Mapping the Cinematic City (proposed by Dennis Pohl, Lorenzo Tripodi)


Digital traces of the city are in general structured in preconfigured and standardized data-sets and models, as GIS systems for example, collected by state and non-state agencies with clear quantitative approaches and clear aims. This workession looks instead for modes, perspectives and possibilities to collect other types of subjective, crumbly, non-quantifiable data on the city and search for ways of mapping it. It is informed by Urban Reconnaissance http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/, from the oginoknauss collective, a methodology that proposes several entrance-points or definitions upon which data can be collected and mapped. The workshop will elaborate a new definition / exercise dedicated to the "Cinematic City"
    
                                   
*The workshop will examine how the ontological entwining of image and spatial processes determines the overall urban identity, and focus on how new networking tools allow the possibility to map and explore the parallel territory created by cinematic representations of Bruxelles and related datasets.   Adopting the Urban Reconnaissance methodology, a new specific definition of  Cinematic City will be elaborated to grasp how the substance of the city is the result of a continuous process of reflection between physical spaces and their (increasingly digital) representations. We will take the cue from a set of related  definitions / exercises including Narrated City http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/narrated-city, Data City http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/data-city, Represented City http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/represented-city, City of Spectacle http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/spectacle-city, City of Screens http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/city-of-screens, etc. to enquire how the reality of the city is augmented and transfigured by images, and in particular cinematic narratives, how these narratives and data sets are embedded in the public identity of a place, how the data architecture  is shaped by this process, and finally how to map such an augmented urban geography.   
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*Session 1:         Introduction to the topic, methodology, presentation of the  participants and working planning
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*Session 2:         Screening of cinematic resources regarding the city
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*Session 3:         Online mapping, setting tools and methodologies for a multimedia map/ cinematic archive
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*Session 4:         Urban exploration
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*Session 5:         wrap up and setting the continuation of the collaborative mapping project.
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Starting from a set of movies filmed in and on the city of Brussels, the worksession wants to research the potential of moving image as a way to access the city in its different layers and histories. This would practically begin with developing an active archive of different fragments, scenes and audio files. To do so, we plan on using the free and open-source software pandora ( http://pan.do/ra ), which creates a particular relation to movies, by allowing users to handle, annotate, comment, edit, crop or export different elements, scenes, audio or video fragments, subtitles etc.
From that point the research can deviate or re-locate itself in the different parts of the city, by providing an additional framework of spatio-temporal perspectives, or result in derivative works that go into specific aspects, histories and discourses of the narrated Bruxelles.



REFERENCES
“Cinematic Urbanism”, in Hutchinson, R., (ed.) Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, Sage Publications, 2009.
Tripodi (2009)Space of Exposure http://tesserae.eu/documents/space-of-exposure
Berlin Remake 2005, 2-channel video installation http://amiesiegel.net/project/berlin_remake
Martin Eberle, Avatarurbanismus http://a42.org/fileadmin/user_upload/martin_e/PDF/Avatarurbanismus_I.pdf
*Avatarurbanismus II http://a42.org/fileadmin/user_upload/martin_e/PDF/Avatarurbanismus_II.pdf

Links dump
Urban Reconnaissance: http://exercises.oginoknauss.org/

Active Archives! http://activearchives.org/aaa/recent http://activearchives.org/wiki/Manifesto_for_an_Active_Archive

http://www.bna-bbot.be

Set of tools:
pan.do/ra https://pan.do/ra
0xdb, using pan.do/ra https://0xdb.org/about
http://www.mybrugis.irisnet.be/MyBruGIS/brugis/