MAS Context Spring Talks 2021

Nighttime as a Unique Territory

March 11, 2021 at 12PM

Lecture by architect and researcher Lucía Jalón Oyarzun, Professor of Urban Media Studies Will Straw, and architect Pablo Martínez of 300.000 Km/s.

Contributors

Nighttime as a Unique Territory

Today, the ability to describe and understand urban environments based on the use of data allows us to develop new perspectives beyond what is visible. It is with this information that we can document and visualize the activity cycles that characterize each city, during daytime and nighttime. The available data is a tool to begin to understand how nighttime in each city is governed, the patterns it generates, and how it defines a unique territory and human experience of our built environment.

During this event, the panelists shared their ongoing research on nighttime conditions, from the policies that shape them to their representation in media. They also discussed cartography as an instrument to define new territories and the different cities that those cartographies reveal.

This event is part of the ongoing Nocturnal Landscapes: Urban Flows of Global Metropolises initiative. The project provides a comprehensive look at global metropolises at night, combining analysis and observation, questioning the correlation of human activity and light, and revealing hidden aspects of our cities.

Mas event nighttime as a unique territory 01

Barcelona day and night activities, Nocturnal Landscapes: Urban Flows of Global Metropolises. © 300.000 Km/s.

Suggested readings

Will Straw, Luc Gwiazdzinski, and Marco Maggioli, “The emerging field of ‘Night Studies:’ Steps towards a genealogy,” Night Studies: Regards croisés sur les nouveaux visages de la nuit, (Grenoble: Editions Elya, 2020).

Lucia Jalón Oyarzun, “Subjectivity of the Map: Cartographying with the Body,” The Funambulist, February 21, 2014.

Lucia Jalón Oyarzun, “Night as Commons: Minor Architecture and Dayfaring Citizens,” Scapegoat Journal, Night, 2017, 57-70.

Emanuela Barbiroglio, “Architects In Barcelona Use Data To Make Air Pollution Visible,” Forbes, October 12, 2020.

Pablo Martínez and Mar Santamaria, “Atnight: Visions Through Data,” MAS Context, Issue 13, Visibility, Fall 2012, 172-183.

This event has been supported by the Barcelona City Council – Institut de Cultura de Barcelona.

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