User:Lor.ensō/projectproposal

PROJECT PROPOSAL 2025 REVISIT EDITION UNDER CONSTRUCTION BUT ALREADY APPROVED YET REDEFINED

What do you want to make?

My project Contextures will address multiple forms of accessibility in Rotterdam.

The outcomes will include experiments with the planners and plannings of things to get around and getting things done or 'making it happen'. I include those absurd bureaucratic waiting spaces and times into an counter-planner / alternative route maker. Instead of a simple line on a map, it becomes like 'a piece of yarn/fabric' with knots and repetition that is just completely gets stuck of the complexities. Both aspects of the project /counterplanner/ and thesis will address how obstacles are encountered in the city of Rotterdam. 

Contextures arises from my frustrations with the hollow renders and and representations through which Rotterdam is presented. Traveling around the city of Rotterdam with my brother, who is in a wheelchair, has made me even more aware of the architectural, cultural and bureaucratic limits that define our movements.

The project will be based on the complexities going from a to b. which will be incorporated into the counter planner getting things done/around.

It will revolve around the ideas protocol/structure/process/procedures and annotated visuals and the protocols/structures/processes/procedures that do not just require a ramp to 'fix'.] By this ==I develop an infrastructure for counter-mapping in the sense i.e. a counter planner. The thesis will take the form of a series of annotated drawing

Why do you want to make it?

I am having mixed feelings about Rotterdam, the city I was born and raised in. A city that has been suffering the second city syndrome for a while and is on the list of poorest, least healthy. Having some sort of bad reputation based on multiple elements. Then resulting into trying to develop a better city, getting on the list of cool cities. Developing gentrification and seeming to be more (inter)nationally appealing cities.

Rotterdam, Make It Happen** is a campaign that focuses on developing the city but rather than focusing on the problems that the city has from the national housing crisis, poverty rates, social care conditions, narco-capital problems.

This project is my experiment to develop an infrastructure based on constructive city criticism but also reflection. ==I am searching for a right way to visualize the tensions.==  The human touch as reminder of the (in)humane complications.  I'm in confusion by the idea of vision / images of the city through virtual representation. Mostly, because I feel that is an image that lacks multiple layers of complex contexts.

How do you plan to make it?

I plan to experiment with multiple media. From annotating map, to drawing comic style interventions, to online maps and adding the points from A to B

See it as a third evolution in the series of PUBLIC TRANSPORT where I show a 63 step travel from a to b and back again.

drawing, editing, annotations, public**

Using drawings and annotations as vessels for human touch i.e. add incalculated dimensions(human contexts) into precalculated enviroments.

Perhaps to develop a series of critical counter-infrastructures as a visual "essay" per situation/context.

Collect the procedures to i.e. apply for trevvel in a visual matter to showcase, also to investigate the User Interfaces and Experiences and make my annotations via experimentation with different media. Using the situations/stories of close relatives/friends and applying the drastic context to multiple surfaces via experimentation with different media.

Thesis

In my thesis proposal I play with the 6 sides of the cube through annotated drawings and using the chapters.

The three chapters of Contextures group the above into pairs:

• ^{Socially - Accessibly /} (un)Familiar barriers, social thresholds and unmeant ignorance I refuse to allow myself to fall in a pit of despair. This is a healthy reflection on the topics; reacting honestly to a complex of issues in search for (alternative) mechanism.
• ^{Virtually - Architecturally} / Innovation and Virtual Tools as development or demolition of reality
• ^{Bureaucratically - Culturally} / Zoning: friction between counter culture and bureaucracy, false iconism vs community

This cube will then transform into the contexts, problems, barriers It will all revolve around my/our experiences in Rotterdam. To show that A to B is not a simple process in to getting around and getting things done.

[changing from making a game, to using a certain inspiration from a game, the tile. The tiles is the place where you start in city life. It is a related to pavements, to movements in the city, to the harsh realities and opposing of the renders, tiles cover up / protect. The tiles relate to the situations of the stories. Always requiring the practice. As example: To get the 'social taxi' you need to request it, in order to request it, you need to apply for it and hope that you get access to this particular service, this procedure takes 6-8 weeks, meaning that you stay -in position- for a long time. Before a next 'turn', you need to wait and maintain mentally stable to continue. And even when you 'get' to the 'final' tile, it does not mean that the acquired service is functioning properly. __________________________________________________________________________________________-------------------------Another example: My brother wants to visit my mother. Since he is in a wheelchair, the quick fix is a collection of stable large and smaller ramps, then there is still the threshold of entering the small pavement, to get on the ramp. So for that ramp, you need to be sure that there is not a car in front on the house. So that means, to claim the parking spot in front of the house and also changing the brick/tile from the pavement to the street into this ramp-like tile. In order to do this, you write a letter / mail to the municipality. The WMO. This request then ends on a pile of requests. Then a municipal worker calls you back to clarify and redirect you to the right person. And then finally, a half year later. A phone call takes place, asking for clarification and concluding that this particular desk at the gemeente is not the one we're looking for. Redirecting us to the desk of parking and a Buiten Beter app. -----------------------------------------These are potential showcases]

LorensoProposalSteveSuggests

What do you want to make?

