Deliverable 2.2: Methods and training toolkit "Approaching Contested Territories"

Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 2.2 Deliverable 2.2 / June 2024 Toolkit Methods and training Approaching “Contested Territories” This toolbox aspires to inspire the imagining and implementing of new projects together with communities and their problems Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Deliverable 2.2: Methods and training toolkit "Approaching Contested Territories". TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2. INTRODUCTION 3. WHY A TOOLBOX? 4. HOW TO USE THIS TOOLBOX 4.1 GUIDE MAP 5. TOOLKIT: INSPIRING TOOLS AND EXPERIENCES 5.1 Private, popular and domestic archives 5.2 Counterhegemonic cartographic practices 5.3 Dérive / Walking magazine / guided tour / stroll / walk 5.4 Projects streetfair 5.5 Found footage (montage film making) 5.6 Territorial performance 5.7 On-screen research 5.8 Conversational podcast 5.9 Collective documentary script 5.10 Tenants survey 5.11 Research with sound 5.12 Gleaning a place 5.13 Audiovisual Laboratory The following document includes detailed information in the form of factsheets on 12 experimental territorial research methodologies developed in the framework of the CONTESTED TERRITORIES network between January 2022 and June 2024. It aims to explain these methodologies in such a way that other researchers can use them. As a reference book, it includes a map-guide that allows you to start reading it by the methodology you need, although this is not the only way to read this toolbox. The detailed methodologies consist of approaches based, among others, on film, sounds, walks and drifts, urban performances, educational meetings, experimental and experiential creation, carried out both in America and in Europe by members of the CONTESTED TERRITORIES network and other related collectives. Throughout these 30 months, a large group of academic and non-academic actors have been promoting meetings, workshops and research projects based on the 12 methodologies detailed above. This document includes reflections on those specific projects, together with those of other actors with whom we worked, who served as guides from their extensive experience in the use of experimental methodologies. This document includes references to those works that were fundamental to the experimental methodologies group. The document includes links to a series of podcasts consisting of long conversations with these references, detailing their practices, which makes it easy for anyone to replicate: mixcloud.com/contestedterritories The practices described in this document are framed within the tasks 2.1 and 2.2.¹ of Work Package 2 of the CONTESTED TERRITORIES project Approaching Contested Territories: Methodological experimentation and training". 1 Task 2.1: Methodological experimentation. The organisation of different meetings in the first phase of the project according to work axes has allowed researchers and professionals from different beneficiaries and partner institutions of TC to collaborate with local communities in the conformation of the epistemological bases for the methodological approach of the project. Finally, in the workshop coordinated by Basurama in July 2023 in Madrid, a good set of nodes and practices on participatory methods, arts and performances were brought together to shape the perspective and subsequent methodological agenda of the project. Task 2.2: Training in visual and audiovisual methods. Torero Film has coordinated a series of scientific training seminars to familiarise participating researchers with different methods and visual approaches relevant to the research programme. This also includes practical workshops to learn the basics of participatory filmmaking and to understand the use of editing software. The training will respond to the needs of local partners to collaboratively develop visual and audiovisual research and documentation activities in their neighbourhoods and will include support from various academic and non-academic partners. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 1. Executive Summary 2 The programme relies on the mobility of more than 100 researchers between different institutions to carry out a joint training, networking and research programme that includes 540 months of exchanges between the different partner organisations of the Consortium. 3 This Experimental Working Group is composed of Ciudades Reveladas, Territorios de Arte e Investigación and ACIJ (Argentina), Basurama (Spain), Left Hand Rotation (Portugal), UFRO and Universidad de Chile (Chile) and Torero Film (Germany). 2. Introduction Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 The backbone concept of CONTESTED TERRITORIES is “territories in dispute”. It allows us to establish a purposefully open and interpretative approach, to seek a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of conflict and political disputes intervening in the production and appropriation of different spaces. This bring to the fore “other knowledges” with territorial anchorage. The "Experimental Working Group" was set up at the project’s inception in 2020. It is composed of nodes from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Germany and Portugal³ It’s goal is to develop various lines of work to establish interdisciplinary dialogues between artistic practices, activism and the production of situated knowledge and collectively around the issues addressed by the CONTESTED TERRITORIES network. The teams that make up the network come from diverse geographies and disciplines, both academic and artistic, research, territorial intervention and cultural production. Throughout these years we have held training meetings and experimental creation laboratories, audiovisual productions, festivals, podcasts, interventions in public spaces, performances, walks, collaborative mapping, among others. These activities have allowed us to establish real and effective crossover between the production of academic The following document brings together various reflections and the systematisation of artistic, activist, cultural and community management practices deployed in the framework of the CONTESTED TERRITORIES project, an international and intersectoral network of 21 organisations from Europe and Latin America, gathered around a common research programme aimed at producing conceptual and empirical knowledge on territorial conflicts caused by unequal development, segregation, extractivism, dispossession and other phenomena² . 4 You can see all the activities developed in Deliverable 2.1. knowledge and a wide range of artistic practices and non-traditional approaches in the field of social research. This has led to change in how network participants carry out their research. The initiatives herein are part of Work Package N°2 of the project "Approaching Contested Territories: Methodological experimentation and training" and have contributed substantially in the first phase of the project to train researchers in specific methods and techniques crucial for the implementation of the proposed research programme. On the one hand, scientific and technical training has been provided through training in software and applications for the analysis of quantitative, qualitative and geospatially coded statistical data.⁴ On the other hand, an open, flexible and diverse methodological approach has been introduced transversally to the project. The approach is rooted on experimentation and the introduction of new audiovisuals and others techniques from the artistic and performative fields in order to enrich the traditional scientific methods that the project was intended from the outset to overcome or complement. CONTESTED TERRITORIES understands that the practices and alternative knowledge that communities advance the basis to analyze transformations in space and society. The perspective allows the dissemination of knowledge in a movement from the local to the global. Therefore, it is of particular interest to investigate and understand how communities themselves shape, negotiate, imagine and collaboratively manage their territories, albeit in power relations that are always unequal and in constant dispute. In this sense, and in a joint and articulated manner between the different nodes, various projects have been developed that seek to build bridges between the more traditional academic production and novel strategies to address the same phenomena from other languages. The co-produced exchanges allows us to understand, accompany and offer alternatives to the territories in dispute. This document offers a set of open and flexible tools that can be put to work in any territory. We are happy to share them with any individuals, collectives, social and community organisations, activists, artists, cultural managers, teachers, and other actors interested in developing practices to enable the production of sitauted and collective knowledges The tools, together with practical examples and concrete experiences developed by CONTESTED TERRITORIES, can be classified as, on the one hand, those that promote knowledge exchange encounters between research, activist, and artistic practices, through for example training and experimental creation meetings, and on the other hand, those geared to produce interventions and performances in public space or to develop audiovisual materials collectively, collective cartographic practices and cycles of interviews of inspiring experiences. Each of these initiatives has the transversal aim of enabling critical reflections on the traditional ways of producing knowledge and the role of research methodologies. The aim is to be able to narrate the complexity of territorial disputes from a multiplicity of representations of social life, using different approaches to it. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 introduction 3.Why a toolbox? This toolbox presents a set of replicable experiences, but above all it is a source of inspiration for imagining and realising possible projects in collaboration with communities to address their concerns. