Conference Proceedings - NUL | Full Papers Session 1 | by Planum n.27 vol.2/2013

SESSION 1

Representation and Perceptions of the Changing City

CHAIRS: MALVINA BORGHERINI, ANDREA GIORDANO

NUL

NUL - NEW URBAN LANGUAGES

BY PLANUM. THE JOURNAL OF URBANISM ISSN 1723-0993 | WWW.PLANUM.NET PROCEEDINGS PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2013

Introduction

Rethinking the relationship between perception and representation can mean re-examine the fundamentals that bind urban landscapes with the universe of images created to interpret, understand, communicate cities. In an era dominated by the overabundance of images, the analytical strength of visual languages does not seem to be able to master the complexity of transformations acting in and around the city. On the other hand the artistic languages continue to wonder about urban subjects fostering the proliferation of endless imaginary. In a broader way we can say that some images can play the role of metaphor for the multiplicity of the looks on the contemporary urban landscape; the zenithal view of the map, the perspective view, the path between the surfaces of the city, summarize some different points of view: from the specific look of architecture and urban planning, to that one at “ground level�, shared by professionals but also by the inhabitants of the city, up to a closer inner city look, that is the sight exploring the maze and, ultimately, trying to unravel the tangled skein of urban living.

SESSION 1

Representation and Perceptions of the Changing City CHAIRS: MALVINA BORGHERINI, ANDREA GIORDANO

Data visualisation for the critical interpretation, representation, and communication of the urban image Piero Albisinni, Laura De Carlo, Valeria Giampà Seeing through the eyes of others Marinella Arena An hermeneutic representation of Beograd after Yugoslavia’s wars. Applying Walter Benjamin’s hermeneutic today Mattia Bertin Urban affective anthropometry. Life stories, building stories, city portrait Malvina Borgherini Videogames and urban visions. Virtual spaces and simulated worlds Daniele Colistra City perception and distances. Visual strategies of urban anamorphosis Pierpaolo D’Agostino The theater as urban language. Experiences with the theater of the oppressed in Paris and Rio Ana Carolina Lima e Ferreira Merging different languages in urban cartography. A critical methodological introduction Maria Luisa Giordano Urban transformation scenarios for the representation and dynamic control of new design interventions Massimiliano Lo Turco, Roberta Spallone Paths descriptive of urban complexity Lia Maria Papa Orientation Maps to reform sensitive areas in informal settlements.

Urban frequencies to reconfigure highly entropic landscapes Raffaele Pè, Massimo Della Rosa The spread of street-art in the South of China. Reflecting on the first Chinese generation subject to the cultural processes of globalization Francesco Maria Terzago Virtual city today. A brief note on contemporary virtual dwelling Maurizio Unali

Data visualisation for the critical interpretation, representation, and communication of the urban image Piero Albisinni Università “La Sapienza” Dipartimento di Storia, Disegno e Restauro dell’Architettura Email: piero.albisinni@uniroma1.it

Laura De Carlo

Università “La Sapienza” Dipartimento di Storia, Disegno e Restauro dell’Architettura Email: laura.decarlo@uniroma1.it

Valeria Giampà Università “La Sapienza” Dipartimento di Storia, Disegno e Restauro dell’Architettura Email: giampavaleria@libero.it

This study aims to test the efficacy of a method of critical reading of the urban space, by means of interpretive languages which are capable of displaying different ways to evaluate reality.

We chose to operate in those urban areas, which, suffering from a long process of stratification, ended up expressing strong spatial tensions. The main purpose of this research is to accomplish a representation of the urban environment able to convey the result of critical evaluations in an expressive form, therefore through the production of 3D urban models, exploitable for all possible measures for the requalification of the urban image. The attention is focused on the development of reading and consultation systems, thus allowing the diffusion and sharing of digital representations of the city, both in a scientific and merely professional field.

Keywords: Urban analysis, Representation, Communication

1. The Subject Area Although the development of new tools and techniques to document the physical structure of cities and the territory has revived interest in problems associated with urban phenomena and transformations, the

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same cannot be said for problems related to the urban image; representation of the latter can, however, be considered a cross-section of the different cultural approaches used to interpret the urban environment.

While the urban image can be defined as the representation, from a certain viewpoint, of the visible elements of perceived reality, on the contrary reality involves the whole city and the relationship between its parts; in this case, the viewpoint is both static (the setting based on fixed elements), and dynamic (a series of sequential settings involving dynamic interaction between the elements of perceived urban reality).

Although traditional representation tools have been a very powerful medium with which to document urban transformations, their ability to communicate is often insufficient to reproduce the real complexity and dynamic nature of our contemporary urban environment.

Different representations of the processes of perception and communication of the environment are traditionally divided into two main groups: on the one hand, representations which use “objective”, photographic-style methodologies to document reality based on “quantitative” methods, and on the other, representations which use “subjective” interpretation methodologies of reality-based data to study “qualitative” aspects.

However, if surveying quality means using a subjective filter to “reveal” the intrinsic values of the reality of these observed phenomena, then perhaps we should think of assessing how much we can “transform” an environment and yet avoid loosing the identity of its image, to the greatest extent possible.1 In recent decades radical changes in the representation of the urban image has given rise to widespread discussions about these new ways to decipher, interpret, and represent the contemporary city.

The enthusiasm accorded in the sixties and seventies to certain theories about new ways to interpret the urban image, for example the ones proposed by K. Lynch, inspired entire generations of students and scholars to adopt an approach to the urban phenomena that privileged the visible aspects of reality. For the first time, the city was deciphered/interpreted using a series of parameters involving images and their recognisability. However, the “symbolic” abstraction of representation limited the possibility to communicate the results of the deciphering/interpretation of perceptive phenomena whose “essence” lies in their relationship with the three-dimensionality of space.2 A rapid comparison between those representation tools and methods, and the options provided by contemporary tools, shows how easy it is to overcome those limits. Many of the shortcomings attributed to the studies conducted at that time can now be easily overcome using a different interpretation of the urban image, one which is more closely associated with its real spatial and perceptive dimension. It will becoming increasingly simple to conduct a critical review or interpretation using contemporary communicative tools that include all the elements in the urban image.

These considerations are behind a study project in which representation is the key tool of a method to communicate the results of a critical review of reality expressed, as objectively as possible, as icons. The aim is to elaborate a complex system of procedures to interpret urban reality in several different ways: quantitatively (the morphological ratio between the parts), and qualitatively (critical assessments of those parts). The systemisation and parametrisation of these aspects will lead to the elaboration of a single descriptive process of the complexity of urban reality in which the data appear separately, but also as reciprocal relationships.

From a strictly operational point of view, this means outlining the operations which, by identifying the links between the surveyed data, the analyses in question, and their scalar level of interpretation and transmission, make it possible to rapidly and immediately understand the reality in question. We therefore have to establish a general knowledge system and find new forms and new ways to collect different kinds of data, organise it, and make it compatible, in order to “merge” it and create a multimedia product that For more in-depth information about the concept of image of the urban environment, see the paper by Piero Albisinni “Identità e trasformazione dell’immagine urbana. Metodi e strumenti di lettura, interpretazione, rappresentazione”, in the Proceedings of the International Conference “Immagine della città europea”, Brescia 2004.

2 For a critical review of the main representation methodologies used to provide a different interpretation of the urban image, see the paper by Piero Albisinni “La rappresentazione dell’ambiente nello sperimentalismo degli anni Settanta”, in “Disegnare Idee Immagini” n. 5, Gangemi, Rome 1992.

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can express and represent a cognitive process with a sound scientific basis. The objective is to create a descriptive model of reality in which the collected data is visualised and placed in “representations” that can be accessed by all users. This involves creating a geometric-topographical interpretation which can interrelate different data and different ways and types of approaches to urban reality - geometric models, typological interpretations, figurative and perceptive aspects – and merge topics which have so far been considered separately, such as green areas, empty spaces, buildings, elements defining urban space, etc.

By considering the physical element of the city as the material expression of all the evolutionary phenomena of places, morphological data can be used as a basis to be interfaced with the enormous amount of data from other sources. It is increasingly obvious that the basic data we have to initially adopt are the geometric parameters describing the volumetric conformation of the elements of urban space, the characteristics of their geographical position, reciprocal spatial relationships, orientation, etc.

These problems have often been illustrated in different ways and using different tools3 by the authors of this paper who have repeatedly focused on defining a method which, by examining a specific step in the urban intervention process, would logically organise the operations needed to understand reality in order to provide critical assessments with an eye on the design project. It is an experimental method primarily focused on urban areas with problems which make it necessary to first identify, and then clarify, the gradual decision-making process of a step-by-step vision of the design process. In short, we wish to underscore the important moment of synthesis regarding the acquisition of knowledge of reality: a moment of assessment which should influence and limit possible intervention choices. The key factor in this method involves finding the right visual tools to convey the results of this critical review of reality; the method will use representation tools and procedures to communicate, as objectively as possible, the results of the critical review of urban reality, turning them into visual codes which can be understood and transmitted. These results will also contain indications about the limits of the hypothetically envisaged interventions.

Although the methodologies to understand and document the qualitative recovery of the urban environment are still operatively important, in the past couple of decades the tools with which we transmit and visually communicate this data have changed enormously. To be able to repeat these experiments we need not only to review the more general problems, but also to update methods and procedures, especially bearing in mind how they will evolve and/or vary based on the many operative tools now available. We therefore intend to prefigure urban scenarios using 3D digital models developed using several methodologies; the different results and uses produced by the latter will provide different interpretations of reality: a quantitative interpretation to understand morphological data, and a qualitative interpretation focusing on critical assessments which can be later used during the elaboration of possible transformations. The systemisation and parametrisation of these aspects will lead to the elaboration of a single descriptive model of a complex reality, such as the city, in which data will appear separately, but also as reciprocal relationships. This will make it possible to test potential ways in which to communicate the urban image using state-of-the-art simulation and visualisation techniques.

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The theoretical approach to these hypotheses is based on a study by Piero Albisinni and Laura De Carlo published for the first time as “Oltre il rilievo” in “Disegno” n.8, September 1984. Its contents and applications were further developed for publication in the book “Dal rilievo verso il progetto”, Ed. Kappa, Rome 1988, and in the magazine “Disegnare idee immagini” n.0, Gangemi Ed. Rome 1989, entitled “Uno studio metodologico delle interrelazioni tra rilievo e progetto per l’intervento nell’ambiente costruito”.

Subsequently, the subject became a reference topic for studies proposed by Piero Albisinni and Laura De Carlo and financed by Rome “La Sapienza” University. Several doctoral dissertations also focus on this subject, including the research by A. Micucci published in part in the contribution by Piero Albisinni, Laura De Carlo, and Alessandro Micucci, Nuove metodologie di rilevamento per la costruzione di modelli digitali in ambito urbano, in: E. Chiavoni, P. Paolini (edited by), “Metodi e tecniche integrate di rilevamento per la realizzazione di modelli virtuali dell’architettura e della città”, Gangemi editore, 2007; as well as a more recent dissertation by Valeria Giampà. The images in this article are in fact by Valeria Giampà and were developed for the dissertation “Metodologie di lettura critica per la riqualificazione urbana: il caso di studio di Monterotondo”, Research Doctorate in “Scienze della Rappresentazione e del Rilievo”, Rome Sapienza University, 2013.

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2. The methodology The proposed methodology, based on the considerations outlined above, is divided into two parts corresponding to the two consecutive method application steps: the first involves basic elaboration and can be defined as a cognitive moment following the acquisition of data from iconographic documents, maps, and onsite survey campaigns; the second as a moment of assessment illustrating and objectivising the quality of its elements.

Reality has to be organised graphically so that it can be manipulated using drawing tools in order to achieve the general objectives of the study.

As a result, when an objective operation such as a survey is completed, the ensuing physical reality has to be divided into simple parts based on well-established interpretation categories; all this then has to be illustrated in good graphic representations.

Reality has to be organised graphically so that it can be manipulated using drawing tools in order to achieve the general objectives of the study.

As a result, when an objective operation such as a survey is completed, the ensuing physical reality has to be divided into simple parts based on well-established interpretation categories; all this then has to be illustrated in good graphic representations.

Establishing the minimum unit of assessment (the objective of this breakdown) should be considered instrumental to the use of this method which involves identifying the urban areas; the latter are defined according to several uniform characteristics in each urban area which can be considered as unitary systems. The principal parameters used to define system uniformity refer to the history, morphology, and function of the physical environment.

When the method was applied, as a test, to an urban network just outside the old centre of a small town (Monterotondo) near Rome, the work carried out in the study area to establish the uniformity of these characteristics led, for example, to a further breakdown into five different systems divided according to

Figure 1. Exploded view drawing of the fact-finding model of the urban centre of Monterotondo (RM) showing the study area

whether they were supported or supporting. The fact the systems coincided with roads meant they could be further divided according to natural interruptions in particular places such as crossroads, directional changes, pre-intersection waiting areas or the presence of buildings of historical or artistic interest. We also discovered that each of these routes coincided with a precise historical-architectural-environmental development phase of the city.

These observations led to a division into categories of linear and punctiform elements which differ from one another according to their role within each system.

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It’s useful to elaborate an explanatory diagram which, based on the category adopted, defines the relationship between the elements; this also provides an initial interpretation which helps to clarify the characteristics of each system.

To start an evaluation process to determine the different intervention levels, reality has to be assessed bearing in mind all the elements which internally contribute in various ways to defining the intervention and, as a result, the image. This assessment is a particularly important part of the process; it involves breaking down the elements into categories of elementary spaces (minimum units of assessment) considered as elements of the more general categories identified earlier (lines, segments, points).

Figure 2. The study area

Figure 3. Identification of one of the uniform systems

Figure 4. Visualisation of the “model of reality�

Furthermore, the system also requires that parameters be established in order to rationalise and quantify the values to attribute to reality, bearing in mind the need to differentiate the assessment criteria according to whether one considers all the open spaces or only their component elements. During this step it is important not to lose sight of the final objective: to use each value to define the spatial quality of more extensive ensembles, bearing in mind the relationships between the parts.

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We then identified homogeneous groups of parameters depending on whether or not the assessment involved the buildings or open spaces. In particular, the parameters referred to buildings are functional, historical, typological and contextual; in the case of open spaces, the parameters refer to their use, permanence, morphology and space.

Figure 5. Typical assessment sheet of the built area, referred to the “semi-polar” system

Figure 6. Chart of the quantitative aspects of the system

In keeping with the premises of the study, these values are converted into graphics, defined in special technical sheets, by visualising the elements of reality to which a value has been attributed. This means adopting a procedure with which to select these elements so that the representation includes both the overall framework of values in a certain urban area, and the value gradient of each element. A sort of double and simultaneous interpretation which is both concise and analytical.

The problems posed by the construction of this kind of “drawing” requires precise operative answers.

First and foremost regarding the representation type and method: to provide all the physical indications of the elements needed to visualise the values we proposed an iconic representation, considered the best way to emphasise the spatial characteristics of the site.

Furthermore, in order to implement a mechanism that turns the drawing into a value, the image has to be processed (transparencies, superimposition of the graphemes, etc.) and a selection has to be made to give it a unique semantic value. By representing its physical features, this value has to portray the qualities of the drawing.

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In short, the selection of every representation of reality has to be modified to such an extent that the choice of features to be represented is determined by the importance assigned to the selection rather than the type of graphic restitution.

Figure 7. Chart of the qualitative aspects of the system

Many diverse kinds of contemporary systems exploit data acquisition and systemisation in several different ways. It’s clear that, in general, urban management increasingly needs to create multi-relational databases and dedicated computer systems in order to satisfy the growing demand for knowledge by many different operators in this and other fields. It is therefore extremely important to define the criteria and principles governing consultation of data which need to be constantly updated and monitored.

After the rational construction of several three-dimensional models, the idea of creating a product that could express and represent the entire process described in this paper led to the study of forms of visualisation and communication which could portray the analysed data in concise, efficient representations accessible by all users.

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Figures 8, 9, 10, 11. Representation of the functional, historical, typological and contextual values

Figure 12. Synoptic images of the functional, historical, typological and contextual values

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Figures 13, 14. Concise representation of the values

The main aim was to formulate descriptive container models which can be queried and surfed in real time.

This allowed us to visualise not only the analytical content of the various digital models, but also all possible corresponding forms of visualisation; it also allowed us to prefigure a system to interconnect data and values.

Computer applications and tools were used so that the various models could be accessed and surfed; these applications and tools provided direct interaction with the three-dimensional models without using special software or internet connections.

These tools make it possible to export three-dimensional models into a PDF format, creating scenes in which the recipient can interact with the three-dimensional models without having to use other tools.

The PDF portfolio contains all the topics identified by the survey of the study area; it provides rapid and efficient consultation of a large amount of data expressed as “icons” which can be used by users with different cultural levels and interests. This will allow more and more citizens to be involved in choices regarding their city.

References Albisinni P., De Carlo L. (1988), Dal rilievo verso il progetto-Documentazione per il rinnovo urbano a Monterotondo, Edizioni Kappa, Roma.

Albisinni P., De Carlo L. (1989), “Oltre il rilievo. Uno Studio metodologico delle interrelazioni tra rilievo e progetto per l’intervento nell’ambiente costruito”, in Disegnare, idee, immagini, Gangemi Editore, Roma, n.0.

Albisinni P. (1992), “La rappresentazione dell’ambiente nello sperimentalismo degli anni settanta”, in Disegnare, idee, immagini, Gangemi Editore, Roma, n.5.

Albisinni P. (2004), “Identità e trasformazione dell’immagine urbana. Metodi e strumenti di lettura, interpretazione, rappresentazione”, International conference “Immagine della città europea”, Brescia.

Albisinni P., De Carlo L., Micucci A. (2007), “Nuove metodologie di rilevamento per la costruzione di modelli digitali in ambito urbano”, in Metodi e tecniche integrate di rilevamento per la realizzazione di modelli virtuali dell’architetture della città, ricerca cofin 2004 coordinaore nazionale Mario Docci a cura di Emanuela Chiavoni, Priscilla Paolini, Gangemi Editore, Roma.

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Seeing Through the Eyes of Others Representation and Perceptions of the Changing City Marinella Arena Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria Email: marinella.arena@unirc.it

The perception of reality, now, is mediated by multimedia supports. We observe the world with thousands of eyes that aren’t ours. The images that we absorb, often, give us a mere reproduction of the reality and don’t offer an interpretation of it. Is our capacity to comprehend reality reduced because we are used to seeing too many images made by occasional photographers without an analytic filter?

This study aims to analyze, through a scientific method, the larger part of images related to one specific place. The analysis will be conducted using a statistic method, analyzing many images and trying to elaborate a graphic strategy that allowing the peculiarity of every analyzed category to emerge.

The categories are made up of printed images, internet images and images present in the social forums.

Keywords: Contemporary Cities, New Media, Graphical Analysis

1. One architecture, many images First of all, it is important to note that we are in the era of images. Our capacity to understand the reality and the whole world is strongly related with sight. The revolution of communication and the evolution of the media goes in this way. Every object that we want and we desire passes through our eyes.

So there aren’t many things that we can’t observe before choosing them. We can see our hotel before making the reservation; we can see a place before booking our holiday and so on. So, probably, we have lost our capacity to describe the world with words only.

We are architects, so we need to communicate with images. But the translation between the 3D complexities into the 2D surface isn’t very simple and clear.

All the images that we can see are 2D, so we have elaborated a complex way to decode images in order to understand the space that they show.

I will try to show how a masterpiece of the 20th century has been represented in the last fifty years by professional photographers or by amateur photographers.

I have selected the building of the United Nations because it is one of the most representative pieces of architecture in New York City built in the last century, so it is possible to have many different kinds of representation of this building. It is part of our collective imaginary and it appears in very different situations.

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For example it was the backcloth for the title sequence of the film North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock and has been the scene for fashion photography.

Moreover there are some structural and spatial aspects that allow different analysis.

The building of the United Nations Headquarters began in 1948, with the cornerstone laid on 24 October 1949, and it was completed in 1952. Wallace K. Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants was made up of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments. After much discussion it was determined that a design based on Niemeyer's project (number 32) and Le Corbusier's project (number 23) would be developed for the final project. Le Corbusier and Niemeyer merged their schemes and they were developed into a new project.

The building is composed of three blocks: 1. The Secretariat building, the Tower; 2. The General Assembly, the block with the domed hall; 3. The Dag Hammarskjöld Library, the large block on the South side.

The three blocks have a very simple shape and they are recognizable from a great distance. So, it is possible for me to determine some of standard configurations of images that represent this building.

Figure 1. Title sequence of the film North by Northwest of Alfred Hitchcock (1959)

2. Three categories of images There are many many images of the U.N.H. building. What are the important images to select during this study? And what are the specific categories that we have individuated? We have already announced that we chose three big categories: the printed photos, the images present on internet sites, and the images coming from social forums.

In the first category there are all the images that have been done by professional photographers, some were artists like Ezra Stoller1, Samuel H. Gottscho2 and the photographers that worked in the company of Ewing Galloway3, others were simply professional photographers like the authors of the official picture of the U.N.H. and the relative postcards.

The second category shows the images that we can see in different kinds of sites. There are sites of architecture, travel and photo sharing (like Flickr Instagram and so on). Here we can find photos taken by

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Ezra Stoller (16 May 1915 – 29 October 2004) was an American architectural photographer. Stoller was born in Chicago. His interest in photography began while he was an architecture student at New York University. His work featured landmarks of modern architecture, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, Alvar Aalto's Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Stoller is often cited in aiding the spread of the Modern Movement.

Samuel Herman Gottscho (February 8, 1875 - January 28, 1971) was an American architectural, landscape, and nature photographer. Samuel Gottscho was born in Brooklyn, New York. He acquired his first camera in 1896 and took his first photograph at Coney Island. Gottscho became a professional commercial photographer at the age of 50. His photographs have appeared on the covers of American Architect and Architecture, Architectural Record. His portraits and architectural photography regularly appeared in articles in the New York Times. From the early 1940s to the late 1960s, he was a regular contributor to the Times of illustrated articles on wildflowers.

Ewing Galloway (1881-1953) was an American journalist and photo editor, and ran the Ewing Galloway Agency in New York City. In 1920 he opened his own photographic agency on 28th St. in New York. The "Ewing Galloway" by line that appears under many photographs reproduced in books, magazines, schoolbooks, and encyclopaedias’, refers to the agency and not to Galloway himself, who learned to operate a camera only later in life. The lack of records from the company makes it impossible to identify the actual photographers.

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amateur and other photographers who haven’t always much interest in the theme of the correct representation of the space of architecture.

The third category is one where we could find a larger quantity of photos and where we can find a bigger variety of photographers. In fact we find the professional and the amateur and also the people who take photos occasionally and casually.

It is interesting to note that the images on the Google screen, or Yahoo screen, are very different if we write in English, Japanese, Arabic or in the French language.

If we write in English we can find, in the first thirty results, only contemporary photos which are three of the interior, two of the exterior monument (Sphere Within a Sphere sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro) and the rest represent the exterior of the building.

If we write in Japanese we find more historical photos and interior representations; if we write in Arabic we can also see some images of protest manifestations and in the French language we find more photos of the Non-Violence sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (also known as The Knotted Gun).

There is another set of images that are very interesting for me. They are the images located on the virtual site of United Nations Headquarters: the photos linked with a place and located on the virtual site in Google Earth or Bing.

These kinds of photos are linked with the name that the author gives them. So, for example, there are photos named “ N.U.H.Q.” and others are named “ONU” and so on. Most of the authors, here, are not professionals’. (Figure 4)

Figure 2. a. Miss Universe, 1955; b. Evelyn Tripp models, 1950

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Figure 3. The Google screen with the keywords in four different languages. a. United Nations Headquarters b. 本社国連; c. !"#$%&' %%(&' .d)*%. Siège des Nations Unies

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Figure 4. The virtual site of United Nations Headquarters in Google Earth

Figure 5. a. Ezra Stoller 1954; b. Ewing Galloway 1951; c. Samuel Herman Gottscho 1956

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3. An Abductive Reasoning In these three categories we have found a lot of images that are very different. So it is important to describe the method of selecting the images that we can evaluate.

First of all we have only selected images that represent the exterior part of the U.N.H., and we have also excluded the partial photos and the photos that describe the texture or a singular aspect of this architecture.

So we try to analyze the composition of the photos starting with the most important authors.

Most part of these images have been edited in magazines like Life, New York Times and Time or on specialized magazines like American Architect and Architecture, Architectural Record. In these images we have chosen the view from Long Island where we can see the East side of the building. (Figure 5) This is one of the views that give us an idea of the relation between the city and the architecture of United Nations Headquarters. I have aligned all the photos on the ideal horizon line. Scaling the photos the height of the Secretariat Tower is the same in each one. From this point of view the tower is the most impressive thing that we can see, in fact, the General Assembly with the domed hall, appears in the Stoller photo only. In the photos the tower shows the East façade with its spectacular and innovative, at that time, curtain-wall. Only in the last photo, the Gottscho one, is it possible to see the closed façade on the South side. These images don’t have the “falling lines” so every vertical line is exactly perpendicular to the line of the horizon. In the first and the second photos the tower occupies most part of the surface of the photos, it is high two thirds of the total, and it is large between a ¼ or a 1/5 of the total. But, in my opinion, it is clear that the first photo is dedicated to represent the U.N.H. and the others represent only a part of the skyline of New York.

Figure 6. a. Samuel Herman Gottscho, 1956; b. George Marks, American Institute of Architects, 1959; c. Bert Morgan, 1954; d.

Unknown, propriety of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C, (1960?)

In fact in the first one the Chrysler Building, the highest building that appears in the second one, is covered by the mole of Secretariat Tower.

