended ways? Can these interpretations shape the design and generate more surprises ?