Place Mapping – transect walks in Arctic urban landscapes
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https://doi.org/10.7480/spool.2016.1.1392Abstract
This article investigates how experimental forms of urban mapping can reveal the particularity of places in non-standard urban situations with the intention of moving beyond the reductivism of still-dominant modernist modes of mapping and associated forms of planning. In order to do so, it reports on the emergence of a methodology involving transect walks, with the purpose of mapping the peculiarities of cultural landscapes. The study is located in cities and communities in the Arctic that are undergoing rapid transformation and are in urgent need of new conceptual approaches capable of enabling future thinking and strategic action. The article specifically asks how such a methodology works to includes the ephemeral and emergent, but also digital, dimensions of urban landscapes, and results in a complex reflexive method of critically reading and writing, of moving and locating, of seeing and picturing place mapping.
How to Cite
Hemmersam, P., & Morrison, A. (2016). Place Mapping – transect walks in Arctic urban landscapes. SPOOL, 3(1), 23–36. https://doi.org/10.7480/spool.2016.1.1392
Published
2016-11-28
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Copyright (c) 2020 SPOOL
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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References
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Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Brook, R., & Dunn, N. (2012). Urban maps: Instruments of narrative and interpretation in the city. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
Bunschoten, R., Binet, H. & Hoshino, T. (2001). Urban flotsam: Stirring the city: Chora. Rotterdam, Netherlands: 010 Publishers.
Bunschoten, R. (2007). Scenario games: Vital techniques for interactive city planning. In Borries, F. von, Walz, S. P. & Böttger, M. (Eds.). Space time play. Computer games, architecture and urbanism: The next level (pp. 384-387). Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser.
Burns, C., & Kahn, A. (2005). Site matters: Design concepts, histories, and strategies. New York, NY: Routledge.
Clifford, J. & Marcus, G. (Eds.). (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Corner, J. (1999). The agency of mapping: speculation, critique and invention. In D. Cosgrove (Ed.). Mappings (pp. 213–252). London, United Kingdom: Reaktion Books.
Cosgrove, D. (2006). Cartography. In J. Abrams & P. Hall (Eds.). Else/where: Mapping new cartographies of networks and territories (pp. 148–160). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Design Institute.
Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: a short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Debord, G. (1958). Theory of the dérive. Internationale Situationniste, 2, 50–54.
Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (2005). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1-32). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Diedrich, L., Lee, G., & Braae, E. (2013). The traveling transect. In E. Brandt, P. Ehn, T. D. Johansson, M. H. Reimer, T. Markussen & A. Vallgårda (Eds.). Experiments in design research. Proceedings of Nordes 2013. Retrieved from http://www.nordes.org/opj/index.php/n13/article/download/274/349
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Dovey, K. (2010). Becoming places. Urbanism/architecture/identity/power. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Erickson, K. & Stull, D. (1998). Doing team ethnography: Warnings and advice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Fine, G. & Deegan, J. (1996). Three principles of serendip: Insight, chance, and discovery in qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education, 9(4): 434-447.
Frampton, K. (1983). Prospects for a critical regionalism. Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, 20, 147–162.
Harley, J. B. (1988). Maps, knowledge, and power. In D. Cosgrove & S. Daniels (Eds.). The Iconography of landscape: Essays on the symbolic representation, design, and use of past environments (pp. 277–312). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Healey, P. (1992). Planning through debate: The communicative turn in planning theory. Town Planning Review, 63, 143
Hemmersam, P. (2016). Arctic architectures. Polar Record, 52(4), 412–422.
Hemmersam, P., Aspen, J., Morrison, A., Sem, I., & Havnør, M. (2015). Exploring locative media for cultural mapping. In M. Sheller and A. de Souza e Silva (Eds.). Mobility and locative media: Mobile communication in hybrid spaces (pp. 167-187). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Hemmersam, P., Morrison, A. & Aspen, J. (2016). Serendipity and the urban transect walk: reflections on design and cultural mapping in Arctic cities. Proceedings of Cumulus Hong Kong 2016 Open Design for E-very-thing. Retrieved from: http://cumulus.hkdihongkong2016.org
Hvattum, M. (2010). Stedets tyranni (Place’s tyrrany). Arkitekten, 2, 33-44.
Innes, J. (1995). Planning theory’s emerging paradigm: Communicative action and interactive practice. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 14, 183-189.
Koskinen, I., Zimmerman, J., Binder, T., Redström, J. & Wensveen, S. (2011). Design research through practice: From the lab, field and showroom. Waltham, MA: Elsevier/ Morgan Kaufmann.