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 This booklet is a sort of catalogue of different ways of doing and creating, available to all those interested in the application of experimental methodologies for territorial research. The idea of experimental methodologies alludes fundamentally to the process of creation and experimentation. Each the tool is proposed as a versatile, permeable, flexible device that can be modified and adapted to the characteristics of the community and the place where a project is carried out. The aim is not, therefore, to provide recipes or prescribe certain ways of doing things over others, but rather to show some ways to start to get started. The tools presented in this booklet have proven to be effective in some contexts, and can in fact be used in similar contexts, but they should always be taken as flexible, open, diffuse and even a little confusing: the general idea of experimental research methodologies is that they are reviewed, re-evaluated and modified as they are used and as the research progresses. In fact, we suggest that users get to know them in order to be able to apply them gradually, jointly or synergistically throughout the research processes, which as such open up paths through which to travel with one or another tool as needed. The process matters more than the result. The experiences in this toolbox arise from the joint work, observation and discussion of the Network's experimental research motor group with many different agents, some of them renowned visual artists such as Julián d'Angiolillo, Ari Nahon, or the collective Campo Adentro, architects such as Gustavo Diéguez or those who make up La ciudad que resiste ("the city that resists"), participatory filmmakers like Óscar Clemente, activists like Rafaela Pimentel (Territorio Doméstico), strollers like Caro Andreeti or La Liminal, mappers like TURBA, sound artists like Mingus Limita con el campo, Vol.1 Madrid, Nov 2022 (Remezcla tu ciudad), and even more or less academic researchers like Enrique Bordes, Massi Casu, Bar de Viajes, Verónica Gago and Lucía Cavallero (GIIF) or Ana Useros (Muestra de cine de Lavapiés). Something that all these agents share is that they understand themselves as unclassifiable, and mix in their practices various disciplines composed of each other in the most bricoleur way possible. In the conversations available with these experts, they talk about how much, how and when they assemble the different methodologies that make up their practice. The shift that allows such clear synergies to be established between the arts and research, is rooted in a shift that has been taking place in the art world over the last six decades, and which has become especially popular in the 21st century. Art seeks to inquire into everyday life, both public and private, expanding its practices and tools far beyond the classic artistic tools (brush, canvas, chisel, etc.). Among the current tools of art, we find techniques and knowledge from research and science, both social and natural, as well as other forms of knowledge such as journalism or detective research: the walk, the herbarium, the laboratory, etc., as well as more or less popular social practices: dances, meetings, assemblies, etc. We can call some of these forms of art "site-specific", that is, a work of art that can only take place in a specific place or environment, just as we can call many of the movements of bodies in space "performances". A walk through a place, for example, does not need "actors" or "dancers" to be taken as a performance piece, since the "creators" of the piece would be the participants of that movement of bodies in space. Sometimes the experiences in this toolbox consist of carrying out a social practice, and taking it as a programme of experiments: rigorously analysing and revising the hypotheses to be tested at each step of the programme. For doing this, the classical scientific method is all the more useful, as it allows us to separate ourselves from the casual social practice. This shift in art is based on a desire to modify, learn or enhance social engagement: to overcome the idea of art as a "representation" or "reflection" of reality and become one more (important) agent of contemporary social engagement; thus founding a new relationship between art and life that allows us to move between the two worlds without the need for artistic training (as is increasingly the case in all the societies in which we work). Experimental practices of territorial research, therefore, should in no way be taken as "illustrations" of research carried out between documents or in a non-situated manner, but we understand them as a main source of "data" - perhaps of a more sensitive nature - for research as well as a guide for it, since these methodologies often take us to other places and refocus our points of view and interests. This does not imply that these practices lower their scientific rigour or intensity, quite the contrary: in the course of life, people take millions of walks, but the walks taken in the pursuit of research are of a radically different kind. Thus, it is possible to apply experimental research methodologies without the need to "overcome", "detach" or "distance" oneself from everyday life. Contrary to the methodological approaches of supposedly "harder" or "objective" disciplines, which increasingly separate themselves from society in order to produce scientific or technical knowledge, our approach to territories must necessarily be Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Why a toolbox? accessible,transparent, recognisable: the closer it is to the object of study, the more careful it has to be. It is often the case that these methodologies are, in fact, imbricated with their territories, using tools (those of contemporary art) that enhance social practices without exploiting or dispossessing them. Obviously, recording a given situation, or an extraordinary or everyday social practice, whether on audio or video, and converting it into some kind of audiovisual or artistic product (film, video, podcast, exhibition, social media profile, urban performance, theatre play, etc.), entails a major disturbance or modification for that social act. In the light of the experiences gathered in this booklet, such modification can and should be beneficial for the community with which we work, just as the community should be a co-owner of the research results. For their part, the use of "data collecting" tools beyond the word and the eye, such as sound or the other human senses - smell, touch, taste - are proving to be more effective ways of creating and transmitting certain sensitive knowledge to populations who may have less access to texts, just as texts are less useful for collective distribution in social encounters, and tend to be enjoyed in solitude. They also allow us to get closer to natural realities that are increasingly imbricated in territorial research: the murmur of a channelled, invisible river or the smell of spontaneous flowers are essential ecological elements for contemporary territorial research. In this way, some of the classic strategies, tactics and tools of the natural sciences are being reconfigured by social scientists. One of the most replicated tools in the framework of the network has been the "project streetfair", which allows us to get to know and share with other audiences and colleagues the variety and multitude of experimental practices, building exchange networks at the same time. In this case we use the term "(street)fair" consciously, both in its Argentinean meaning, which means "informal, self-managed, street or itinerant market", and in its Spanish meaning, which implies both an open-air market of greater importance than the usual and ordinary one, and by extension, a space where attractions, fair rides and recreational services are installed. The "projects streetfairs" have proven to be a useful method for the dissemination of experiences, the circulation of the word, multiand transdisciplinarity and experimentation around the issues that are at the heart of CONTESTED TERRITORIES. “Projects streetfairs" have been held, with about 40 participants in total, in Madrid in July 2023, in Buenos Aires in December 2023, in Santiago de Chile and in La Paz in April 2024. The fairs usually have between 5 and 7 projects per day, so that the participants have time to chat with all the stallholders, as well as the stallholders with each other. It is a versatile format that can be transformed according to its territorial insertion, availability of resources, different objectives and, of course, the profile of the invited actors. Each meeting involves the design of a distribution and use of space by the participating actors, and also proposes a different dynamic for the circulation of the word according to the potential, customs and identities of each community. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Why a toolbox? At these fairs, each researcher, project or invited community can present their project at their "stall" as they wish, without having to stick to the format of on-screen presentation, text, poster or banners. It can include social media, on-screen formats, publications or artistic materials made for the occasion. It is the vocation of working group on experimental methodologies of CONTESTED TERRITORIES to investigate ways of researching from practices coming not only from art, but, as in the case of the project fairs, from all other fields that have been effective for dialogue and research in other fields: beyond the laboratory or field work, in recent years the more contemporary branches of business, social innovation, environmentalism and activism have been inventing activities that have proved successful. But how could all these activities be turned into valid forms of research? We believe that all are essential tools for contemporary territorial research. The key to their usefulness lie in how we may use them, rather than in specialising in one of them and applying it in a "correct" and univocal way every time. This vision allows, in turn, to dialogue with the social practices that all communities carry out, and to take them as possible research tools: dance, festivities, rituals of any kind, social and spatial organisations, thus would not be only objects of research, but ways of investigating intangible realities, often not based on words or images. