INDEPENDENT WORK
CARTOGRAPHY
BODILY ATLAS
University of Basel, Urban Studies, MA Critical Urbanisms, Fall 23
MA Critical Urbanism-University of Basel
MA Critical Urbanisms - Instagram
USING THE BODY AS A MAP: BODY AS ‘‘HOME’’
Mapping the body, with its memories, records, and the space it is in. The work aims to create a superposition, a projection, and a unity of meaning between the boundaries of space and the boundaries of the body. Mr. X is a Sans-Papier.
BODY, SPACE, AND BELONGING
The map can present itself as a body, which is a form of belonging. The body can articulate the full context of the term “belonging” or “spaces of belonging.” Antonsich explains that the term “belonging” is vaguely defined. He argues that belonging should be seen as a personal, intimate feeling of being “at home” in a place (place-belonging), as well as a discursive resource that constructs forms of socio-spatial inclusion and/or exclusion (politics of belonging). asserts, justifies, or resists.
The map can explore the question of to what extent people with undocumented status, Sans-Papiers, in Switzerland, who have no legal security and are often separated from their home, value their sense of belonging. It can revolve around transnational relations, family, and the border, and it is particularly interested in how undocumented people live these experiences.
How much does living anonymously and unnoticed every day affect them in terms of home and sense of belonging? What kind of activities are there in their daily lives that strengthen their sense of space? *Clara Wittich describes these people in her master's thesis: people who never had residence status (visa-free entry, tourist visa expiration, unauthorized family reunification) and people who had residence status but lost it (Wittich, 2023:13).
SPATIAL TRANSITIONS, PHYSICAL PHANTASM, BODILY ATLAS
SPATIAL TRANSITIONS, PHYSICAL PHANTASM, BODILY ATLAS
Different compositions of body parts express different places
The body tries to complete itself, just like the world does
MR. X: HOW DO HE AND THE CITY COEXIST?
BODILY SCHEMA
The limitlessness in the air. Seeing the body wandering from place to place, the city that covers outside of him and lives inside of him.
Unlike the boundaries on earth, there are no boundaries in the sky. Seeing the human being is what appears to be thrown from the sky and does not belong to a physical place.
The things that make us live in a city can be independent of physical space and borders. Interpreting his connections with the city through relations.
What exactly do we understand about the city and our own physical existence within the city? Being in and outside the city, creating a meaning between the city's borders and our borders, and realizing what this does for us.
Elevating the city's relationship with the body to a physical dimension. Perceiving the ways the city exists in the body, the movement of the city and the body together, and the ways they physically create each other.
PHYSICAL SILHOUETTES
COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS OF THE BODY FORMED BY BOUNDARIES
To think that not only the interior but also the exterior of the city determines a physical space. Understanding what determines the boundaries of the city.
To look at the human being only as a body and to understand his physical existence through the physical existence of space. Focusing on the human being as an object that moves and changes places.
To define every period of his life, his social relations, and his relationship with urban space as the boundaries, memories, and recollection of the body. Expressing all of this with a unique body pose.
To understand the ongoing relationship between city and people, which is based on containing and limiting each other. Thinking of the human being as merely a physical entity disconnected from a larger whole.
PLACELESSNESS
THE STRINGS THAT CONTROL US
Of man, Mr. X. Understanding his physical silhouette in the city and the boundaries that determine his character and story. Discovering the perceptible characters, sensitive activities, and cognitive dimensions of the shape formed by these boundaries.
Asking the question of who includes whom, does the human include the city, or does the city include the human? Evaluating the holistic relationship between city and people as they include, shape, and change each other.
Drawing the border to transform all these complex relationships into a perceptible size, a simple shape, and a plain line. Creating a simplified bodily transposition for the city, space, and people.
Combining the hand control board in plus form with the Swiss flag. Understanding the control mechanisms of the state over people.
Seeing the strings that control us—the strings that we are tied to in the physical space. Discovering the strings, connections, and relationships coming from the sky, from that placelessness.
REMOVING FROM A WHOLE
UNDERSTANDING HOW THE BODY REFLECTS SPACE: EMPTINESS
Dividing the body into pieces and interpreting the relationship that humans establish with different spaces through these pieces. Depicting Mr. X by breaking him into pieces to achieve the feeling that the space is divided into pieces by boundaries and his integrity is disrupted.
To think of man as a controlled puppet, a lonely figure that came from the sky and was left here alone. Perceiving man's relationship with distant places without limits through the inclusiveness and unification of the sky.
Taking people out of their lives, removing them, and imprisoning them in another area. Limiting people in a certain geography is to frame or enclose this geography as life.
Describing, perceiving, and bringing the human being into existence solely through his body, for all his mobility, spatial transitions, and senses. Thinking of people as bodies that just take up space within a sense of community.
Describing, healing, and reflecting oppression through one's body. Emphasizing that the body is torn into pieces, scattered around, and destroyed under a certain pressure.