Liscombe, R. (2006). Modernist ultimate Thule. RACAR: Revue D’art Canadienne/Canadian Art Review, 31(1/2), 64–80.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Marcus, A. (2011). Place with no dawn: A town’s evolution and Erskine’s arctic utopia. In R. W. Liscombe (Ed.). Architecture and the Canadian fabric (pp. 283–310). Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.
Massey, D. (1994). Space, place, and gender. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Massey, D. (2005). For space. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Melemis, S., Tixier, N. & Brayer, L. (2010). Urban transects: The place of research/the research of place. Proceedings of the ARCC/EAAE 2010 International Conference on Architectural Research 2010. Architectural Research Centers Consortium.
Morrison, A. & Aspen, J. (2013). Building appetites: The design of locative media apps for learning the networked city. Proceedings of DRS / CUMULUS 2013 Oslo: The 2nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers. 14-17 October: Oslo.
Morrison, A., Aspen, J., Hemmersam, P., Sem, I. & Havnør, M. (2012). Exploring experimental urban mapping tools with social media. In P. Israsena; J. Tangsantikul & D. Durling (Eds.). Design Research Society 2012: Bangkok, Conference Proceedings: Vol. 3. Design Research Society (pp. 1291-1303).
Morrison, A., Aspen, J., & Westvang, E. (2013). Making the mobile and networked city visible by design. In Proceedings of Crafting the Future. 10th European Academy of Design Conference.17-19 April: Gothenburg. Retrieved from: http://www.craftingthefuture.se
Nielsen, T. (2001). Formløs, Århus, Denmark: Arkitektskolens Forlag.
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture. London, United Kingdom: Academy Editions.
Nyseth, T., & Pløger, J. (2015). Perspektiver på steders tilblivelse (Perspective on the creation of place). In M. Aure, J. Cruickshank, B. Dahle & N. Gunnerud Berg (Eds.). Med sans for sted: nyere teorier (The sense of place: Recent theories) (pp. 47–63). Bergen, Norway: Fagbokforlaget Akademisk.
Pink, S. (2007). Doing visual ethnography: Images, media and representation in research. London, United Kingdom: Sage.
Pretty, J. N. (1995). A trainer’s guide for participatory learning and action. London, United Kingdom: International Institute for Environment and Development.
Qviström, M. (2012). Peri-urban landscapes: From disorder to hybridity. In Howard, P., Thompson, I. & Waterton, E. (Eds.). The Routledge companion to landscape studies. Farnham, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Rappaport, J. (2008). Beyond participant observation: Collaborative ethnography as theoretical innovation. Collaborative Anthropologies, 1, 1-31.
Relph, E. (1976). Place and placelessness. London, United Kingdom: Pion.
Sennett, R. (1990). The conscience of the eye: The design and social life of cities. New York, NY: Knopf.
Shepard, M. (2011). Sentient city: Ubiquitous computing, architecture, and the future of urban space. New York, NY: The Architectural League of New York.
Shortell, T. & Brown, E. (Eds.). (2014). Walking in the European city: Quotidian mobility and urban ethnography. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Sieverts, T. (2003). Cities without cities: An interpretation of the Zwischenstadt. London, United Kingdom: Spon Press.
Smith, L. (2011). The new north: The world in 2050. London, United Kingdom: Profile.
Steuteville, R. & Philip Langdon (2009). New urbanism: Best practices guide. Ithaca, NY: New Urban News Publications.
Thrift, N. (2007). Non-representational theory: space, politics, affect. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Traganou, J. (2009). Travel, space, architecture. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
Tuan, Y.-F. (2008). Space and place. In P. Hubbard, R. Kitchin, & G. Valentine (Eds.). Key texts in human geography (pp. 53–60). London, United Kingdom: Sage.
van Schaick, J., van der Spek, S., & van der Hoeven, F.D. (2008). (Eds). Urbanism on track: Application of tracking technologies in urbanism. Volume 1 Research in Urbanism Series. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press. doi:10.7480/rius.1
Venturi, R., Scott Brown, D., & Izenour, S. (1972). Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Wilford, J. N. (2001). The mapmakers. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Wood, D. (1992). The power of maps. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
World Bank. (2008). Methodology for transect walk. Retrieved from http://pmgsy.nic.in/downloads/WorldBank/ECOP/Annexures/ANNEXURE%2020-2.pdf
Wylie, J. (2005). A single day’s walking: narrating self and landscape on the South West Coast Path. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 234-247.