In Figure 6 I have selected four photos where it is possible to see the North face of the United Nations Headquarters. The photos are aligned on the horizon line. The height of the tower, in the four photos,

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has been made the same. It is incredible but in the four photos the Tower has the same width, whereas the block of General Assembly appears in the same position in the first, second and fourth photos. The first photo has been taken by Samuel Herman Gottscho in 1956 and I think that it is the most inspiring and harmonic one. The other photos that we have examined have been printed and are also postcards. In Figure 7 some postcards, like the third and the fourth, are very similar to the photos, which we have seen before, by Ewing Galloway of 1951 and Samuel Herman Gottscho of 1956.

There aren’t so many book covers with the image of the U.N.H.. It’s impossible to do an analysis with so few images. But it is interesting to note that there is one photo that follows the same construction of the Gottsho one.

In the second category we analyze photos that are on the Flickr site. Here we can find, approximately, 14.000 photos. Most of these are made by amateurs, but there are many photos made by professional photographers. If we use the filter “Recent”, inside the Flickr site, the results are, in the first pages, only photos of political demonstrations. If we use the filter “Importance” we can find a lot of exterior photos and if we use the “Ranking” one we discover a lot of photos that show the coloured world of New York and of the U.N.H. I have chosen, for this analysis, a set of photos that have the same composition: they showing the North face of the U.N.H. and follow the geometrical construction of the Gottsho photo.

In these photos we can individuate the curve line of the General Assembly and the vertical block of the Secretariat Tower. Most part of the images show a partial view of the building, only a few are related to the entire building. I have made the graphical analysis giving the same dimension at the close façade and also I have aligned all the photos with the horizontal line. These photos aren’t professional, so there are many falling lines and the position of the Tower does not always balance the composition. Figure 11 shows the overlap of the full part of U.N.H. It is possible to note that compositions are very different and the corner of the General Assembly block has different heights in each photo.

Figure 12 shows photos that follow the geometrical construction of the photo made by Gottscho with more closely.

Figure 7. Postcard edited by U.N. NYC; b. Created Acacia Card Company; c. Postcard edited by the NYC State; d. Curt Teich Postcard 1961

Figure 8. a. Cover of a guide edited by U.N.; b. a notice published on a newspaper; c.d. Covers of conference proceedings

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Figure 9. Flickr screen with the keyword United Nations Headquarters

Figure 10. Analysis of photos from Flickr screen

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Figure 11. The overlap of photos from Flickr screen

Figure 12. Analysis of Flickr photos that are similar to Gottsho one. The overlap of these photos

In the overlapped one we can see how dimensions of the corner of the General Assembly block is more balanced with the dimension of the Tower.

The last two images, Figure 13 and Figure 14 show the comparison between the casual images of Google screen and the photo by Gottsho. It is interesting to note that photos taken by occasional photographers have the horizontal line outside the field of the image and have many falling lines. Moreover in the fourth example the height of the Secretariat Tower has been cut by the photo.

After viewing hundreds of images related to the same site and, in part, taken from the same point of view we would say that the quality of the images that we see normally Through the Eyes of Others does not respect the rules of photographic composition.

Analysis showed that the choices and taste and of the great photographers of the past such as Gottsho are still present but in a convoluted form.

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An hermeneutic representation of Beograd after Yugoslavia’s wars Applying Walter Benjamin’s hermeneutic today Mattia Bertin Politecnico di Milano DAStU - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies E-mail: mattia.bertin@gmail.com

Our age is situated at the summit of three different trends: an exorbitant increase of the relevance of the city; the capillary diffusion of an almost infinite quantity of images and information; the difficulty of manage urban spaces with a complex and integrated vision. How can these three elements became a potentiality for urban planners in reading and planning a city? Between 1920 and 1939 W. Benjamin analyzed the Paris of half XIX century in it’s images and texts, retracing it’s face in the traces whom lets in Bibliothèque Nationale. Today, using internet, we can accede to an enormous quantity of first hand materials. Is it possible to use Benjamin’s method to gather a constellation of sense that can represent the identity, or the identities, of a space? The aim of this paper is to apply the hermeneutic method to find Beograd’s face after the Yugoslavia’s wars (19922002), deepening in particular four categories: the images; the relation with the wares; the biographies; the topographical representation. Is it possible to see a figure? Can this image be useful to understand and orientate the processes and the develop of this city?

Keywords: hermeneutic; Beograd; constellation of sense

1. Introduction We live in an epoch of big transformations for many aspects: the climate is changing with really perceptible effects over our lives; meanwhile our cities are becoming bigger and much more important for the human race; thirdly we are everyday more connected with internet, and, for this reason, we receive and broadcast everyday more information and more images. These processes are changing the faces of our cities in unexpected ways. How can we use these events as an opportunity and a tool to govern the change, and to make more hospitable and valuable our cities? Let’s see everyone of these processes by himself.

The first factor, climate change, is affecting cities in an unexpected way: in lasts 30 years we have seen an increment of floods, hurricanes and desertification in areas never effected by those phenomena (Bittner P.,

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2012). Wherever the effects aren’t to heavy, the phenomena impacts with more moderate, but sensible, force, and with the indirect effect of an increase of migration.

The second factor, the constant increase of urban population (McClean D., 2010), kept the quote of urban inhabitant from the 29% of 1950 to the 50% of today, factor that has to be summed at the unrestrained increase of world population. One of the most relevant effect of this boost, also in Europe and U.S.A., has been a deregulated expansion of cities. As a chain reaction this not so in deep ruled expansion had effects on the vulnerability of urban centres against disasters, with a relevant loss of soil, necessary to seep the rain; with constructions not able to resists to earthquakes; with deviation of river banks, etcetera (White G. F., Kates R. W., Burton I., 2001). These changes of city’s form and dimensions have been so trenchant that Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift, yet in 2001, wrote that cities became extremely complicated, and, for this reason, is very difficult to do a general reasoning over these (Amin A., Thrift N., 2002).

The third factor we mentioned is the enormous quantity of information and images we see and broadcast everyday with internet: in an occidental society describable for the permanent connection by the net, we can accede to an almost infinite archive of images, descriptions, news and personal visions over nearly every space in the world.

Last, but not least, an element from ever considered fundamental to make a good decision: a good knowledge of the sphere over which the decision has to be taken. Applying this consideration to the urban field, we can say that is very important to know the distinctive characters of the space object of a decision.

In this situation is urgent to find a representative method able to give back a precise image of an urban space, that could replace the history-based traditional methods. We have to find tools able to describe the “right now” of a city and to give information over the relations and visions yet not represented.

Effectively there is a method of represent and describe an urban space used in an embryonic way between the end of 19th century and the fist half of the 20th: the micromonadology, or, using a more known word, the hermeneutic. This method, not so clearly formalized, but used a lot, after a fist period of global application has been separated in different sectors, which now appears totally separated.

If the abstraction links the occurrences to pose them in a systemic relation under a global theory, organized by fields and chronological continuity, the hermeneutic method, as applied by Simmel, Kracauer and Benjamin, start from the single expression to search a specific model (Kracauer S., 1928).

Kracauer, about it, said that: «The analysis of the superficial occurrences of an epoch allows to determinate the place that it takes in the history much more that it’s proper auto-evaluations» (Kracauer S., 1920).

We can define the urban hermeneutic as an analysis method that, observing a constellation of occurrences collected from a single space in a precise time, can recognizes the character of it (Gurisatti G., 2006).

The procedure starts identifying those occurrences that could have been reads as emblematic of relevant aspects of the space inquired. Everything can be take as occurrence, exactly like in a police investigation, clearly the selection have to be justified paying attention to not became the defence of a pre-concept.

Moreover the interest of the hermeneutic isn’t linked to a single occurrence, not so relevant as single event, but to the constellation of a relevant number of different occurrences which gives the same symptoms (Simmel G., 1900; Pinotti A., 2009). The objective of this process is to «let emerge an underlying unity» (Gurisatti G., 2010, p. 7), able to let understand processes and relations unknown or underestimated. The object of this investigation isn’t a theory that could organize a geographical or chronological reconstruction of the main events, but, like in the Benjamin’s version of historical materialism, is an image that, from an analysis of the physical ruins of the history is able to expound the truth face of that time (Gurisatti G., 2006, pp. 1416). The hermeneutical investigator «find, in the handwriting of the city, images, symbols, or truths rebus which displays the unconscious of the writer: the historical collectivity» (Ibidem, p. 404).

Karl Schlögel, in his Reads Time in Space, wrote that «The place is the scenery, and the most adapt referring system, to portray en epoch in all it complexity» (Scarpa L., Gado Wiener R., 2009). He purpose, for this reason, an «historiography based on topography», which finds his maps in the singular representations, narrations and collections of images, considering the collage as the method to organize a more representative text (Ibidem, pp. 3, 7). .

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2. The origin.

Before describing a possible formalization of the Benjamin’s hermeneutic method, is useful to spent some words to remind the origin of it, in Simmel’s, Kracauer’s and Benjamin’s works.

The first of them, Georg Simmel, thought that the philosophy can be used as a habitus to describe the form and the spirit of a time, starting from the surface of the life (Simmel G. 1911; Pinotti A., 2009 p. 121). He thought that «is impossible to understand how the world is without a precise question over how the body of the world is organized» (Ibidem, p. 123).

So he started to select apparently inessential elements, and to search in them a sort of micro-representation of the epoch, a micro-monadology (Lukács G., 1918). Simmel, in this way, recognize in the money, in the fashion, and in the metropolis, the three subjects in which search the face of an epoch, opening that street that today keeps to sociology and modern urban studies (Simmel G., 1895; Lukács G., 1918), p. 68).

Like Simmel predicted he died without a single disciple, he didn’t found a school, but many researchers of his time took a part of his job, «like cash divided between many heirs» (Cacciari M., 1970). One of them, Siegfried Kracauer, tried to apply Simmel’s method to analyze urban relations, overall in the 20th century’s Berlin, and in 19th century’s Paris (Bodei R., 1982).

In Kracauer’s works the objects, yet analyzed by Simmel, started to be flanked by relevant human views (Kracauer S., 1931 pp. 88, 91-94, 96-98). He spoke about those people as social biography, intending with it the correspondence between the history of a person and the history of his epoch (Kracauer S., 1937).

Kracauer, with his works, recognizes some categories as relevant to read a specific space in a specific age: the photographs, the films, the streets, the places, the things, the biographies. His objective wasn’t to realize a total representation of an epoch, but to find different lights to illuminate and understand it (Kracauer S., 1931, pp. 9, 50, 100, 126; Pisani D., 2004). Here we find a first try to individuate precise topoi to find the character of a city, in it we can see the first application of that model that with Benjamin could became a formalized tool, but, maybe for historical reasons, has been only applied.

If Simmel represent the first step in the history of urban hermeneutic, Walter Benjamin is the author that embody a programmatic use of this method. His aim was to organize an historiography separated to the traditional model, finalized to retrace a «progressive time, homogeneous and empty» (Benjamin W., 1935).

His materialistic historiography would be oriented to find a concrete dialectic, which lights up the present to understand how to make it better, so an historiography based on the attention to a possible turn of the history, in which the researcher is involved in the process he study (Benjamin W., 1935; Gurisatti G., 2009).

29] This is, maybe, the most relevant aspect that make so interesting Benjamin’s urban hermeneutic to an urban planner: the aim of represent truly and in deep a space to understand how to make it better.

The most important work thought by Benjamin as application of this method is the never accomplished Passagenwerk. In this monumental opera Benjamin would try to represent the Paris of the half 19th century as image of that age. Nonetheless the work has never been wrote, we have all the materials prepared by the author in many years passed in the National Library of Paris, and a résumé, in which he organized the structure of the text.

The materials, sorted by keywords and labelled with initials by Benjamin, have been collected in a book of more then 1000 pages by Rolf Tiedemann. The result is a sort of map of all the occurrences dedicated to the Paris in 19th century available in the Library (Ibidem, p. 80).

There are lines from articles, books, diaries, advertisement, images, and more. Every occurrence is reduced to the essential part that Benjamin considered representative of the true face of that space in that time. The result is a sort of collage of all these minimal parts, that express by itself the image of that city, with it’s tensions, desires and hypothetical development. Is the city suspended in the last moment after to take a direction for it’s evolution (Tiedemann R., 2000; Gurisatti G., 2009, pp. 90-91).

«For some time I wouldn’t go away from Paris – unless I should do it for political reasons – because I depend from the National Library to work on my book» (Benjamin W., 1935). Like a mine the National Library of Paris is the only place where Benjamin could digs for the occurrences necessaries to his Passagenwerk. He saw the library as the place in which explore the city in the 19th century, the space in which the hic et nunc of 19th century Paris didn’t disappeared in the time evolution (Schlögel K., 2009). In the capital of the Library

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Benjamin «open the book of the occurred» (Benjamin W., 1935), to collect that constellation necessary to let see the face of that epoch (Schlögel K., 2009).

For his work, so linked to the contact with first hand materials, was unavoidable to be there. In the National Library of Paris there are, at the same time, the fulfilment of the urban hermeneutic model, incarnate in the materials and the résumé prepared for the Passagenwerk (Ibidem, p. 56), and the sentence of death for the author, whom, to not lose the opportunity of work at his opera, lost the opportunity to escape from the nazi invasion of France.

With the tragic dead of Benjamin the project of an hermeneutic reading of the city haven’t been completed, but everyone of the tools used by the three authors cited became a deeply elaborate field. With the evolution of the sociology, divided in many trends, of the psychology, the human geography and the semiotic, the elements recognized by Simmel, Kracauer and Benjamin as essential to recognize the character of a city have been studied and different methods and approaches have been tested and confirmed.

3. Formalizing the method Now, in debt with all these studies, and with the results of the work of Rolf Tiedemann over the Passagenwerk, we can trace easily a summary of a possible method for an hermeneutic analysis of the city, useful to represent an urban space in a such difficult moment for the chronological-based methods.

First of all we have to specify that this is an hermeneutic method, and not a semiotic one. The principal difference is, in a very simplify description, that the objective of the semiotic is find known elements in a new object, recognize them and analyze these presences or absences; the hermeneutic, on the other hand, recognize an image as relevant by itself, not for her parts. An hermeneutic analysis try to find images and elements that, in the observation of them, could inform and arouse empathy (in the most literal definition of empathy: en-pathós, feel inside, or, in application to this case, the ability to make perceptible the character of something) (Ferraris M., 2008; Gurisatti G., 2006).

The occurrences recognized by the three authors as relevant, and then amplified in the different studies yet cited, can be organized in four categories to make a more clear formalization of the method. The categories purposed are: the images of the city; the relation with the goods; the biographies; the topographies.

3.1. The images The most used tool in the hermeneutical approaches is the image: the film, the photography, the drawing, or the simply description of a scene, is by itself an occurrence (Casetti F., Di Chio F., 2007; Flusser V., 1983). In an image there is always a vision of the world, it contains the metaphysic structures used by its author to understand and describe the present. Flusser, in A philosophy of photography, tell us that in every picture we can find two elements: the world represented with all it expressive charge, infinite emblem of its social, economical and political relations; the eye of the author, that, choosing that image describe his perception, and his vision of the real. Those visions and structures, that Kracauer called social ideology, are very representatives of the peculiarities of an urban space. For this reason the first net to collect relevant occurrences, to be posed in constellation for recognize the face of a space, is the image, in every form (Faccioli P., Losacco G., 2010).

3.2. The relation with the good An analysis of the fashion, and, more over, of the relation between a society and the goods, corresponds to an analysis of the dominant elements of that society. Benjamin tells that the study of the fashion is a tiger’s jump over the past: in the choose of its physical representation a society expose its habits, its values and its faiths.

The relation between a society and the material goods, the way in which promote or make more difficult the commerce, the use of the advertisement and the form and place dedicated to the markets are very clear elements to understand the vision of the life of its inhabitant. In the relation with the goods we find the dominant ideology of a community, but also the minority oppositions, in their alternatives purposes. Studying the advertisements, the places dedicated to the commerce, the most relevant fashion tendencies and the

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economical ideologies of a specific place can illustrate in deep the character of that place (Codeluppi V., 2001; Mele V., 2002; Gribaudi M., 2007).

3.3. The biographies The first author that showed a personal biography as description of an age has been Kracauer with his Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time. In it he said: «This book has to be intended also as a biography of that city» (Kracauer S., 1937). After it the concept of social biography evolved, showing how in deep a personal history is linked to the history of its space. There are to different chapters of this tool: the biography of a public personality, as Kracauer’s book; the diaries and the interviews of the stakeholders of the inquired space. Rita Bichi tell us that, in the biographical materials, we can find «a tool to a different knowledge of the society, not bureaucratic and not authoritarian». Bichi call all the possible bibliographical occurrences the biographical field, seeing in it the territory in which the personal types of the stakeholders are crystallized and readable (Olagnero M., Saraceno C., 1993; Bertaux D., 1997; Bichi R., 2007).

3.4. The topographies The most relevant innovation in Benjamin’s work is the use of the map as object in which is possible to find the real face of a city. In his researches he dedicated a lot of space to topographical representation, to Paris’ toponymy, and to the strategic use of urban planning. A lot of time before the Farinelli’s works over the not objectivity of the map (Farinelli F., 1992; Farinelli F., 2009), he demonstrated the relevance of the different spatial representations. After him, Kevin Lynch apply a similar intuition in an upset perspective, using the personal perceptions of the stakeholders of a city to understand how was the map of it in their minds (Lynch K., 1960). With this tool an urban hermeneutic has to collect both official and personal maps to understand how the people related to a space describes it. Furthermore a such collection can illuminate the analyst over the differences between the different subjects, authors of the different representations (Banerjee T., Southworth M., 2002; Schlögel K., 2003).

4. Using it «The interpretation is the identification of the symbolic signify of images produced in a social activity, examples of it are all the dimensions of the visible world and the material culture» (Faccioli P., Losacco G., 2010, p.

189). The aim of an application of this hermeneutical method should be to draw an expressive constellation of occurrences collected with these four tools. In that collective image the hermeneutic analyst will find the representation of the character of that city he inquired.

Using it can be very helpful to understand the processes and the relations in a contemporary city, in a time in which the characteristics and the tensions of a specific urban space are changing so fast.

As we said before, today, differently from every other epoch in the history, we have an infinite collection of occurrences from which select the more interesting and the more representative, a sort of National Library of Paris extended to all the urban world, that can be consulted from everywhere: the internet. The last part of the sage will illustrate very shortly an example of an application of this method to find Beograd’s face after the Yugoslavia’s wars (1992-2002).

Representing Beograd.

The aim of this part is not to make a complete representation of Beograd after the wars, but to show an example of the application of this method. The city has been selected for some characteristics in common with the half XIX century Paris, in particular the situation of interruption of the normal evolution by some events that made a threshold, a before and an after. For Beograd that line obviously is represented by the Yugoslavian wars between 1992 and 2002. In the analysis, of which here we only can show some spots and the results, appeared two different faces, totally antithetic, everyone linked to a different vision of the present and the future of Beograd. One is more popular, if I may use this word, by its words and behaviours we see the desire of preservation of the historical roads, shops and green areas, and they ask for a partition of the big

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building proprieties. The other part, linked to the big investors, most of whom are Russian or European, is much more western in its habits and dress style. Its population don’t consider a value the restore of the ancient port, or the share of the richness with an high taxation, but hope a big increase of employ and general richness by the foreign investments. Reading and watching the city we can see a sort of big scar between the two parts, everyone considers the other a sort of barbaric, and speaks about its own desires and visions as the great majority ones. We report here, divided by the four tools, four examples of this division, to make more clear how we arrived at this conclusions.

Beograd Images For the images we report six frames from two shorts: the first is the videoclip of a song, Yugo, by the group RockPartizansky, made to celebrate the lose Yugoslavia, and to hope a return to that past1.

The second one is the video UnderBEOgrad, made to celebrate the new, western and cool Beograd2.

1 2

Figure 1.1. Yugo, by Rockpartizansky

F Figure 1.2. Yugo, by Rockpartizansky

Figure 1.3. Yugo, by Rockpartizansky

Figure 1.4. Yugo, by Rockpartizansky

Rock Partyzani, Yugo, www.rockpartyzani.com A. Forcella, UnderBEOground, per Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, www.balcanicaucaso.org.

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Figure 1.5. Yugo, by Rockpartizansky

Figure 1.6. Yugo, by Rockpartizansky

Figure 2.1. UnderBEOgrad

Figure 2.2. UnderBEOgrad

Figure 2.3. UnderBEOgrad

Figure 2.4. UnderBEOgrad

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Figure 2.5. UnderBEOgrad

Figure 2.6. UnderBEOgrad

The six frames, as six chapters, represents six models considered good in each one, they are: the nice woman; the joy; the ideology represented in the street; the collective realisation; the relation with the past; the relation with the other Countries. For each one we need a lot of space to describe the sense and the context, but, for text limits reasons, we can only show it.

Beograd and the goods The relations between Beograd and the goods can be analyzed watching those process of commodification of some spaces of the city, both in terms of real estate speculation and of changes of the forms of the market.

«We, the Serbians, are inclined to live in the past, to appreciate it… For us every moment start in the past…

Also our foods have a better taste if they are done the day after … After to exit from the museum I stopped in a little shop, here the artists used to keep their artefacts in wood, ceramic or woven. A kind lady tell me that today there remains only few exemplars, because only the tourists have the money to buy them» (Djerkovic T. M., 2001).

The čaršije [ancients market streets], some years ago were the centre of the Beograd relations and commerce, today the most part of them has been destroyed, and «the more conserved ones are a truth museum of extinguished jobs» (Rukaj M., 2010).

Beograd peoples «My neighbour is a poor alcoholic that didn’t adapted himself to the new illegal way to gain money. He lost the money and the sense, drink beer all the day on the pavement. Isn’t good nor bad, isn’t a homeless nor an ex-citizen. He’s just one of the thousands of persons whom lives on the pavement in the new post-modern Serbia» (Rukaj M., (2010).

«Our mission is: “new people, new city”, it represents our idea of Belgrade as enormous potentially place for a responsible dynamic development, based on the competences of the young citizens» (Lučić S., 2006).

Beograd topography Speaking about the topography we can see this scar reading the two description of the effects of the bombs, in the juxtaposition between the words of the daughter of the most important poet of the Yugoslavian Beograd and the ones wrote by the managers of the ProjectBelgrade: «I find a Beograd that I don’t know. I feel the seriousness of the situation, every street corner hurt me. I don’t meet any known face, only anonymous faces, diverse, strangers whom live in my life-space… My city will change another time. I’m not sure that it is my city, I’m a refuges in my city, like all that people over there in the street» (Djerkovic T. M., 2001).

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«Belgrade is at the mercy of disasters and changes from thousand years, and we want to play with these theme» (Lučić S., 2006).

Other two overlaps can help us to understand this situation, the first is composed by two visions of two streets in the centre, totally renewed after the bombs: «Now my street is full of expensive cars, of restaurants and of upscale shops, and of strange shaven head people with the gun» (Tesanovic J., 1999).

«The Kneza Mihaila ulica is the most commercial road of the city, in which appears important shops which in the summer colonize peacefully the centre of the street. Is interesting to see how in a street dedicated to the consumerism and to the appearance, there are six bookshops, as image of the intellectual curiosity and the collective love for the literature» (Vertovec M., 2009).

The last occurrence I purpose came from an interview to a professor of the University of Beograd, at whom was asked to describe the physical transformation of the city in the last years.

«This is the higher palace, it was the Central Committee of the Communist Party, is the symbol of the change, it was the place of the ideals, now it is a bank… A bank!»3

Final notice and conclusion.

As I yet said this can’t be considered a real and complete application of the hermeneutic method. It is just a collection of examples extrapolated from a big research over the possible application of Benjamin’s hermeneutic method in a contemporary city, as a possible solution to the problems of representation and understanding of a city, trying to not lose the complexity, the informal relations and visions of the space in stakeholders’ mind.

What appear from this overlook is the concrete possibility of apply an hermeneutic method to the enormous quantity of information and images available in internet about a city, useful to understand the different perceptions about a space and its changes.

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3

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Pisani D., (2004), “Postfazione. Un guastafeste al banchetto dei vincitori. Note su Siegfried Kracauer”, in Kracauer S. (1933), Straßen in Berlin und Anderswo, trad. it. di Pisani D., Strade a Berlino e altrove, Pendragon, Bologna, p. 165.

Pinotti A., (2009), “Nascita della metropoli e storia della percezione: Georg Simmel”, in Vegetti M. ed., Filosofie della metropoli. Spazio, potere, architettura nel pensiero del Novecento, Carocci, Roma, pp. 119-121.

Rukaj M., (2010), Čaršije/çarshije: il cuore dei Balcani, www.balcanicaucaso.org.

Schlögel K., (2003), Im Raume lesen wir die Zeit. Über Zivilisationgeschichte und Geopolitik, trad. Scarpa L., Gado Wiener R., (2009), Leggere il tempo nello spazio. Saggi di storia e geopolitica, Mondadori, Milano, p. 2.

Simmel G., (1895), “Das Geld in der modernen Cultur”, trad. it. di Ludovici U., “Il denaro nella cultura moderna”, in Simmel G., Mora F. ed. (2010), Denaro e vita. Senso e forme dell’esistere, Mimesis, Milano. Simmel G. (1900), cit.. Simmel G. (1903), Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben, trad. it. di Jedlowski P., Siebert R. (1995), Le metropoli e la vita dello spirito, Armando, Roma. Simmel G. (1908), Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung, trad. it. di Cavalli A. (1989), Sociologia, Comunità, Milano.

Simmel G., (1900), Philosophie des Geldes, trad. it. di Cavalli A., Liebhart R., Perucchi L. (1984), Filosofia del denaro, Utet, Torino, pp. 523-524.

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Simmel G., (1911), “Die Mode”, trad. di Licata M., (2011), “La Moda”, in Moda e metropoli, Piano B, Prato, pp.

