Published 2012-11-01
Keywords
- mapping,
- field work,
- hacking,
- exclusion,
- urban geography
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2023 Romy HOFMANN, Martina MEHREN
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Guerilla Gardening, Reclaim the street, Adbusting and others are characteristic forms of temporary appropriation of public spaces. Those have become a global trend.
Urban open spaces should not only be thought of as stable constructions in a planned and
built environment. Their significance lies on a metaphoric and symbolic level and thus allows
to ‘mentally roam’ them. These spaces lack certain rules; those are made invalid for a certain
time. Hackings actually exploit these gaps by playfully interfering into structures in public
spaces. They aim at re-orientation and/or disorientation. Urban open space becomes a testing
field for temporary, individual appropriations of space, artistic reinterpretations of the ordinary and trivial. Despite their manifold shapes, hackings follow certain basic principles, such
as the claim to constructively produce urban structures rather than destroy them deliberately.
Acknowledging these assumptions, practical field trip concepts will have prolific effects on
geography classes.