Zeeuw, H., & de & Wilbers, J. (2004). PRA tools for studying urban agriculture and gender. Leusden, NL: Resource Center on Urban Agriculture and Forestry. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10625/33988
Arbo, P., Iversen, A., Knol, M., Ringholm, T. & Sander, G. (2013). Arctic futures: Conceptualizations and images of a changing Arctic. Polar Geography, 36, 163–182.
Augé, M. (1995). Non-places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity. London, United Kingdom: Verso.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Brook, R., & Dunn, N. (2012). Urban maps: Instruments of narrative and interpretation in the city. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
Bunschoten, R., Binet, H. & Hoshino, T. (2001). Urban flotsam: Stirring the city: Chora. Rotterdam, Netherlands: 010 Publishers.
Bunschoten, R. (2007). Scenario games: Vital techniques for interactive city planning. In Borries, F. von, Walz, S. P. & Böttger, M. (Eds.). Space time play. Computer games, architecture and urbanism: The next level (pp. 384-387). Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser.
Burns, C., & Kahn, A. (2005). Site matters: Design concepts, histories, and strategies. New York, NY: Routledge.
Clifford, J. & Marcus, G. (Eds.). (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Corner, J. (1999). The agency of mapping: speculation, critique and invention. In D. Cosgrove (Ed.). Mappings (pp. 213–252). London, United Kingdom: Reaktion Books.
Cosgrove, D. (2006). Cartography. In J. Abrams & P. Hall (Eds.). Else/where: Mapping new cartographies of networks and territories (pp. 148–160). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Design Institute.
Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: a short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Debord, G. (1958). Theory of the dérive. Internationale Situationniste, 2, 50–54.
Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (2005). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1-32). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Diedrich, L., Lee, G., & Braae, E. (2013). The traveling transect. In E. Brandt, P. Ehn, T. D. Johansson, M. H. Reimer, T. Markussen & A. Vallgårda (Eds.). Experiments in design research. Proceedings of Nordes 2013. Retrieved from http://www.nordes.org/opj/index.php/n13/article/download/274/349
Diedrich, L., Lee, G., & Braae, E. (2014). The transect as a method for mapping and narrating water landscapes: Humboldt’s open works and transareal travelling. Nanocrit 6. Retrieved from http://www.nanocrit.com/issues/6-2014/transect-method-mapping-narrating-water-landscapes-humboldts-open-works-transareal-travelling.
Dovey, K. (2010). Becoming places. Urbanism/architecture/identity/power. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Erickson, K. & Stull, D. (1998). Doing team ethnography: Warnings and advice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Fine, G. & Deegan, J. (1996). Three principles of serendip: Insight, chance, and discovery in qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education, 9(4): 434-447.
Frampton, K. (1983). Prospects for a critical regionalism. Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, 20, 147–162.
Harley, J. B. (1988). Maps, knowledge, and power. In D. Cosgrove & S. Daniels (Eds.). The Iconography of landscape: Essays on the symbolic representation, design, and use of past environments (pp. 277–312). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Healey, P. (1992). Planning through debate: The communicative turn in planning theory. Town Planning Review, 63, 143
Hemmersam, P. (2016). Arctic architectures. Polar Record, 52(4), 412–422.
Hemmersam, P., Aspen, J., Morrison, A., Sem, I., & Havnør, M. (2015). Exploring locative media for cultural mapping. In M. Sheller and A. de Souza e Silva (Eds.). Mobility and locative media: Mobile communication in hybrid spaces (pp. 167-187). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Hemmersam, P., Morrison, A. & Aspen, J. (2016). Serendipity and the urban transect walk: reflections on design and cultural mapping in Arctic cities. Proceedings of Cumulus Hong Kong 2016 Open Design for E-very-thing. Retrieved from: http://cumulus.hkdihongkong2016.org
Hvattum, M. (2010). Stedets tyranni (Place’s tyrrany). Arkitekten, 2, 33-44.
Innes, J. (1995). Planning theory’s emerging paradigm: Communicative action and interactive practice. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 14, 183-189.
Koskinen, I., Zimmerman, J., Binder, T., Redström, J. & Wensveen, S. (2011). Design research through practice: From the lab, field and showroom. Waltham, MA: Elsevier/ Morgan Kaufmann.
