We started DAY I with Pecha Kucha presentations of all of our admitted participants. Through almost twenty-five different perspectives across various disciplines – including geography, architecture, visual communication, anthropology, and more – we discovered common themes:
Political mobilization (class warfare, political violence, resistance, etc.)
(Lack of) commons (physical and spatial division, creating spaces of encounter, participatory design, green urban spaces, etc.)
Questions around housing (self-construction, squatting, etc.)
Demographic flux (revitalization, displacement, gentrification, eviction and dispossession, etc.)
Tactics (interventions, occupation, architectural play, social and artistic performance, digital possibilities, counter-narratives, etc.)
All these various topics with can be looked at under the broad theme of urban transformation referring to questions of knowledge production and enhancing an understanding of local ways of knowing and doing. How do we visualize this kind of data? How do we use data? How do we offer intuitive uses?
The methodological exploration in engaged ethnography is a topic, which connects the participants and workshop contributors. What are new ways of mapping and accessible designs and genres, such mindmaps, collages, collective mapping, sketching? How can we push these methods forward and towards interdisciplinarity? What is embodied in experiencing the city and studying communities, cities and everyday practices through our senses? And what do we understand beyond vision, smell, hearing, taste, or touch?
Moderation: Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe
Urban Ethnography Lab 