My project Contextures will address multiple forms of accessibility in Rotterdam.

The outcomes will include a game and a thesis. Both aspects of the project (the game and thesis) will address how obstacles are encountered in the city of Rotterdam.Contextures arises from my frustrations with the hollow renders and and representations through which Rotterdam is presented. Traveling around the city of Rotterdam with my brother, who is in a wheelchair, has made me even more aware of the architectural, cultural and bureaucratic limits that define our movements.

The project is divided into six elements, which will be incorporated into the game's format: Socially, Accessibly, Bureaucratically, Architecturally, Virtually and Culturally. In the game, the player* is presented with a series of obstacles which they have to overcome, while presented with i.e. an objective.

Each of the six faces of the dice direct the player* to a particular field (Socially, Accessibly, Bureaucratically, Architecturally, Virtually and Culturally) which they must navigate. They are presented with pragmatic "real world" problems (which have been expressed by participants in the workshops I will organise). In the series of workshops and public moments, I will develop an infrastructure for counter-mapping and anti-campaigning.

By campaign, I refer to city planning and campaigns I see around the city. But also campaigning in the sense to the franchise of Dungeons and Dragons: Where a series of adventures is referred to as a "campaign". These campaigns are located in either non-fictional or fictional places.

The thesis will take the form of a series of annotated drawings.

*player is meant as plural and also end user.

Why do you want to make it?

I am having mixed feelings about Rotterdam, the city I was born and raised in. A city that has been suffering the second city syndrome for a while and is on the list of poorest, least healthy. Having some sort of bad reputation based on multiple elements. Then resulting into trying to develop a better city, getting on the list of cool cities. Developing gentrification and seeming to be more (inter)nationally appealing cities.

Rotterdam, Make It Happen is a campaign that focuses on developing the city but rather than focusing on the problems that the city has from the national housing crisis, poverty rates, social care conditions, narco-capital problems.

This project is my experiment to develop an infrastructure based on constructive city criticism but also reflection. I am searching for a right way to visualize the tensions.  The human touch as reminder of the (in)humane complications.  I'm in confusion by the idea of vision / images of the city through virtual representation. Mostly, because I feel that is an image that lacks multiple layers of complex contexts.

How do you plan to make it?

I will organize a second series of workshops comparable to the colloquium. This will include natives of Rotterdam and people who have moved here.

"Search for examples of city planning / marketing / maintenance of the city/village/township where you are from*" 
collect img / promises / memories 					                     
then....... 
ask yourself / eachother "how does -location- relate to you as the inhabitant*?"
aaand thennn  
ask yourself / eachother "how do you relate to -location-?"

[Collective Location Relation Annotation Session]

A continued version of before-mentioned collection.

1. gather context and get either frustrated or inspired or in the best scenario both,
2. print out the imagery or text and annotate how this doesn't apply to the person getting into it.
3. develop this into a pamphlet / poster
4. share the stories behind the output

[drawing, editing, annotations, public]

Using drawings and annotations as vessels for human touch to add incalculated dimensions and to develop a series of critical pamphlets as a visual essay per person.

[catalog]

All the stories, images, analysis will be stored.

[game]

Using the stories of people and they situations and creating character sets of it with human metadata.

[thesis]

In my thesis proposal I play with the 6 sides of the cube

Socially - Personal, Affordable, Family, Housing

Accessibly - Disability, Information provision, infrastructures

Bureaucratically - Protocols of local municipal / governments

Architecturally - Buildings, ways, pavements, roads, streets

Virtually - Imagery, impression, media, software, simulation, games

Culturally - budget cuts, false iconism, counterculture, grassroots, community, festivals/gigs/events

This cube will then transform into a dice and the contexts, problems, barriers will then turn into decks of cards. It will all revolve around Rotterdam, example of output are map tiles as playing field

• 

  Unity void

• 

  covering up tiles

• 

  actual tiles

• 

  dices illustration

• 

  tile tryout

What is your timetable?

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\PHASE ONE //

September / October

• Read up on previously saved sources. Start sketching and writing thoughts down, collecting both sides.
• Research, attend lectures, visit exhibitions
• Try to zoom out a bit and make a colloquium based on 'location satisfactory' surveys municipalities often give
• Have a lot of discussions to get things clear and also give yourself time to digest.
• Colloquium: start developing a method for an infrastructure for counter-mapping / anti-campaigning.
• Start making a visual catalog

November:

• Public moment do a walk-in type deal and develop some sort of way to ask for contributions.
• Reflect on the colloquium & public moment, gather first ideas and ways to develop a method.
• 23 november: deliver project proposal ~ digest, organise, prepare presentation
• 27 november: pre-assessment
• Continue the catalog

December

• 1-7 December: Attend the Worksession: a Cane, Sticky notes, Another body, look for connections, insights, network
• 17 December: Assessment
• Note crucial feedback -> Develop a new version for collective annotation
• Gather interests multiple groups and organize meetups
• Continue the catalog

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\PHASE TWO//

January

• Start meetups - at least one with peers and one with outsiders
• Experiment with different sessions, gather contexts through new colloquiums
• Notes and developments

February / March

• Continue meetups: prototype the format -> dice + context decks + map
• Brainstorm / feedback with people
• Think about the outcomes: Tabletop Simulator / Physical Game
• Start sketching the potential outcomes: Dice, Cards, Map?: designs of thesis and outcome must align
• Notes and developments

April

• Continue meetups: test design
• Finetune
• Notes and development

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\PHASE THREE//

May

• Finalize the dice, cards and map.
• Final test

June

• Final feedback and finetuning and deliver
• documentation
• Assessment
• Graduate
• Build up

July

• Build up and present
  

Who can help you and how?

