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This is an experiment in mapping the mixed-reality city.
As a starting point, we will draw upon recent controversies over urban wildscapes.
Such controversies are sites where realities meet over disputed rights, unresolved technical questions, and conflicting values. These controversies are manifest through material traces such as photographs, maps, accounts and articles.
First, choose a wildscape controversy traceable through one of the articles listed in the attached .zip file.
If you have another controversy in mind and you can find a relevant news article, please email the instructor at yanni@metalab.harvard.edu
Second, create a list of human and non-human actors identifiable in the article.
An actor is any entity that performs work within a social interaction, including people, plants, non-human animals, buildings, technologies and institutions. If an entity does not make a difference within the controversy, it is not really an actor. Set a limit on the number of actors you define and articulate a rationale for that limit. This experiment is intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.
Third, develop a media dossier for the controversy built around significant actors found in the article.
This dossier should consist of found traces, such as photographs, maps, documents, and articles like the one you started with. All media should be transformed into representative .jpegs sharable through Mezz.
Finally, develop a means of mapping or visually organizing the elements of your dossier and presenting the associations among them.
Create a new project on the website to host your dossier and a short description of your process (~250 words). Be prepared to present and discuss your results in class.
For more on actors, traces, and associations see: Latour, Bruno. 2008. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.