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Vertovec M., (2009), belgrado, Odòs, Udine,

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Urban Affective Anthropometry Life stories, building stories, city portraits Malvina Borgherini University Iuav of Venice Dipartimento Culture del Progetto Email: borgheri@iuav.it

Keywords: urban representation theory, ethics, new urban languages

Introduction Urban affective anthropometry. Why talk about urban affective anthropometry? The ways that have been used to describe the city, even fairly recently, are unsatisfactory. The awareness of the inexhaustibility of the world, the inability to recognise it as a unified and comprehensible whole, force us to deal with metaphysical issues, in particular the issue of infinity. The creation of images, a thousand-year tradition of exorcising death, leads us towards focusing on life as death. The idea of the city – the latin word civitas derives from cives; the individuals make up the essence of the city – leads us on to the concept of relationship, of the infinite interconnections between people. Propelled by the philosophical distinction between idea and affect, as seen through Deleuze’s lens, as well as two of the three kinds of knowledge that Spinoza’s geometry triangulates in his Ethics, we can set off on a journey towards new languages.

The infinite interconnections between people The idea – Spinoza tells us – is a way of thinking that represents a thing, a representative mode of thought.

Think of a square: the idea of a square is the intellectual form that represents the square. The idea has an objective reality as it represents something, since there is a relationship between the idea and the object it represents. The affect – just think of love, for example: it is a way of thinking that is not just about one precise thing; I’m able to represent the object of my love, but not love as such – the affect instead it’s life, the ability to act in various ways, it’s a lived scrolling transition from one degree of perfection to another thanks to the force of ideas. This succession of ideas is as continuous and unstoppable as the flow of a stream, like a beating heart. Idea and affect are both modes of thought that differ in nature yet are irreducible one with the other: it’s their relationship which implies that where there is an affect, an idea must necessarily be presupposed, no matter how indefinite and confused it may be. Spinoza identifies two poles on which to plot the ‘melodic line of continuous variation constituted by the affect’: joy–sadness.

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They are the fundamental passions: any diminution of the power to act will be called ‘sadness’ and vice versa for ‘joy’, any passion that increases that power.

Affection is the state caused by the action of one body upon another body. If I think of the warm feeling I experience when I feel the sun on my body, that is a condition of the body, in the sense that it is the effect of the sun on me: the affection is the combination of two bodies; one that acts, and the other which is marked by the trace of the first.

Then there are the two definitions that Spinoza ascribes to the body. The kinetic definition states: each body is defined by a relation of movement and rest. The dynamic definition: each body is defined by an assured power of being affected. For Spinoza each individual is made up of a vast number of extensive parts. This infinite set thus corresponds to an infinite possibility of being affected. The possession of an infinite set of extended parts implies an infinite number of affections. Each body is characterised by a specific relationship between the parties, within a degree of complexity yet also with a specific power to be affected.

What can a body do?

The fundamental question that arises in Spinoza's Ethics is not what to do, but what can a body do.

According to Spinoza, until we know the power of being affected in our body, as long as this knowledge is be determined by the randomness of the encounters, we cannot attain wisdom.

The individual is therefore a power and every thing that can be related towards a limit of tension, is a potential. Think of geometry, the concept already present in the Hellenic world of an outer line delimiting a figure: the idea will be a form bounded by a line outside of nature, intelligible, which traces the outline.

Henceforth ‘individual’ will connote ‘the form related to its outline’. This notion is very close to the world of optical-tactile painting. As the contour of a tangible item, an outline is strongly linked to touch and so a visible form is unthinkable without some sort of tactile impression.

For Spinoza, however, it might be the concept advanced by the Stoics for whom all things are bodies and thus activated agents. The boundary of a thing is no longer conceived as the frame that surrounds the figure, but the limit in which the thing ceases to be. Think of a forest: its frontier of influence does not have the characteristics of an outline because a definitive border doesn’t exist where the forest ends. The edge of the forest tends to a limit. Here Spinoza would counter the limit-frame with a dynamic limit.

An infinite collection of infinitely small bodies The philosophical debate of the seventeenth century is quite incomprehensible unless you bear in mind a central concept, the notion of topical infinity. Spinoza’s sense of actual infinity is neither finite nor indefinite. ‘Finite’ signifies there is a stopping point, when something is analysed we will come to a point where we must stop. However, ‘Indefinite’ means that there is no such stopping point, as we proceed with analysis, the term with which we arrive will itself be able to be further divided and analysed. However, what is the concept of ‘actual infinite’? Terms regarding finiteness, terms of finality, exist but belong to the infinite: the ‘simple bodies’ of which, according to Spinoza, every individual is composed should be thought of in terms of actual infinity. They are so small and faint that the idea of analysing them one-byone makes no sense at all. Yet what can posses shape and magnitude? An infinite collection of infinitely small bodies. Every individual is an endless collection of simple bodies, each individual is composed of a specific infinite set.

But how would I be able to distinguish between different infinite sets? Is it because an infinite set belongs to me and not to someone else? An infinite set belongs to a given individual to the extent that it has a certain affinity, a specific relation of movement and rest. Spinoza calls this relationship a differential relation. Individuals are composed of a multitude of parts, evanescent and infinitely small. Each individual has these, is composed of these, all functioning in a specific relationship. This relationship is characteristic of an infinite set of differential relations: not a sum of individual relations, but the product of an integration between infinite sets of differential relations. «An individual comes into existence only when, thanks to the intervention of an external cause, an infinite set of extended parts are integrated in a specific

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coalition, his own, in other words, his constitutive relations. When his coalition accomplishes compositions it amounts to birth» (Deleuze G., 2007).

Death won’t ever be able to annul the eternal truth of the relations. Death strikes the extrinsic parts, but the eternal truth of the relationship remains. The relationship, in so much as it is a relation, has an eternal truth independent of its partial terms. Even the essence of a body, when it comes to the end of its existence, it does not cease to exist. In fact, the essence is in no way an extended quality, but an intensive quality: a degree of power. The pure relationship and pure essence is eternal.

The art of composing relations At this point we may confront the so-called ‘kinds of knowledge’ that Spinoza talks about. The first kind of knowledge is constituted by inadequate ideas, the world of signs, equivocal ideas, passions and passive affections. The extended qualities, which constitute each individual, are extrinsic to each other, extend to infinity, connecting to and joining with one another. These simple bodies, which can’t possibly have interiority, are determined externally, through clashes and collisions caused by other particles in a process that never ends and plays out indefinitely. The first kind of knowledge is a simple understanding of the effects of action and interaction that occur when extrinsic parts come into contact with each other. The second kind is the knowledge of the specific rule governing each relationship’s configuration, whether it be part of me or that of another individual. It’s no longer the grasping of the effects of relations, but to understand a rule of composition, that is, the specific manner in which characteristic relationships of any body are composed or decomposed. The second level of knowledge can be compared to ‘knowing how to swim’. It’s an impressive know-how; you need to feel the rhythm of the water, how to arrange your body with the water, what occurs between the solid body parts and those of liquid – it’s the fruit of a certain knowledge. Knowing the constitutive relationship of the body and the water I can compose in a new relationship: swimming. Knowing how to swim is to find the right position in the water, breathe properly, avoid an approaching wave or take advantage of its force, it is a true art: the art of composing relations.

Urban affective anthropometries When I try to view the essences of bodies as propounded by Spinoza, that there are essences of individuals regardless of their existence, a swirling tangle of friends appears in front of my eyes; authors from the past, fantastic characters, protagonists from stories, the everyday or politically important people that W.G. Sebald encounters in his English pilgrimage Die Ringe des Saturn. The words with which this meticulous weaver of stories links an exponential number of glimpses into lives, are intermixed with strange small black and white images that enhance the feeling of walking into an archive that breathes, a sort of infinite collection of simple bodies. In the story that Sebald begins to mentally inscribe within the walls of Norwich Hospital, we engage in rapid succession with his friend Michael Parkinson, the expert Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, the literary critic Janine Dakyns and her (one could say private) knowledge of Gustave Flaubert, the surgeon Anthony Batty Shaw – a friend of Janine's from The Oxford Society – and the scholar Thomas Browne, who in the seventeenth century had practiced his profession at Norwich Hospital and who’s skull is preserved in the hospital’s museum to this day.

«Janine (…) had tried – elaborating on all her interests – to analyse Flaubert’s scruples, saying that his fear of stating falsity as a writer would sometimes confined him to his couch for weeks or months on end.

According to Janine, Flaubert's scruples could be traced to the relentless rise of stupidity, which he found everywhere and that now, he thought, might affect his own head. It is rather like sinking into sand, that’s how he once supposedly put it. Janine surmised that this was probably the reason why sand had such significance in all of Flaubert's works. Sand overcomes all. Flaubert’s dreams, said Janine, were by day and by night covered by persistent boundless dust clouds, lifted and twirling above the arid plains of the African continent, drifting north, beyond the Mediterranean and across the Iberian peninsula, until sooner or later it fell as ash on Jardin des Tuileries, a Rouen suburb or a small town in Normandy, and it infiltrated the tiniest crevices. According to Janine, Flaubert saw the whole Sahara in the one grain of sand which remained in the hem of Emma Bovary’s winter dress, and for him every speck of dust weighed as much as the Atlas mountains» (Sebald W.G., 2010, p. 18).

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Figure 1: W.G. Sebald, Cover and images from Die Ringe des Saturn (Italian edition).

With the same lens through which Janine Dakyns analyses the ‘grains of sand’ that transmigrate from one body to another, W.G. Sebald saw objects, words, and individuals that encounter the being of Thomas Browne, even unexpectedly placing him in relation to Rembrandt’s famous painting The Anatomy Lesson, then continuing along a trail which extends over time and is compressed by space.

Working on slow-motion, on unexpected juxtapositions, focus upon details – through vision rather than words – Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi create films through research, selection and renovation about quintessential bodies. These two indefatigable copyists of film stock, through the process of unraveling look for traces of humanity in every single frame and wonder whether it is possible to understand humankind by watching archaic movie reels, flammable and often forgotten. As Walter Benjamin discovers in his Passages, the energy in the discarded, of ‘aged’ items and giving them back their worth by recycling. Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi, with their analytic viewfinder, perform a sort of revitalisation of a worn out body.

«It’s a work of manic theft, of a miniaturist, an Egyptian copyist, an archaeologist. I will not dwell on the ‘story’ or the goings-on, but on what interests me: the face of things, the appearance of objects and environments and what normally vanishes away. Revisiting periods, genres and situations of a part of film history that sometimes gets lost. Resubmitting archives of other memory fragments in a film that is not a copy of those from which it derives, but is a sum of variants, obtained by highlighting certain elements of the image, of movement, with diverse technical modes of analysis. When mounting the combination of different events, objects, places, times, all evoke the illusion of continuity, even if spatially absolutely impossible, not only in nature but in the original films themselves» (Gianikian Y., 1987, pp. 102-103).

The 347,600 frames taken by the two artists to create From the Pole to the Equator – a film edited with footage shot in the first two decades of the twentieth century by filmmaker Luca Comerio – selecting,

Figure 2: A. Ricci Lucci, Y. Gianikian, still frames from Dal Polo all’Equatore.

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cropping, recomposing, slowing down, mirroring images of one another, arranging relationships, all through the film medium, a glance back in time (Censi R., 2010).

Even Runa Islam, in her work Scale (1/16 Inch = 1 Foot), returns to the theme of doubling and repetition, already in the form that it is displayed: a screen suspended in the centre of a room with a large projection wall in the background. To view it the visitor is forced to move and to stand sideways to the screen. A multi-storey car park in Gateshead, only partially built in 1962 by Owen Luder – the project never saw the completion of its rooftop restaurant, but achieved a certain notoriety thanks to the film Get Carter (1971) with Michael Caine – the building is the protagonist of the two-screen film installation by Islam, filmed shortly prior to the destruction of this Brutalist landmark.

Figure 3: R. Islam, still frames from Scale (1/16 Inch = 1 Foot).

«With a kind of humanistic intent, Islam speaks of the building as though it were a human being and remind us the words of Thomas Struth who described the facades of the houses he photographed years ago in faded black and white as though they were human faces (...) The larger screen shows the unfolding of a ritual that take places in the restaurant, reconstructed for the occasion. Here two waiters lay the table for two elderly guests, two people who were engaged to take part in the film as extras. The film-derived imagery (either defined in advance or, in a certain sense, induced) produces unexpected connections and determines the structure of the work’s form creating correspondences or dissonances between the linguistic construction and the production of sense.

Divided into two sequences, the video also shows different and moving viewpoints on the architecture, and occasionally compares the real building with its maquette. So, as Islam says, there is the intervention of various levels of reality constructed around emotional centre created by the artist: “There is the building as it is, as empirically real; as it was meant to be, an imaginary real or hypothesis/fiction and a maquette, an empirically real which is a mock-up of the imaginary”, a scheme that reminds us of the relational structure between the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real» (Junge-Stevnsborg K., Lidman E., 2005, p.74).

If Runa Islam humanises the architecture, Pathosformel (Daniel Blanga Gubbay and Paola Villani, a duo working in experimental theatre) reflect the form of the body by staging a sort of landscape in motion. In La Timidezza delle Ossa (The Shyness of Bones) what appear to be human remains or relics of a buried civilisation are seen surfacing behind a white surface. They seem to blossom from a raw milky material to create a bas-relief in constant motion. Initially the fragments appear individually, but they subsequently begin to reconstruct the familiar image of a human body. Like foetuses that establish their anatomy during the months of gestation, bodies model themselves gradually and experience the volume of the uterus pressing blindly against the walls a pallid womb; building a body, apparently devoid of gravitational limitations, able to show itself along the whole surface.

Nasal septum, femur, knuckles and shoulder blades are broken down and exposed through a skin so thin that it’s unable to hide anything: they are impressions that favour the hard edges of bones while compressing the form of the flesh, changing the perception of the body in order to create a type of radiographic dance. From the human body there merely remains the supporting structure and all physiognomy disappears, all the distinguishing traits and tissue. In a slow progression the body is

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separated from matter, an autonomy is imposed and it embarks on a struggle against the membrane, in a perpetually unsuccessful attempt to fix your own image or emerge over this insurmountable constraint.

For me these are some examples of affective anthropometry.

Can’t we think of them as new forms of urban languages?

Figure 4: Pathosformel, image from performance The Shyness of Bones.

References Censi R., (2010), Togliere gli errata dalla storia (Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi), http://www.nazioneindiana.com/2010/09/30/togliere-gli-errata-dalla-storia-yervant-gianikian-angelaricci-lucchi/#_ftn19.

Deleuze G., (2007), Cosa può un corpo? Lezioni su Spinoza, ombre corte, Verona, p. 182.

Gianikian Y., (1987), “Karagoez”, Griffithiana, n. 29-30, pp. 102-03.

Junge-Stevnsborg K., Lidman E., (2005), Visages & Voyages Runa Islam selected works 1998-2004, Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, p. 74.

Sebald W.G., (2010), Gli anelli di Saturno. Un pellegrinaggio in Inghilterra, Adelphi, Milano, p. 18.

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Video Games and Urban Visions Virtual spaces and simulated worlds Daniele Colistra Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria Email: daniele.colistra@unirc.it

It has been calculated that in the Renaissance, the inhabitant of a city like Florence or Venice could observe up to 500 images throughout his life. Many of these were representations of cities.

Mechanical reproduction systems, followed by photography and finally the cinema, have greatly increased the availability of images. Even in this case, the subject was often the city. With digital technology, quantity no longer poses a problem. It is rather quality that poses a problem. I am not speaking about graphic quality, which is in constant increase, but about the one which ties images to its significance. From this point of view, a parameter of judgment could be the time with which the eye can linger on a single image. Paradoxically “accessory” images (such as icons, web-banners or start up screens of software), or “container” images (such as the home page of web sites or smart devices) become important. Starting from this thought, and leveraging on the concepts of form, duration and motion, the contribution will cover the city models used as a backdrop of the video games. Images intended to influence the collective idea of urban space in a similar manner to what had been done in the past, by the seventeenth century etchings of Rome or photographs taken by the Fratelli Alinari.

Keywords: Virtual Space, Game Environment, Point of View, Image of the City, Gamification.

1. Introduction This paper analyzes and evaluates how the image of the city has been represented in video games since the late seventies. Ever since their invention, video games have been undervalued, ignored and even criticized.

Nevertheless, they condition the way in which one perceives and imagines urban space. Together with the visual arts (paintings, video, cinema, etc.), video games and their virtual environments, have been able to predict and foresee architectural developments and city design. As a result, video games affect and influence ones perception and sensitivity towards form, space and architecture.

2. Video games and collective imagery The idea of the city, present in the imagination of each individual, develops progressively thanks to collective imagery. These images can be divided into three main categories:

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• Direct images: urban spaces that have actually been seen, traversed and inhabited; • Indirect images: observed representations of the city (drawings, paintings, photographs, film images, etc.); • Verbal images: generally non-visual images, capable of stimulating the mind into producing mental images (written texts, narratives, etc).

In the past, the image of the city was formed mainly through direct images. It has been calculated that in the Renaissance period, the inhabitants of a city like Florence or Venice could observe approximately 500 representations of their city throughout their life time: in frescos, paintings, drawings and manuscripts.

However, this number of representations has increased progressively over time with the development of new technologies. Today we can observe up to 500 different images in a few minutes or even a few seconds if we are at the movies, in front of the television or a computer game.

Although video games have been criticized over the years, it is important to note that they play a significant role in the formation of children and adolescents. These game players are sub-consciously storing a wealth of images that they will continue to refer to through the course of their lives. According to data published on www.gamesvillage.it and www.videogiochi.coninternet.org, 88% of Italians, between the ages of 11 and 18 use video games on a daily basis. 9% of these children spend less than an hour a day in front of a computer screen while 56% spend up to two or three hours per day. It follows that 24% of young Italians spend from 3 to 5 hours per day playing computer games, whilst the remaining 11% can spend more than five hours per day on this activity. These individuals, who may go on to govern and design urban spaces will have spent a substantial part of their lives playing video games. Furthermore, video games and architectural computer graphics have evolved simultaneously. In both cases, they have progressed from a conceptual representation in wireframe to a rudimentary attempt at shading, until finally; an increasingly realistic representation has been achieved.

3. Early non-commercial experimentations The first video game was created by Alexander S. Douglas, in 1952, as part of his thesis on humancomputer interaction. It was called Noughts and Crosses, a reproduction of the popular "pen and paper" game also known as OXO or Tic-Tac-Toe. Noughts and Crosses is a purely logical game, with no reference to an effective spatial configuration.

Figure 1. Tennis for Two (1958) on the oscilloscope screen.

Figure 2. Spacewar! (1961) on a Programmed Data Processor-1. Spacewar! is the first video game to present a virtual environment with real-world physics and real time situations.

The oldest video game that simulates an actual physical place is called Tennis for Two. The game was created in 1958, by William Higinbotham, using an oscilloscope and a computer able to carry out ballistic trajectory calculations.

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In Tennis for Two, the tennis court appears in a rudimentary lateral view: a horizontal line (the court), a vertical line (the net), a dot (the ball) and two invisible rackets, controlled by the players.

In 1961, Steve Russell and a group of MIT students created Spacewar! It was the first game to be programmed for the minicomputer PDP 1 and was intended for market distribution. Spacewar! is a game for two people, each player must try to destroy their opponent’s spaceship by firing missiles. The game is set in outer space and allows each player to carry out three functions: to rotate the spaceship, to accelerate and to shoot.

4. The image of space in the Arcade Era The commercial development and distribution of video games transpired approximately a decade later when home video gaming consoles were introduced. In 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey console was released.

The console could be connected to a standard television set and offered games essentially identical to Tennis for Two. Subsequently, the Atari, founded in the same year, also launched a clone of Tennis for Two, called Pong. Next came the growth of platform Arcade games thanks to home consoles and coin-operated video games found in amusement arcades. Games like Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Battlezone (1980), Defender (1980), Pac-Man (1980) and Q*Bert (1982) marked the adolescence (and the collective imagination) of millions of teenagers. These game players, now in their 40’s and 50’s, occupy and will occupy influential roles in government and city design.

The aforementioned video games, were characterized by a symbolic or even abstract graphic. The only objective was human-computer interaction, where basic actions based on hand-eye coordination and reflexes were performed: moving, avoiding obstacles and shooting.

Space is purely topological in the design of these games. Here the relations of contiguity apply but there is no correlation to a real-life environment. Aside from Battlezone (perspective is implied in its fictitious background), the majority of games at the time, used a side or overhead view. The player is outside the virtual environment, looking in.

Figure 3. Space Invaders (1978), the oldest and most famous fixed shooter.

Figure 4. Asteroids (1979) is a revolutionary video game. It introduces raster graphics and enables displacements, rotations and acceleration. Above all, it conceives the screen as a section of a spherical space, allowing output from one side and input from the other.

The use of axonometrics symbolizes an important advancement in space configuration. Axonometry is widely used in games that focus on logic and spatial relationships rather than on action. The first games to use isometric orthogonal axonometry divided space into blocks that correspond to precise volumetric portions. The infinity perspective gives the player a sense of detachment from the virtual environment and total control of what happens in the game.

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Figure 5. Battlezone (1980) is a vectorial combat simulator. It is the first video game with a wireframe view; a first-person perspective and a color overlay (red and green) on a horizontal black and white screen.

Figure 6. Defender (1980) is the first two-dimensional side scrolling shoot 'em up game. The environment is toroidal: while moving in one direction for a long time you will find yourself back at the starting point.

Figure 7. Pacman (1980), the most imitated video game, represents a contemporary revival of the archetypal labyrinth.

Figure 8. Q*Bert (1982), based on 2D graphics, here the geometric properties of the isometric orthogonal axonometry are applied.

5. Overcoming the fixed screen: the conquest of 3D space The mid-eighties gave rise to innovative developments (away from the fixed screen that characterized Arcade style games) that established a new generation of video games. Super Mario Bros, a 2D platform game, was developed in 1985 for an 8-bit console. The base of the screen starts off in real time from right to left and the player moves from the left side of the screen to the right in order to reach the end of each level. This style of animation is made possible by processing individual elements called sprites. Each sprite is made up of 64 squares, formed by 8x8 pixels, reassembled in real time to obtain the various sets of images.

Over the next decade, scrolling games became increasingly popular, especially "hack 'n slash" and "beat 'em up" formats. The perception of space within this format, is favored by a lateral pseudo-perspective.

The characters can move in different directions within their virtual environment, in accordance with a set of three Cartesian axes.

These innovative design improvements increased the quality of video game graphics, but they were only applied to two-dimensional environments. Nevertheless, the revolutionary Super Mario 64, developed in 1996, completely changed the configuration of game play. The sequential scenes found in earlier game formats were replaced by a branched structure. The individual layers of the game consist of threedimensional environments where the player can move around freely. Thus, the Super Mario 64 video game realized a triumphant three-dimensional archetype.

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Figure 9. Super Mario Bros. (1985) in its characteristic environment.

Figure 10. Final Fight (1989) is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game set in a fictional town named Metro City.

Figure 11. Super Mario reaches Princess Peach's castle. Screenshot from Super Mario 64 (1996).

6. The virtual camera and the exploration of the space in second-generation video games The primary difference between the first-generation and the second-generation video games is that the first is based on a two-dimensional image (fixed or scrolling screen), the second explores in real time a three dimensional space using a series of virtual cameras. For example, there are three virtual cameras able to explore the world of Super Mario 64. The first one is the typical camera behind the avatar in semisubjective. The second one is a fixed camera able to zoom or change the height of the point of view always in sync with Mario's movements. The third is the most innovative; it provides a view separated from the avatar and it able to supply aerial views of the surrounding space even if Mario stops.

Figure 12. The three positions of the camera in Super Mario 64: behind the avatar (following camera), longer behind and higher (predefined viewing frame) and very high up (overhead view).

Briefly, the types of virtual camera normally used in video games are six: • First person point of view, that simulates the direct vision of the avatar; • Following camera, with a point of view behind the avatar; • Overhead view, that allows an isometric view; • Predefined viewing frame, fixed or moving; • Free camera, in which the point of view can be moved freely in realtime; Side-scrolling camera, typically used in the first games beat 'em up and hack 'n slash in the early eighties and now again popular due to the many fans of vintage style.

7. The combination Genre - Space Visualization Although each classification into genres is reductive, we'll try to combine some different modes of space exploration with some different genres of video games (of course, as already mentioned, many video games use alternately three or more cameras).

Action video games are based on the fast-paced action, on combat, on the speed of reflexes. In this kind of game reasoning and logic may have a marginal role, or may be absent. There are several action games

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subcategories. Among these: Beat 'em up, Platforms, Maze, Shoot 'em up, Simulation (football, boxing, racing simulator, flight simulator and many others).

As already mentioned, Beat 'em up games prefer a side-scrolling view (Fig. 10); Platform games an overhead view; Maze games a predefined viewing frame; Shoot 'em up games a first person point of view or a following camera (third person). Third person camera allows one to observe the avatar from behind the shoulder or from behind his back; this ensures a better view of the surrounding area and therefore a better control of some actions. The drawback is a lower immersion in the game world and a lower accuracy in some actions, especially the precision pointing and the shooting.

Figure 13. Call of Duty (2003-2013) is a first-person and third person shooter. The only goal is: shoot!, but the plausibility of the characters and the urban environment is very accurate.

Figure 14. Mirror's Edge (2008) is set in an alienated and exasperatingly ordered metropolis, seen through a first person point of view.

The lack of head-up display makes the experience even more immersive.

Adventure video games are based on storytelling rather than action and quickness of reflexes. Among these, the most interesting for us are the Graphic adventure games. Graphic adventure games, in which space exploration is performed through movement and mouse clicks; running on specific points of the screen, it allows the action to evolve. This sort of game is characterized primarily by very sophisticated 3D graphics and by the modeling of realistic three-dimensional environments. It uses mainly a first person point of view.

