The workshop consists of an introduction to creative mapping practices through a case study of Karantina. It included a theoretical introduction, on-site explorations, discussions, and the production of maps.

The Karantina neighborhood was re-examined and re-mapped both individually and in small groups, using the tools available and accessible – our bodies, vehicles, phones, cameras.

Focusing on their interests and observations, participants were invited to translate their own understanding, knowledge and experience of the space using the tools of their choosing. 

At the end of the day, during a public session, we collectively discussed this process and its role in the relation to the city. We also presented and discussed the results – a collection of drawings, each documenting an aspect of the neighborhood and a different relation between the author and the space.

​

Outline of the introductory talk:

What is a map?

What can be mapped?

Questioning neutrality and totality in the map as representation

The gap between map and experience

What do we map? There are many things that maps include, but also many things that maps forget

How do we map?

Why do we map?

Map as a tool

Map as worldview as map

Karantina

​

References:

Hatem El Hibri, "Mapping Beirut: Toward a History of the Translation of Space from the French Mandate through the Civil War (1920-91)", The Arab World Geographer, Vol. 12 No. 3-4 (2009), pp. 119-135.

Kanarinka, "Art-Machines, Body-Ovens and Map-Recipes: Entries for a Psychogeographic Dictionary", Cartographic Perspectives No. 53 (2006) <http://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/view/cp53-kanarinka>

Tony Chakar, All that is solid melts into thin air, 2000

Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, 1972, MIT Press

Kevin Lynch and John Randolph Myer, The View From The Road, 1964, MIT Press and video 1965

Kevin Lynch, The Image Of The City, 1960, MIT Press

Guy Debord, "Theorie de la dérive", 1958

​

​

​

​