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Why a toolbox? Projects fair at Basurama, July 2023 Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Archive of popular memory of Villa 20 Buenos Aires Argentina 2021 Since Ari Nahon Artist archivovilla20.com.ar WEB facebook.com/tallerdecineymemoriavilla20 instagram.com/archivovilla20 youtube.com/@archivodelamemoriapopularv2040 Archivo de la Memoria Popular de Villa 20 The Archivo de la Memoria Popular Villa 20 is a project that emerged from the Taller de Cine y Memoria (Workshop of cinema and memory) begun in 2018. Its construction proposes to generate spaces for exchange between neighbours as a way of confirming that memory is a collective and active act, which we build by producing stories of the past and the present. It is an archive of the neighbourhood for the neighbourhood. Because it is a neighbourhood with a lot of history and many transformations today, and it is full of people who not only make the neighbourhood every day but also build an attentive view of it. This gaze is looked after and preserved over time. Memory is made up of fragments, photos, videos, testimonies, drawings, objects, letters, documents and certificates. It is also made of houses that were built, of windows, of streets, of common spaces, of ways of organising, of personal and at the same time shared stories. What is the popular memory of Villa 20 made of? Is part of it a personal, childhood photo, with a pond in the background that is no longer there? Or a street just before it was transformed, captured by the mobile phone camera of a group of young people today? How many stories are there of the Cancha de los Huérfanos that can be told, of the parish church or the railwayman's house? There is room for many perspectives in popular memory. Protecting all this is a way of writing the histories of the neighbourhood and of thinking politically about the present. AMPV20 encourages archives to be preserved in their spaces and around the people who care for them and give them meaning. The archive is open to continue growing to gather more documents, stories and activations of the memory of Villa 20 de Lugano. PODCAST Chapter 9 Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Counterhegemonic Cartographic practices #Mapping #Participation #Collaborative #Processes What are they? Cartographic practices promote processes of collective and collaborative map production. They are based on the experience and knowledge of "the place" of the community where the activity will be carried out. This type of practice implies that in the actual making of the map, there is an exchange between the participants and a debate based on consensus from which the elements, conflicts and problems that will be included in the cartographic piece emerge. These initiatives are part of what is known as critical cartography - or counter-cartography - which questions the centralised, hegemonic, technocratic and positivist way of representing - and producing - the territory. These supposedly neutral maps naturalise and spatially crystallise relations of domination, becoming a powerful ideological device for the reproduction of a power matrix that invisibilises, homogenises and excludes critical existences from Social mapping, then, promotes processes of appropriation and denaturalisation of inhabited space by communities through various methodologies. It allows the construction of new critical narratives and visual writings of conflicts, resistance, disputes and struggles for just territories. In recent years, countless experiences of cartographic production have proliferated both within social organisations, collectives, educational spaces, public policies, research teams involved and committed to the territories, among other actors who have put into play more artisanal and analogue cartographic instances (body-territory maps, talking maps, maps, etc.) as well as from the use of digital tools such as Openstreetmaps' Umap. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Counterhegemonic Cartographic practices Iconoclasistas’s collective map What are they useful for? Cartographic practice is a powerful tool that enables the use of various processes of organisation, empowerment, understanding, training and production of collective knowledge about a given territory. The graphic products of these processes - ideally horizontal - serve, in turn, to make visible, denounce, disseminate and share critical readings of the places. The production of a map is an exercise in getting to know each other, in exercising debate, in circulating the words of those who are not heard, and in reaching consensus and common narratives about some of the problems that affect a community. They make it possible to identify or bring to light the perception of the way in which community actors relate to the environment and the interactions that are generated with the context and the territory. Maps can also be a means to show or present the results of research or resistance processes carried out by different social actors in the territories. Also, social mapping is a very frequent methodological tool for the elaboration of collective and participatory diagnoses of various problems that serve to make them visible and to denounce them to the authorities, as well as for urban planning and design with the involvement of the community. Counterhegemonic cartographic practices  Cartographic production processes must be applied taking into consideration the characteristics of each place and population. There is no recipe or correct or standardised forms because they are flexible in nature.  Mapping practice should be based on prior workshops with the communities to be mapped, where common knowledge flows can be generated and serve as a kick-start for the work.  It is also recommended to generate points of consensus with the communities, i.e. a clear definition of what is to be mapped, with whom and for what purpose. Territorial mapping can be done at a micro level (such as an institution, an organisation or a few blocks of a neighbourhood), at an intermediate level (a city) or at a broader level (a region or even a continent).  The main thematic categories can be identified and defined, and from there, the playful and graphic devices can be designed to provide the participants with the framework for the work. This graphic, visual and playful development is fundamental to generate and promote the work methodology. It must be original, clear and dynamic.  It is suggested to invite participants to the workshop in an open and timely manner, in order to achieve a combination of diverse voices and knowledge, both experiential and technical.  After the presentation of the workshop and its participants, you can start working in small groups. These groupings can be based on the territorial issues that you want to work on, or the graphic devices that you choose. A margin should also be left for improvisation in the event that variables that trigger this organisation into working groups arise.  The mappings should be worked on in an orderly and neat way, so that the final result is legible, even for people who were not at the mapping. The number of working days will depend on the organisers (it can be an intense afternoon or spread over several days).  It is suggested that on the last day, the workshop closes with a general plenary session in which each group presents and socialises the work carried out. This is a time for sharing experiences, not only in terms of results but also in terms of the methodologies applied, which will surely make the process more dynamic and provide lessons to be learned. It is possible that various disputes and disagreements may arise, which can be overcome and reworked from a common perspective and from the horizon of objectives that the cartographic mapping exercise calls for.  If you opt for the creation of a digital map, you can use OpenStreetMap's Umap, which allows the creation of colaroborative maps on a network: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/es/. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation iconoclasistas’ collective mapping manual - Free download in pdf Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 Territorial accumulation Atlas Online Around the world 2022 Since Manuel Bayón (FlacsoEcuador) Geographer contested-territories.net/atlas/ WEB Atlas de acumulación territorial The "Atlas of Territorial Accumulation" is an open and collaborative tool developed by CONTESTED TERRITORIES that aims to graphically show and systematise different cases that account for the main forms of capitalist violence that are being resisted from different territories. This initiative aims to map processes of territorial accumulation, using publicly available data on capital investment projects, the case studies of the CT Network as well as contributions from social movements, community leaders, activists, collectives, academics, and other actors concerned with these issues. These tools are part of a set of cartographic practices that have proliferated intensively in the last 20 years that question the hegemonic and centralised way in which territories are represented. These efforts challenge dominant global paradigms and offer alternative cartographic expressions, situated and through the development ofcollective and creative participatory processes to narrate and represent spatial and environmental injustices, extractivisms, etc. In the first instance, each member node of the network contributed a series of cases that are deployed in different territories, establishing a consolidated base that graphically and analytically accounts for the mechanisms of territorial accumulation. This platform contributes to the collective production of knowledge and the construction of a multi-narrative approach to visualise and understand the nuances of territorial accumulation: - It allows the visualisation and understanding of particular cases at different territorial scales and the dimensioning of the global character of resistance processes. - It allows participating actors to chart diverse experiences of resistance that affect them in their territories. - Encourages networked and collaborative knowledge building - It is home to a wide variety of experiences that form a broad constellation of practices from art, activism, research, etc. PODCAST Chapter 7 This platform is currently available for interested actors to create their own OpenStreenMap UMAP to be embedded in the general map hosted at https://www.contested-territories.net/atlas/mapa-general Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 Guerrilla cartography Anti eviction map Iconoclasistas iconoclasistas.net The mission of Guerrilla Cartography is to widely promote the cartographic arts and facilitate an expansion of the art, methods, and thematic scope of cartography, through collaborative projects, hosting theme-based community workshops and symposiums, and mounting public exhibitions. Collaborative research devices, itinerant collective mapping, critical cartographies and pedagogical resources for community use. They are one of the founding mothers of collaborative cartographies around the world The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project is a data-visualization, critical cartography, and multimedia storytelling collective documenting dispossession and resistance upon gentrifying landscapes. Caminos de la villa Caminos de la Villa is a citizen action platform, that allows easy access to information related to urbanization processes in the villas or barrios populares of the City of Buenos Aires, in order to monitorize how they are being carried out. Counterhegemonic cartographic practices Some key projects for further reference guerrillacartography.org antievictionmap.com caminosdelavilla.org Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Dérive / walking magazine / guided Tour / stroll / walk* #Performance #Site-specific #Exploration #Action #Participation What are they? They include all kinds of walks, strolls or routes, which can be structured or arbitrary, in a group or alone. It is a journey, an exploration tool that uses the body as a phenomenological tool. It has its origins in the Dadaist practices of the Situationist movement: “dérive” means literally “drifting” in French. Guy Debord's written description of the practice is easily accessible online. Through drifting we shift from “describing the city” to “apprehending it in a sensorial way”. It allows us to enter the city or the space without prejudices and without a priori, guided by intuition or curiosity. In drifting, the point of origin and destination of the route are of no particular importance; what is relevant is the experience generated in the journey, uniting time, space and bodies. The journey, thus becomes a method, a tool and an end in itself. It gives rise to a narrative, an imaginary, which can be captured in different forms of recording. What are they useful for? It serves to understand the territory in a sensorial way, to collect different subjective interpretations of the same territory. It also serves to explore and reveal improbable connections in space. To "re-learn" hitherto unknown places or places that have not received research interest. It complements the two-dimensional technical information of classical cartography. It serves as a tool for collective mapping and for the construction of situated cartographies, social cartographies or other forms of territorial knowledge. It allows the collection of information with a focus on the territorial community and the construction of local knowledge for analysis and participatory urban management. Promotes inclusive, autonomous and self-management in territorial management. * There is a version of dérives through a place without paths, streets or roads, which we have called "gleaning a place" Dérive/Walking magazine/stroll... 