Mapping Culture: Communities, Sites and Stories

Description

Title of Presentation: Urban Songlines – Mapping Art and Urban Scenography at Roskilde Festival Abstract: This paper introduces the mapping method “Urban Songlines” as a method for cultural mapping of everyday urban life. It is a ‘story-telling’ method, which supports researchers in removing themselves from the role of experts in order to see the city through the lenses of ordinary people. The aim of the method is to get a better understanding of the way in which people with different cultural backgrounds, ages and genders practice their everyday life, shape places and give them meaning through actions. The paper presents a case study of ‘Instant City, Roskilde Festival’, which is the largest music festival in northern Europe. The festival is planned and designed like a city, with similar programs and patterns. The physical surroundings are curated in order to support the social interaction between the participants. The special characteristics of the social life pave the way for a lot of experiments within urban furniture and installation art. Art and design at the festival addresses the social conditions and the playful attitude of the participants directly in the art works. Through eight Urban Songlines the everyday life of the festival is described and documented in maps, photos and narratives, and the individual songlines reveal what music, events, physical environment etc. means to the festival guests. Based on the findings in the Urban Songlines an analysis of selected examples of art and urban design at the festival site illustrate the reciprocal relationship between social life and urban design in the festival city.

Period	28 May 2014 → 30 May 2014
Event title	Mapping Culture: Communities, Sites and Stories
Event type	Conference
Location	Coimbra, PortugalShow on map