Action-adventure video games combine elements typical of adventure games with elements of action games.

Some parts of the game are thus based on actions as: space exploration, interaction with other characters, solving puzzles; other parts are dedicated to real-time interactions based on reflexes and quick movements. The point of view is variable and depends on the game situations: it can switch from the panoramic view, the subjective, the third person, scrolling view or even axonometric.

Role-playing video games and Strategy video games reproduce the typical elements of classic analogical games where it is necessary to perform a task: travel, construction, exploration, solution of an enigma. The point of view is usually a subjective view or third-person view, which is often added to a bird's eye perspective or orthogonal axonometric.

Figure 15. A screenshot from Myst (1993-2005), graphic adventure based on well groomed predefined pre-rendered viewing frames enriched by Quick Time videos.

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Figure 16:.Following camera in Assassin's Creed (2007). It is an action-adventure game characterized by photorealistic rendering of architecture and cities actually existing.

Figure 17. Assassin's Creed's free camera. The game uses all visualization systems, with the prevalence of third person following camera.

Figure 18. Ico (2001-2006) is a refined action-adventure. Its graphic minimalistic and full of references to painting received many awards. The control of the game is with a third person fixed camera that restricts exploration but enhances the perception of the city, architectures and environments.

Figure 19. The screen of Warcraft II (1995). The game was created in 1993 and always keeps a steady isometric view from the top.

Like nearly all strategic games, next tho the main screen appears the head-up display. It shows all the information necessary to a better development of the action and additional views of the environment.

Figure 20. Sim City, role-playing game based on the governance of a city, was created in 1989. First using a planimetric view, after a few years it was replaced with an isometric view, increasingly rich in detail and realism.

8. Interactions between video games and architecture The way to represent the space of the city in video games and architecture are similar. Anyone using video games is commonly accustomed to display space on a monitor in conical and cylindrical projection, to quickly change the point of view, to move interactively in the virtual space using mouse or joystick. There are many similarities between video games and various other aspects of reality. Video games affecting daily living; many of them have inspired graphic novels, movies and even romances. Of course they also involve the work of architects and city planners such as Marcos Novak, Nox or IIT Chicago Student Center by Rem Koolhaas.

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Briefly, video games are increasingly taking on the physical characteristics derived from the real world: hyper realistic modeling of space, use of photographic textures, insertion of laser scanner acquired models, simulation of weather effects, touch, sound and smell sensations, interaction between corporality and software, augmented reality, and so on. At the same time, architecture is dematerialized and becomes increasingly virtual: including digital elements and effects, recreating cybernetic metaphors, mentioning the cyberspace, mixing reality and virtuality, showing the signs and the typical forms of video game's virtual world.

It starts to use the word "gamification": it is the use of games methods to improve the degree of involvement and participation of customers of a specific service or public space. Gamification is a word that comes from game theory, analyzed by the world of marketing and business; it can be applied in urban and architectonic scale and, therefore, it will involve even more the work of architects and city planners.

References Bordini S., (2004), Arte elettronica. Video, installazioni, web art, computer art, Giunti, Firenze.

Bullivant L., (2005), 4Dspace: Interactive Architecture, Architectural Design vol. 75, Jan/Feb 2005, London.

Darley H., (2000), Visual Digital Culture. Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres, Routledge, London.

Migliari R., (2006), Prospettiva dinamica interattiva: la tecnologia dei videogiochi per l’esplorazione dei modelli 3D di architettura, Kappa, Roma.

Mitchell, W.J., (1996), City of Bits. Space, Place and the Infobahn, Birkhauser, Boston.

Rheingold H., (2000), The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, MIT Press, Boston.

Schell J., (2008), The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Kaufmann, Burlington.

Acknowledgments This paper collects the premises of a research project that later became a Ph.D. dissertation in Architecture (XXIV ciclo) discussed in 2012 at the UniversitĂ Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria. The dissertation studied the interactions between video games and architecture, with particular reference to the meanings of gamification. PhD Student: arch. Giuseppe Romeo. Tutor: prof. Daniele Colistra. Title: Rappresentazione video ludica e modelli tridimensionali interattivi.

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City perception and distances Visual strategies of urban anamorphosis Pierpaolo D’Agostino Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” E-mail: pierpaolo.dagostino@unina.it

The application of anamorphosis in cartography is often an useful tool in order to highlight, qualitatively or quantitatively, environmental anthropic aspects. Among these, anamorphosis is often used to focus the variation, both perceptual and objective, of the territorial lengths: then, the anamorphic transformation shows how can change distances between points dispersed on the real territory, defined as a function of time duration. Starting from that, the goal of the suggested paper is to analyze how some practical possibilities and strategies, applied to specific case studies, could be used in order to assess the morphological changes and their subjective and objective visualization of distances as perceived and run by different categories of users in urban areas, to arrange analytical comparison of views.

Keywords: anamorphosis, visualization, time duration

1. Introduction According to Langlois (1997), mapping in anamorphosis consists in applying methods of cartographical deformation in order to bring a descriptive variable of territorial areas in the form of variable deforming the places themselves, thus defining a spatial metaphor.

Following Denin’s viewpoint, according to which all thematic maps proceed to a intentional adaptation of quantitative information to better define a sinthetic view, it’s possible find in anamorphic maps, such as those in isochrones, a role of communication, in which the form of a message, joined with its expressive power, are primordial (Denain, Langlois 1998). That’s it the same to define models of the environment and realities that do not want to be his pretentious means of objectification, but the means of description of a phenomenon.

The history of anamorphosis applied to cartography is a relatively recent practice. Its first, significant applications can be traced back to the mid-80s of last century when the first algorithms were developed and usefully implemented on newly born Personal Computer (Cauvin, 1998).

However, as also shown in (Denain, ibidem) after about a decade, the use of anamorphic transformations in cartography showed its limits, that had effectively frozen further applications. These authors, however, recognized the difficulty to imagine - in all possible forms of digital anamorphosis with particular reference to vector type implementations - different applications to those used in order to study the accessibility of rail or aircraft traffic and related times duration. In order to understand if this statement is

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a past inheritance or has still validity, I asked myself if is this concept whether cannot be extended to urban applications and used to make visualization of other issues within a city.

Answering to this question gives positive result. With regard to the anamorphosis’ scope, studies of territorial anamorphosis to define isochrones maps related to public transport in urban areas born to define large-scale comparative its assessment, as a comparisons tool about the same type of trasportations or comparing different ones. From past 90s’ applications on the high-speed French railways, we proceed to the most recent applications in smart cities of the Far East Asia (as used in Senseable Lab’s Live Singapore project, Kloeckl, Senn, Di Lorenzo, Ratti, 2011).

However, essentially it is in transportation scopes that anamorphic methodologies and transformations have been applied. It is still unexpressed the opportunity to make visualization of other human factors having space-time relationship, such as the evaluation of the difficulty in moving between points in an urban area. Difficulties which may be evaluated in altered perceptions of space, for which the distance can be understood in terms of shortness of breath, sweat hot, sore muscles, even not referring to the metrical nor relational dimension (Toffanello, 1995 p. 40).

Therefore, there are other activities and issues involved in such assessments and joined to time duration and space associated with it. An example is represented by vehicular traffic that, beyond its causes, is a devastating for a city, sometimes so widespread as to invalidate the entirety of the road system, which involves the expansion of travel times, not only urban but wide scale and for which an anomorhic mapping could represent an alternative visualization. A different case, but for which an assessment of travel time durations could give significance to a state of well-being of a city, is related to the study of facilities and services offered, or not offered, to challenged users. In cities with difficulties, such as routine management problems and structural and infrastructural system instability, we can understand why, more than elsewhere, the daily life of a challenged user is complicated. The handicapped, the elderly men, young mothers with babies in tow feel personally difficulties in moving around within the urban net: transportation impractical, bumpy roads, bottlenecks in the pedestrian traffic etc..

If we compare with one of the two cases mentioned, describe the difficulties of moving related, visualize them in appropriate and synthetic views and use them with non-technical managers and, above all, the communities that may require you to understand the status of the territory they inhabit, may be, therefore, a primary feature of the power of urban anamorphosis.

2. A possible simplified projective model How then anamorphic transformations can be used with that purpose? How to be able to define rigorous procedures but at the same time simplified, even for a possible spread of their practice not aimed at scientific applications?

The specialist literature provides theoretical models and several ways to solve this problem. In earlier accredited studies, the territorial anamorphosis was made through the implementation of analytical algorithms with the aim to produce maps of isochrones. The purpose was to define a thematic areal map in which shows the boundaries that are to be compared to the nodal points of a network, “temporally equally far” from such points. That is, briefly, the ratio is to identify the attractors, which are defined and referred to the other points by time duration and, finally, visualize: either looking at the territory with its morphological deformation or, in opposition, looking at the transformations preferring instead a representation layers superimposed on a canonical representation territorial.

Working for this purpose, the authors who promoted the anamorphosis for territorial studies were oriented to define digital processes for the determination of two different types of anamorphic maps (Langlais, 2003; Cauvin, 1996). The first, a vectorial approach, which exploits the possibility to define the spatial variations of points in their mutual relations with a gravitational model, useful for a synchronic analysis of an event. The second most targeted to define a diachronic footprint, carried out from variations in time or a defined value overlapped to the mapped area.

Most of the models at the transformation of cartographic territories born, according to the first of the two cases introduced, by the viewpoints and processes that operate on vector fields between nodes of a

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displacement graph. That is like think that such models, exactly defined and characterized in their mathematics, require that, for the points concerned in the transformation as focus point (both in a monopolar or multipolar transformation), are associated with scalar operators. These operators are involved in the mathematical model selected. The outcome is therefore an analytical planar representation resulting from the application of transformation matrices in respect of the topological graph bonds and chart the result as the deformation of the starting geometries.

As the outcome of a transformation, it may investigate whether there is the possibility of applications of descriptive geometry to this problem. On the other hand, the representation of the reality that we do when we use Descriptive Geometry techniques is filtered by our mind and its rational codes (Toffanello, 1995, p. 40), the same actions to show perceptions as mentioned earlier: to make visualization of this filter can outcome to the issue.

A simplified application can then be implemented with the use of modeling 3d cads, according to transformation algorithms that go beyond an analytical implementation that focalize on the projective model of the expected result. Briefly, it is to proceed with a series of projections from a representation of an urban environment. Compared with a rigorous approach as previously described, is therefore conceivable an inverted algorithm, subject to the ultimate goal the obtaining just a anamorphic map. The idea is, in fact, to start from a thematic map of areal isochrones and to trace its conceptual configuration obtained by anamorphosis, taking advantage of the ability to project differently space on a plane to get driven It is an approach designed to define urban scenarios and landscapes or concrete evidence in order to show possibilities or constraints felt in the movement of a single user. Of course, the model that we proceed to implement provides some basic assumptions. At first, assumed the need to verify the spatial perception of a point with respect to a sample area, the process is a monopolar one, for which a single point endows a nodal role, for which evaluate synchronies, perceived distances or related time durations.

When then we try to assess what is the spatial and urban configuration as well as perceivable by a single point, from the projective point of view one can proceed in different ways.

Furthermore, we could consider a portion of mapped area, belonging to a plane of a three-dimensional Cartesian system. This representation can be projected, by a center finite or infinite one, external to the plane that contains the same representation, on a surface arranged in the half space for which zenithal units are positive. Evidently, if this surface is a plane (in particular, parallel to that which contains the representation), with a point just would get a homothetic representation, a translation in the case of infinite point. The surface on which to project, however, can also be different from a plane: from a simple spherical cap to more complex surfaces, for which a transformation is defined a priori impossible to imagine. This last case could be the most probable, representing in fact a possible 3d map derived from a spatial analysis as in the model assumed.

The choice projective approach can be so described. We start from a map of an urban area, in this case as expressed in the examples is the urban fabric of the historic city center of Naples. We could imagine to project the mapped buildings by an infinite center orthogonal to the plane of the representation, on a conical surface with the vertex in the pole of the anamorphosis sought. This surface represents the linear relationship space / time in the polar-symmetric form referred to the displacement assumed: the z-axis the time, in the xy plane displacements are evaluated. As highlighted in Figure 1, a point on the xy plane can be considered as the spatial result of an ideal linear correspondence space / time, in which the time axis coincides with the z axis of the Cartesian reference. It is thought that the ideal path occurs at a constant speed, which is also plausible in practice in view of less effort for easy movement.

By hypothesis, moreover, it is considered that the time needed to travel the same stretch is greater than the optimum, realistic situation in case of impediment to pedestrian traffic or other generic critical situations (excessive slope of the road, instability in the pavement, etc..). That is to say that, for the same time, the space between the origin and the point felt as result, appears to be greater than the ideal condition, which leads to the definition of a curve different from the ideal. This condition of “expansion�

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of perceived or taken time to reach a point from a source, is then implicitly readable if the dots on the curve of thumb above are considered to define the new spatial coordinate in terms of displacements.

Another constraint is described. In fact, if we intend to propose a transformation anamorphic urban regards the visualization of difficulty in walking, we can make some simplifying assumptions. The first is that a point (R2) farther from the origin (O) with respect to one nearest to it (R1) on the same radius, cannot be transformed into a point (R2’) that admits radius less than the second transformed considered (R1’). This stems from the assumption that a user placed in the origin O of anamorphosis moves into the urban grid, with a constant speed. In the absence of obstacles, of course, the user walks in a linear way and reach the point R1 before the point R2. In the presence of obstacles, in opposition, the assumptions are two: the bulk of the impediments is located between the origin O and the point R1 or between points R1 and R2. In the first case we have that the walk times will be longer to move in the first section, while the linear trend will resume in the second section, however, summing the delta time accumulated in the first section. In the second case, instead, one can imagine a trend that is linear and coincident in the first section and instead moved away from this in the final stretch. So, we never have that the surface derived from the linear correspondence generating the cone intersects with the generic surface derived from the spatial analysis.

Figure 1. Set of graphs describing the used algorithm

The provided ratio can be implemented in a parametric solid model. According to this model, for each vertex of building represented, then it must be projected on the surface defined by the generic representation for continuous times perceived or empirically measured. In this way, we will get a new projection from the center of its own for each point / vertex lying on the cylinder from the value of the referred ordinate (time). Finally, the curves thus obtained are again projected onto the xy plane, which determines a “redraw” of buildings deformed respect to the starting condition (Figure 2).

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3. Observation about the method What has moved the present work is to proceed to a definition a system of urban representation that can be effective in a real-time presentation of the territory as previously understood. That is, proposed in its qualitative characteristics, purged of the fixity imposed by spatial urban geo-topography and which may arise in dynamic and movement, in order to identify the visualization from time to time most temporality significant of displacements of a specific user.

This part of the idea that such representations can contribute to a corpus of digital information that can be drawn continuously and in real time by users.

Figure 2. Models of the projected map onto conic surface (above) and the consecutive projected map onto the generic surface (bottom) used for the anamorphic map (see Map 1)

For example, it is possible that users may be interested in the evaluation of the status of a city or any part thereof or that a challenged user characterized by a deficiency in motion has in desire to understand what is the shortest route to go beyond obstacles that could occur (work in progress, bottlenecks, traffic disruptions, steep slopes, etc..).

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However, that would be entirely in line with a full infographic representation, in which the outcome of interface is not static but dependent on the recipient, who can then select the information content without having to “go out” by all that his goal is a part. For all these tips and ideas, for which this paper is only an initial phase, tip of the iceberg in such issue. For a complete definition of the problem, it requires a significant set of test and specific real application, in order to compare the thesis and Among the criticisms that may be referred to the territorial anamorphosis, in fact, the problem of possible geometric confusion and topological deconstruction maintains a preponderant position.

Figure 3. a map visualizing the center of the city of Naples and some points of interest (above) and an anamorphosis derived by model application (bottom). Look at spatial expansion the of points of interest, evidencing a possible increase of perceived distances and time duration.

The added value of infographics to anamorphic mapping is longer in the increase of productivity and quality due, without referring to the visualization goods. Rather, remain the fundamental problems of efficiency in the visualization. And this is more significant in particular when it is necessary to deal with the same effectiveness of the representation offered. This is particularly important when we should ask whether and how much a representation that falls outside the “normality” of territorial representation can equally be understood by a population or users not immediately familiar with the use of such representation. Or if, and this is related to what said earlier, it is possible and within what boundaries users could learn in real time the significance of such visualization. As reported by Denain, some risks derive, particularly it may be that the user is not “ready” to grasp the meaning offered by the reading of a map or

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that, in parallel, it could use a similar cognitive framework – anamorphic transformations - in not significant and scientifically unfounded ways.

Personally, I think the risk is not to be ascribed to the difficulty in reading and understanding. The risk may be, in opposition, in the constitution of the map, both pathological and physiological. In pathological terms, i.e. those highlighted by Denain, relative to a nefarious use of the tools, the problem may be true if the result of the analysis wants to be quantitatively valid. But, offering the system to display a qualitative, even from data quantitatively achieved, the problem is resized, provided compliance with the only constraint of using a standardized coherent graphic scale.

For the problem physiological of mapping in anamorphosis, in contrast, may be more serious, and that is what may affect the topological differences between rule and rule geomorphology. And it is seriously joined to the human understanding of territorial and urban conformation.

What in both these cases, it should be noted is the role of helpful framework that can offer such a thematic map. Not infrequently, in fact, it is necessary that the events such as those described, require that they could be showed to a not trained user, not skilled in handling and reading numbers beyond the images, and it is therefore necessary to provide a synthetic representation that, sometimes even in a disruptive and unsettling, to be useful in making quantitative differences of phenomena. Testing this viewpoint is of course a priority.

It is clear that such an approach is intended as a method applicable for only qualitative thematic maps. It is understood that, acting a deformation of the area according to the practice described here it can be used in the field of thematic mapping but not in topographic applications, just as the photographic image of the human body is required in an atlas of anatomy, considered a simplified version that is often found in art (Kadmon, Shlomi, 1978). This metaphor can be read in the sense that a deformed image of the territory can be understood as the subject drawn in which is not the truth or the contours orthogonal matter, but the modification deformed or induced in the scale of which each point is proportional to some quantitative variable.

References Cauvin C. (1998), "Des transformations cartographiques", Mappe-monde, no.49, vol.1, pp 12-15.

Cauvin C. (1996), "Cartographie théorique et anamorphoses", in Bulletin du CFC, no. 146 - 147, Mars 1996.

Denain J.C, Langlois P. (1998) Cartographie en anamorphose, Mappe-monde, n°49, vol 1, pp 16-19, Février.

Kadmon N., Shlomi E.. (1978) "A polyfocal projection for statistical surfaces", The Cartographic Journal, no.15 vol. 1, pp. 36 - 41.

Kloeckl K., Senn O., Di Lorenzo G., Ratti C. (2011), LIVE Singapore! An urban platform for real-time data to program the city, Available on: from http://senseable.mit.edu/papers/pdf/2011_Kloeckl_et_al_LIVESingapore_CUPUM.pdf Langlois P., Denain J.C. (1997), "Anamorphose, analyse d’une métaphore spatiale", Revue internationale degéomatique, vol. 7, no.1, pp. 33 - 56.

Langlais P. (2003), Anamorphose par trasformations pseudo-equivalentes. Application a la cartographie thematique, 6èmes Rencontres de Théo Quant.

Toffanello D. (1995), Anamorfosi: l'immagine improvvisa, CittàStudi Edizioni, Milano.

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The theater as urban language Experiences with the Theater of the Oppressed in Paris and Rio Ana Carolina Lima e Ferreira Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Research Group Urban Heritage Email: ana.carolina.lima.e.ferreira@uni.weimer.de

Keywords: Public art, oppressed, favela, to give voice and urban intervention

1. Introduction Public art has been explored by the researchers who dedicated themselves to theorize a practice which has been daily more and more present in the urban space. The city in principle is a place that is able to receive all kinds of artistic manifestation, from graffiti extended to spontaneous manifestation of certain youth groups until official projects well-conceived evolving artist and architects. “All visual researches should be organized as urban research. The sculptor makes urbanism, the painter makes urbanism, even who compose a typographic page makes urbanism, makes urbanism whoever realizes something which placed as a value, between even the minimal dimensional scales, in the system of values.� (Argan G. C., 1998).

Following these thoughts, the discussions will point the identity between art and city can connect audience unifying art and urban space as whole, in this case with theater.

The Theater of the Oppressed developed by Augusto Boal (1931-2009) reached practitioners in many countries, crossing physical and cultural boundaries. His book the Theater of the Oppressed describes his techniques and reinforces the idea the spectator can use his own body to intervene in the action abandoning his object condition and assuming plainly his role as subject; the whole method is about the participants using his own body, emphasize the theme to be discussed and promotes a genuine action (Boal A., 2005). The techniques had many applications: social and political struggle, in psychotherapy, in pedagogy, for urban and rural spaces, never staying away from the initial proposal the theater which allows oppressed ones to fight.

He defined the concept of Aesthetics of the Oppressed (Boal A., 2009) as a project aiming to give back to those who practice it, the ability to perceive the world through all kinds of arts and not only through theater but correlating all arts in it. On his Forum Theater the audience has the chance during the scene to replace actors to frame their own questions for discussions through theatrical activities. Augusto Boal was in exile because of the Brazilian dictatorship, he left in 1971 and was living in different Latin American countries. Then 1978 he went to Paris and created a Center of Theater of the Oppressed. Finally in 1986

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with the Brazilian amnesty, he could go back to his home town Rio de Janeiro, where he was active practicing and sharing his experiences on theater until his death, 2009 (Boal A., 2000).

Three forms of language crossed: the urban intervention as public art pieces, Theater of the Oppressed allowing participation of non-actors into a play and the work of communitarian leaders in a process of urban changes. The methodology of the research is the qualitative research: observation of the theater plays, analysis of cases in cities: Paris, Rio de Janeiro and interviews with participants, experts from these urban spaces, actors and directors. Based on two of my interviews, in this paper I will quickly analyze two projects one in Paris and one in Rio considering the context, the material, the artistic and urban context and the contemporary problems related to them (Leavy P., 2009).

2. In Paris In Paris Muriel Naessens is responsible for an association called Féminisme Enjeux, a feminist militant association constituted by women and men, who fight for equality between men and women and uses mainly Theater of the Oppressed and the technique Forum Theater, that allow the audience to intervene in the spectacle. Naessens was trained by August Boal in Paris during his political exile. Almost in the totality of his days spent in France she worked with him in Paris. They worked a lot together all over France, doing workshops around Europe and in the whole world. As she feels oppressed as woman in Paris and everywhere she went with Boal, she met oppressed women too; she realized it was because of the patriarchal society: moreover the oppression against women in certain countries is extremely violent.

Therefore facing this clear issue, she wanted to change it and the women emancipation.

Nowadays she works over the question of women oppression. The responsible in France for Planning Familial needed a new media to give voice to fight together with other women for their rights, Naessens decided to join them. She was already engaged in a political party, she decided to become really a militant feminist, entered in the group and brought the Theater of the Oppressed. During 12 years she utilized the method to try to reach their aims. In the Planning Familial they had too many demands on the schools, and with professionals, that Naessens created a new similar association: Féminisme Enjeux. She, as militant in an association, decided to dedicate exclusively to the feminist question with the Theater of the Oppressed, and then people joined the group. So they work with question of sexism, a very clear question of oppression in Paris. The group still tries to fight for equality between men and women. It not only focuses on the violence, but many issues concerning the women oppression: as the inequality in the salaries, the precariousness for the women work, also the hard and unstable part time jobs. There are many difficulties which make a woman not have a professional career. They don’t allow her to do other important things for her existence; she cannot fight for her rights as a worker, because it is hard to manage taking care of her children combined with her work. Moreover there are mostly men in the unions and for this reason it is almost impossible that the women situation would be taken in consideration without more women engaged on it.

The starting point in the group is the women’s personal stories that they would develop as theater. Right after they started playing theater coming from their experience as female with other women who suffer the same thing. The individual story becomes collective, a truly political situation, when one talks about a situation; unique to this woman, but it represents something that belongs to a group, a very particular story belongs to a social group with inequalities. Another important aspect is to render visible the system; the condition of the society as a whole. They turn visible what nobody wants to see and allow people to see something that concern them all.

Who are then the oppressed in Paris?

For Naessens it is clear who are the oppressed: if the domination is male, the oppressed are the women.

There are men in her group, who are contrary to the male code of domination against woman. In order to change something they need all forces against the machismo. However she said there some women who don’t recognize themselves as oppressed, who are, familiarized with the oppression and suffer it, but assume the role of the oppressor: those have a discourse which comforts the oppressor. Understanding

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they are oppressed, they get the conscience to fight against it (Freire P., 2005). The oppressor worked so well that women don’t evaluate the situation critically. According to Naessens everywhere and means, everything reinforces the message of the machismo. The system keeps the patriarchal system, educating children in the unequal domination; therefore the most complicate is to change it in the school. The National Education in France has a plan for it, but the school is absolutely necessary for dominating system to perpetuate it. The group aims to work on all school levels but it is necessary to work before with the educators, teacher and pedagogic staff because those work uniquely with young people, as well as, on the family base, towards the parents on their educational role. Féminisme Enjeux works more and more to address the question to these groups using the methodology of the Theater of the Oppressed to make them conscious about this social construction. If one shows it is a social construction, it will be offered the comprehension that it is not natural, as it is made up, it is possible to deconstruct it. Féminisme Enjeux works eventually also with the women migration and paperless immigrants, those are not dissociated of the social movements because the group doesn’t claim a specific kind of women to join the group, they simply want equality because power is definitely not balanced. As more people start to be conscious about this social construction as more the cause goes forward.