1. Determine the interests the drift walktargets, at the intersection between the territorial support and the local communities if they exist. 2. Consider whether it is a structured or unstructured, group or solitary route. 3. (WALKING WITHOUT A ROUTE) In case of opting for a drift in pure situationist terms, it is suggested to give room for improvisation. This technique is recommended to establish first approaches. The classical situationist drift did not expect to find more or less "remarkable" points, but precisely to let oneself get lost and surprised by whatever is found in it. 4. (WALK WITH ROUTE) In case you opt for an organised tour, survey possible routes and points of interest (duration times, connections, break times). a. It may be advisable to have done the walk beforehand: if we prefer to let ourselves be surprised, it is better to plan a drift (see point 3). b. It is important to remember that a group walk always takes much longer than planned - it is precisely this lengthening of time that makes the tour "dense". To avoid having to cut the tour short, it is better to focus on the main points where we want to dwell, and to allow for conversation, listening and attention. Among the main points, we can "pass over" others that we also found interesting in a first selection, as the participants will be the ones to pay attention to them. c. Given the proliferation of sightseeing tours, it is important to show a careful way of being in the space. Small groups, avoiding the typical tourist elements (cameras, curiosity, sensationalism) are recommended to allow the territory to express itself. 5. It can be a linear or circular route. The final route can be shared on a map or only known by the "guide". Although very long walks (over 6 hours) have an undeniable epic feel that is comforting for the participants, it is difficult to exceed 3-4 hours of activity with most of the participants. 2 hours may be short, but you make sure that no one "falls off" along the way. Water, toilet and rest stops are very much appreciated, because if they are not foreseen, the participants will make them at a point where they might not be so convenient. 6. At each point of interest, there may be a stop for contemplation, an exchange, a story with a local actor, a historical reflection, or a small on-site action. In this case, we are rather dealing with what we call a "walking magazine". This term came to us through the Madrid practices initiated by the artist Rafael Lamata in 1996 and continued since then by many local collectives and activists. Their intention was precisely to expand the processes of creative research. 7. Accompany the walk with forms of recording or travel logs, which can be multiple depending on the focus of interest (annotations on cartography, photos, audio, sound map, anagram, text, images, drawings, etc.). 8. Be sure to make a proper closure of the route, appropriate to the proposal. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation x.com/laliminal instagram.com/laliminal facebook.com/LaLiminal Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 The liminal collective Madrid Spain 2015 Since Beatriz Martins Orozco Yolanda Riquelme García Cultural mediators laliminal.com WEB La liminal La Liminal is a cultural mediation collective that investigates the city and uses the urban route as a central tool to collectively analyze public space. We take the tools that feminisms provide us to propose other readings of the urban landscape, analyze and question the historical, symbolic and identity constructions that make it up, focusing on other stories that have been neglected or invisible over time. This positioning leads us to work with women's stories, but also with others that are not so present in official discourses because they are divergent, such as labor history or that of social movements. With our actions we seek to generate encounter and exchange contexts from which to collectively analyze the urban landscape and its histories, with proposals that are activated from the strategies of cultural mediation and that take shape in urban tours, walking investigations that cross the path with other disciplines, drifts, visits to exhibition spaces, training workshops and projects aimed at different audiences and communities, as well as professional sectors such as teachers. At the same time we developed a written production from which we seek to reflect on the practice of cultural mediation and its ways of working on the territory. The ultimate objective of our work is to generate processes of social transformation from the activation of critical thinking and the construction of alternative discourses. There are based on collective learning, facilitating the consolidation of a critical citizenry and committed to the reappropriation of public space as a common good. PODCAST Chapter 12 Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Tolosa, La Plata Buenos Aires 2016 Since Architects WEB youtube.com/@territoriotolosa7198 linktr.ee/territoriotolosa facebook.com/TerritorioTolosa/ Territorio Tolosa Territorio Tolosa (La Plata, Argetina) is an urban contemplation project. It is made up of a collective of architects, artists and residents of Tolosa coordinated by Luciana Lima and Verónica Pastuszuk, transdisciplinary architects/artists. This project was born in Tolosa, the oldest neighbourhood in the city of La Plata, as a result of an Architecture Grant from the Fondo Nacional de Las Artes in 2016. They meet to walk and record, map, photograph, draw, make artistic interventions in public and private places, enter houses, museums and clubs. They propose to see the neighbourhood from different points of view. They take a portion of the city as an excuse to rethink art and architecture. They organise collective mapping workshops and free residencies for artists and residents of the neighbourhood, cycles of talks, exhibitions, competitions, philosophical walks, architectural works and neighbourhood transformation. They are part of a university extension project at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of La Plata, with whom they form a network on feminist urbanism called La Ciudad Que Resiste (The City That Resists). From Territorio Tolosa, they have been on more than 95 walking tours in the neighbourhood and in other cities besides Tolosa and La Plata, such as: CABA, Arana, La Caleta, Amsterdam, Madrid, Venice and Rome, among others. Photographers, writers, cartoonists, plastic artists, dancers, actors, teachers, singers and neighbours in general have participated. Recently, given the health crisis, they organised the cycle (re!)parar, a series of performative and virtual talks to think about the city and the neighbourhood of Tolosa, which can be seen on Territorio Tolosa's Youtube channel. For three months, they held meetings with different guests who reflected on the urban: the city of care / philosophy, heritage and gender / performances / the body in public space / feminist urbanism / neighbourhood transformation / urban activism / self-management / collective mapping. They are currently carrying out a project on urbanism and neighbourhood transformation in Tolosa, within the framework of a Master's Thesis MaPA-FADU-UBA, directed by Dr. Architect Inés Moisset and Architect Gustavo Diéguez and coordinated by Verónica Pastuszuk and Luciana Lima. Argentina Verónica Pastuszuk Luciana Lima among others instagram.com/ territoriotolosa PODCAST Chapter 6 Tolosa Territory Collective Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 Real estate fiction: documentaries and workshop Fiction films Around the world 2014 Since Left Hand Rotation Artists lefthandrotation.com/ museodelosdesplazados WEB Real Estate Fiction I vimeo.com/80078379 Real Estate Fiction II vimeo.com/121588781 Real Estate Fiction III vimeo.com/154707279 Ficción inmobiliaria Documentales y taller FICTION AS REGISTER [ Real estate Found Footage ]. Fiction is rarely about place; fiction is about story. But if we pay attention to the location, while paying attention to the plot, we can access some of the filmic knowledge stored in the audiovisual image. Ficción Inmobiliaria is an audiovisual project that compiles material made up of fictional films in which the problems associated with the issue of housing appear in the main plot or intersect with it. This collage of fictions in which the city and its inhabitants are the protagonists conceals the record of urban conflicts associated with the socio-economic model of an era. Similarly, their outcomes project a range of solutions limited only by the imagination. Perhaps we can appreciate fictional cinema for its documentary revelations, and give new resonances and meanings to this suggestive narrative order. The project consists of a trilogy of documentaries and a workshop held at La Boca, in Buenos Aires during the Ciudades Reveladas 4 festival in november 2024 Further Reading Ficción inmobiliaria: workshop format The workshop "Real Estate Fiction" was taken to the neighbourhood of La Boca, in Buenos Aires, within the framework of the Ciudades Reveladas film festival, in December 2023, in collaboration with the platform La Boca Resiste y Propone and the neighbours of the area. The first day was devoted to the viewing with the participants of a previous selection, made by the Left Hand Rotation collective, of fragments of fiction films, chosen to be representative of neighbourhood conflicts. The themes had been previously mapped in meetings with members of La Boca Resiste y Propone. During the subsequent debate, a collective memory exercise was carried out, in which the participants contributed references to fictional films that, once again, represent the reality of the neighbourhood. Left Han Rotation found the movies proposed on the internet and downloaded them to use them on the second day of the workshop On the second day of the workshop, the script of a video made with short fragments of films previously chosen by the neighbours of La Boca was elaborated collectively, which would include the main demands of the association. The conflicts over access to housing in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of La Boca and the struggles of its residents are very real. The power of their organisation surpasses fiction. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Further reading The workshop at La Boca The finished audiovisual piece can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/892 890352 Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Territorial performance #Performance #Site-specific #Exploration #Action #Participation What are they? Territorial performance is the name given to all actions with a territorial base. It may be carried out following a score, guidelines or just a set of rules. It can be totally predefined but also have some room for improvisation. It involves spectators and/or local participants. It is different from a stage performance, as participants engage with their own identities by being present on site. It has an ephemeral character in a given time and space and can be a multidisciplinary discourse, but always involves placing people's own bodies in the territory involved, seeking to question and mobilise collectively and politically around what is chosen to work on.the chosen theme. What are they useful for? It is a cultural device for exploring space and time through the body. It allows knowledge to be generated and transferred by bringing into play social knowledge, memory and a sense of identity through actions in the spaces involved. For Christine Greiner and Pablo Assumpcao, performance can be conceived as a research methodology: "We believe that the body learns and explores the world through performance; that is, we believe that bodily movement and sensory experience organises processes of meaning that cannot be reduced to linguistic systems, narrative descriptions or notions of traditional scientific methodologies. Understanding performance as a methodology - as a form of knowledge - makes us question the very nature of knowledge and research. Site-specific is a type of artistic work that contemplates the particularities of the space where it is deployed, intervening it. It works from the visual arts and also from performance. The site-specific can seek to break with a habitual, everyday order by modifying the environment. This tool allows us to work in dialogue with that space, taking into account its characteristics and history. And from there to put it into play with the perception, imaginaries and senses that it can enable. Territorial performance 1: Establish the objectives of the performance. Before starting to plan, it is important to be clear about the objectives of the action: What local aspect do we want to work on? We must be clear about what it is about this territory that we want to explore, transmit or construct ideas associated with a particular social or political imaginary? 2: Plan the content and structure. At this stage we can bring some clear guidelines to work with the participants and have a margin for those who join in to contribute their ideas or improvise. We should organise the flow of the presentation, establishing transitions and key moments. At this stage we also define the elements that make up the action in addition to the bodies, defining whether there will be music, objects or some other resource to be used. 3: Choosing the space and the moment in which it will take place. The physical space in which the performance will take place will have a lot to say because it will be an important part of what we want to work on. We must think about how we want it to look and how it relates to the content of the presentation. How do we intervene that space? What of its particularities summons us to imagine the action? We must also consider the time and day when it will take place, taking into account the spectators who will encounter the intervention, the flow of people passing by and whether or not they can join in at some point. We also take into account whether a municipal permit is required to carry out the performance and define how to position ourselves in relation to this, whether we are going to carry out the necessary procedures or we are going to design an action that avoids such a situation. 4: Call and rehearsal. In order for a territorial performance to be carried out with local participants, we must call for submissions. We can define whether it will be an open call or whether we will work with a specific group from that territory. This will have to do with some specificities of what we will address in that territory. The call can be made through social networks, stickers, wt groups or personally if there is a specific group to which we want to propose the action. Once the group of participants has been defined, we can hold working meetings and a rehearsal to see how it works. In this instance we also test the way in which a dialogue can be generated with the people who are passing through and will see the action. This is important to define whether there will be room for them to join in or not. 5: Execution of the performance and closing. For the execution we have to arrive some time before and go over the general guidelines. We will also have to have previously defined and planned whether there will be a photo, video or sound recording. The people involved in this work should be clear about the action so as not to interrupt and plan the recording in advance. It is important that one or more people can remain observing and taking care of the action in case there is any question with the spectators or for any doubt or eventuality that may arise. The closing or end of the performance has to be clear and then we can open an instance of talk or exchange with the people who were able to experience it, both as participants and spectators. What experience, sensations, reflections can we transmit from the process for a common sharing that will allow us to outline a collective reflection on this territory? Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 Chile Ecuador Bolivia U. K. Spain Germany 2022 Since Javiera Cifuentes Actress & Researcher Rueda de la Fortuna, by Gustavo Ciríaco Other references Performance Silencio SILENCIO is a performance inspired by #QUERERNOVER (Contreras, 2013), which has been articulated collectively in different territories of Abya Yala and Europe thanks to the Contested Territories network. Specifically, it has taken place in Pucón, Chile (Lago Mallolafken); Tena, Ecuador (Saporumi); La Paz, Bolivia (Cascadas Hampaturi); Sheffield, UK (Crookes Valley Park); Madrid, Spain (Parque Calero); and Karlsruhe, Germany (Karlsruher Schloss). The performance questioned human links with the element WATER and asks how to relate to this force beyond matter, taking into account the specific conflict of each body of water in its corresponding territory. The collective action consists of forming a human chain of bodies lying in SILENCE at the edge of a body of WATER in conflict. The participants position themselves in a chain (head-foot) parallel to the water. Depending on the specific characteristics of the territory, this space will present different tensions and offer different individual and collective interpretations of the action, which may or may not be discussed at a later stage. For 12 minutes, SILENCE is maintained in order to listen, feel and value this place, establishing an intimate and collective dialogue with WATER. Depending on the number of people you expect to convene, it is suggested to use different strategies to organise the group. If it is a small group (up to 50 people), the organisation can be more spontaneous and the minimum guidelines indicated in the previous paragraph can be given before the action takes place. However, if the call is expected to bring together more than 50 people, it is optimal to offer the indications beforehand, so that the action can be carried out once they are in the space. For example, in the action in Pucón, which attracted more than 100 people, a call was made via social networks in which registration was requested. After registration, the instructions for the action were sent via email with an explanation of the guidelines and reference information on the time and space for the meeting. PODCAST Chapter 4 PERFORMANCE Silence Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 On-screen research #Audiovisual #Un-editing #Assembly #Meeting What is it? It is a space for dialogue and collective exchange around diverse experiences of academic research, activism or militancy and their intersections with audiovisual production. Tests, exercises, experimentation, mistakes and processes: how to bring complex social phenomena to the audiovisual format? The activity is mainly organised around the viewing of a series of films that explore the relationship between social research and/or activism and audiovisual production. In order to then recover the decisions that were made during the research, filming and editing. A working methodology is defined to curate the screenings. This allows the circulation of specific experiences related to concrete experiences, and to establish a minimum set of criteria for taking into account the crossover of multiple film narratives that may result. What is it useful for? On-screen research invites us to retrace the process of audiovisual production of materials that focus on complex social processes. The aim is to reflect on the limitations, difficulties and/or errors that arose during the making of the films: from the conceptual to the technical, including the challenges of working with social collectives or the challenges of thinking about collective editing. In addition, emphasis will be placed on the narrative structure and modes of representation of documentary filmmaking, with the aim of accompanying the decision-making process of ongoing projects. + It serves to socialise and circulate audiovisual pieces that establish a connection between social research and audiovisual production. + It helps social science researchers, activist collectives or militant groups that are approaching audiovisual production to recover certain basic concepts of film language. + It serves to establish a dialogue between materials already shot and projects in progress, in order to identify commonalities and to incorporate caveats and suggestions for future instances of project realisation. On-screen research 1. Identify the activity’s target audience of the activity and their knowledge of audiovisual language. Some guiding questions: are they social science researchers, activists, audiovisual filmmakers with experience in film language? Is there a variety of profiles in the target audience? At what stage are they in the development of their audiovisual projects (do they have an idea, are they shooting, do they want to edit material that has already been filmed)? 