Out of State (Frascati Amsterdam)
Would you ever have imagined that a land surveyor’s tool could be linked to the emotion of powerlessness? That an undocumented – some say illegal – resident of Amsterdam felt that way upon seeing the piece of equipment on the street, was only one of the surprises of a digital mapping project. The gauging rod reminded the man of his desire to work and his need for money. To see the city through the eyes of undocumented citizens was the intention of the mapping project. Designers and refugees were coupled to walk the city together. They were equipped with a tracking device to follow their route on a map. They were also asked to take pictures of places or objects that could be linked to certain emotions. For the thematic program Out of State (a program about the practical consequences of an inconsistent policy regarding illegal immigrants) the results of the workshop were presented in Amsterdam at Frascati theatre on the evening of the 20th of January 2015 (an evening that was organised by Platform-Scenography and What Design Can Do). The mapping “visualises” undocumented citizens’ experience of and hiding strategies in the public spaces of Amsterdam. Its aim was to open the debate about the current policy regarding people without the right papers. A what-if scenario was sketched in which the participants could experience the public spaces of Amsterdam from the perspective of being stateless. *OUT OF STATE – Frascati Amsterdam, 19 – 23 January 2015 Link to the presentation: http://www.whatdesigncando.com/2015/01/23/state-shelter-can-creativity-help-refugees/ Photographed by Bas de Brouwer January 2015 |