The changes achieved in Paris In Paris the movement of women liberation obtained what Naessens considers big achievements: the right of contraception and abortion. To talk about contraception and abortion is to talk about the sexuality, it was and still a taboo. One of the few progresses is the right for the abortion in France; but there is still no freedom, because it takes time to obtain the abortion: up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy it is not possible anymore Even if the system allows the abortion; there is a big pressure to avoid it. Anyway, the greatest achievement of all times is the contraception: it means for her to have indeed the power to have the sexuality. The feminist struggle, has verified however the relation concerning all aspects it hasn’t improved so much. Surely there are some progresses as the contraception, a concrete one, but at the same time it is not enough. There is still an enormous struggle: so they go to demonstrations, play theater at streets and public spaces and are still protesting for the equality.

In cases of home violence they work with women, who cannot leave their homes yet. Every time in the Forum Theater, there are some women who speak about it for the very first time: for the group, it is when they are most successful. Muriel Naessens is very emotional when she sees the scene in a theater night, because she actually saw it many times in the reality. The greatest moment of Forum Theater, for her, is when all in the audience are touched, when one woman decides to leave her violent home, and then another will say the same: So the ladies organize themselves to find them a place to stay etc. Naessens believes that it is a chain of changes, one wants, they move and they change.

There are some forced marriages in France as whole; there were more in the past, at the moment it is much less. The group was asked once to do a scene about the forced marriage for the immigrants but they argued the work exclusively with the forced marriage only in the immigrant context would reinforce the existing prejudices. Then they worked with the forced marriage as well as with the prohibited love relationship. Many women don't have the right on, in a certain milieu, to choose a partner from a different social sphere; it will be forbidden in some cases. Naessens affirms it isn’t a forced marriage, it is not alike, but at the same time it obliges people mostly to the same. In a forced marriage scene, people from the audience argued that the forced marriage is prohibited in France during the Forum Theater piece.

Therefore a girl in risk should just go to the police and denounce the parents. Denounce the own parents and put them in jail isn’t easy: therefore the law was not really a response for it. In one situation the group took charges for a girl, who wanted then the association to meet her parents and explain them that she had the right to choose whom she wanted to marry, and the group had to make them understand it. So, on this behalf, the group Féminisme Enjeux obtained in Paris apartments exclusively for women, who are risking having a forced marriage. Nowadays for this purpose; there are two apartments per commune in Paris, to protect the girls in such situation.

There many other associations in Paris for women against violence because they want to change this situation. For Naessens it is necessary that the society takes in consideration how women would be

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protected in case of necessity. She believes it is long way but after a very long time, they changed something.

3. In Rio In 1993 Augusto Boal was elected by PT Labor Party, as member of the City Council Member of the city of Rio de Janeiro with the proposal of democratize the politics with theater. Olivar Bendelak worked engaged close to him, as head of his staff, in the development of the Legislative Theater in Rio. It was unique experience in the world: they did theater presentations in public spaces, where the pass-byes were allowed to replace actors and find collectively solutions for the presented problems and after suggest laws. Boal and his staff worked within different places in the city of Rio de Janeiro for their demands, with communities and formed around 60 groups of theater. Nowadays Bendelak is one of the coordinators of the Center of Theater of the Oppressed in Rio (Boal A., 2006).

Who are the oppressed in Rio de Janeiro?

Bendelak affirms that the oppressed in Rio are mostly the inhabitants of the favelas who suffer the lack basic infra-structure as sewage, potable water, and waste management. In many areas, especially in the hills, the transportation system is an issue for who live in poor areas and go to work in the richer areas in the south parts of Rio, as maids to clean houses and offices, brick layers, delivery personal, etc, in general, those, who live far away. It indicates that there are many people living in oppression, the population in the favelas as whole is victim either by the corrupt policemen or the drug dealers This poor population suffers all those oppressions; earn the worst salaries, have bad living conditions and difficulties with the dangerous location, mostly precarious houses, or barracks made of wood or cardboard. Bendelak affirms that in a developed world nobody should hunger; nor live without a descent house. Brazil is more developed now, but there are still many aspects to be improved.

Rio is a contrast of beautiful landscapes, seaside dream and violence, danger and lack of infrastructure and people suffer of with the inequalities. The local government nowadays finds ways to restrict the use of spaces, for example, with the excuse of coordinating it, it is necessary to take authorization by the administration region even if it is square with amphitheater. When the group tried to use the space of the square, the local administration said they are renovating it, but there was no plan for it. They loved to present plays in Largo da Carioca, in front of the subway station, thousands of people circulate weekly, an amazing public but now the permissions are restrict, they cannot do it, and there are just fences everywhere. The public authorities with the excuse of coordinate the public space restrict instead of facilitate the accessibility of cultural activities. Of course the group can ask for permission but if there is a spontaneous demonstration it is very hard to get permission at the same day, it takes at least five days with all bureaucracy. They would love to be always in public spaces in Rio, but the support doesn't exist.

The idea of public square is to be stage of manifestations and demonstrations, Bendelak claims. The government promotes big events as Olympic Games, Football World Cup and right now the local administration build huge stages for concerts pay enormous amounts of money to certain artists to advertise those big events. Since two years he tries to raise discussions about it: the real inclusion requires the concrete actions to change the oppression situation Changes the Legislative Theater brought to Rio The public health problem is still a reality in Rio but a new law came with the Boal’s mandate. A group of aged people asked for a medical doctor for geriatrics in the public hospitals. Sometimes they were assisted by a pediatrician. They got a law approved where all city hospitals in Rio should have a geriatric doctor.

Before they did a theatrical intervention to claim it and the press saw it. Then the project of law was approved. There were many interventions through the Legislative Theater in the urban space resulting in 13 city laws approved.

For Bendelak another improvement which is not tangibility measured is the question of giving voice to oppressed ones. The group had an idea to give visibility to what happen inside the City Council.

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Unfortunately the Brazilian population doesn't have this practice of going to the City Council or to the State Parliament to see a voting section. They create so a theater action called Câmara na Praça, City Council in the Square, in front of the building in a square in center of Rio, built a stage in and brought some chairs and Boal talked about the projects under discussion in the City Council in that week. Then they presented a scene of Forum Theater, from one community and with this dynamic, only a few minutes before the voting would start and told the audience, they could enter in the building to watch the session and the debates after. People were surprised to know they were allowed to enter and see the Plenum. So these were some transformations Bendelak affirms they achieved on the level of citizenship: motivation to participate.

3. Conclusion The Theater of the Oppressed beyond its explicit tendency to a social character, worked also in its aspect of art, played by the ones, who feel themselves oppressed to show ways to transform it. The main focus is the social critic and the use of public space. It is a possibility to give voice to the community, be more visible and active participating. Moreover, art engaged using the artist creativity as well as makes the participant role active and stronger. The combination of visual art and theater is a simple possibility and it isn’t new (Silva F. P., 2005).

Augusto Boal developed a method of popular education for emancipation; there is a contribution of a lot of minds, as Paulo Freire, Brecht and Stanislavsky and many others (Baumann T., 2006). It was a whole stream in Latin America in those times and in France as well. It is an interesting current on that moment, since 1968 political events severely unsettled cultural and social life also throughout Europe and United States. The mood was one irritation and anger with prevailing values and structures. While students and workers shouted slogans and erected street barricades in protest against “the establishment”, many younger artists approached the institution of art with equal, if less violent, disdain. They questioned the accepted premises of art and attempted to re-define its meaning and function (Goldberg, Rose Lee, 2001).

This current is still present. Muriel Naessens and Olivar Bendelak do Theater of the Oppressed as they feel oppressed and fight to transform things, in an engaged work. Although Rio and Paris are so diverse, it can be found points of convergence in their work in urban spaces (Lefebvre H., 2000). The method found its way to reveal in the urban space its quality to produce art and to question the social issues present on these societies, adding new techniques and adapting it to respond to the new local necessities.

These two social centers have different ways to act, work and experience this method, as well as the theater plays are based on their particular way to activate and strength the citizenship through art. They implement projects and active participation and turn into protagonist the oppressed layer, aiming a dialogue through theater.

To conclude as work of art, the Theater of the Oppressed can offer a complete closed form on its uniqueness, as a balanced organic whole, while at the same time constituting an open product on account of its susceptibility to countless different interpretations which do not impinge on its specificity. Every reception of the work is both an interpretation and a performance of it because in every reception the work takes a fresh perspective for itself (Eco U., 2006). Many other groups around the world work in their contexts, encouraging people to claim for their objectives turning the theater language a way to face the cultural and urban inequalities.

References Argan G.C., (1998), História da Arte com história da cidade. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, São Paulo.

Baumann T., (2006), Von Politisierung des Theaters zur Theatralisierung der Politik. Theater der Unterdrückten im Rio de Janeiro der 90er Jahre. Ibdem Verlag, Stuttgart.p.36-46.

Boal A., (2005), Teatro do Oprimido e outras poéticas artísticas. Civilização Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro. p 198-199.

Boal A., (2009), Estética do Oprimido. Garamond, Rio de Janeiro, 2009.

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Boal A., (2000), Hamlet e o filho do padeiro: memórias imaginadas. Editora Record, Rio de Janeiro.

Boal A., (2006), Legislative Theater. Routledge, Oxon.

Eco U., (2006), The Poetics of Open Work in Bishop, Claire. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Co-published by Whitechapel Gallery, London and The MIT Press Cambridge, MA.p.22.

Freire P., (2005) Pedagogia do Oprimido. Paz e Terra, São Paulo, 2005.

Goldberg R. L., (2001), Perfomance Art: from Futurism to the present. Thames & Hudson world of art, London. p.140-154.

Leavy P., (2009), Method Meets Art. Arts-based Research Practice. The Guilford Press, New York.

Lefebvre H., (2000), La production de l’espace. Anthropos, Paris, p.48.

Silva F. P., (2005), Arte Pública: Diálogo com as Comunidades. C/Arte, Belo Horizonte.

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Merging different languages in urban cartography A critical methodological introduction Maria Luisa Giordano University of Geneva Department of Geography and Environment Email: maria-luisa.giordano@unige.ch

Keywords: alternative cartography, urban representations, local actors

1. Introduction In the framework of my PhD research, this paper describes some considerations I developed before and during my fieldwork (which is still in underway).

In my thesis I use a wide range of cartographic products (official cartography and mental maps) as sources to investigate the recent changes of the concept of neighbourhood. I work with different local actors, which I classify as institutional and non-institutional, who play a role in the contemporary definition of this concept, both in official urban projects and unofficial ones (e.g. of neighbourhood associations).

Investigating their representation of this complex notion through cartography, my aim is to create a synthetic cartographic collection based on these different sources, using the different tools of thematic qualitative cartography. This methodology, in my opinion, takes advantage of the great potential of cartographic visualisation and map analysis for understanding urban spaces, projects and scenarios. As King states (King, S., Conley, M., Latimer, B., Ferrari, D., 1989), visualisation is “the key to effective public participation because it is the only common language to which all participants technical and nontechnical can relate� (p. 53).

I try to integrate different kinds of representations, in order to apprehend the wide range of actors and opinions through the potential of the cartographic image, as well as to explore the potentialities of different cartographic languages to contain and communicate varied agendas. In this exercise I have faced several challenges which are related not only to methodology, in the strict sense, but also to the wider field of ethics in geographic research. In particular, I am interested in the researcher's role and potential influence in this process, provoking deeper considerations.

This paper seeks to follow my line of reasoning in constructing my methodology: from identifying the tools I wanted to experiment with, to the reasons for my choices, to the analysis of their consequences for knowledge construction. I will start with some considerations about the use of cartography. Then I will analyse the sources-maps and the options for output-maps, as well as some ethical issues.

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2. Visualization As Debarbieux (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003) argues “[…] if the resources of territorial iconography are not essential for the exercise of a project and [territorial] prospective – as exceptions show –, in most cases they are exploited because of their capacity to satisfy a wide range of cognitive needs (visualisation, intelligibility, temporal projection), as well as institutional and social needs (communication).” (my translation. French original reads as follows: “[…] si les ressources de l'iconographie territoriale ne sont pas indispensables à un exercice de projet et de prospective [territoriale] – les exceptions en attestent –, elles sont, dans une très grande majorité des cas, exploitées en raison de leur capacité à satisfaire un ensemble très hétérogène de besoins cognitifs (la visualisation, l'intelligibilité, la projection temporelle), institutionnels et sociaux (la communication).” p. 16). Urban projects are great sources of many kind of images. If the use of cartography in planning has always been a standard, since the early urbanism (among other reasons because of its close relationship with architecture) the great turn from the plan to the project has definitively accentuated its role, highlighting mostly the communicational aspect: planning products are no longer just for professionals, but they have to face the public. This trend, indeed rather recent, asks for a deep consideration of the nature of technical cartography and of the demands of critical cartography and counter-mapping.

The development of participatory processes and the growing interest in local identities and local knowledge encouraged studies and applied research on participatory cartography and the collective production of maps. In the last decades collective map-making has been used with the aim of embedding local ecological knowledge (McKenna, J., Quinn, R., Donnelly, D., Cooper, J., 2008), the human sense of landscape1, local identities (Soini, K.,2001; Perkins, C., 2007) or practices (Balletti, F., 2007) within several studies or projects (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003 ; Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2002) . Many cartographic tools have been tested and many methodologies have been developed. with the result that any urban project, today, produces a great diversity of cartographic objects.

In my thesis, the great potentiality of a cartography-based methodology consists in using institutional representations as primary sources, on the same level of non-institutional ones. Merging technical and local knowledge through cartographic tools can provoke a deep critical reflection about the role that different kinds of cartography can play in urban projects and about how they can be integrated.

Moreover, the complex issue of the collective or non-collective nature of the representations I want to realize entails taking into account the wide range of research about participatory cartography and cartography in participatory processes.

3. From inputs...

In defining my methodology, the first consideration I had to do was about the sources: which kind of cartographic representations is the most suitable for my research? As from the beginning the main aim have been to investigate both institutional and non-institutional representations, I decided to use a wide range of cartographic product. Basically, as institutional, I mean representation expressed by municipalities and planning departments in official urban projects. For their analysis I collect thematic maps coming out of Geographic Information Systems at various degrees of complexity (project plans, maps in information materials for participatory processes, maps for publicity materials). These documents refer to cartographic materials previously produced by professional planners, which responds to the rules of technical cartographic language. As non-institutional representations, I mean representations of local actors who are not directly involved in the design process, but also individual representation of institutional actors (e.g. members of the municipal council or of the planning department) that I decided to analyse through mental maps.

1

Gueben-Venière, S. (2011), En quoi les cartes mentales, appliquées à l’environnement littoral, aident-elles au recueil et à l’analyse des représentations spatiales? EchoGéo; http://echogeo.revues.org/12625.

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If many studies have been carried out on integrating local knowledge in official research or planning, I would like to highlight the question of how this process can be realized. One of the bigger challenges (and potentialities) is identified in integrating participatory processes (or just local knowledge) in the development of GISs. Moreover, the development of web-based interfaces are designed explicitly to enhance communication and to expand public outreach. In a way, GISs lend legitimacy to cartographic knowledge, for institutional planners trying to make a project accepted by local stakeholders, as well as for non-institutional actors trying to validate a specific vision (Jackson, S., 2008) . As Sieber (Sieber, R., 2006) states, “the use of GIS has been furthered by members of the public and private sectors who believe that access to computer tools and digital data forms an essential part of an informationally enabled democracy.” (p. 491) and this is one of the reasons for the extensive development of Geographic Information Systems and Public Participation Geographic Information Systems by NGOs or CBOs. Such a wide use of this technologic tools is not always appreciated. On the one hand, “cultures can vary their acceptance of PPGIS on the basis of their tolerance of expert solutions, their sense of collective control, and their level of individualism.” (p. 495). Moreover, Sieber highlights also that the integration of technology can create problems with non-professionals users: “The corollary is how much GIS must be learned by individual stakeholders and what technologies can be supported by available resources.” (p.

499). On the other hand, as Turnbull (Turnbull, D., 2000) argues, “[…] if the full power of the knowledge is to be recognised it is not enough for it to be valued in its own right, it must also to be understood in a comparative context.” (p. 132).

The controversial relationship, as well as the controversial comparison between scientific official knowledge (what I call here “institutional”) and the unofficial local one (that I call “non-institutional”) are the reasons why I don't want to force both the sources in the language of technical cartography: I argue that the use of different tools for each kind of representation helps to keep the idea of comparison, instead of the idea of integrating one representation into the other.

Mental maps respond, in my opinion, to this demand for non-institutional representations. Moreover, pencil sketching limits the lack of non-professionals' cartographic (and just graphic) competence which is geographically uneven (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003; Crampton, J.W., Krygier, J., 2006). Debarbieux (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003) argues also that avoiding obligation of topographical precision makes mobilising this competence easier (p.22), because as Soini (Soini, K., 2001) states, drawing can “represent a natural way of communicating spatial issues and values related to them.” (p. 235). I would also add that pencil sketching can be a good solution for non-professionals who do not want to learn how to use more technical tools. Especially in academic research not directly linked to planning there could be a lack of motivation or time to learn technical cartographic language

4. ...to outputs After collecting the range of sources I outlined above, the question of the synthetic representation arises.

Within the studies carried out on collective or participatory cartography two main trends can be identified.

The first approach tries to integrate non-institutional representations in GISs or technical official cartographies (Gueben-Venière, S., 2011; Jackson, S., 2008; Sieber, R., 2006; Al-Kodmany, K., 1999; Rinner, C., Bird M., 2009). The second one includes community or identity maps research (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003; Balletti, F., 2007). They both privilege one of the two languages I identified for my sources.

On the one hand, GIS is a standard in planning cartographies and it responds to the necessities outlined above for iconographical representations of territories (visualisation, intelligibility, temporal projection, communication) (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003; Sieber, R., 2006). Mental mapping is often integrated in GISs as a useful tool for investigating representations of non-professional actors. Nevertheless, GISs and mental maps come out from different ontologies and epistemologies [3] and translating the second language in the first one entails that something will get necessarily lost. As Sieber (Sieber, R., 2006) states, “[...] not all traditional or local information should be reduced to fit GIS standards [...]” (p. 499). In a critical cartography perspective, Crapton (Crampton, J.W., Krygier, J., 2006) argues that “critiques of

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Euclidean space which point to its ideosyncracies, localness or its contingent nature show that not all knowledge can be “scientized.” (p. 18).

On the other hand, community or identity maps are usually based on mental or qualitative mapping tools.

In general, they focus on non-institutional representations that they intend to formalize for a further utilisation in the planning process. In these cases, usually, the comparison between institutional and noninstitutional representation doesn't entail iconographical tools.

As highlighted above, I decided to compare these two kinds of representations on the same level, “as varieties of such knowledge systems” (Turnbull, D., 2000 p. 20). For this reason, in my opinion, a third language should be used. In my thesis I aim to experiment tools of not GIS-based qualitative cartography as a way to merge technical cartography of institutional representations and mental maps of noninstitutional ones. As Crampton (Crampton, J.W., Krygier, J., 2006) states “[...] maps are active; they actively construct knowledge, they exercise power and they can be a powerful means of promoting social change.” (p. 15). In the wake of critical cartography, I try to experiment with an iconography that seeks to integrate scientific accuracy and accessibility to non-professionals, data from quantitative analysis and qualitative local knowledge.

5. The authorship An other question arises about the attempt to merge different representations and it is the problem of the authorship of the map. When local knowledge is integrated in mapping, studies often talk about participatory and collective mapping, or participatory GIS (when web-based interfaces are developed for data input). I think that a first distinction should be done between participatory processes in municipal-led or NGOs-led long term projects and academic research.

In public participatory processes, in my opinion, the problem can be put in terms of which part of the public can be involved in depth in the final map-making in order to define it participatory or collective. In NGOs' projects, for instance, the search for legitimation, can be a great motivation for seizing cartographic tools (Sieber, R., 2006). For official municipal project, on the contrary, the degree of public direct utilisation of cartographic tools can influence, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the public involved (Debarbieux, B., Lardon, S., 2003; Sieber, R., 2006).

My thesis, on the contrary, is a medium-term academic research: I can go back to actors I interviewed and discuss representations with them, but I cannot provide in-depth cartographic training for all of the participants.

They are authors of their own mental maps, but any synthetic representation entails my interference as cartographer. As Harley (Harley, J., 1990) argues, as mapmakers we are ethically responsible for maps.

Assuming that the final maps will not be collective is a way to underline that I am a third actor among institutional and non-institutional ones.

6. Conclusions This paper aims to be a critical intermediate reflection about the methodology I use in my thesis research.

My fieldwork is still in underway, so the main limit of this text is the lack of distance from a topic that I am still developing.

The wide diversity of urban iconographies makes the challenge of experimenting new urban cartographies even more exciting and important. In particular, critical cartography is a means of opening up to deeper considerations about the construction of cartographic knowledge as well as about the practice of mapping.

Integrating local knowledge in technical cartography is a great challenge and a very discussed topic. My personal perspective seeks to consider technical cartography as the language to express one kind of the representations I want to analyse; as well as mental mapping is the language used for the other one.

The goal of a third language for the synthetic maps is taking into account the role of the researcher.

Identifying the different nature of this iconography and the cartographer's position in the dynamic of

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mapping face of both the categories of actors, is the personal answer I try to give to this long-standing question.

References Al-Kodmany K., (1999), “Using visualization techniques for enhancing public participation in planning and design: process, implementation, and evaluation.” in Landscape and Urban Planning n. 45 pp. 37–45.

Balletti F., (2007), editor, Sapere tecnico-Sapere locale. Conoscenza, identificazione, scenari per il progetto. Alinea Editrice.

Crampton J.W., Krygier J., (2006), “An introduction to Critical Cartography.” In ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies n. 4 pp. 11–33.

Debarbieux B., Lardon S., (2003), Les figures du projet territorial. La Tour d’Aigues, Ed. de l’Aube/Datar.

Debarbieux, B., Vanier M., (2002), Ces territorialités qui se dessinent. La Tour d’Aigues, Ed. de l’Aube/Datar.

Gueben-Venière S., (2011), En quoi les cartes mentales, appliquées à l’environnement littoral, aident-elles au recueil et à l’analyse des représentations spatiales? EchoGéo; http://echogeo.revues.org/12625.

Harley J., (1990), “Cartography, ethics and social theory”, in Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization n. 27 pp. 1–23.

Jackson S., (2008), “The City from Thirty Thousand Feet: Embodiment, Creativity, and the Use of Geographic Information Systems as Urban Planning Tools”, In Technology and Culture n. 49 pp. 325–46.

Jung J-K., Elwood S., (2010), “Extending the Qualitative Capabilities of GIS: Computer-Aided Qualitative GIS. Transactions”, in GIS n. 14 pp. 63–87.

Kim A. (2012), “The Mixed-Use Sidewalk.”, in Journal of the American Planning Association n. 78 pp. 225–38.

King S., Conley M., Latimer B., Ferrari D. (1989), Co-Design a process of design participation. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

McKenna J., Quinn R., Donnelly D., Cooper J., (2008), “Accurate Mental Maps as an Aspect of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK): A Case Study from Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland.”, in Ecology and Society vol.13 n.1.

Perkins C., (2007), “Community Mapping.” In The Cartographic Journal n.44 pp.127–37.

Picone M., Schilleci F. (2012), Quartiere e Identità. Per una rilettura del decentramento a Palermo. Firenze: Alinea.

Rinner C., Bird M. (2009), “Evaluating Community Engagement through Argumentation Maps - A Public Participation GIS Case Study.” Geography Publications and Research.

Sieber R., (2006), “Public Participation Geographic Information Systems: A Literature Review and Framework.”, in Annals of the Association of American Geographers n. 96 pp. 491–507.

Soini K. (2001), “Exploring human dimensions of multifunctional landscapes through mapping and mapmaking” in Landscape and Urban Planning; n.57 pp. 225–39.

Turnbull D., (2000), Masons, Tricksters, and Cartographers: Comparative Studies in the Sociology of Scientific and Indeigenous Knowledge. Harwood Academic Publishers.

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Urban transformation scenarios for the representation and dynamic control of new design interventions Massimiliano Lo Turco Politecnico di Torino DISEG - Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering E-mail: massimiliano.loturco@polito.it

Roberta Spallone Politecnico di Torino DIST - Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning E-mail: roberta.spallone@polito.it

Today an absolutely emerging issue for architectural culture is the need for up-to-date representations of urban settings by 3D models, got from real landscapes and characterizing the actual condition of ongoing transformations. These representations could become the urban scenarios for simulations and checks both for master plans and for architectural designs, analyzing their relationships with the built environment.

Some new tools of urban procedural modeling and web resources allow generating urban contexts able to interoperate with software BIM and concept design oriented.

The paper aims on one hand to compare the knowledge and informative capabilities of different new technologies for urban modeling, on the other one, to explore the opportunities (i.e. about shape control, standards verification, energy calculation, etc. ) offered by software interoperability using different platforms dedicated to architectural design.

Keywords: urban digital modelling, design simulation, interoperability, Web Map Services, BIM

1. Introduction Today an absolutely emerging issue for architectural culture is the need for up-to-date representations of urban settings by 3D models, got from reality and characterizing the actual condition of ongoing transformations. These representations could become the urban scenarios for simulations and checks both of master plans and architectural designs in their relationships with the built environment.

Some new tools of urban procedural modeling and web resources allow generating urban contexts that can interoperate with software oriented to BIM and concept design.

In this paper we will compare on one hand the knowledge and informative capabilities of different new technologies for urban modeling, on the other the opportunities (i.e. about shape control, standards

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verification, energy calculation) offered by interoperability with other software dedicated to architectural design.