2. Depending on the profiles and the state of progress of your projects, choose a dynamic for the activity. There are many possibilities here, but we recommend two that can be used as parameters: a. EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE format: for groups with some level of knowledge of audiovisual language and whose members have already finished materials or are at an advanced stage of the production process. b. WORKSHOP format: for groups with a more initial profile or without previous experience in audiovisual production (i.e. who do not have completed films or projects in progress). 3. Preparation, selection of the person who will be facilitating the activity. Convene a person who specialises (or has experience) in the audiovisual production of social phenomena. This person could be the facilitator of the activity and commentator of the screened materials. 4. Selection and organisation of films. Select the materials to be screened and establish an order. It is recommended that they be short materials or, in the case of feature films, select a representative fragment. Depending on the number of materials to be screened, decide whether all the films will be screened consecutively (without a pause), and then resume the conversation based on them, or whether it is necessary to group the films together and make screening/conversation batches. EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE Format: 1. Screening and exchange. After each screening, each filmmaker will have 10 minutes to talk about the objectives of his/her production and some details of the filmmaking process. The coordinator may then give feedback and open the floor for an exchange of experiences. The aim is to establish a facilitated dialogue between the filmmakers based on stimuli provided by the coordinator of the activity. 2. Sharing of key ideas. As we move forward, it is recommended to establish common agreements on filmmaking practice that are useful to both filmmakers and the general public: regarding modes of representation, narrative structure, research questions behind the documentary piece, point of view, use of resources (voice-over, interviews, plates, etc.) or the handling of technical resources. WORKSHOP Format*: 1. Presentation and introduction. After introducing the activity, basic concepts of documentary audiovisual production are reviewed: it is suggested to work with Bill Nichols' "Modes of representation" to orientate the gaze and to reflect, additionally, on voice (narrative, authorial, subjective) and point of view. 2. Screening and activity/sharing. The workshop coordinator can introduce each film and ask the participants to consider these elements (or the one that seems most significant in the piece): what mode of representation predominates in the audiovisual piece, what is its theme, what are its objectives, what resources does it use, what is the point of view, what is the point of view? who are the target audience of the film? Depending on the amount of material to be viewed, it is recommended to pause to share the reflections that emerge. The aim is to incorporate certain criteria for reading and analysing film language that will be useful when undertaking projects of this type. The synopsis of each film and a commentary by the filmmakers can then be read: a text, a video, an audio where they tell part of the "backstage" of their production. 3. Interventions and conclusions. Those who have projects in progress can establish points of reference with the films shown, decisions to be taken on the basis of collective reflection, etc. (*) If only some of the participants have finished products, an intermediate modality is to include in the WORKSHOP format the productions of those who have completed some audiovisual production process. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 4th Revealed Cities festival Buenos Aires, La Paz Argentina, Bolivia 2023 2024 Ciudades Reveladas collective Cultural managers ciudadesreveladas.com.ar/ WEB facebook.com/CiudadesReveladas.Cine/ instagram.com/ciudadesreveladas/ Festival Ciudades Reveladas 4 The research on screen in Festival CR #4. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 06/12/2023. EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCES format. In this version of "on-screen research", different audiovisual materials from the social sciences and activism were presented with the filmmakers as part of the audience A commentator/coordinator guided the activity and the exchanges: what difficulties did they encounter in the production process, what limitations did they encounter? What decisions were made to arrive at the final product we are watching? The meeting put the filmmakers, their research and their audiovisual productions in dialogue with each other. https://ciudadesreveladas.com.ar/la-investigacio n-en-pantalla/ On-screen reserach on the road - Festival CR #4. La Paz, Bolivia 01/04/2024. WORKSHOP format. In this version of "research on screen", first of all, basic elements of audiovisual production were presented: modes of representation, voice and point of view; 9 audiovisual pieces from Argentina and Bolivia with different modes of representation were shown and then worked in the workshop mode around these questions: what mode of representation predominates in the audiovisual piece, what is its theme, what are its objectives, what resources does it use, what is the point of view, who are the film's recipients, who is the film's audience? As the materials were viewed, the analysis and the workshop participants' ability to distinguish certain basic concepts of audiovisual language in the films and to relate them to the development of their projects became more complex. See full program Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Conversational podcast #Exchange #Attention #Conversation #Sound #Remix What are they? The intention of the podcast is to shape a personalised presentation of a particular experimental research methodology. It introduces it through a long interview with its author(s). With the generalisation of podcast listening, the conversational podcast has become an effective tool for conveying detailed technical knowledge about a given methodology beyond the conventional journalistic interview. It becomes a long presentation (1 hour long) about a practice, with questions adapted to the field in question to which your research belongs. Due to the hectic and inattentive nature of our times, being able to sit someone down for an hour-long chat on their practice is a major achievement on its own. It goes beyond the "success story" presentations that short form formats such as TED talks have got us used to, allowing us to learn first-hand from mistakes and not just imitate the supposed successes. The more interviews are conducted, the more useful the methodology becomes. We call a series of interviews a "podcast", not just a single conversation: crossing over knowledge and experiences through several interviews conducted in a short time allows us, in turn, to develop network thinking with the interviewees. What are they useful for? The conversational podcast is used to learn about a methodology from its author(s). It allows you to ask the authors for details that you need in your research, as well as general knowledge that may be useful for other people who are also engaged in research. It is a practical rather than a theoretical approach to the methodologies: materials needed, deadlines, tools used, workplaces, etc. Conversational podcast The most important thing when undertaking a conversational podcast on a methodology that interests us is to get to know the work of the person(s) being interviewed well. Do not spend too much time describing their practice. The methods researchers use are often a mix of various actions, and combine different tools, tactics, and approaches. It is therefore important to elucidate the details of the methodology during the conversation, as well as to be able to draw it to the concrete and specific interests of the person talking to the experts.  Once we know the projects we want to know about, we contact the people we are interested in. Somehow, "the excuse" of the podcast turns the conversation into a recognisable format: the contemporary journalistic interview. The rise of cultural products based on conversation means that both the expert and the interviewer feel limited (and therefore more oriented) to a certain tone, a certain length, a respect for turns of speech, for the vocation of making oneself understood, etc.  For the interview and conversation, about 90 minutes in a quiet space is necessary. It is not necessary to have a radio or sound studio.  It is advisable to have a recorder other than those included in mobile phones, as well as at least one dynamic microphone. The use of a single microphone allows you to avoid stepping on the floor and having to be attentive to what the other person is saying. However, you lose the freshness of the conversation. If you have two or more microphones, with a slightly more expensive recorder, you can set up a "micro radio studio", where everyone has his or her own microphone and can talk more freely.  Recorders that record ambient sound can be used if microphones are not available, although in this case it is important to direct the voice at the recorder and not to make any other noise (banging on the table, chairs moving, crumpled papers, etc.). Such noises are very annoying when listened to with headphones.  If using a mobile phone to record, it is recommended to work on the settings of the mobile phone recorder, to improve the audio quality, or to install applications (there are many good ones) that substantially improve the quality of the recorded audio.  There are also specific microphones for mobile phones that greatly improve the sound quality of the recording. They come in all price ranges, from 20-30 US$ and up.  Once the conversation has been recorded, it is highly recommended to edit and fine tune the sound (there are many free software available, as well as several AI tools to improve the sound), and to present it with a cover page that links all the conversations. In some ways, this series of conversations will be more fleshed out (generating more knowledge and more interest) the more it resembles a podcast project like the hundreds that exist on the internet: many of them are less interesting than these conversations. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation 1_Start from a prior technical analysis of the significant population sample that makes the results rigorous. 