XPUB tutors/peers/alumni

.ZIP

Friends and Family

Open Call: anyone interested in / the people that want to participate.

The people in Gent during the worksession

People outside the bubble

Relation to previous practice

Bachelor works:

3D / Worldbuilding - The Monster of Albert Heijn / Happytalism / Concrete Desert

Video - How to enter the art academy with a Wheelchair

Design thinking: GENERATION Y?

XPUB

SI23

• PUBLIC TRANSPORT
• COUNTERMAPPING =BUGS OF MISCONDUCT
• Method(ol(atry)ogy) is a way of surviving experience
• /door/PORT

SI24

• ROTTERDAM 2040 / CybeRdam2077  - PolderPunk?
• --------Benchmarking-------
• poinxs (points of inaccess)
• Pedestrian / virtual walk

Relation to a larger context

Recurring topics that are linked to my thesis will be divided through multiple chapters and key issues, but will all be connected through contexts and how these elements have thresholds and tension drawing between them and eachother.

Virtually ~ Architecturally / Innovation and Virtual Tools as development or demolition of reality

~ Imagery, impression, media, softwares, simulation, games, buildings, ways, pavements, roads, streets ~

Bureaucratically ~ Culturally / zoning: friction between counter culture and bureaucracy, false iconism vs community

~ Protocols of local municipal / governments / Budge cuts, false iconism, counterculture, grassroots, community, festivals/gigs/events~

Socially ~ Accessibly / (un)Familiar barriers, social thresholds and unmeant ignorance

~ Personal, Affordable, Family, Housing, Disability, Information provision, infrastructures~

References

Constant workshops in Gent Constant -. https://constantvzw.org/site/Open-call-Worksession-a-Cane-Sticky-notes-Another-body.html.

Rotterdam, Is it happening?. https://www.rotterdamisithappening.nl/. Possible Bodies(Rocha, J., Snelting, F.) (2022) Volumetric Regimes: Material cultures of quantified presence, Signs of Clandestine Disorder: The continuous aftermath of 3D-computationalism. The Industrial Continuum of 3D https://volumetricregimes.xyz/index.php?title=The_Industrial_Continuum_of_3D

Griffin, M. and Kittler, F.A. (1996) 'The City is a Medium,' New Literary History, 27(4), pp. 717–729. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.1996.0051.

Mattern, S. (2017) 'A city is not a computer,' Places [Preprint], (2017). https://doi.org/10.22269/170207.

Boer, R. (2023) Smooth city: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives.

Van Den Bosch Christensen, L. (2015) I, (for one), welcome our new (Google) overlords. https://research.hva.nl/en/publications/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-google-overlords.

Wan, C. (2024) - Into The Digital Void https://canvaswan.com/into-the-digital-void

Wan, C. (2024) - Into the Digital Cartographic Void https://canvaswan.com/into-the-digital-cartographic-void.

Siegel, J. (2024) Default Alpha: Mapping the Emergence of Synthetic Culture in New Towns

Overdijke, M. (2024) The City as Anthology: Movements at the Margins of Public Space

Steyerl. H (2013) How Not To Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE3RlrVEyuo.

Hito Gibbons, A. (2022) Salvaging situationism: Race and space - salvage. https://salvage.zone/salvaging-situationism-race-and-space/.

Vers Beton (2024) Home - Vers beton. https://www.versbeton.nl/.

Recht op de stad - Recht op de stad (2024). http://www.rechtopdestad.nl/.

Kooyman. M (2024) Rotterdam niet langer armste stad, maar nog steeds leven duizenden inwoners in armoede. Algemeen Dagblad, October 17, 2024https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/rotterdam-niet-langer-armste-stad-maar-nog-steeds-leven-duizenden-inwoners-in-armoede~a7f79119/

Liukku. A, (2024) 'Waarom Rotterdam opnieuw onderaan staat in lijst met gezonde steden: aantal punten valt op.' Algemeen Dagblad, November 11, 2024, https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/waarom-rotterdam-opnieuw-onderaan-staat-in-lijst-met-gezonde-steden-aantal-punten-valt-op~adec7bd9/

Unitary urbanism at the end of the 1950s (Issue three of the journal of the Situationist International) December 1959 https://libcom.org/article/unitary-urbanism-end-1950s.

Mass Moving (2007) [documentary]. Directed by Françoise Levie. Belgium. Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds