dismantling insularity smoke, eat, rot; repeat
map of the territory
map reading
Whilst in Havana we captured fleeting spatial experiences in the harvesting of textures, materials and stories. The parched surfaces speak not only of the climatic conditions, but also of the years of trade embargo that have restricted local access to resources that make the restoration of buildings possible. The web of social and natural processes begins to reveal itself to us through its surface expression in urban space. Having demarcated and indexed these visible material conditions, we extracted and re-scaled them, producing deterritorialized figures that became productive transects, crossing the bay.
In the production of the map of the territory we superimposed independent layers of information, aiming towards the construction of a milieu that allows for a multiplicity of heterogeneous readings. The map thus does not attempt to be constitutive of Havana; it is not a map that tells but a map that incites thought. In making this map we question how cartographic techniques facilitate certain discourses around urban spaces, and how one might re-imagine space representation to convey the lived experience of spaces and the often conflicting values of the people inhabiting those spaces; ultimately aiming to generate urban transformations that are sensitive to place and rich with possibility.
F I E L D E X P L O R AT I O N S Havana M.Arch [2016-2017] in collaboration with Emma Bennett and Shona Sivamohan