2_ Collaboratively develop the questionnaire, divided into thematic sections and limited to 15' in length. 3_Conduct the survey process deployed in the chosen territory, in person and/or remotely (can be combined). Adjust variables if necessary. Make use of currently available digital tools and combine them with the use of paper surveys in cases where there is weakness in applying other methods. 4_Dump and sort data in the statistical analysis platform or programme. 5_Analysis of results, collectively and iteratively. Extracting lines of force and new hypotheses and questions. 6_ Formal elaboration of the results, writing, design and layout. 7_ Publication and dissemination of reports. Public and political advocacy. 8_ Devolution to communities through data dissemination and dissemination of results. Workshops internal to the organisation. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Tenants survey What are they useful for? Creation of autonomous knowledge from the territories and organisations as a basis for counter-power. Disputing external narratives, generating counter-narratives or revealing gaps in enunciation. Strengthening territorial processes and organisations. Generate shared meanings and subjectivity in organisations. Systematising the information in the database of a social organisation or trade union. Reinforcing own diagnoses, orienting political lines of action and improving communication. Some other militant inquiries A Workers Inquiry (Paris, 1880). Karl Marx. A la derivapor los circuitos de la precariedad femenina (Madrid, 2002). Precarias a la deriva collective Recommendations for implentation Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 Lisbon Barcelona Buenos Aires Leipzig Madrid Manchester Karlsruhe Stgo de Chile 2019 Since Contributors WEB BsAs Report Deuda habitabilidad y alquiler BCN Report Generacion Inquilina MAD + BCN Informe agencias inmboliarias Networked Encuesta inquilina The Tenant Survey is a cross-cutting project of the CT network (conceived and designed by IDRA in 2019) whose purpose is to study the living conditions of tenants in the Global South and North. The economic crisis of 2008 increased the difficulties of access to housing. Since then, the tenant population keeps constantly growing. However, there is a lack of research on the social dimension of this market, and on the reality of the people who live in rented accommodation and who form its economic base. The aim of this pioneering survey is to fill this gap by providing data on the living conditions of households and the impacts of the rental market in different cities in Europe and Latin America (Lisbon, Barcelona and Madrid, Buenos Aires, Manchester, Leipzig, Karlsruhe, Santiago). To this end, several studies have been carried out on the real estate market, specifically referring to the conditions of those people who live in rented accommodation in each of the reference cities, with a common purpose: to compare data and macroreporting and to focus on the weaknesses and problems of tenancy. Its methodology allows for the collection and systematisation of data on the situation of tenants in very different locations (many of whom have suffered rental hikes and non-cause evictions), through the collaboration of social and political organisations in alliance with public institutions and universities. The tenant survey has proved to be a useful tool for strengthening territorial processes and organisations, as well as an instrument capable of guiding the future actions of social movements in order to place the political demands of tenants' groups, organisations and unions at the centre of the political agendas of the respective countries. All this thanks to the devolution to the communities and the advocacy work through strategic communication campaigns with the results obtained. Each of the cities has obtained crucial information to uncover rental conditions in their contexts, contesting the hegemonic analysis of the housing market, focusing on unstudied situations, and mining the data from below to create a counter-narrative to the housing crisis in Europe and Latin America. In addition, the comparative network analysis allows for another qualitative leap, generating alliances between diverse processes of social struggle and drawing important conclusions about the way in which markets are influencing rents and tenants in a global, particularised way. The work process also offers multiple possibilities for diverse products and audiences: comparative academic panels, analysis and advocacy dossiers dossiers for the mainstream media and policy makers, content for social media campaigns, and manuals for the grassroots. 8 surveys Habita 65 IDRA Ceur-CONICET ACIJ GEO-UBA Uni Leipzig UAM Basurama Uni Leeds KIT Karlsruhe U de Chile idrabcn.com /es/publicacion/ download the reports Tenants survey by Contested Territories network Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Sound research #Audio #Explore #Listening #Remix #Attention What is it? Sound research involves listening to, recording and analysing the sounds, noise, sound environment and soundscapes of a space. There are many phonographic techniques of audio recording, all of which provide different information. Professional microphones are not necessary, only the concentration and patience to listen is needed. We can listen to background sounds, recognisable sounds, words, music and all other sounds of nature, both living beings and other phenomena (rivers, wind, etc.). These recorded sounds can be assembled in different formats that allow us to transport the collected information: podcast, composition, remix, listening experience, sound walk, etc. Fundamental readings include: “Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world”, by Murray Schaffer (1977) What is it useful for? Researching with sound allows us to discover many elements that go unnoticed by research based upon observation with eyes. Those include the constant sound of the city, distant living things that are nevertheless part of an ecosystem, as well as unexpected relations among all the elements of a soundsape. Sound research is a technique more frequently used in natural science research. When used in urban and territorial studies, it unveils interesting relationships between sounds; unrecognisable, "unheard" sounds that we cannot hear with our ears, together with many recognisable sounds, very specific to a particular place and time. In natural territories, on the other hand, the depth and density of the soundscape is captured in a more direct way than using images or maps. Sound research listening demands from us produces new relationships with the environment: while listening we see other things, we smell other things, we want to touch them, etc.  Feel free to modify and edit the sounds you've recorded: you can equalise them, change their phase, mix the volumes, compress them, etc. You can "compose" with these sounds and even traffic noise can be danced to.  Don't hesitate to record "extraordinary" situations: you can record soundscapes of everyday life, of course, but also important, one-off or remarkable events (a party, a situation, etc.),. You might as well interact with the object of study and listening to its "answers": you can insert a statement, an interview, etc.  Never forget that every soundscape is unique: when we learn to research with sound, we realise that the data are as specific as those collected with any other mode of research.  There are many platforms for geolocating audio, such as echoes.xyz. Explore that one and other strategies for merging territory and sound, such as the many "sound walks" that have taken place in recent decades. Working with sound requires patience and listening. Take your time (and your silence) to listen to the territory in question.  Listen to the territory and record it throughout the day: the sounds of a place are always changing.  Keep a strict order in your recordings: it will be difficult to distinguish them shortly after they have been made.  Make long recordings: often, after 5 minutes the way of listening to a place changes for the researcher, just as the listender territory unfolds in other ways.  If you can, make recordings with different types of microphones: directional microphones, ambient microphones, stereo microphones, parabolic microphones, contact mics... Enjoy listening a territory many different ways.  When you have finished recording, review the material, mix it with other sounds you finde interesting, and record again. You will hear new things unnoticed on the first recording.  A good way to transport the sound to other people, as well as being able to extend the research is to listen to it again in the territorial context: the attention that Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Asunción Santa cruz de la sierra Valparaíso Lima Montevideo 2020 Since Radio creators Sound artists sound engineers WEB remezclatuciudad.bandcamp.com soundcloud.com/remezclatuciudad instagram.com/remezclatuciudad youtube.com/@remezclatuciudad2466 Remezcla tu ciudad A platform promoting the composition of musical pieces using the sounds of the city as prime material. In the first instance, a residency takes place in which participants go out to collect sounds in the public space. From there, a sound library is created that is freely accessible to the global artistic community. The artist-residents proceed to compose musical themes that will make up an album with the sounds of the host city of the residency. Guest artists also participate in the album, sharing experiences, knowledge and their own creative process with the participants. The albums that are produced include between 6 and 12 tracks that go beyond the "soundscape" and the classic "song" format, and suppose an effective way of conveying the specific sounds of each city. A project to rethink and remix our cities, which highlights the sound identities that inhabit urbanity. A true transmedia project, it is completed by a text page https://www.remezclatuciudad.com/txt/, a sound film and a series of podcasts called "sound walks", the first one dedicated to the history and sonorities of Medellín - Colombia YOU CAN HEAR AN EXAMPLE IN : https://remezclatuciudad.bandcamp.com/track/nelson-tirelli -sin-sol (Listening attentively to the streets of Montevideo at night). According to Tirelli, “this experience was for me an experience of rediscovery of the city where I was born. The night not only sounds different but also allows you to approach the experience of recording in a more comfortable way. At times I was unnoticed, sometimes catching the attention of a curious person. Field recording is a performative action. Recording with different microphones deepened the experience. What surprised me most was to hear the electromagnetic frequencies of traffic lights and electrical appliances, so I decided to make them occupy more than half of the composition. By recording them while experimenting with the magnetic head, I was unwittingly starting the sound piece. Towards the end, I mix sounds from different areas of the city, generating textures and interweavings of a Montevideo without sun. All the field recordings I used to compose "Sin sol" were made in the areas of Montevideo: Cordón, Tres Cruces, Palermo, Parque Rodó and Centro.” 