Medialab Prado

> Introduction
> Objectives
> Preliminay ideas
> Methodology
> Schedule
> Registration

Introduction

A series of workshops in Medialab-Prado, CSA La Tabacalera, Off Limits and dnx | Designit

"This workshop proposes an exploration of contemporary urban inhabiting through teamwork and shared trip to the heart of contemporary Madrid. What composes what we call “intimate”, “domestic” or “private”? How are our immediate surroundings affected by the greater changes in the city? As the city grows, it becomes more global, dual, cosmopolitan, fragmented, segregated and digitalized; public space increases in density and changes rapidly. How is this experienced inside the household? How does this affect the use of intimate spaces? and the notions of privacy and everyday life?

This is the topic of the project Poéticas de la vida cotidiana (Poetics of everyday life), which we are developing in the context of the larger project Prácticas emergentes en el Nuevo Madrid (Emerging Practices in the New Madrid) together with a dozen of researchers interested in recent changes taking place in diverse spheres in our city.

The workshop is divided in six sessions, taking place every fifteen days approximately from October 11 to December 15. All classes minus the last session will take place on Tuesdays from 6:00pm -8:30pm. This course is open to participants already involved in this project through its sessions as well as to those interested in only attending a few sessions. Aiming to feature the diversity of spaces in Madrid´s cultural scene, each session´s location will vary and take place in CSA La Tabacalera, Off Limits, dnx | Designit. We believe that these locations are spaces for collective creation capable of inspiring participants in embracing a diversity of sensitivities and trends."

By Francisco Cruces and Cultura Urbana Group, facilitators of the workshop. Proyecto Prácticas culturales emergentes en el Nuevo Madrid (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, CSO2009-10780)

Objectives

We propose a slight undressing as a work method. We are now in times of great voyeurism. Through an auto-ethnographical experimental exercise, we hope to reach three objectives:

1. Collectively document our own spaces describing/discovering some of its key dimensions.
2. Discuss their meaning in common
3. Collectively produce a representation of these environments.

This workshop is addressed to diverse citizens willing to share their experiences on urban living in contemporary Madrid and contribute to a research that it is still in process. The workshop can also be interesting for artists focusing in the visual and literary representation of intimate space; for those researching urban issues from a sociological, anthropological, social psychological, urbanism and geographical points; designers and indoor planners; for activists fighting to improve human quality of life in these spaces and provide a better understanding of the processes that take place in the spaces.

Preliminary ideas

(1) Metropolization- urban densification and growth-affects the domestic, intimate and private areas in multiple ways.

(2) Many of these processes seem invisible. This is why there is an interest in bringing attention to them and making them a topic of discussion.

(3) They are crucial. Either existentially (thinking at ourselves as subjects), materially and socially (because of the importance of the roles that take place in theses spaces).

(4) Our emphasis is made on poéticas de la vida cotidiana, which analyzes the production of meaning as a central problem in our societies as well as the strategic space that allows new capacities and resources for people during their “leisure” life. This is the intimate/domestic/private reinvention that interests us because it is an essential part of life in the metropolis. Doing things creates the city.

Methodology

It is hard to assume an irreflexive exploration on “the life of others” without implicating ours in the firs place. This is the reason why, following our methodology, we propose the tentative and experimental title of a collective exploration/introspection, which we can call auto-ethnography. 

What are we going to do in the workshop: a) discuss (categories of domestic environment), b) explore (our own surroundings), c) Illustrate (through photography, sound recording, observation, memory and stories, d) share (some of the illustrations), e) agree (on our discoveries), f) spread (what we decide is worth it through the research team´s website, or in front of the cameras on the workshop´s last day (which we will reserve specially to “bring out” what we consider worthy of being said or shown).

In this workshop we will be our own working materials, so sensitive information will be discussed. Participants will decide on their own ways of appropriation and use during a process that will be guided following these criteria: a respect for intimacy, discretion and the right for acknowledgment.

In addition, the proposed exploration will have a multimedia and a sensible character. We are seeking to combine discourse, image, sounds, observation and dialog. Here we are not only aiming to ponder and to give a speech, we want to understand, feel, and listen to what others are experimenting as intimacy and domesticity.

In some sessions we will propose to hold observation and registration exercises. We will open a space online that allows participants to post their own thoughts and materials. This will re-send an intimate dialog towards the online extimate space (which is also a space where intimacy is configured).

Schedule

Session 1. Naming the quotidian. Tuesday, October 11, 18:00h at Medialab-Prado [+info]

Session 2. Feeling at home. Tuesday, October 25, 18:00h at Medialab-Prado [+info]

Session 3. Hi-Fi Home. Tuesday, November 8, 18:00h at CSA La Tabacalera (c/ Embajadores 53, Sala Jefe) [+info]

Session 4. Bodies with history. Tuesday, November 22, 18:00h at Off Limits (c/ Escuadra 11, bajo) [+info]

Session 5. Blood, Water and Wine. Tuesday, November 29, 18:00h at dnx | Designit (c/ Mártires de Alcalá 4, 1º) [+info]

Session 6. From inside to outside. Tuesday, December 13, 18:00h at Medialab-Prado [+info]

Registration

Please fill in the form for each of the workshops. You can access it by clicking [+info] in the Schedule.

Free registration. Limited seating.  

If you wish to contact the organizers, email practicemad(at)fsof.uned.es.