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Participatory
mapping or community-based mapping is a concept that emerged particularly from the
1970’s on, when ideas about social change through local empowerment gained
momentum. During this period also the development of new technologies for
spatial knowledge gave the tools to innovate and reinvent maps that could
express a wide range of social and cultural landscapes.
Maps became more
‘performative’ practices rather than single objects. They were explored by
artists as well as by political campaigners. Towards the end of the last
century a new terminology comes along to serve the description of these
innovative practices, as ‘counter-mapping’, ‘pervasive mapping’ and ‘radical
cartography’. At the beginning of this century the so-called web 2.0
technologies stimulates collaborative digital mapping practices in an
unprecedented scale, using crowd sourced data collection and promoting global
‘map activism’.
But most of
the original principles that have been guided participatory mapping remain in
focus, especially the idea that critical spatial thinking underlies civic engagement. Observing, analysing
and contesting spaces is an essential exercise to understand how socio-spatial
arrangements come into being: how inequalities are built, hierarchies are
constructed and different forms of power are convened.
We are
bringing together a multi professional and multidisciplinary group to discuss alternative
cartographies, maps that result from investigation, reflection, questioning and
exploration, documenting personal stories, collective experiences and planning future spaces.
We centre
our discussions in the urban space, considering cities as privileged
environments for innovation, at the same time being repositories of social
memory. In cities, where more than half of the planet’s population lives, contemporary
mapping practices can find an invigorating and creative way to support critical (re)thinking and to engage with the
many cartographies of citizenship.
PARTICIPANTS
Alicia
Smith is a key member of the Culture Liverpool team
and leads on arts and participation for the city. She has experience in
producing large scale multi partnership cultural projects across a wide-range
of art forms regionally, nationally and internationally.
Christopher Pope is Project
Manager of the Great Manchester Open Data Infrastructure Map, working at New
Economy, which delivers policy, strategy and research for Greater Manchester’s economic
growth and prosperity.
Gavin
Macdonald is a lecturer at the Manchester School of Art.
His research sits at the intersection of visual culture, media theory and human
geography, focused on contemporary art practices involving mapping, the aerial
view and remote sensing.
Gloria
Lanci is
a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at the University of
Liverpool. Gloria has a MA and DPhil in Architecture and Urban Planning from
University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Les
Roberts is
a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. His research
interests and practice fall within the areas of spatial anthropology, urban
cultural studies, cultural memory, and spatial humanities.
Liz Stewart is
curator of Archaeology and the Historic Environment at the Museum of Liverpool. She has an interest in historic buildings, the
historic environment and landscape archaeology.
Marco
Iuliano is
a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the University of Liverpool,
specialised in History and Theory of Architecture.
Paul
Jones is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology,
Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool.
Peter
Insole is the Principal Historic Environment Officer in the City Design Group
at Bristol City Council and Research Associate at the University of Bristol.
Stephen
Walter is a London based artist. His work is a
continual investigation into the topography of environments, and the idea that Landscape
can be seen as a receptacle for meaning
Wednesday 11 May 2016
