[NetBehaviour] Topographies of the Insignificant

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Blogs / Topographies of the Insignificant: Seeking Contributors from 
Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Bratislava, Paris, Luxembourg and Moscow...

Topographies of the Insignificant: Seeking Contributors from Rome, 
Berlin, Vienna, Bratislava, Paris, Luxembourg and Moscow

Originally found at: 
http://turbulence.org/blog/2010/06/04/topographies-of-the-insignificant/

In early 2009, Anders Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum initiated a collaborative 
project in which a team of architects, artists, designers, engineers and 
musicians created an alternative vision of Copenhagen, an imaginary 
future as a reaction to present day. All the contributors shared an 
interest in alternative realities and how these, through the internet 
and other media, play an increasing important role in their common 
understanding of the world. Using Google maps and Wiki technologies, 
together they strived to rethink Copenhagen in both dystopian and 
utopian terms on Radiant Copenhagen.

Continuing on from the project Radiant Copenhagen, they are working on 
the fictionalization of ultra local spaces in a series of different 
cities rather than one whole city. The project is envisioned as a 
contemporary version of An Anecdoted Topography of Chance by Daniel 
Spoerri, set in the globalized media saturated world of 2010. 
Topographies of the Insignificant will connect local micro-topographies 
of Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Bratislava, Paris, Luxembourg and Moscow in a 
network of fiction and fact. They are seeking a selected number of 
collaborators based in, with connection to or are simply knowledgeable 
about these cities.

The project takes the form of a website with an “infinitely” zoom-able 
map of the world. Extra detailed zones that enable the user to zoom down 
to a micro level and see actual cracks of the pavement as they were 
great valleys will be added. The extremely detailed map of 7 very 
limited locations is in close proximity to the physical show where the 
project also will be presented on one or more computers.

Throughout each of the locations, 100-200 click-able points are located. 
Each click-able point on the map opens up a small text window featuring 
fictional or factual information on this specific point, and links to 
other points and texts. Multiple narratives weave in and out of each 
other and researched facts about found objects and their history will 
mix freely with fictional accounts and imagined micro-topologies.

The collaborative writing process itself will take place online on a 
wiki-page during July, August and some of September, in parallel with 
the actual programming of the final website. New points will be placed 
on the maps and text will be written for them. All texts are open for 
editing or expansion by other members of the group and the hope is to 
blur the boundaries on ownership between the participants and make as 
many connections between the different points as possible.

Through a willful misunderstanding, we hope to turn the apparently 
well-known city pavements into a mixture of space operatic visions of 
the future and histories of the past. The online photographic and 
narrative portrayal of the website will be supplemented by physical 
interventions and alterations on the sites of the photographs in each of 
the cities: The same coffee cup will feature in each city, the splotch 
of paint etc., further blurring the boundaries of fact and fiction. 
Through collective and deliberate misunderstanding, over-interpretation 
and fictive connections between the 7 physical sites, we hope to reflect 
upon the possibility of radically rethinking the city from the bottom up.

If you are interested in participating, please send an email containing 
a brief bio, a couple of lines of text describing how you would approach 
the project and anything else you may find relevant to the project, 
before July 1st. You need not be an artist, but you should be fairly 
proficient in English, have some writing experience and an interest in 
urbanity. Please write to: topographies at anders-kristoffer.dk " 
target="_blank">topographies at anders-kristoffer.dk

The project is a part of the European month of photography 
(http://90plan.ovh.net/~europeandq/) P.s. There will be a small fee for 
participants, the size of which depends on whether or not we receive the 
funding we’ve sought - It will not make you rich but it might make your 
life just a little easier.