Collaborative mapping in time of COVID-19

News

7 July 2020

During Tryspaces Lab on public space, participants were invited to collaborate to a digital collaborative mapping, to share their experience of social isolation in their cities and in their personal life. Everyday, a different question was asked to them and they were invited to answer it through a visual form of their choice (hand drawing, picture, text, etc.). Participants were also invited to comment on the contributions of others.

Discover what participants had to share on their spatial and social experiences during COVID-19 in this awesome interactive summary of this mapping activity, with audio comments and effects.

Here are the themes that were suggested throughout the week:

Day 1 – Domestic and public SPACE

In these times of global pandemic, more than half of humanity is undergoing measures of social distancing. The scale of our daily lives is being reduced to the micro-local level. Draw the spaces of your daily life now. Do not hesitate to comment your map with a short text. 

  1. ​Draw/photograph outdoor public spaces where you have had moments of interaction, socialization or recreation in recent months (parks, street, benches, balconies, etc.). Are these places of interaction and recreation new?
  2. Draw/photograph the indoor spaces of your daily life. Are there any new functions of certain spaces that have emerged?
  3. Show us the interior space – in your home – that you have used the most in the last few months or that best represents the last few months (e.g. a room, a piece of furniture, a window, etc.). Why this particular place?

Day 2 – DIGITAL SPACE

While we now live a daily life at the micro-local level, from Hanoi to Paris, Montreal or Mexico City, we remain connected by digital technologies. Where are these digital spaces? How do they open up to you? What functions do they serve?

Day 3 – BODY

The current situation, however global it may be, is experienced very intimately in these microspaces, but also in our bodies. Map what you feel during this period of confinement.

Day 4 – TEMPORALITY 

What will happen tomorrow? Day, night, weekend, week… time is fragmented, unstructured. It is difficult to plan, to project oneself in these uncertain times. Time grows longer, slows down, can no longer be measured. How can we represent these new temporalities?

Day 5 – Comparisons in the post-coronavirus city

Map a public space that you are studying in TRYSPACES and upload it into the collective document. Then choose an image produced by another participant representing a space you do not know. How does the space you have mapped compare to the space of the other participant? How can these spaces and practices be connected?