User:Lor.ensō/projectproposal

What do you want to make?

My project Contextures will address multiple forms of accessibility in Rotterdam.

The outcomes will include a game and a thesis. Both aspects of the project (the game and thesis) will address how obstacles are encountered in the city of Rotterdam.Contextures arises from my frustrations with the hollow renders and and representations through which Rotterdam is presented. Traveling around the city of Rotterdam with my brother, who is in a wheelchair, has made me even more aware of the architectural, cultural and bureaucratic limits that define our movements.

The project is divided into six elements, which will be incorporated into the game's format: Socially, Accessibly, Bureaucratically, Architecturally, Virtually and Culturally. In the game, the player* is presented with a series of obstacles which they have to overcome, while presented with i.e. an objective.

Each of the six faces of the dice direct the player* to a particular field (Socially, Accessibly, Bureaucratically, Architecturally, Virtually and Culturally) which they must navigate. They are presented with pragmatic "real world" problems (which have been expressed by participants in the workshops I will organise). In the series of workshops and public moments, I will develop an infrastructure for counter-mapping and anti-campaigning.

By campaign, I refer to city planning and campaigns I see around the city. But also campaigning in the sense to the franchise of Dungeons and Dragons: Where a series of adventures is referred to as a "campaign". These campaigns are located in either non-fictional or fictional places.

The thesis will take the form of a series of annotated drawings.

*player is meant as plural and also end user.

Why do you want to make it?

I am having mixed feelings about Rotterdam, the city I was born and raised in. A city that has been suffering the second city syndrome for a while and is on the list of poorest, least healthy. Having some sort of bad reputation based on multiple elements. Then resulting into trying to develop a better city, getting on the list of cool cities. Developing gentrification and seeming to be more (inter)nationally appealing cities.

Rotterdam, Make It Happen is a campaign that focuses on developing the city but rather than focusing on the problems that the city has from the national housing crisis, poverty rates, social care conditions, narco-capital problems.

This project is my experiment to develop an infrastructure based on constructive city criticism but also reflection. I am searching for a right way to visualize the tensions. The human touch as reminder of the (in)humane complications. I'm in confusion by the idea of vision / images of the city through virtual representation. Mostly, because I feel that is an image that lacks multiple layers of complex contexts.

How do you plan to make it?

I will organize a second series of workshops comparable to the colloquium. This will include natives of Rotterdam and people who have moved here.

"Search for examples of city planning / marketing / maintenance of the city/village/township where you are from*" 
collect img / promises / memories 					                     
then....... 
ask yourself / eachother "how does -location- relate to you as the inhabitant*?"
aaand thennn  
ask yourself / eachother "how do you relate to -location-?"

[Collective Location Relation Annotation Session]

A continued version of before-mentioned collection.

gather context and get either frustrated or inspired or in the best scenario both,
print out the imagery or text and annotate how this doesn't apply to the person getting into it.
develop this into a pamphlet / poster
share the stories behind the output

[drawing, editing, annotations, public]

Using drawings and annotations as vessels for human touch to add incalculated dimensions and to develop a series of critical pamphlets as a visual essay per person.

[catalog]

All the stories, images, analysis will be stored.

[game]

Using the stories of people and they situations and creating character sets of it with human metadata.

[thesis]

In my thesis proposal I play with the 6 sides of the cube

Socially - Personal, Affordable, Family, Housing

Accessibly - Disability, Information provision, infrastructures

Bureaucratically - Protocols of local municipal / governments

Architecturally - Buildings, ways, pavements, roads, streets

Virtually - Imagery, impression, media, software, simulation, games

Culturally - budget cuts, false iconism, counterculture, grassroots, community, festivals/gigs/events

This cube will then transform into a dice and the contexts, problems, barriers will then turn into decks of cards. It will all revolve around Rotterdam, example of output are map tiles as playing field

Unity void
covering up tiles
actual tiles
dices illustration
tile tryout

What is your timetable?

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\PHASE ONE //

September / October

Read up on previously saved sources. Start sketching and writing thoughts down, collecting both sides.
Research, attend lectures, visit exhibitions
Try to zoom out a bit and make a colloquium based on 'location satisfactory' surveys municipalities often give
Have a lot of discussions to get things clear and also give yourself time to digest.
Colloquium: start developing a method for an infrastructure for counter-mapping / anti-campaigning.
Start making a visual catalog

November:

Public moment do a walk-in type deal and develop some sort of way to ask for contributions.
Reflect on the colloquium & public moment, gather first ideas and ways to develop a method.
23 november: deliver project proposal ~ digest, organise, prepare presentation
27 november: pre-assessment
Continue the catalog

December

1-7 December: Attend the Worksession: a Cane, Sticky notes, Another body, look for connections, insights, network
17 December: Assessment
Note crucial feedback -> Develop a new version for collective annotation
Gather interests multiple groups and organize meetups
Continue the catalog

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\PHASE TWO//

January

Start meetups - at least one with peers and one with outsiders
Experiment with different sessions, gather contexts through new colloquiums
Notes and developments

February / March

Continue meetups: prototype the format -> dice + context decks + map
Brainstorm / feedback with people
Think about the outcomes: Tabletop Simulator / Physical Game
Start sketching the potential outcomes: Dice, Cards, Map?: designs of thesis and outcome must align
Notes and developments

April

Continue meetups: test design
Finetune
Notes and development

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\PHASE THREE//

May

Finalize the dice, cards and map.
Final test

June

Final feedback and finetuning and deliver
documentation
Assessment
Graduate
Build up

July

Build up and present

Who can help you and how?

XPUB tutors/peers/alumni

.ZIP

Friends and Family

Open Call: anyone interested in / the people that want to participate.

The people in Gent during the worksession

People outside the bubble

Relation to previous practice

Bachelor works:

3D / Worldbuilding - The Monster of Albert Heijn / Happytalism / Concrete Desert

Video - How to enter the art academy with a Wheelchair

Design thinking: GENERATION Y?

XPUB

SI23

SI24

Relation to a larger context

Recurring topics that are linked to my thesis will be divided through multiple chapters and key issues, but will all be connected through contexts and how these elements have thresholds and tension drawing between them and eachother.

Virtually ~ Architecturally / Innovation and Virtual Tools as development or demolition of reality

~ Imagery, impression, media, softwares, simulation, games, buildings, ways, pavements, roads, streets ~

Bureaucratically ~ Culturally / zoning: friction between counter culture and bureaucracy, false iconism vs community

~ Protocols of local municipal / governments / Budge cuts, false iconism, counterculture, grassroots, community, festivals/gigs/events~

Socially ~ Accessibly / (un)Familiar barriers, social thresholds and unmeant ignorance

~ Personal, Affordable, Family, Housing, Disability, Information provision, infrastructures~

References

Constant workshops in Gent Constant -. https://constantvzw.org/site/Open-call-Worksession-a-Cane-Sticky-notes-Another-body.html.

Rotterdam, Is it happening?. https://www.rotterdamisithappening.nl/. Possible Bodies(Rocha, J., Snelting, F.) (2022) Volumetric Regimes: Material cultures of quantified presence, Signs of Clandestine Disorder: The continuous aftermath of 3D-computationalism. The Industrial Continuum of 3D https://volumetricregimes.xyz/index.php?title=The_Industrial_Continuum_of_3D

Griffin, M. and Kittler, F.A. (1996) 'The City is a Medium,' New Literary History, 27(4), pp. 717–729. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.1996.0051.

Mattern, S. (2017) 'A city is not a computer,' Places [Preprint], (2017). https://doi.org/10.22269/170207.

Boer, R. (2023) Smooth city: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives.

Van Den Bosch Christensen, L. (2015) I, (for one), welcome our new (Google) overlords. https://research.hva.nl/en/publications/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-google-overlords.

Wan, C. (2024) - Into The Digital Void https://canvaswan.com/into-the-digital-void

Wan, C. (2024) - Into the Digital Cartographic Void https://canvaswan.com/into-the-digital-cartographic-void.

Siegel, J. (2024) Default Alpha: Mapping the Emergence of Synthetic Culture in New Towns

Overdijke, M. (2024) The City as Anthology: Movements at the Margins of Public Space

Steyerl. H (2013) How Not To Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE3RlrVEyuo.

Hito Gibbons, A. (2022) Salvaging situationism: Race and space - salvage. https://salvage.zone/salvaging-situationism-race-and-space/.

Vers Beton (2024) Home - Vers beton. https://www.versbeton.nl/.

Recht op de stad - Recht op de stad (2024). http://www.rechtopdestad.nl/.

Kooyman. M (2024) Rotterdam niet langer armste stad, maar nog steeds leven duizenden inwoners in armoede. Algemeen Dagblad, October 17, 2024https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/rotterdam-niet-langer-armste-stad-maar-nog-steeds-leven-duizenden-inwoners-in-armoede~a7f79119/

Liukku. A, (2024) 'Waarom Rotterdam opnieuw onderaan staat in lijst met gezonde steden: aantal punten valt op.' Algemeen Dagblad, November 11, 2024, https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/waarom-rotterdam-opnieuw-onderaan-staat-in-lijst-met-gezonde-steden-aantal-punten-valt-op~adec7bd9/

Unitary urbanism at the end of the 1950s (Issue three of the journal of the Situationist International) December 1959 https://libcom.org/article/unitary-urbanism-end-1950s.

Mass Moving (2007) [documentary]. Directed by Françoise Levie. Belgium. Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds