References
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Bertuzzo, E. (2008). The Production of Space through Practices of Everyday Life. In Fragmented perspectives, transiting signs of urbanity: Everyday life’s representations and uses of space in Dhaka, Bangladesh. essay. https://media.dav-medien.de/sample/9783515094047_p.pdf?v2
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Tilburg Tourist Map. (n.d.). https://ontheworldmap.com/netherlands/city/tilburg/tilburg-tourist-map.html
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Adams, S., Smith, J. (2022). Social Imaginaries and the Imagination, International Journal of Social Imaginaries, 1(1), 3-16.
https://brill.com/view/journals/ijsi/1/1/article-p3_002.xml?language=en
The city is not simply a physical space but also a cultural and social space that is being constructed and reconstructed by its inhabitants. Unlike a fixed city image, mapping practice represents a temporary city open to change from an individual’s perspective. According to ‘International Journal of Social Imaginaries’, people collectively and pre-theoretically make sense of their social and personal existence, to constitute a collective space of meanings or semantic space for co-being (Adams, S., Smith, J., 2022). In that sense, public space is an imaginary space that resists one dominant image of the city where participants produce meaning continually in the urban environment.
As a visual designer from Istanbul and currently residing in Tilburg, my artistic research in Master PPS has delved into performative practices. Titled ‘Juxtaposition of City Identities: Mapping Tilburg through Psychogeographical Perspective of International Students’, this project focuses on walking practices, physical exploration in-situ, experimental video creation, and QR code interventions in public spaces.
I investigate new ways of seeing the city through the social imaginaries of people from different cultures by co-creating with international students. Aiming to understand how they create meaning and how the city of Tilburg is constructed through mapping in three areas, I focus on the performative aspects and challenge traditional mapping practices through psychogeographical mapping. In that way, the project provides alternative ways of engaging with the city to reveal the multiplicity of its identity and represent international students’ social imaginaries.
International students actively contributed to the co-creation process by engaging in tasks
during urban walks and documenting their experiences through sound and photography.
Reflecting on these walks through drawing and verbal sharing, the project yielded rearranged psychogeographical data, forming imaginary landmarks within Tilburg's city center.
I explored the envisioned use of these spaces by international students. Dancing in three areas, my body unveiled the imaginative context through movement and child-like drawings gaze beyond the dominant, revealing the subjective, creating a new narrative over the designated color. Acting as an alternative city tour guide, the moving body connects imaginary landmarks, transcending time, culture, and Tilburg's public spaces. It disrupts everyday life by embodying the imagination of foreigners in space and reflecting foreigners’ imaginaries here and now.
The video series unfolds these imaginary landmarks underscoring the emphasis on the collective from the individual, reflecting the interplay between dominant narratives and subjectivity. This relationship manifests the public space that encompasses this contrast.
Psychogeographical data serves as the tangible output of subjective narratives concerning the urban environment. The ‘subjective’ is inherently connected to the collective and intertwines with the city's cultural, historical, and socio-political context.
According to Lefebvre, public space is a site of conflict (Bertuzzo, 2008). The city's locals and city experts strive to create balance amidst the chaos of urban life. However, foreigners are unfamiliar with the city, not as accustomed to it as locals, and require a certain process to dwell in the city. Therefore, they are a minority, striving to adapt. Beyond feeling the dominance of the existing system, the act of walking serves as a means for foreigners to experience the city, imagine the city to build a future, and create new traces within it by mapping the city. The imaginary landmarks resist dominant images of the city that conflict with the narrative imposed by city experts. The space, initially defined by dominant narratives, undergoes transformation through a foreigner's psychogeographical perspective. In that sense, public space is an imaginary space that resists dominant images of the city.
