David Sperling
Counter-cartographies: technopolitics for spatialization of information
The capturing, processing and arranging of data in space and time are organized as transversal procedures. They are applied to the purposes of life management and the generation of meaning in complex and often controversial techno-political settings. Parallel to these forms of production and delivery of visual and spatial information, regimes of (in)visibilities are defined and realities thus molded.
The presentation will have three parts. Firstly, I will discuss topics of mapping and counter-cartography as a way of making visible the complex realities generated by these procedures. Secondly, I will present two counter-cartographic practices we have conducted with architecture students in Brazil; the first example asks what can be drawn from the relationship between the expansion of an airport and the use of slave-like labor; and the second questions how we can understand a city from buildings that (de)territorialize offshore companies. Operating through articulations between spatial and social mapping these projects are focused on making visible the production of the city of São Paulo in connection to the hidden logics of economic and political power. The final part will synthesize some remarks about counter-cartographies as technopolitics tools for architecture teaching and practice.