2. Web Map Services and geometric 3D modeling for architectural shape control of interventions in city contexts An interesting opportunity to enjoy three-dimensional scenarios to simulate different configurations of interventions is offered by one of the most significant products of the "digital convergence" (Ciotti F., Roncaglia G., 2000): Web Map Services, integrated with graphics applications and three-dimensional modeling freely available on the web, which represent a potential evolution of digital cartography. Web Map Services dynamically produce maps of spatially correlated data from geographic information and allow visualization of a large part of the Earth.

The digital mapping has been joined in recent decades with the traditional cartography on paper, thanks to the hardware and software tools offered by the "information revolution". The use of information technology and the simultaneous diffusion of geographic database have resulted in a gradual transformation of the digital maps by simply "drawing" of the territory to "numerical data" base for CAD drawing and "GIS" (Geographic Information Systems) useful for spatial investigations.

Figure 1. G. Boetto, Aerial perspective view of Fossano, in Theatrum Sabaudiae, 1682.

Computer applications, in addition to simplifying the production work of cartography and substantially increasing their knowledge potential, have imposed new models of description and interpretation of reality. From the information point of view, digital maps can recover the prerogatives of celebratory threedimensional views of the cities and territories (Figure 1) and historical maps of those views adding up pseudo-isometric representations of human settlements to zenith projection (Figure 2). The traditional map offered a two-dimensional static document, while the digital one can be organized into dynamic sequences, consisting of multiple images, allowing views by different orientation, or even immersive experiences, with appropriate devices.

The comparison between traditional map and virtual globe leads Giorda to interesting conclusions: "The 'logic mapping', as it has gradually standardized since 1700 with a progressive path to the static and abstraction, is here reversed in a diametrically opposite perspective, based on the recovery of the variety and abundance of signs of the territory, on redemption of the subjective dimension and not azimuth of vision, on the dynamism of representation. Somehow, it is a return to the landscape, knowing that a new way of seeing also means a new way of looking"(Giorda C., 2006).

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The recent uncontrolled proliferation of contemporary cartography, available on Internet, resulted in production by new subjects - private corporations in the computer industry - and an extension in the world, requiring more and more uniform guidelines aimed at avoiding fragmentation, duplication and ambiguous interpretations. This is the reason why the Web Map Services have been regulated by ISO19128 standard1.

Among the Web Map Services that have the widest geographical coverage, the ability to save and print images and the most interesting features from the knowledge point of view and design, you can now count Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps generally enjoyed by PC or, more generally, devices connected to the Internet. Google Maps, the richest and most versatile platform for the purposes mentioned above, visualizes maps and satellite imagery obtained from terrestrial remote sensing, aerial photography and topographical data stored in a GIS platform.

Additional knowledge is accessible through the installation of Google Earth, free software for threedimensional graphics, which offers a virtual globe remapping aerial and satellite photography on the threedimensional surface of the earth, so as to reproduce the orography in a realistic way.

Figure 2. Topographic map of Gagliano, in Cadastre Borbonico of Sicily, between 1837 and 1853.

Giorda establishes an interesting comparison between the traditional map and Google Earth highlighting the traditional prerogatives of interactivity dynamic display and reduction of graphic symbols, and concluding that the software "should therefore not be understood as a tool that replaces the traditional map or photography, but as a new type of representation, a sort of hyper-atlas of the landscape that combines elements of both instruments " (Giorda C., 2006, p.249).

Google Earth and Google Maps also allow collaborative approaches in creating of geographic contents by the users. As Borruso observed, they can "add content and build their data, resulting for example from GPS tracks, which can be loaded differently in the virtual globe in Google Earth, or drawn directly depending on your knowledge of the place, and with reference to a base cartographic ready. Freedom permitted by these applications is therefore to free the user from the need to build the base map and focus on new information elements" (Borruso G. 2010).

In particular, Google Earth provides additional potential: on the one hand, to turn on layers that offer thematic consultations: display of roads, some buildings modeled in 3D and delimitation of parks, on the other, to insert signals, polygons and paths, to take measures, to consult previous satellite images and 1

http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm? csnumber=32546&commid=54904 (last reference 2nd May 2013)

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photographs going back into the past. This last documentation can be of considerable interest to reconstruct the spatial transformations due to the intervention of man or even calamitous natural events.

Google Earth also allows users to model buildings in 3D using Google Building Maker and SketchUp and place them at the original locations. Photographs of facades provided by the program are applied on geometric 3D buildings and then the models are validated for inclusion in Google Earth (Figure 3).

Figure 3. 3D model of Cuatro Torres Business Area, Paseo de la Castellana, Madrid, realized with Google Building Maker and SketchUp , 2010.

This kind of representation hybridates products ontologically different in many respects: 3D geometric model and photography.

The model, in fact, is a three-dimensional vectorial entity, whose faces are mostly plans, while the photographs, applied on it, are two-dimensional raster entities that represent different planes projected from a point at a finite distance analogous to that perspective.

However, despite this operation is unacceptable in terms of the science of representation, it has the advantage of generating scenarios freely available for the insertion of planning and designing proposals.

The photographs applied on models allow the users to appreciate a good degree of realism of architectural morphologies and decorative styles of the context, in relation to the architectural shapes of the new proposals. Furthermore, the possibility for the user to move around in a virtual reality in real-time 3D, generates a kind of dynamic photo-montage.

As with other digital features, this method for generating urban and environmental contexts also revealed a rapid obsolescence: on 6th of June 2012, during the event "The Next Dimension of Google Maps"2 Google announced some changes that are coming to the 3D landscape in Google Earth, starting on mobile devices and later available in desktop version. In particular they unveil a new way of displaying 3D buildings on Google Earth, achieved by building complete cityscapes from the 45-degree aerial imagery used in Google Maps and Building Maker.

One of the biggest challenges in showing 3D buildings in Google Earth has been gathering complete 3D coverage to represent the real world seamlessly and consistently.

This new style of 3D map has generated via stereophotogrammetry from aerial imagery. "Google would one day create better auto-generated buildings, and that time has come"3.

Craig D. (2012), The Next Dimension of Google Maps, https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/3dwh/GQj7OlZshA (last reference 2nd May 2013) 3 http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2012/06/google_announces_upcoming_3d.htm (last reference 2nd May 2013) 2

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The result will be remarkably sharp 3D, in a format that can be more quickly rolled out for large areas.

New imagery rendering and computer vision techniques now allow creating an accurate and comprehensive 3D representation of entire metropolitan areas.

Currently many users complain that in some cases, the close-up work done by them may be more detailed than the current model created by the new 3D imagery techniques.

Others acknowledge that unlike the current situation, where many users generated models of varying styles with different lighting schemes collide in a potluck of 3D goodness, the new style map, or the new Google Earth, is modeled as one unified seamless mesh.

The advantages foreseen by Google are that using aerial imagery to create 3D models it enables to keep these 3D versions of the world more accurate and up-to-date than is possible with manually created models. In addition, the new 3D buildings and terrain are all generated from the same high resolution aerial imagery, enabling precise alignment of the new models and a seamless 3D experience across an entire area. It's possible to compare models generated using the two different techniques by analyzing portions of the urban tissue of Rome (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Piazza Navona in Rome, on the left, 3D model using Google Building Maker and SketchUp, 2008; on the right, buildings generated automatically in Google Earth 7, 2012.

The manual modeling allows creating models with a high level of detail of geometric shapes and exceptional finishes, in many cases better than new buildings generated automatically, but the new version, however, is more homogeneous.

Undoubtedly, it must be recognized that even the models made automatically manage to have a detail still high and allow the generation and updating of 3D models much faster than the manual modeling.

If we believe the assertion that: "The goal remains to create an accurate, consistent and comprehensive 3D representation of the Earth. With 3D imagery in its infancy, we can’t truly see what the future holds; but the one constant in this fast-paced, high-tech world is change, and further improvements are ahead" (cit.

Craig D., 2012), we can imagine that future steps of the research undertaken by Web Map Services alongside those of procedural modeling, which will be discussed further on, more and more will provide accurate, efficient and updated models of settlements in which simulating the project interventions.

3. Urban procedural modeling and BIM technologies for checking the master plan sustainability The possibilities offered today by computers allow designers to explore a building in virtual reality, and that is they allow humans to interact with a computer in a simulated domain (Garzino G., 2011, pp 15),. Parametric drawing means that, as opposed to the recent past, these interactions are no longer limited to an analysis of form and shape but permeate all disciplines involved in the art of building.

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The latest technologies allow to investigate virtual environments both on a building scale that at larger ones, rebuilding entire urban and territorial structures through the use of procedural algorithms based on the metric information that can be derived from satellite imagery, maps and cartography numerical techniques.

The use of new techniques in design drawings makes it possible not only to render complex forms discrete or to develop customized working procedures (going beyond the prototype stage), but also to reach the full objective of synergies between technical drawings and technical verification of the design.

This synergy is necessary not only in the building field, but this opens the way to new experiments in urban and territorial environment using BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology; for example, the use of the conceptual mass modeling allows to associate to a simplified model the numerical data of built area, making the control of the compliance of urban standards required by regulatory instruments easier. The procedural software allows you to expand the scope of use, capable of handling data relating to real portions of the city.

Some customizations also let you to generate reports for quantitative analysis of urban design, for example for an automatization of quantitative estimates, such as the calculation of constructed area and the relationships between the parties that are automatically updated and instantly applied to entire cities: through the change of a parameter display you can switch from one view to a schematic representation issue, being able to provide reports about the amount expressed in terms of gross floor area, intended for residential, commercial and service sectors. Parametric values can be applied to a single building or entire streets: in analogy to BIM equipment usually applied to the building scale, even the procedural software using a parametric change engine automatically updates the contextual display of color that is the base data to it connected.

The most recent trend of the largest software house working on the territory is to produce some suites (software packages sold in a single solution) containing the different applications dedicated to specific functions: the Infrastructure Design Suite Premium 2014 software (Autodesk) is an integrated and interoperable solution for the territory, the planning and design of infrastructure, including inside applications for the management of roads, dams, bridges and railways. Even in this field the need is to resemble a multidisciplinary collaboration, where the focus of the project is a model shared by all: for example, it is possible to integrate the use of the known AutoCAD Map 3D - Data Manager of GIS and cartographic data in vector format - with applications that can handle the raster cartography, cadastral maps from the Regional Technical Papers, orthophotos from satellite imagery, allowing at the same time the georeferencing of the intervention and the data vectorization.Regarding to territorial data, it comes the need to take advantage of all GIS data available, thanks to the portal OpenGeoData (founded by the homonymous Association that was founded with the primary goal to rid the geographical data of the Public Administration in order to allow the reuse to all professionals working in the area).

In addition to what is said, it is rapidly spreading InfraWorks (a software formerly known as Infrastructure Modeler), which enables the use of CAD data, GIS and BIM to easily create 3D Digital City: thanks to these it is possible to start the preliminary phase with the BIM prerogatives4.

In combination with GIS data, it is even more topical to manage CAD data and parametric models, and then to have tools that allow to easily design in three dimensions, thanks to the BIM approach. As mentioned, the preliminary stage takes care of the evaluation of alternatives, to minimize cost and environmental impact: at this regard it is crucial the utility of using a single 3D model on which to examine the various alternatives, comparing between them, thanks to the support of quantitative data.

Recently, the current regulation on Public Works has indicated, through the d.P.R. n. 207/2010, (Regulations implementing the Decree n.163/2006 – Codice dei Contratti) the contents for the various design phases. Article 14 refers to the Functional Economic Analysis, specifying in detail the contents, partially returned in the following list: 4

www.bimacademy.it/gis/ (last reference 2nd May 2013)

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- a description of the prior assessment of territory sustainability of the intervention, and the requirements of the designing building, the feature connection with the existing context; - the integrated analysis of different design alternatives, regarding to the functional, technical, managerial, economic and financial matters.

In particular, the FEA should enable the definition of the cost intervention, drawn from a quantities takeoff or on the basis of parametric costs derived from similar interventions.

Figure 5. Energy Center: solar studies and schedule of Ground Floor Area, phase 1.

Yet it is precisely in the preliminary stage that you need to obtain the consent, not only of the agencies, but also of all stakeholders and residents. The purpose is just to reach every possible segment of the population, to establish a larger level of information. Too often in the past, interventions in the area were presented only in two dimensions, not allowing a deep understanding to the layman. The infrastructure suite has inside the necessary tools for creating movies, animation paths for the camera, the integrations of show titles, captions, points of interest and storyboards, without having to use video for editing software, also being able to share models and projects on the cloud, and even publish them on the Web, along with video presentations. Once again, as has often happened in the past, technology has partially taken "borrowed" from other fields (cinema, game entertainment) and revived in the building / urban sector, for an enlarged spread of new forms of narrative dynamics, control and communication of large scale project.

4. The case study: Functional Economic Analysis applied to Energy Center, Turin The project that best expresses the reasons that lead to the drafting of a Function Economic Analysis is the so called Energy Center, an intervention financed by European funds for the construction of an exemplary and innovative building in terms of energy savings. The first step consisted in the drafting of the Plan variation, to be expected within the site of intervention. It is expected therefore a plan divided into different time phases that involves the construction of the first part, (the Energy Center) to be followed by future construction of other buildings in order to saturate the amount of free floor area achievable within it (Figure 5). In this regard, the BIM software lets you organize parametric interventions depending on the time variable. Doing that, it has been created an overall master plan containing the maximum heights achievable in individual buildings, with its own car parks (estimated in 40% of the GFA – Ground Floor Area - realized). The whole site has a building capacity of 25000 square meters, (which should equal about 10000 sqm of car parks) divided into three different phases, as shown in figure 6.

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Figure 6. Energy Center: masterplan with different intervention phases.

Before reaching the final solution, in agreement with what is explicitly required by relevant regulations, there have been several proposals of distribution, as can be seen from the pictures below [11].

After several meetings that occurred with the heads of the different technical areas (planning, technical services, construction, environment, economic development) it was decided to define a different configuration, as proposed in the image above, next to the volume of the Bellini library (Figure 7).

As previously mentioned, despite the images presented obtained by the three-dimensional conceptual models, it should be emphasized once again the flexibility of these processes that allow correlating heterogeneous information, as a multidisciplinary feasibility study should contain.

Figure 7. General master plan. First and last version compared

5. Conclusion and future developments The need for information interoperability is felt both within the working group and regarding to external professionals: In territorial interventions, with regard to the implementation of open standards it is now possible to access the CityGML standard format, already used by many municipalities in Europe for the data of 3D digital city. CityGML allows you to save the entire structure of a city (including detailed 3D models), formed by roads, roofs and technological networks in different levels of detail. So, the addition of support CityGML format agrees to use much more detailed data than ever before.

The scenario is therefore complex: what until recently was a categorization may be too rough or stiff, but able to distinguish between disciplines who see the use of virtual modeling for the control of design thinking from others that serve a purpose in popular divulgation, now see a distinction far from clear,

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since the technologies that have immediate impact on the choices of the designers, the different scales, are often tightly integrated with those employed for better communication of design proposals. Concluding, in recent years, digital modeling is thus affecting the entire design process, from conception of an analysis of alternatives, through the monitoring and reporting of the project up to offer tools for subsequent construction activities and management of manufactured goods.

References Borruso G. (2010), La 'nuova cartografia' creata dagli utenti. Problemi, prospettive, scenari, Bollettino A.I.C., n. 138.

Ciotti F., Roncaglia G., (2000), Il mondo digitale. Introduzione ai nuovi media, Laterza, Roma-Bari, p. 28.

Craig D. (2012), The Next Dimension of Google Maps https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/3dwh/-GQj7OlZshA (last reference 2nd May 2013).

Garzino G., (2011), Drawing (and) Information. Polytechnic drawing, Maggioli, Santarcangelo di Romagna, p. 15.

Giorda C., (2006), “Il cammino della cartografia dall’astrazione al paesaggio: la Terra vista da Google Earth” in Atti del 48° convegno Nazionale Associazione Italiana Insegnanti di Cartografia, Art Decò, Campobasso, p. 250.

Lo Turco M., Garzino G., Vozzola M., (2011), The drawings design realized by parametric computer systems, in: Improve – Innovative Methods in Product Design, Venice 15-17th June.

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Paths descriptive of urban complexity Lia Maria Papa

UniversitĂ degli Studi di Napoli “Federico IIâ€?

DICEA - Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale E-mail: lmpapa@unina.it

Keywords: Multilayer complexity, use, urban path, visual models.

Introduction In view of current research involving different disciplinary expertise, city represent a fertile field of analysis and experimentation.

The agreement between these two terms, recalls a path, both methodological and operational, oriented on an hand to the interpretation motivated, widespread and therefore sensory, about places, events and phenomena. All issues that characterize the transformations of urban contexts, with the consequent management of its information.

At the same time, this agreement would explore the utilities of the most advanced technologies and digital forms of communication, related to the development of images domain, able to create experiences engaged in a dialogue between real and virtual matters, to generate forms and places available in cyberspace, using resources and existing networks.

The synthetic declination made above completes itself main disciplinary implications and intersections that, in several geographical and cultural contexts, help to build a palette of experiences referred to the identification of a collection of environmental specificities and related procedural records.

Indeed, while research in the issue of virtual modeling recently had slow but steady developments, there is still much to investigate, in my opinion, in the field of urban survey, although much has been said and written as result of important studies, among which include, for example, those conducted in Turin, by Dino Coppo and Pina Novello, or Naples, by Adriana Baculo.

The future work to do comes from the fact that the contemporary city expresses more and more the concept of complexity in both its positive meaning of diversity and stream dynamism and in the negative one about entropy generated by the dissipation of resources, including cultural and inability to manage the multiplicity of relations between spaces of ancient plant and an increasing number of functions and articulate, expressed also by the varied composition of its users / stakeholders.

In the forma urbis of contemporary cities there is in fact a sedimentation of physical built structures of the built, joined to a constellation of intangible cultural values and common symbols from which, in a analysis

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stage and thanks to a more widespread awareness about this issue, can not be ignored, and that inevitably involves visual science and representation matters.

As though any science, these ones work first of all in order to objectively analyze the physical reality with tangible, quantitatively and qualitatively measurable features defined by technical based images, founded on scientific principles and connotations of established norms.

This approach is essential for the knowledge and understanding of urban space and the development of its models, in order to ensure operational usability and possible, consistent planning actions.

But such graphic or infographic tools and their norms defined to create the immediate correspondence with the real object, undeniably are not adequate to describe the varied configurational and using features of the urban changes that occurred over time, related to the natural and human matters and documented by several informations from diverse, both quantitative and qualitative.

Complexity and Hybridization The sixties of the last century were impregnated by a clear and fertile amplitude of views in knowledge studies, demonstrated by essays such as those of Gombrich, Ancona, Panofsky, Arnheim.

A notional sensitivity was developed, turned to problems of wider cultural parterre, afoot of interesting disciplinary insights. This sensibility directed a series of studies that revisit and actualize more often episodically the image of the city in all its aspects of hybridization, spatially and expressively, linked to the cultural and social evolution. This ones in fact determined a complexity and density of urban places made of signs not always decodeable, innervated in more often conflicting tensions, rich of relational thick, but also not empty of meaning so effectively described

by Marc AugÊ in his studies (Augè M., 2009).

It seems appropriate to briefly consider the meaning of the word hybrid, concerning its connection with such contents, despite having origins in genetics matters, as a result of a join between two different qualities from which they can derive two outcomes: infertility and the so-called vigor ibrido, i.e. a particular propensity for resistance and the strengthening of the characteristics of a species resulting from the hybridize (Fenton J., 1985). So, hybrid urban places acquire the same characteristics attributed to the selection that is consolidated in the outcome of vigor ibrido. These ones have that winning qualities in terms of ability to meet the demands of urban modernity to transform them into specific and integrated formal units in the cultural landscape.

The sense of place perception changes to the way it is projected by the people. It is therefore always historically situated and invested by new meaning, with a continuous cultural stratification. Therefore it derives the possibility, widely practiced today, to influence this value with appropriate communication policies and management infrastructures, including intangible assets.

Borrowing these practises the representation of the city, in its transpositions virtual connotations ever more spectacular, with catchy expressions that create consensus and involvement, arousing desires and aspirations.

For this reason, some studies are interesting in order to analyze the quality of te spaces by their join with sales network, or even some anthropological and sociological studies demostrating, however, how technologies partecipate not extend a cognitive, instinctual and emotional potential but to feed the culture of things against a culture of people, promoting the fluctuation of the information in a huge semiotic decontextualized place.

The theme of the image, which undeniably appoints also reflections and experiences about aesthetics, as well as the relationship between art and technology, including technical issues and communication, tends to make less strict the cognitive approach and the declination of a speculative, mutisensoriale and multiresolution path, emphasizing the outcomes as a function of the overall size achieved by the integration between different languages and techniques.

In relation to these aspects, the visual graphics creates a fertile environment for interaction and sharing and, as speculative as meaning, it also becomes a place where relations theory vs transmission of knowledge represent forms that help to describe the space and its transformations with never overlooked

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or unspoken ways of communication, exploring the possibilities to coordinate, systematize and manage the different forms of data resulting from the analysis of places.

Surveying over the limit The urban organism is symbolically and functionally evoked by one of the oldest, synthetic and technically meaningful graphical representations: the map. Map represents the dimensioned transposition by projection on a plane in order to give a fundamental topographic transcription, carried out with a basic level of information, which lends itself to a series of visual processing, diachronic and synchronic, 2D and 3D, thanks to which the urban reality appears more immediately comprehensible in its objective articulation of solids and voids, in the permanence of its planar tissue, explained or just evoked.

The essential topological part of a map not only allows to formalize, in terms strictly structural and consequently comparable, the relations of continuity and spatial and functional contiguity between morphological demonstrations sometimes seemingly very different. Maps could also describe, with appropriate conventions and graphical strategies, signs of urban transformations and its places in historical time and its cyclical rhythms, involving thick material that irrefutably contributes to denote the overall cultural dimension.

Beyond the ontological and epistemological implications that follow reflections about the meaning of map as a tool of representation and form of knowledge, technological development for communication and sharing urges and makes possible a new interpretation and understanding of places. Not only we can see the city by bird’s eye view - giving furthermore to the roofs of buildings, a new central aesthetic role - and play with the viewing distance, but even it is now possible to explore specific places or buildings, estrudendoli from their area of site plan.

However, these calculations are often unknown to the everyday use of space, avoiding to the imaginative total expressions of the eye and the mind, or merely evoking what is beyond a limit over the visible.

Those who live daily the city, starting from the threshold of termination of visibility, are at street level, often as pedestrians who fail to get the space as a whole, in its relationship between full and empty of a deducible configuration. People that contribute to write city as a urban text without often be able to read and interpreate it (De Certeau M., 2001).

The spatial partitions captures the semantic pregnancy and psychological perception of concepts and categories of paths that refer to the characteristics of their existential space organized between a series of focal points connected by memorable paths (Lynch K., 1990).

All about now explained can be understood as description of paradigms of urban complexity, starting point in order to experience research pathways that concretize the cognitive need to create narratives able to preserve multiple interpretations (Papa L.M., 2003). In the underground, we know, history is better preserved, but we can’t fully understand it and not be made it as a sharer of this slow, gradual maturity of thought and awareness that, perhaps more than the written history, allow the evolution of a culture.

From this meaning, however, on several occasions declined by the author (Papa L.M., 2005), follows the rethinking of the definition of the concept of practice, which must be consistent and agreed with the meaning of urban text and discourse, rich in places of registration, erosion of signs and values, and therefore subject to progressive interpretations and reinterpretations, with a continuous becoming too descriptive outcomes. The tool is the survey, that is procedurally and expressively enriched to know not only the connotations of spatio-temporal artifacts and urban spaces delimited by them, but also to understand the relational qualities, methods of use, accessibility, physical and perceptive use, operating at different scales.

The signs of that instance occurring in our matters, derive from different skills and attitudes, and also, in an immediate and significant way, from artistic practises that are common in public spaces, and they try to delete the different urban surfaces and boundaries for an evocation and involvement of perception, anamorphic, of the underworld.

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Figure 1,2: Anamorphic experiences conducted by Julian Beever, the "street" artist called Pavement Picasso The rejection or ignorance about the layering, consequence of cultures and construction techniques developed over a wide time span, promotes a cyclic segmentation in city’s descriptive layers that imperceptibly and often unconsciously, transform tangible bodies of the city and the territory, synthesis of events and established practices, in partitions of facts and processes by which the difficulty / surrender, to give an material and immaterial unified view, carries out.

Thanks to different several images - the sketch done on an urban scale in order to interpret habitats, the photography, the pattern of Mongian section, the virtual model - i can evoke a perceptual and conceptual path that unfolds between upper city and its underground.

In particular, images define some connotative aspects of a strong presence in the city, represented by a sixteenth century Neapolitan street - Via Toledo - that binds the oldest part of the city to areas of urban expansion (Figs. 3-8); these images are able to direct a cognitive and multisensory path.

Along this axis was recently completed subway station designed by Spanish architect Ă“scar Tusquets.

During its construction of this work, which has three discrete exit points with the topsoil, part of the spanish fortification of late fifteenth / beginning of the sixteenth century came to light. This stonewoerk, revealing traces of basements attributable to construction projects promoted by Pedro from Toledo to mark the opening of the road, encompasses structures from the Roman era of tufa blocks with brick bands, probably relevant to a spa building dating from the second century before Christ.

The design scheme of the section is technically and communicatively powerful, , synthesizing the volumetric articulation totally embedded below the road level, from wich an artifact, a sort of periscope, emerges in order to allow the pedestrian to imagine the underground complex volume that manifests itself instead to the user with an explosion of colors and lights, helping to heal atavistic repulsion related to the dark, to the underground, to the unknown.

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Figures 3-8: Visual descriptions of an urban path, including its above and underground layers.

Atlas of paths, search paths The study about the path / node, as significant system from the morphological, typological and functional point of view, can then define a concrete research issue on urban transformation.

Presenting significant metric features and rich psychological andbehavioral connotations, paths can represent some interpretative paradigms that lead to explore limits and potentialities of the related cognitive analysis, from a quantitive and qualitative point of view, in order to assess the need to establish appropriate models of integration about knowledge and procedures thought to accelerate the transformation from 2D in 3D data. Data that can be used in a web-based form, and then to describe not only outcomes but processes and data management architectures, but also to build a set of comparable practises.

This leads us to operate in a diachronic and synchronic logic, also multi-scalar, about generated, used and perceived spaces, with a progression-acceleration of sensory experiences and stories relating to different conditions of use, in different languages.

Research challenges conducted in the Department of Civil Engineering, Construction and Environment, University of Naples Federico II (Papa L.M., D’Agostino P., 2012) concern about these issues, some of which in operative partnership with the Government Departments involved, Professional associations and local government. All these stakeholders are involved concerning their specific several expertise, sensitivity and needs. But with such stakeholders, researchers have to interface in order to design a constructive way to document and understand the urban space and its multilevel use orienting congruent design choices. In short, in order to give a more extensive, depth, integrated use of the urban survey.

The practice of the survey, as a system of disclosure of generative and relational processes, tries to verify the different layers of an interactive complexity that built city sets with the its historicized side. At the same time, survey allows to evaluate its proactive role, in order to detect, illustrate and verify forms and also to adopt the better models of restitution and communication necessary to, synergistically, overcome atavistic difficulties in perception, in understanding and evocation of the e material depth involved in

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analysis. In his stratum are layered buildings above ground, some utilities, infrastructure and structures in the underground, which should be carried out continuously updating documentary.

I think that this methodological approach should be able to reinforce a focus, based on the analysis of the several thematic and scalars layers. These layers contemplates the relationship between users-actors of the urban scene and the composition of the area, suggesting stages that progressively enrich practical and perceptual qualities. A system able to unfold the urban tale, starting from its zenithal representation that integrates the information in order to evoke even the underground architectures and their size.

Everything discussed above represents a field of research still in progress, in which it is appropriate to work with a multidisciplinary methodology, in order to decline cognitive paths, motivated and functional to several cultures and sensitivities of different users.

Figure 9: overhead view of a street in the hilly area of Naples, with the node Piazza Vanvitelli and the metro station referred to it.

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Figures 10-13: Consecutive views with volumetric explorations for the definition of buildings curtain, for the cognitive approach to the underground space.

References Augè M., (2009), Nonluoghi. Introduzionne a una antropologia della sub modernità, Elèuthera.

De Certeau M., (2001), L’invenzione del quotidiano, Roma: Edizioni Lavoro, p.145,146.

Fenton J., (1985), Hybrid Buildings, Pamphlet architecture n. 11, p.7.

Lynch K., (1990), Progettare la città: La qualità della forma urbana, Etaslibri, Milano.

Papa L.M., (a cura di), (2003), Disegno e disegni dei percorsi urbani, Cuen, Napoli.

Papa.L.M., (2005), Linguaggio descrittivo e qualità urbana, in Atti del Quinto Colloquio Internazionale di Studi (XVII Ingegraf-XV ADM),Siviglia,1-3 giugno 2005.

Papa L.M., D’Agostino P., (2012), La città contemporanea e le architetture ipogee.

Percezione e rappresentazione, in: Atti della Giornata Internazionale di Studio “Abitare il nuovo/abitare ai tempi della crisi”. Napoli, 12-13 dicembre 2012, Napoli: Clean, p. 1189-1199.

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Orientation Maps to reform Sensitive Areas in Informal Settlements Urban frequencies to reconfigure highly entropic landscapes Raffaele Pè Politecnico di Milano DAStU - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies E-mail: raffaelepex@gmail.com

Massimo Della Rosa Politecnico di Milano DAStU - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies E-mail: : max.della@gmail.com

Keywords: urban morphogenesis, reversible process management in architecture, informal settlements

1. Introduction Informal settlements in some of the major contemporary metropolis, demand the understanding of sitespecific spatial practices related to the anthropological images (Lévi-Strauss C.,1958) that their inhabitants acknowledge of available urban spaces, in order to establish effective operations of architectural transformation and inclusion. Re-configuration in space and time for such congested environments happens according to fluid processes of adaptation and compaction, which are detected among typical constructive behaviors within their geographic and cultural background.

Permanence and history in informal settlements are accidental as quite often land appropriation and actions of micro-colonization happen according to self-generated non-linear performances. However, these sensitive areas assume the quality of urban thresholds between formal and informal morphologies, along which architecture can play a role of urban adaptor for the construction of shared and livable landscapes within the city.

These places feature similar characteristics to the acoustic space theorized by Marshal McLuhan in his idea of the “global village” (McLuhan M., 1969) . The space of the acoustic transmission of information is horizontal, continuous and enfolding. The construction of shared imaginaries can only happen through subjective and spontaneous participation, according to temporal sequences which are simultaneous at times and convoluted.

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Within this framework of complexity, this research establishes the role of the map as the artistic operator that can retain a condition of reciprocity between multiple sequences of mobile elements within the landscape, controllable design variables, and places, in order to recreate ambiences of minimum harmonic meaning in a state of multidimensional compression. Entropy in this research is not perceived as the domain of the unfathomed chaos but it is field of possibility for architecture to tune morphological ambitions and corporeal dynamics with greater efficacy and precision.

Urban languages in current cities invite to master design driven processes with a new musical (Eco U.,2012), awareness. Recurrent frequencies in space and in time as a new generation of natural interfaces (Alexander C., 1967) can be employed as active forms of sense making assisting the immersion of people in uncharacterized places. The livability of a building or a settlement can be implemented insisting on the relevant reversible and irreversible processes that allow the existence of their very physical structure.

Embracing an idea of a pulviscular architecture of inner forces and exchanging potentials(Formaggio D., 1990), immersive maps are then organized following three stages of analysis and filtering. Recognition, nomination, and synchronization are the steps required to the design process to manage the pace of the strings of elements involved in the composition, contributing in the architectural definition of an inhabitable and commutative geographical skin.

Bringing the examples of a study focused on the African case of the capital of Tanzania Dar Es Salaam, produced in collaboration with Laboratorio Misura e Scala, Politecnico di Milano - DaStU, this essay will present a prototypes which reflects on the compositional possibilities of scenario design to implement openness in the contracted space of these urban enclaves.

2. Stochastic spatialization of moving objects The conception of orientation maps is presented in this paper as a design method to approach the reconfiguration and transformation of informal urban settlement.

Orientation maps exploit an idea of stochastic spatialization of geometric values deduces from an anthropological study of historic agricultural settlements. This operation allows the definition of codes of propotional release of the condition of congestion and compaction which often characterizes suburbs and sensitive areas in our metropolis.

We refer to the term urban stochastic to identify the perspective of the architectural project when focused on these type of built environment. Architecture is required in fact to operate in the territory of precarious landscapes with temporary and moving variables and discontinuous morphologies.

This condition can be noted particularly in suburban areas and irregular settlements within contemporary metropolis, where the very elements which constitute the built environment qualify its geography in a provisional way.

The project then needs to foster design tools which allow to inform mutually related measurements and tracings between agents according to criteria such as flexibility and dynamism.

The orientation map represents then a matrix of several design scenarios which are interrelated through temporal frequencies of architectural objects following measures and spatial qualities derived from the anthropological image of primitive settlements.

Improvisation and motion become controllable variables of an urban project of local reconfiguration, replicating the informality and the elusiveness of these irregular territories. The original spatial culture of a population, together with the singularity and the exceptions of the topography they inhabit are intertwined to make public spaces in liminal areas more recognizable and livable.

3. Recognition of the anthropological image at the metropolitan scale Revisiting the study undertaken by LĂŠvi-Strauss in the text Anthropologie Structurale about the perceptive and ritual origin of the consolidated human settlements, the anthropological image of a place describes an

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intuitive mechanism of organization of the inhabited spaces and its relationship with its environmental social context of civic aggregation.

The anthropological image is influenced by shared spatial behaviors and local traditions of appropriation and transformation of the territory.

The case study of the South American village of Bororo, the programmatic disposition of the principal dwellings belonging to diverse social groups follows a very precise sequence which allowed the inhabitants to recognize their roles within the society as well as the places surrounding the village to be characterized and oriented. The village is a geographical skin that traces and describes the topography of its own territory.

In complex and discontinuous processes of urbanization – such as the ones that distinguish the most degraded and informal parts of our cities – the morphology of the settlements do not always retrace the typical outlines of a rooted anthropological image as a tool of characterization of their architectures.

Such condition do not implement a sense of inhabitability of the place, as in this territory the typical signs of the traditional procedure of organization of the settlement are not recognizable anymore.

If we think that cities of recent urbanization such as, in Africa, the capital of Niger, Niamey, or in Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam, we can easily notice an additional problem. Even in those areas where spontaneous settlements seem to maintain similar morphological characteristics to traditional and historic villages, the space resulting from the parceling of the land struggle to achieve a communal connotation of public spaces, due to the uncontrolled metropolitan scale of the district.

This research intends to present architectural solutions to the issues related to inter-scalarity and intersomaticity of informal settlements for which, the anthropological image – or the original rhythm (Fornari F., 1984) of the collective spaces of the settlements is recombined in minimal units of urban meaning, to recreate a corporeal resonance with the new metropolitan frequencies.

The orientation map is here illustrated as a meta-design tool for the agogic definition of new units of urban meaning, for their synchronization with the infrastructural rhythms of the metropolitan scale, in harmonic relationship with the slower and smaller measures that configure their primitive anthropological image.

4. Protocol of orientation The protocol of orientation requires three stages of study and manipulation of the existing urban forms in resonance with the anthropological image of historical settlements. The process aims to formalize the structure of a new urban development according to an idea of agogic interchange between the space perceived and the one experienced.

Such method is based on a morphological and dynamic recombination of the elements and the measures that characterize original settlements with the geometric rhythms and the frequencies of the metropolitan scale.

The three stages are named as follows: recognition, editing, synchronization.

During the first phase (Fig. 1), the elements of the anthropological image and the ones that characterize the topography of the city are recognized, selected and employed as recurrent geometric variables, indicating precise scopes and periods. This operation leads the project toward a preliminary comparison between the units that constitutes the anthropological image of the historic settlement with the principal topographic drivers of urban growth and transformation (green infrastructure, water, infrastructural systems etc.).

The editing of the variables is a conceptual action of assemblage of the morphologies taken into account during the phase of recognition, in order to establish an semantic interdependency of the measures and the rhythms between original forms and topographic objects. Through this design procedure a new set of urban units emerge from the fragments of recognizable settlements.

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Figure 1. The making of the orientation map: recognition and editing

Figure 2. The making of the orientation map: tuning and synchronization

In the third phase of synchronization (Fig. 2), the morphogenetic orientation of the new urban type are defined embracing within the manipulation of the formal variables the chrongraphic condition of the project. The development of informal settlements is imagined as a sequence of immersion, guided by the discovery of units of urban meaning along the path.

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From the performance of the these three phases a multidimensional map is outlined with a direct reference to the geography of the place. The map intertwines the geometric values of the anthropological image with the harmonic instances of the urban sprawl.

The map follows a scenario design approach for which the topography is represented in its kinetic and diachronic condition, as a programmed sequence of orientation for the immersion in informal and sensitive areas.

5. Modes of synchronization and tuning Among the compositional issues related to the synchronization of the unitary semantic material, a question of compatibility of the morphological nuclei with the consolidated structure of the urban settlement.

The matter of the inter-scalarity of the new development is managed in this research through a gradient of formality which organizes the disposition of the units according to rules of diffraction, refraction and reflection of the architectural objects along the district path.

The new urban type retraces its shape in tune and synchrony with the tones and the times of the historic dwellings at the new metropolitan scale. For this reason the gradient coordinates the progression of the tonal quality of the public space, while the rules of “energetic� repercussion of the architectural interventions arrange the rhythm of the constructions of such development.

The gradient provides an order for the local and internal configuration of the urban projects in relation to attraction and proximity of the variables for topographic orientation.

The phase of synchronization allows to localize the interventions necessary to a musical development of the growth and transformation of these sensitive territories. Diffraction, refraction and reflection enact three modes of the repercussion of the project in the form of three geometric variations of this articulation when the variables meet emerging topographic condition of the place.

The spatialization of the anthropological values of the settlement at the metropolitan scale embodies a reversible and generative behavior of deviance which leads the project toward the characterization of the place for imitation and modulation.

6. Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, a case study The first informal settlements in the capital of Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam, have been detected during the colonial period, from the second half of the 19th Century. Due to a remarkable increase of the number of inhabitants in the town, at the beginning of the 20th Century a severe inefficiency in controlling the informal sprawl can be noted. Since then, the urban growth was concentrated following a radial model along the main infrastructural routes, from the waterfront toward the inland (Shane G., 2011).

As a result of a morphological and sociological survey of the geography of Dar Es Salaam, the territory of the informal appropriation is characterized by a large variety of different land uses, including atelier, receptive services, agricultural features and residential enclaves. Dwellings have risen spontaneously, often in areas which were not designed for residential use. These settlements are normally managed and administrated by local clans, according to mutual agreements and private contracts.

The inhabitants generally comes from an agricultural background, typical of the villages of the countryside, and they are attracted by the economic possibilities of development offered by the urban conglomeration.

The control of the informal and irregular growth of the city represents a necessary action against the degrade and the degeneration of certain critical urban districts. However, the natural development of such settlements outlines persisting morphologies of the rural villages which often embodies characters of livability because their spatial setting are recognizable for their inhabitants. It is the new scale of the metropolis which makes more difficult to preserve the original identity of the informal settlement. This condition requires specific design strategies to recombine existing elements with the instances of the urban transformation.

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In order to understand the spatial structure of such settlements, this design experiment tries to select and nominate the principal variables and measures which identify the informal enclaves in Dar Es Salam. At the same time, the analysis of the topography of the city highlights the drivers of urban growth and transformation.

The variables are catalogued in the first part of the orientation map as in figure 1, as well as the drivers which are listed at the bottom left of the board.

In particular, path, margins and enclaves are described in their different qualities according to the anthropological image of the rural village which refers to the Central Cattle Patter model, derived from the Twana tradition. Green armatures, rivers and water system, and grey infrastructure (metropolitan, district and tracks) are acquired as major driver of urban change.

Anthropometric variables and drivers are interpolated, describing five semantic units of urban spatiality at the metropolitan scale: access in series, facades, promenade, gardens, cluster of dwellings. A gradient of formality is then informed to geometrically coordinate the combination of the units in respect to proximity and attractiveness of the drivers. A general design strategy for the project establishes the relevance of the proximity of public spaces to water features and green armatures, while ateliers and spaces for the products tend to connect to major grey infrastructures and routes. On this basis private access and gardens as well as semi-public areas are distributed on the location of the new development.

Finally, in the last part of the orientation map (Fig. 2), all the steps of analysis and design are interrelated.

The gradient of formality works together with the reconstruction of an urban frequency for the architectural interventions. The periodic reiteration of meta-project creates a musical language of irregular rhythms which sustain the “bass line� of the urban system in accordance with the measures and the rhythms of the original rural villages.

7. Conclusions and perspectives The paper intends to outline some strategic element for the reform and the transformation of sensitive areas in highly entropic territories (informal enclaves).

The singularity and the uniqueness of the anthropological image of the historic settlements is analyzed in order to extrapolate innate measures and spatial qualities belonging to a specific construction culture for the characterization of the urban territory at the metropolitan scale.

The orientation map aims to mediate and recombine parts and measures of the anthropological image which is ingrained within the morphology of the informal enclaves at the scale of the urban sprawl. This strategy is based on the detection and the manipulation of the topographic features of the places which define controlled variations of the geometry of the new urban morpho-type.

Tuning and Synchronization of the new semantic units for urban reform are located along the principal lines of percolation according to a kinetic and performative perspective on the public space of the city.

The assemblage of the variables in unitary nuclei is affected by the gradient of formality which produces varied scenarios and spaces of immersion in relation to the topographic condition of that geography.

In particular, the synchronization refers to energetic modes of diffusion and dissipation of the signals and the rythms of the architectural body of the new urban type. The periodic repercussion of the designed objects produces a musical and dynamic method for the morphogenetic definition of the public realm of the city.

Future perspectives of this research focus on the application of a similar design method for the making of orientation maps in respect to the idea of heterotopia presented by Graham Shane after Focault [9] and within the immaterial and inclusive realm of the city of networks and digital interchanges.

Finally, in order to validate the method, a series of trial projects on different geographical and anthropological contexts should be informed. This approach allows to define and qualify informal areas over the ampler category of the sensitive urban enclaves, which is an emerging issue extremely popular in Europe as well as among the Countries of the tempered zone.

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References Alexander C., (1967), Note sulla sintesi della forma, Il Saggiatore, Milano.

Eco U., (2012), Scritti sul Pensiero Medievale, Bompiani, Milano.

ESPON Nomenclature 2009, European Spatial Planning Observation Network.

Formaggio D., (1990), Estetica Tempo Progetto, CittĂ Studio, Milano.

Fornari F., (1984), Psicoanalisi della Musica, Longanesi, Milano.

LĂŠvi-Strauss C., (1958), Anthropologie Structurale, Plon, Paris.

McLuhan M., (1969), Understanding Media, Routledge, London.

Shane G., (2011), Urban Design since 1945, Wiley, London.

Steyn G., (2012), Ideological and Topological Parallels in pre-Colonial Tswana and Swahili Architecture, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria.

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The spread of Street Art in the South of China Reflecting on the first Chinese generation subject to the cultural processes of globalization Francesco M. Terzago

Politecnico di Milano DAStU - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies E-mail: francesco.terzago@gmail.com

In this research Chinese Street-art is described through urban Sociology and Philosophy point of view.

The city is the place of intellectual activity (Simmel), thus the Street-art represents the tool for artists' spirit affirmation. The survey is a qualitative data collection and describes: Chinese legislative context which favours Street-art spread, if we compare it to the ones of other countries. The linguistic context, where English is used by young Chinese artists to gain access to Western knowledge. The economic context, PRC is aware of nowadays Consumerism habits. This work ends by proposing the Street-art as one of emerging evidences of a new kultur, which is inseparable from globalization processes. In order to write the essay, I spent two years in the Guangdong area, thanks to a scholarship of the University of Padua.

Keywords: Street-art, China, Globalization

1. Introduction This paper will deal with the following topics: 1) The Chinese legislative context, which favours the spread of Street Art, compared to the situation in other countries. 2) The linguistic context, where English is used by young Chinese artists to gain access to Western knowledge. 3) The economic context: the People’s Republic of China is aware of nowadays consumerism habits. 4) This work ends by proposing Street Art as one of the emerging evidences of a new kultur1, which is inseparable from the process of globalization.

This research describes the spread of Street Art in the People's Republic of China. Street Art in China is a marginal phenomenon and concerns, in particular, the most important cities on the East coast, as well as 1

According to Spengler we can believe that Western Countries have gone through the zivilisazion Era (or are experiencing it) and the contemporary phase of history is the rising of a kultur (or the overlapping of this kultur to our zivilisazion) that I call globalization kultur. In this case, determining the characteristics of that same kultur is difficult because, in Spengler’s philosophical theory, only during the zivilization Era it is possible to describe the kultur that has caused, originated the same zivilisation «[...] mentre tramontiamo, vediamo il nostro declino. Il nostro sguardo e rivolto alla storia, la nostra capacita di scrivere storia, sono segni rivelatori del fatto che il cammino scende verso il basso» «While we fade we see our decline. Our eyes are turned to history and our ability to write history are telltale signs of the fact that our path goes down» Spengler O. (2008, Der Untergang des Abendlandes 1918), Il tramonto dell'Occidente (Decline of the West), Longanesi, Gravellona Toce.

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the largest economic centres of the country: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing are some considerable examples.

2. What is Street-Art? It is well known that Street Art was born in the U.S.A. around the end of the Seventies and in the first decade of the Eighties in New York. The most important artists of this season were Kaith Hering, Paolo Buggiani, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ken Hiratsuka [2].

To understand the spread of Street Art in China we have to consider that Street Art is the artistic phenomenon that has changed the look of the city, yet its positioning and its production weren’t decided by the city government, nor the politicians or the urban planners. For a better understanding of the definition of Street Art I'm going to propose two different examples: on the one hand Banky’s career that, in general, is the career of a proper Street Artist because it has been, in most cases, characterized by deliberate disregard of authorities’ restrictions; on the other hand we have a case of ambiguity, the requalification project of the Corvetto flyover «Corvetto Square flyover in Milan has changed its look with [...] the decoration made by Dutch Street Artist Zedz. [...] The work has been carried out through a series of innovative coats of painting developed on a surface of 1,500 square metres, in Japan. The paint used, for which Milan town council allocated 50 thousand Euros, creates a repellent graffiti-proof effect and makes surfaces unassailable and easily washable. Renovation works lasted eight months.2» The expressive language adopted by artist Zeds is the language of Street Art, but his intervention was decided by the urban government, according to the urban plan. We can consider the first case, Banksy’s, as a proper case of Street Art, and the second, Zedz’s, as a commissioned intervention of Public Art or, according to Kwon’s definition, as a case of «“mainstream public art” [...] the specific category of art that is typically sponsored and/or administered by city, state, or national government agencies, in whole or in part. It involves bureaucratized review and approval procedures that are outside the museum or gallery system and often engage numerous non-art organizations, including local community groups, private foundations, and corporations.» (Kwon M., 2002).

3. The Chinese legislation The interviews that I collected3 during the last two years I spent in the Guangdong Province tell a story where Street-Art artists are not frightened by police intervention while they are bombing [6]. They explained to me that the only thing that a Street-Art artist cannot do is describe, with his work, the political and social issues of the People's Republic of China of today. However, also in democratic Hong Kong, whoever promotes the use of Street-Art to disseminate critical political contents in regard to positions and choices of the Chinese Communist Party –– it was the case of the “Free Ai Wei Wei Campaign” - could get into trouble with the law enforcement and arrested for soiling. This was the case of two Leagues of Social Democrat protestants that, on the 8th May 2012, were arrested4. In the Chinese mainland, soiling usually involves only the payment of a fine, according to what American Street Artist Mels said on the official Sydney University blog “Art Space China” of the China Studies Centre: «There’s technically no law that says you can’t do graffiti. As long as the graffiti is not political I don’t think there are ever extremely dire consequences, and the way the police will act towards you all depends on how they’re feeling that day. If they want to power trip on you, you’ll have to pay 1,000 kuai or something, which is like US$150. The repercussions here are nowhere near those in the United States. So it’s easier to get involved in the scene» (Cornell, 2012).

2Anon.

(2011) La Repubblica Online http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/12/01/foto/corvetto_la_street_art_colora_il_cavalcavia-25932003/1/ last visit 25/04/2013 3 The Street Artists that I have interviewed asked me to be protected by anonymity 4 Anon. http://news.sina.com.hk/news/20110509/-1-2096489/1.html last visit 26/04/2013.

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Hence, as an example, I will quote the Italian and the US cases: in the United States, repression growth goes hand in hand with the spread of Street Art and graffiti; in Italy during the last Berlusconi's legislature we have seen tougher sanctions for those who used the street as a place of their expression, as well as the walls of cities and trains. The Italian Law forbids graffiti, tags, vandalism on public or private walls, buildings and goods: «Decree-Law No. 92 of 23 May 2008 (Maroni Decree) – converted into Law No. 125 of 24 July 2008 - “Urgent measures for public security” 1. With immediate effect, it is forbidden to create graffiti, paint, damage or commit acts of vandalism on walls and buildings, on private or public properties, like, for instance, cabins, gardens, benches, signage, urban equipment, vehicles, monuments, sports facilities. 2. With immediate effect, it is forbidden for all commercial actors and sellers in both private and public areas to sell spray paint cans to people under 18 (eighteen) years. These actors will have to note on an ad-hoc register, that will have to be shown to the judiciary police on request, the personal details of all of those who buy spray paint cans or similar goods that can be used to write on walls »5.

At this point it is necessary to mention the example of the city of New York, which, just thirty years before the last Berlusconi's Government, was endowed with the same juridical instruments and proposed politics that are comparable to those described in the articles I previously quoted. In addition, with regard to the activities of Street Artists at the expenses of train carriages, already in 1977 the Metropolitan Transportation Authority adopted a system for cleaning train carriages using an acid solution. The plant, which cost 400.000$, caused the closing of a school - students accused severe breathing problems - and in 1985 the workers employed in that plant received, directly from MTA, compensation for $ 6.3 million for health problems caused by exposure to these solvents. Again in 1985, in the whole territory of New York State, it was decided to ban the sale of spray cans to people under eighteen, and earlier in 1981 MTA had fenced in its yards, providing them with vigilantes6 (Mininno, 2008).

This attitude - which is on the one hand purely repressive, and on the other represents an attempt to institutionalize artistic Street-Art episodes by making them converge into specific paradigms demonstrates that Street Art and graffiti are, nowadays, true artistic phenomena that have become part of the mainstream culture. In the eyes of the politicians they represent something that cannot be ignored, and that - especially when they multiply and become incontrollable - must be brought under the authorities’ control (in a mainstream public art path). Perhaps it is for this reason - for the great ability of Street Art to modify the look of the places where we live - that its suppression proves harder in those countries where the culture of private ownership is more consolidated and the authorities embody the values of conservatism. Thus, Urban Art, in its traditional conception, would bear the aesthetic of authorities, as well as that of the dominant culture: «The identity and effectiveness of public art may be formulated starting from a number of remarks concerning the deficient critique outside art institutions [...] as well as the lack of evaluative reactions from the public in the areas where public art works are installed. As a consequence, in many public spaces we see both a decline of artistic practices, as well as the public art’s failure to create a public. “Public art” is also examined from the perspective of the establishment of the dominant culture by national galleries and modern art museums, which, through their own programmes, try to model the public’s reception of art. As a consequence, most commissioned public art in the West has privileged modernist and minimalist projects which would express “the freedom of thought and expression” of artists in an advanced liberal society.» (Gheorghe C. 2010).