Liscombe, R. (2006). Modernist ultimate Thule. RACAR: Revue D’art Canadienne/Canadian Art Review, 31(1/2), 64–80.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Marcus, A. (2011). Place with no dawn: A town’s evolution and Erskine’s arctic utopia. In R. W. Liscombe (Ed.). Architecture and the Canadian fabric (pp. 283–310). Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.
Massey, D. (1994). Space, place, and gender. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Massey, D. (2005). For space. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Melemis, S., Tixier, N. & Brayer, L. (2010). Urban transects: The place of research/the research of place. Proceedings of the ARCC/EAAE 2010 International Conference on Architectural Research 2010. Architectural Research Centers Consortium.
Morrison, A. & Aspen, J. (2013). Building appetites: The design of locative media apps for learning the networked city. Proceedings of DRS / CUMULUS 2013 Oslo: The 2nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers. 14-17 October: Oslo.
Morrison, A., Aspen, J., Hemmersam, P., Sem, I. & Havnør, M. (2012). Exploring experimental urban mapping tools with social media. In P. Israsena; J. Tangsantikul & D. Durling (Eds.). Design Research Society 2012: Bangkok, Conference Proceedings: Vol. 3. Design Research Society (pp. 1291-1303).
Morrison, A., Aspen, J., & Westvang, E. (2013). Making the mobile and networked city visible by design. In Proceedings of Crafting the Future. 10th European Academy of Design Conference.17-19 April: Gothenburg. Retrieved from: http://www.craftingthefuture.se
Nielsen, T. (2001). Formløs, Århus, Denmark: Arkitektskolens Forlag.
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture. London, United Kingdom: Academy Editions.
Nyseth, T., & Pløger, J. (2015). Perspektiver på steders tilblivelse (Perspective on the creation of place). In M. Aure, J. Cruickshank, B. Dahle & N. Gunnerud Berg (Eds.). Med sans for sted: nyere teorier (The sense of place: Recent theories) (pp. 47–63). Bergen, Norway: Fagbokforlaget Akademisk.
Pink, S. (2007). Doing visual ethnography: Images, media and representation in research. London, United Kingdom: Sage.
Pretty, J. N. (1995). A trainer’s guide for participatory learning and action. London, United Kingdom: International Institute for Environment and Development.
Qviström, M. (2012). Peri-urban landscapes: From disorder to hybridity. In Howard, P., Thompson, I. & Waterton, E. (Eds.). The Routledge companion to landscape studies. Farnham, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Rappaport, J. (2008). Beyond participant observation: Collaborative ethnography as theoretical innovation. Collaborative Anthropologies, 1, 1-31.
Relph, E. (1976). Place and placelessness. London, United Kingdom: Pion.
Sennett, R. (1990). The conscience of the eye: The design and social life of cities. New York, NY: Knopf.
Shepard, M. (2011). Sentient city: Ubiquitous computing, architecture, and the future of urban space. New York, NY: The Architectural League of New York.
Shortell, T. & Brown, E. (Eds.). (2014). Walking in the European city: Quotidian mobility and urban ethnography. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Sieverts, T. (2003). Cities without cities: An interpretation of the Zwischenstadt. London, United Kingdom: Spon Press.
Smith, L. (2011). The new north: The world in 2050. London, United Kingdom: Profile.
Steuteville, R. & Philip Langdon (2009). New urbanism: Best practices guide. Ithaca, NY: New Urban News Publications.
Thrift, N. (2007). Non-representational theory: space, politics, affect. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Traganou, J. (2009). Travel, space, architecture. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
Tuan, Y.-F. (2008). Space and place. In P. Hubbard, R. Kitchin, & G. Valentine (Eds.). Key texts in human geography (pp. 53–60). London, United Kingdom: Sage.
van Schaick, J., van der Spek, S., & van der Hoeven, F.D. (2008). (Eds). Urbanism on track: Application of tracking technologies in urbanism. Volume 1 Research in Urbanism Series. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press. doi:10.7480/rius.1
Venturi, R., Scott Brown, D., & Izenour, S. (1972). Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Wilford, J. N. (2001). The mapmakers. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Wood, D. (1992). The power of maps. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
World Bank. (2008). Methodology for transect walk. Retrieved from http://pmgsy.nic.in/downloads/WorldBank/ECOP/Annexures/ANNEXURE%2020-2.pdf
Wylie, J. (2005). A single day’s walking: narrating self and landscape on the South West Coast Path. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 234-247.
Zeeuw, H., & de & Wilbers, J. (2004). PRA tools for studying urban agriculture and gender. Leusden, NL: Resource Center on Urban Agriculture and Forestry. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10625/33988