5 editions so far AMAZONDAS Other recommended Podcast Mingus (idosOidos), Miguel Buendía (NomadRadio) Ion Din Anina remezclatuciudad.com PODCAST Chapter 8 Remix your city Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Gleaning a place #Territory #Naturalists #Participation #Walk #Explore #Remix What is it? Gleaning a place is a comprehensive approach to a vacant urban territory. It consists of the exploration at ground level of a given territory, through the collection of photos and historical data, stories and cartographies, the recognition of traditional and forgotten forms, uses and customs carried out in that terrain, mixed together with the typical practices of classical naturalists: the collection of plants (herbarium), the collection of soils (edaphology), ecology analyzing the relationship with the animals present in the space and the other non-human agents (technologies, electromagnetic radiations, noises, wind, etc.). It is proposed to carry out these practices in aperformative way, making small interventions in the space. That interventions allow us to evaluate the territory as a landscape, beyond the "extractions" that we can make from it. What is it useful for? It allows us to take a multi-sensory, multi-layered and multi-era approach to a place. It therefore allows us to develop proposals for contemplation, visitation and even intervention in this space with multiple roots and reasons. Visiting the place with locals is an easy way of doing performative visits: Working with local human communities allows, in turn, to link these territories with the rest of the city in complex and multiple ways. Gleaning a place opens the door to assessing the agency of non-human beings over a territory: how and in what ways do they contribute to it, how are they related among each, how they actually shape the landscape and the uses of the land, the cultural landscape and other influences they may have. Gleaning a place  In these undeveloped places there are often other human inhabitants: always keep in mind that this territory is their home.  For the collection of data, facts and historical uses of the place, it is essential to be able to develop a popular memory work (see the file on popular archives). We can organise days of meetings, walks and/or interventions in the territory with neighbouring communities.  It is always useful to carry out these visits to the territory with people of different ages: older people will be able to contribute with their memory, and children will be able to contribute with a creative and playful vision of the space.  It can be a good way to work with locals to carry out proposal that the communities may have for that space: clearing an area of rubbish or weeds, such as a path or a river, signposting a path, proposing a leisure activity or stroll, inviting people to a public lunch, etc.  It is a good idea to investigate the site in the company of a non-human being, such as a dog: we will learn about their relationship with other non-humans. It is necessary to know the place you want to study, and yet keep getting lost in it.  Since we are talking about a vacant, undeveloped territory, it is necessary to be able to find one's way around it without taking it as an empty territory, but rather as something which is somehow "completely full": we must be able to take every square metre of this territory as a universe, while still being guided by the major landmarks present in it: roads, infrastructures, animal and human trails, etc.  It is very important to work with the territory throughout the four seasons: its behaviour varies enormously throughout the year, as well as the visible consequences of the living beings present: migrations, blooms, spontaneous vegetation, human remains and traces, etc.  Long, quiet visits to the territory are also necessary. We need to be able to carry out very rigorous field data collection: the material we collect will often be fragile and unstable: soil, spontaneous plants, human traces in the form of debris or rubbish; It is recommended to make these visits using workwear and heavy boots. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Recommendations for implementation Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories Junio / 2024 Valdecarros area Vallecas district Madrid 2022, 2023 Vols 1 & 2 Artists, dancer, researchers WEB Limita con el campo, Vol. 1 Atraversar Valdecarros Feeling, thinking and imagining by moving. We propose a collective and exploratory experimental methodology, with the common thread of the toponyms of old roads and paths of the cereal fields. In the past, since the 16th century, the town of Vallecas supplied bread to the city of Madrid; mills and bakeries gave life to the village and landscape. From the Pueblo de Vallecas we cross the "limit with the countryside", a mark that appears in the road guides of the 80's, when the Ensanche de Vallecas on the outskirts of the city of Madrid, had not yet been built. This methodological enquiry was carried out by two research artists from Contested Territories, in collaboration with the collective Arte Vecinal (neighbours for art) from Ensanche de Vallecas. Under the premise of "traversing", we propose a series of exploratory operations on the soil (uncultivated land) of the fields where the Barrio de Valdecarros is being built today. This New Neighbourhood of Valdecarros projects 51,656 dwellings on 19 million m2, with a capacity for 150,000 inhabitants. We look for the paths and tracks that crossed the cereal fields and went in and out of the family vegetable gardens that bordered the Arroyo de La Gavia; the Camino de los Tomateros, Camino de los Rastrojos, Camino de la Magdalena, Camino del Santísimo, Camino de Perales del Río, we recognise them as ancestral. They were marked by the journeys of the peasants of past centuries. They are still travelled, they are still part of everyday life of Vallecas; it is a meaningful place, a territory that bears witness to a past rural habitation, an agricultural territory whose marks are still visible. At the same time, is a waste land that dialogues with the Valdemingómez technology park, a huge landfill a few kilometres away, which everyday incinerates and buries tons of waste from the Community of Madrid. When we cross, sentipensando with the territory, we are surprised by the interior paths, the flowers of seeds that came from elsewhere, as yellow as the teeth of wheat and sunflowers, reminding us of the creative process of the Earth; here and there abandoned grills, chairs, cassette tapes, and remains of toilets, tiles, among many other debris, coexisting between sounds, rhythms, colours and textures, a palimpsest that delineates our activity of immersive art and collective intervention. Madrid Basurama Paula Hdez Cerda artevecinal.wordpress.com See the article at C T web Borders the countryside, Vol. 1 Traversing Valdecarros Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Audiovisual laboratory (LAB A/V) #Creation #Interdiscipline #Meeting #Audiovisual What are they? This activity is dedicated to the generation, development and evolution of audiovisual projects that dialogue around related themes. The tool has wide applicability in research and practice involving cities and territories, and the multiple form of conflict that characterise them. Different audiovisual techniques and formats are mobilised and intersect with ongoing research and projects. Audiovisual materials afford the communication of situated perspectives and testimonies, and the material and affective conditions that help tell their story more vividly. The process may involve researchers from various fields in the social sciences and other disciplines related to the themes of concerns, such as environmental scientists. Its aim is transdisciplinary exchange in a context of creative experimentation: participants will work with a variety of people with expertise in the field of audiovisual production, both in its technical and artistic dimensions. Generally, the Lab A/V is set in an informal and collaborative context of creative experimentation that can last between one and four weeks. The goal is to work with different audiovisual techniques and formats, including longand short-form documentaries as well as more innovative micro-docs, sound maps, and transmedia portfolios. The outputs will be mobilised to intersect and synergise with ongoing research, awareness-raising and activism projects. Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Audiovisual laboratory (LAB A/V) What are they useful for? The audiovisual laboratory allows experimentation with peers and 'learning by doing'. When a lab can be organised with a theme that brings together related profiles, it allows different tools to come into play and access other forms of research and expression. A laboratory focused on territorial issues can provide social scientists with resources to advance and disseminate research related to multiple topics: from diversities in urban public space and the recovery of memory of environmental features of an urban nature that have disappeared today (for example with the canalisation of rivers and streams) to testimonies on socio-spatial inequalities in access to housing and the socio-environmental implications of different circuits of circulation and consumption in the food industry. Actually, is the discussion among those different themes what makes the Lab more fruitful. The laboratory's activities can include the development of scripts and dossiers; the record of material in the field and in studio conditions; and the access to equipment for shooting and editing (cameras, software, microphones, computers, etc.) and specialised support. It may also imply training and discussion activities that are interspersed with production initiatives. The lab involves a full-time commitment, preferably in a context as close to residential formats as possible, in order to achieve quality sessions in production and project development. It is recommended to form laboratories with between eight and twenty participants with a diversity of profiles around the themes of work and the audiovisual field. In order to guarantee productive dynamics during the laboratory, detailed information on the profiles and goals of the participants should be collected. It is also suggested to provide continuity in the post-laboratory technical support, in order to achieve the successful conclusion of the different projects initiated and advanced during the weeks of face-to-face work. Watch one of the movies developed at LAB A/V Berlin 2022: Habitancia, by Carlos Tobar