4. The study of the English language in the People's Republic of China Since the end of the Seventies, the English language has become one of the pillars of Chinese Education (Boyle J. 2000). This was due to Zhou Enlai's economic reforms carried out by Deng Xiaoping, named Four Modernizations (Joochul K., 1988): agriculture, industrial development, defence and scientific research. These reforms envisaged to guarantee a long and durable economic growth. Therefore, for this Official Gazzette of the Italian Republic (2008) n. 173 del 25 luglio sempre nel 1985 nello stato di New York venne vietata la vendita delle bombolette spray ai minori di diciott'anni 7 To guarantee a B1/B2 (advanced low/advanced mid) level in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

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reason, the Chinese establishment decided to concentrate its efforts in the field of instruction to generate an élite of engineers and technicians able to understand the scientific code par excellence: the English code. This literacy process has started its fourth phase with the scholastic reform occurred in the Nineties of the last century: «The Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL7 education at the turn of the 21st century. The reform aims at modernizing EFL teaching on campuses, pushing it out of its traditional track and equipping it with a better technology. Great importance is given to communicative proficiency in cross-cultural exchanges. EFL national certificates are still important, but no longer a strict criterion for students to gain a degree. The situation has improved quite a lot, with better-equipped language labs for all regular classes and the invitation of more native-English-speaking teachers to help students with authentic spoken and written English.» (Zuo Llianjun, 2008). At this point it is indispensable to highlight that almost the totality of the interviewed Chinese Street Artists have an age included in the generation of those who were born from the end of the Eighties and the first half of Nineties (Jianxiu Kang, 1999). Therefore, for a birth right, they are included in a set that we can call: first global Chinese generation. In this paper this expression refers to those people who were born in the Eighties and Nineties and, as a result, nowadays we can benefit from the outcomes of the school reform of the Nineties. Unfortunately we have to exclude from this same set the rural population for which a certain level of education is still precluded.

Instead, we have to consider that this fourth phase of dissemination of the English language knowledge was the first one ever to imply the study of American culture and, as a consequence, the approach of school children to both the literature and history of that country. Over the last few years, more and more Chinese televisions have enriched their daily schedule with films in English and documentaries with subtitles in English, in Chinese or both (Boyle J., 2000) . Considering all this, it is easier to understand what was one of the factors that caused the spread of Street Art in China. Another equally important observation is that English is considered, by the Chinese school, as one of the main subjects of instruction, like Mathematics and the same Mandarin. English, Mandarin and Mathematics are the three most important subjects of university entrance examinations.

5. Consumerism in China The spread of Street Art in China is one of the symptoms of the participation of this country to the process of globalization: it is due, on the one hand, to the unique urbanization process that China has been undergoing over the last forty years8 comparable to the one that had distinguished the European countries during the years of the reconstruction after the Second World War9; on the other hand, it is due to the characteristics of the Chinese society – and more precisely to the weakening, started in the Eighties, of the hukou system and of the economic reforms. The household registration system (hukou) has been, from the end of the Fifties to present days, one of the main internal migration control strategies of the Chinese government. However, thanks to the economic reforms of the Eighties and Nineties, its power to control the movements of the Chinese population diminished: before the Four Modernizations Era and the liberalization10, hukou was the system used to chain citizens to their birthplaces and to guarantee to the Government of the People's Republic of China, in a Planned Economic context, the opportunity to plan the work career of its own citizens and, for the same reason, divide the population in two different macro-

According to Kim Joochul China was characterized by: first urbanization phase (1949-195 ), second urbanization phase (19581960), first anti-urbanization phase (1961-1965), second urbanization phase (1966-1971); and then a new urbanization phase that is ongoing. Kim Joochul (1988), “China's modernizations, reforms and mobile population” in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, December, Vol. XII, Issue 4, pp. 595–608.

9 Lyotard J. (1984) (first French edition 1979) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge - University Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. «Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as the postmodern age. This transition has been underway since at least the end of the 1950s, which for Europe marks the completion of reconstruction».

10 The PRC economic system is defined: Socialist Market Economy.

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groups: the rural population and the urban population. This has caused, for example in the Guangzhou area, a unique urban evolution that, in turn, has caused « a great number of villages at the fringes of the city to be swallowed up by urban development» (Yanliu L., de Meulder B, Wang S., 2011) . This rift survives in the present - the division between rural and urban population11 - , a present where the liquefaction of society12 (Bauman Z.,1998; Dawes S., 2011) has increased the economic differences between rich and poor people. About this issue it is important to say that the Chinese Gini coefficient was one of the highest in the world for the NBS13: in 2012 it was 0.474 according to the China Daily, «An index reflecting the gap between rich and poor reached 0.474 in China in 2012, higher than the warning level of 0.4 set by the United Nations»14. «In the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the incredible economic growth hasn’t had had any impact on the human development yet: great part of the population hasn’t received any benefit from the so called “economic miracle”. Since 1990, China has witnessed an increase in the disparity between urban and rural areas and within urban areas, as well as a low human development in large part of the rural population.» (Biggeri M., Gambelli H., 2008). In 2012, the urban population represented over half of the total population for the first time (Kam Wing Chan, 2012) China is experiencing nowadays what Europe had experienced at the beginning of the last century and at the end of the Nineteenth century and is described by Georg Simmel in “The Metropolis and The Mental Life” (Simmel G., 1900; Simmel G., 1976). The Chinese Street Artists that I met over the last two years are part of the urban middle and lower-middle classes and, at the same time, they are citizens of the most important economic centres of China. They got in touch with Street Art during their studies at the School of Fine Arts or during the last years of high-school. In Gunagzhou, for example, the School of Fine Arts represents the place where young adults – who come here from different cities - have the opportunity to compare their own different experience and tradition. These additional pieces of information may allow us to observe closely the social and cultural phenomena that concern China nowadays. The final goal of this paper is to propose a first overview of the phenomenon of Street Art, trying to understand the paradigm where Street Art could be collocated, and trying to comprehend differences and similarities between the two different realities represented by the Western and the Oriental worlds and, in the case of similarities, to understand their common origin: the processes of globalization.

6. Conclusion, Street Art in China and a new global kultur The spread of Street Art, in the case of China, is then a synonym of the country's opening to the rest of the world and to the processes of globalization. Moreover, the artists who practice Street Art in the PRC use their imagination according to the customs of the artistic field in Western Countries, because they belong to the first Chinese global generation I described above. In a season when Nations, the old institutions and their own narratives are going through a crisis, a rising kultur - the kultur of globalization – can meet the need for social belonging of young adults. Thus, the 'museification'15 process that Ibidem «[...] redistribution in China is modulated by the dual hukou system, which registers people by their birthplace with an urban or a rural hukou status. Citizenship/ villagership is the condition for accessing public/collective facilities in cities/villages. In other words, urban facilities are for citizens, not for ‘villagers’».

12 Zygmun Bauman: «Martin Jay [...] is of course right. The advent of ‘liquid modernity’ is anything but globally synchronized.

Passage to the ‘liquid stage’, like any other passages in history, happens in different parts of the planet on different dates and proceeds at a different pace. Also, what is crucially important, it takes place each time in a different setting since the sheer presence on the global scene of players who have already completed the passage excludes the possibility of their itineraries being copied and reiterated [...]. China is currently preoccupied with the challenges and tasks of the ‘primitive accumulation’, which are known to generate an enormous volume of social dislocations, turbulence, and discontent as well as to result in extreme social polarization. Primitive accumulation is not a setting hospitable to any kind of freedom whether of the producer, or of consumer variety. The course things are taking cannot but shock its victims and collateral casualties, and produce potentially explosive social tensions, which the up-and-coming entrepreneurs and merchants need to suppress with the help of a powerful and merciless, coercive state dictatorship».

13 National Bureau of Statistics of China.

14 Xin Hua (2013) China Daily. China Gini coefficient at 0.474 in 2012, January. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/201301/18/content_16140018.htm 15 From the Italian 'museificazione' 11

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characterizes civilizations gives space to oblivion and to new generating forces. This process is clearer in the cities, the intellectual places par excellence (Simmel G., 1900; Simmel G., 1976), where the marketing strategies and the language of advertising (Borghini S., Visconti L., Anderson L., and Sherry J. F. 2010) are more evident, and this is true also in China. There, whoever decides to start an artistic path in the field of Street Art will be influenced by this context. When I asked Chinese Street-Art Artists if they recognized Shufa16 as a viable form of Street Art, according to the definition of the second character of this paper, they would answer “no”, because they consider Street Art as something that belongs to the West.

However, to be more precise, we can add that Street Art belongs to a global kultur that is deeply rooted in the soft-power preponderance of the Anglo-American culture «Much graffiti, particularly the tradition of tagging originating from New York... provides a model for an individualised, highly mobile, geographically engaged subject that is not dissimilar from an ideal, late-capitalist consumer» (McDowell L. 2005) and in the spread of consumerism habits. Moreover, in China, the new generations are experiencing (someone of them since birth) this kind of conditions. At the same time the spread of Street Art can co-exist with an increased freedom of expression, and, in the case of China, with a private property culture that is not mature (constitutionally guaranteed only in China since 200417).

References Bauman Z., (Referring to) (1998), Globalization: The Human Consequences, Columbia University Press, New York.

Biggeri M., Gambelli H., (2008), Studi e note di economia. L'altra Cina. September, pp. 265-298.

Borghini S., Visconti L., Anderson L., and Sherry J. F., (2010), “Symbiotic Postures of Commercial Advertising and Street Art” in Journal of Advertising vol. 39, no. 3, Semptember, pp. 113-126.

Boyle J., (2000), “A Brief History of English Language Teaching in China” in IATEFL, n. 155, pp. 147155.

Cornell C., (2012), “Beast Mode Studios: graffiti China-style” in Art Space China, The University of Sydney http://www.artspacechina.com.au/?p=1314 - last visit 26/04/2013.

Dawes S., (2011), “The Role of the Intellectual in Liquid Modernity: An Interview with Zygmun Bauman” in Theory, Culture & Society Vol. XXVIII, May, Issue 3 pp. 130-148.

Gheorghe C., (2010), Theories and Uses in Common: Responses of Art in the Public Sphere, META: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, vol. II, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press, Iasi, Romania.

Jianxiu K., (1999), “English everywhere in China” in English Today Vol. XV, issue 2, April, pp. 46-48 (published online October 2008).

Joochul K., (1988), “China's modernizations, reforms and mobile population” in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 4, n. 12.

Kam Wing Chan, (2012), “Crossing the 50 Percent Population Rubicon: Can China Urbanize to Prosperity?” in Eurasian Geography and Economics, Bellewether Publishing, Ltd. Volume 53, number 1, January-February pages 63-86.

Kwon M., (2002), One Place After Another, Site-specific, Art and Locational Iidentity, The MIT Press, Cambridge.

Kim Joochul (1988), “China's modernizations, reforms and mobile population” in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, December, Vol. XII, Issue 4, pp. 595–608.

Lin Y., de Meulder B., Shifu W., (2011) “Understanding the Village in the City in Guangzhou: Economic Integration and Development Issue and their Implications for the Urban Migrant” in Urban Studies Vol. XLIIX (XVI), March, pp. 3583-3598.

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Traditional Chinese calligraphy, usually performed in the common place: squares, streets, parks etc.

Art. 13, Constitution of People's Republic of China «The state protects the right of citizens to own lawfully earned income, savings, houses and other lawful property. The state protects by law the right of citizens to inherit private property. »

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McDowell L., (2005) “Graffitimedia: How graffiti functions as a model for new media futures” in Proceedings of the Vital Signs Conference - National Conference of the School of Creative Media, RMIT, September pp. 6.

Mininno A., (2008), Graffiti Writing, Electa Mondadori Arte, Milano.

Official Gazzette of the Italian Republic (2008) n. 173 del 25 luglio.

Simmel G., (1900), (1976), The Metropolis and Mental Life The Sociology of Georg Simmel, New York: Free Press, New York.

Seno, E. (editor), (2010) McCormick C., Schiller Marc & Sara (collaborators), Wooster Collective (in collaboration with) - Trespass, a History of uncommissioned Urban Art, Taschen.

Various Authors, (2003) Style: Writing from the underground, (R)evolutions of Aerosol Linguistics, Nuovi Equilibri, Viterbo. «Saturating trains/other places abundantly with ones name».

Zuo L., (2008), “A recent history of teaching EFL in China” in Tesol Jurnal Vol. V, Issue 2, June, http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=1901&DID=11103 last visit 26/04/2013.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by Professor Giangiorgio Pasqualotto of Padua University who was my mentor for my bachelor degree in Fine Arts, with a thesis of Aesthetics of the Oriental world concerning the spread of Street Art. In order to understand the meaning of Street-Art phenomena, I contacted Professor Alessandro Mininno of Politecnico of Milan and the author of GRAFFITI WRITING, Mondadori Electa, as well as Paolo Buggiani, Street Artist who worked in New York, close to Keith Haring, JeanMichel Basquiat and Ken Hiratsuka. To understand the Cantonese area, Chen Rui was a good guide: he is a Chinese Street Artist, he showed me the most important Street-Art Hall of Fame in Guangzhou and he introduced me to the Street-Art community of that city.

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Virtual city today A brief note on contemporary virtual dwelling Maurizio Unali

Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” Dipartimento di Architettura E-mail: m.unali@mclink.net

The themes examined in this essay regard the subject of online virtual city in its multiply spatialisations and present the state of the art of the phenomenon and some interesting experiments in progress. The various declinations of the virtual city (from Active Worlds to Second Life) present us with interesting interdisciplinary workshops. Worlds to be inhabited through representations, that amplify and experiment with techniques of spatialisation, systems of visualisation and narrative methods that make use of interactivity, hypertext and simulation. My aim is to analyse the exploration and invention of a space of relation, to be experienced in multi-linearity and simultaneity, perceived through “fusion” rather than “distance” (prospective model), as part of an active fruition, far from the idea of the spectator who observes outside the scene.

Keywords: virtual worlds, virtual city, virtual living

1. Introduction The themes examined in this essay regard the subject of online virtual city in its multiply spatialisations and present the state of the art of the phenomenon and some interesting experiments in progress.

The various declinations of the virtual city (from Active Worlds to Second Life) present us with interesting interdisciplinary workshops. Worlds to be inhabited through representations, that amplify and experiment with techniques of spatialisation, systems of visualisation and narrative methods that make use of interactivity, hypertext and simulation.

My aim is to analyse the exploration and invention of a space of relation, to be experienced in multilinearity and simultaneity, perceived through “fusion” rather than “distance” (prospective model), as part of an active fruition, far from the idea of the spectator who observes outside the scene.

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This short note summarises selected results from a vast work of research (still underway) curated by the author – entitled L’architettura della Città Virtuale. Rappresentazione è Conformazione1 – and examining the multiple declensions of relationships between architecture and digital technoculture, in relation to the representation and conformation of inhabitable online environments.

2. The idea of the virtual I will begin by clarifying a few theoretical presuppositions underlying the research, beginning with the idea of the virtual city.

To architectural research and education, the idea of the virtual city may be studied, surveyed, designed and inhabited as a sort of infinite category of ideas, similar to a meta-design, present throughout the history of representation.

In relation to the historical-cultural period in which it is described, the virtual city presents itself in diverse configurations. From the “analog to the digital” there are countless examples from many different periods: the biblical metaphor of the Tower of Babel; the Ideal City of the Renaissance; the radical Archigram City; the Liquid City of the early third millennium, moulded by contemporary technoculture; pixel art and the game city (New York, Venice, etc.) designed by the Berlin-based collective eBoy: the info-aesthetic cities of Fumio Matsumoto; the configurations of cyberspace designed by Marcos Novak; etc.

Limiting ourselves to these observations reveals the natural virtual dimension inherent to the design of inhabitable spaces, in all of their conformations: for their intellectual, utopian and ideal dimension; for the creation of our existence in the so-called “real world”; for representing cyberspace; etc.

Freed from an exclusive link to the world of information technologies – which often conceals a banal mass media simplification – and liberated from the distracting dualism “analog-digital”, what emerges is the deeper, timeless meaning attributed in architecture to the term virtual; a potential interface of cognition-design present throughout the history of creativity, in all of its multiple declensions, from the arts to the sciences.

The structure of the research is fundamental: in didactic practices it helps trigger elaborative processes referred to historical approaches, decontextualised by passing fads; triggering laborious comparativerelational tasks for representing apparently antithetical meanings (real and virtual, antique and modern, etc.), dialectic couples that through contemporary culture can be integrated, made to recognise one another and create further images.

Contemporary virtuality, improved and “reinvented” by the information revolution and in part moulded by the “city of bits” (from social networks to virtual worlds), must be read as a direct continuation of this historical process, which not always constitutes a flight from reality, but perhaps an improvement of it; virtual, in this context, signifies above all “broadening the horizon”.

Updating studies of the virtual city, the greatest opportunity introduced by digital technoculture appears to lie in its contribution to broadening the capabilities of our senses to observe our everyday reality or our unconscious dreams, to forecast and design the world to come.

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The publications that synthesis this line of research – curated by the author, and which can be summed up in the title L’architettura della Città Virtuale. Rappresentazione è Conformazione (The Architecture of the Virtual City. Representation and Conformation) – witness to the participation, in various roles, of well-known scholars and young researchers, are: M. Unali, Pixel di architettura, ed.

Kappa, Rome 2001; Livio Sacchi and Maurizio Unali (eds.), Architettura e cultura digitale, ed. Skira, Milan 2003; “La Città Virtuale”, edited by M. Unali, in Various Authors, Dalle città ideali alla città virtuale. Viaggio nel mondo fantastico del Disegno dell’utopia, edited by Carlo Mezzetti, ed. Kappa, Rome 2005; M. Unali (ed.), Lo spazio digitale dell’architettura italiana. Idee, ricerche, scuole, mappa, ed. Kappa, Rome 2006; M. Unali (ed.), Abitare virtuale significa rappresentare, ed. Kappa, Rome 2008; M. Unali (ed.), New Lineamenta, ed. Kappa, Rome 2009; M. Unali, Atlas of Virtual City. Il disegno della città virtuale, fra ricerca e didattica, in publication. I also mention the important role of the website www.lineamenta.it (since 1999), an online laboratory for architectural drawing and design dedicated to communicating and experimenting with new models of representation conceived above all for digital space, in all of its multiple declensions. The site allows visitors to expand on the issues examined and access other information, from research to education.

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3. Didactics, drawing and utopia The significances to didactics of processes of ‘virtualisation’ present another issue of great interest.

For example, in the teaching of architectural design, the theme of the virtual city allows us to confront the complexity of the disciplines of representation with a broad and open mind, uniting the practical with the theoretical, techniques with methods; but also, in the more specific dimension of design as expression, from the representative and conformative, to the iconic and symbolic.

In the most interesting experiments in contemporary virtuality, representation, lightened of the load of being a “tool for”, is the space of design, it is free thinking; it triggers, verifies and experiments with new creative processes that introduce ideas for reconsidering the methods of modelling architecture and, in so ding, also re-launching the widespread practice of utopian design.

Concepts such as the ideal city, utopias, the avant-garde, through creative processes of evaluation, amplified and introduced by digital technoculture, thus find further significances, evolving the idea of architecture and its representations.

This appears to reinforce the choice to study the virtual city within the evolutionary context of inventive design and the creation of architectural utopias.

4. Dwelling ‘online’ Architecture, above all as the art and science of modifying space, has always been the ideal laboratory for experimenting with diverse conformations of dwelling; each period of human civilisation is characterised by its own idea of space and, as a consequence, by an equal number of ways of representing, designing and inhabiting it.

By extending the concept of dwelling, what transformations are induced by today’s idea of representing virtual space (digital in nature) – from the offline to the online of the World Wide Web? How is it evolving?

For the architect these themes prefigure a threshold of discovery and the conquest of a further space to be designed, generated by the dialogue between architectural culture and digital technoculture.

These ideas have transformed architectural thinking and triggered original sources of inspiration for research, renewing the traditional field of architectural application.

Architecture has thus expanded its confines toward extensive spaces, for the most part still undesigned, populated by various comunità e in need of thematic spaces to be inhabited online.

This is a territory for architecture similar to a landscape to be modelled, no longer definable as an abstract laboratory of experimentation, but instead as a space that belongs – even if with different characteristics – to the real, physical environment in which we live.

With a great deal of simplification, on the one hand we find the “real city” with its technological, multimedia setups, on the other the “virtual city” found on the Web; from the variable surfaces of urban media buildings, to the hypersurfaces of cyberspace, interactive surfaces of communication and information, an expression of one of the new “substances” of trans-modernity.

5. Exempla As it is emerging, the idea of the virtual city – a transposition through the technoculture of cyberspace of the significances we attribute to the concept of the city of the analog world, in historical tradition – presents us with interesting projects for virtual contemporary dwelling, defined in various typologies accessible online.

As one example, I present the denominations we employed to classify the results of a recent survey of architectural spaces created using digital technologies and accessible online.

They allow for a possibility to recognise the idea of a city, the design of a community, the values we attribute to models of associated life: the axonometric city; the alphanumeric city; the analog city or the avatar city; the online city of art, virtual museums and the city of music; the city of articulation; the city of

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assimilation; the city of cyberspace; cyberpunk city; the city of (virtual) conflict; the city of cooperation; the city to be constructed; the deconstructed city; the city of e-commerce; fantasy city; the city “city for kids” and the city of teenagers; ludens city; instant city; the “generative” city; the info-aesthetic city; the city of information; the legible city; the liquid city; sci-fi city; the city of sex; the city of substitution; the city of sport; the city of stratification; the city of superheroes; the city of techno-religion; the city of virtual tourism; the Uchronic city; etc.

To broaden and further investigate the survey of the virtual city, I suggest readers refer to the bibliography presented at the end of this text and to visit the website www.lineamenta.it.

6. Today In the world of research and education, as in everyday life, the risks of slipping into the banal rhetoric of cyberspace and becoming lost in the void of technology remain high.

Today, decades after the information revolution, many of the novelties presented by virtual worlds, nurtured by scholars, net gurus, architects and web designers, appear unable to maintain their full range of promises or, at least, not all that was taken for granted by many cyber-architects has come to pass.

In fact, we are forced to accept many results that differ from the opinions of the futurologists or passionate cyber-fans of 1990s who, during the hottest period of the information revolution, forecast a rapidly approaching future diverse from the idea of the city, made possible by the polyhedral potentials offered by the net and new technologies.

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Despite the countless conquests of understanding and the exceptional experiments to be found in many declinations of the virtual city, many of the design ideas presented continue to reveal technocultural shortcomings, some even “basic”.

Yet it is precisely from these considerations that we must start out again with renewed energy – in research, in education, in operative practice, as part of continuous process of interdisciplinary comparison – re-reading, above all, the best experiments, indicating the critical elements and highlighting possible evolutionary scenarios.

More precisely, we must delve on one hand into the work of historicisation, on the other into that of research and experimentation involving the idea of the virtual city, its role as a medium for expanding our vision and a laboratory for testing hypotheses of spaces – imaginary, symbolic, in which to design metaphors, place hopes, dreams, play with utopias, fantasies, to elaborate things that have been seen, heard and touched – inhabitable through representations. We are still far from a diffuse creative culture founded on models of representation, considered specifically for the characteristics of digital spaces.

Figure 1. The 2,5D City, survey rel. 2013, ed. G. Caffio. In this page details from: 23. Garth Sykes, Get out there - Queensland Government, web site 2009, www.getoutthere.qld.gov.au; 24. J.R. Schmidt, New York City, illustration 2012, http://cargocollective.com/jrschmidt/Lego-New-York; 25. SHD, Lost City Isometric, 2012, http://dribbble.com/shots/713514Lost-City-Isometric. 26. PLAYMOBIL Pirates, videogame for iPhone and iPad, Gameloft 2012; 27. Lords & knights, videogame for iPad and iPhone, XYRALITY 2011, http://lordsandknights.com; 33. Megapont, Oyster Tower, 2011, http://megapont.ru/pixel_art_41.html.

In the previous page: 27. New York online interactive map, http://youcity.com; 24. Shangai isometric map, http://shanghai.edushi.com.

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Figure 2. Second Life, survey rel. 2013, ed. A. Maiolatesi. In this page details from: 38. Tribute City Island, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/WW2 TRIBUTE/138/127/28; 43. Amusment park Hobo Island, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fossil Bay/69/134/62; 39. London Island, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/TARDIS/212/85/70; 44. Forgotten City Island, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forgotten City/200/178/80.

In the previous page: 05. Cocoon Island, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Strand/143/125/39/; 06. Installation titled “Circo Volante�, http://slurl.com/secondlife/MiC/179/211/38; 32 The Abyss Island, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The Abyss/96/136/237; 33. Munchkin Island, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Magic of Oz/128/137/24.

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The “familiar” dimension of the digital that unites at a universal scale – born as a democratic laboratory of connectivity at the urban scale, representing also one of he most evident transformations of the electronic era of the Global Village – and the promising “new frontier” of the virtual city, other than multiplying the number of its citizens (more and more often only clients, in a world of consumerism), has not always managed to promote innovative design ideas; an analogous fate awaited the evolution of the interactive representation of spatiality for videogames that, while improving systems of action and tools of interface and increasing profits, in terms of spatial research and its depiction has taken very few steps forward.

In other words, limiting the examination to these brief notes – the list could go on and on – the virtual city is now in an evident condition of stalemate.

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