Oliver Ressler talks about his work, excerpt from his presentation 2/12/2010

Hackitectura talk about their project Mapping the Commons, Athens, excerpt from their presentation 8/12/2010

George Osodi talks about his work, excerpt from his discussion with Anna Kafetsi 18/11/2010

Mapping the Commons, Athens, 6, 7, 8 & December

The program of the workshop became more and more intense as we were reaching the day of the opening for the project. All participants divided in groups were working on their video case studies. Different themes were depicted reflecting different notions of the commons. Each video was presenting a "common", its "actors" , the way, modes of its diffusion and the conflicts around it. Scripts and shooting places had to be decided fast. Some of the participants who were more skilled into editing helped others with their work.
Jose Perez de Lama and Pablo de Soto were supervising the videos, giving advice while Jaime Diez was collaborating with the participants for the inclusion of the videos on the map, technically. Carla Boserman, started a designed structure for the wall which was reflecting the whole process of the workshop.
Another team of people was editing the research map, the entries and translations for its proper appearance.
A number of 18 video entries were finalised by the opening day, all new productions by the participants in collaboration with the artists on the commons. These videos are on display in the project room of the museum as well as the research map is and the blog of the workshop.
On Wednesday the 8th, in the evening the Hackitectura gave a talk in the museum premises
describing previous projects of theirs and focusing especially on the Mapping the Commons, Athens workshop.
During the discussion, the interest to continue the work on the commons, to enrich the map and go further was expressed by Dimitris Papalexopoulos , Ass. Professor of Architecture, while students referred to the pleasure of sharing knowledge and building something in common.

Mapping the Commons Athens, 4 & 5 December

During the weekend the workshop Mapping the Commons - Athens continued. On Saturday the 4th morning Pablo de Soto and José Pérez de Lama from Hackitectura gave a lecture on cartography examining it as a mode of research, performance, critique and global activism. They referred to different examples of cartography practiced by them as well as by other groups and discussed them highlighting points and directions. Pablo de Soto had brought with him a big archive of printed critical/political/ tactical maps that participants had the opportunity to see.
In the afternoon all participants were split in various teams according to how and what they would like to contribute. 17 themes were selected as the most interesting commons that would be developed into short video case studies by small teams. Furthermore an intense work started on editing the existing material on the online map.

On Sunday the 5th, while the work on editing and enriching the map continued, the teams of the case studies briefly presented their ideas about the videos that will be shot and the scripts that will be used. Discussion between participants took place and the work started with the aim to have the video ready by Tuesday. As part of the day's program two students presented a project of theirs on the demonstrations of remembrance of the 6th of December and discussed how these could be studied as commons also.

More information, comments, videos and images : http://mappingthecommons.wordpress.com/

Mapping the Commons, Athens, 2 & 3 December

On Thursday the 2nd of December, the workshop Mapping the Commons, Athens started in the Project Room of the Museum. A big group of students and young researchers interested in the theme of the commons joined in for the first day and listened to the presentation of the Hackitectura collective about the theme and the methodology that will be used for the cartography.
Later on, in the afternoon the workshop team headed to Exarchia area to examine and discuss some location examples in situ.

For the second day all participants were assigned to map some examples on the online platform of meipi www.meipi.org that is being used for the studying of the commons in the city. Presentations of these entries and discussions on them followed the morning of the second day. Some ambiguous cases raised questions and were the starting point for an interesting and rich dialogue on the very features of the commons. Some of the students incorporated part of their research in the map and explained their point of view.
In the afternoon, the division of work was explained regarding the formation of groups and the division of tasks.

For more information on the Mapping the Commons, Athens workshop please visit
http://mappingthecommons.wordpress.com/