Studio-X October Newsletter
You’re being tracked. And your clicks are, right now, building a datascape, a new city. Everytime you move, through a choreography of security cameras, scanners or tracking devices, swipe your credit card, snap a pic with your cell phone, or connect to location based dating applications, you construct yet another city, another you.
Activity trackers record your favourite routes together with the amount of calories burned. By pedaling your city’s bike sharing system, your age, gender and itineraries build databases, beautiful infographics, and compelling visualizations of yourself that you probably won’t ever see. Likes and movements are stored in the cloud, where you share them with friends, algorithms, family and, incidentally, with intelligence agencies and personalized marketing.*
If, as Anthony Vidler put it, “Walter Benjamin extolled the art of slow walking as the instrument of modern urban mapping.” What, we might ask, are the politics and instruments of contemporary urban mapping? What is the relevance of architectural mapping when even vagabondage is mediated by "derive applications" that get you lost in the city? We explore these questions through the development of the Echoing Borders Initiative.
The Studio-X Initiative Echoing Borders attempts to re-draw territories of in/security and control based on experience and subjective narratives. In a way, it aims at challenging the official representations of territories and identities by introducing elements of time and movement from a subjective perspective (in this case, that of the refugee). The hope is for new imaginaries or critical readings of the territories in question to emerge. Due to the sensitive nature of information related to clandestine or irregular migration, the maps students worked on were developed to both explore the revelatory and subversive possibilities of the map, while maintaining the required levels of opacity. What we would like to explore is the agency of the architect in developing visual representations on the spatial manifestations of migration, borders, and citizenship.
Echoing Borders Initiative
Report by Nina Kolowratnik, Nora Akawi, and Merve Bedir, October 2014
For the first time since WWII, the number of refugees in the world surpasses 50 million. With the intensifying density and rate of forced migration in the Middle East, borders are multiplying and dissolving, shifting and transforming, challenging static forms of representation of boundaries and of mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion. Addressing issues of mobility, fluidity, and transformation in contemporary politics, especially in relation to the place of the refugee in migration politics in the Middle East, requires the rethinking of spatial visualization tools: moving beyond the static representation and understanding of borders, territories and topographies of legal and control mechanisms, into depicting their mobile and fluctuating reality.
In particular, the figure of the refugee calls forth a discussion on mobility, temporariness, and access in contrast to the static character of the sovereign state and its borders, and to the geopolitical limits of citizenship and human rights. While other academic endeavors attend to the urgent need for improved planning methodologies and design approaches of temporary settlements in response to war and conflict, Echoing Borders focuses on re-reading and re-presenting the landscapes of control, risk and suspension affecting the trajectories of forced migration. Using architectural tools of representation, the Echoing Borders summer workshop, held in Amman and Istanbul from August 7th to 27th 2014, looked at the intricacies of refugee status and migration policy in Jordan and Turkey, the trajectory of refugees from the border to the camp or to the city, and conditions of waiting and suspension.
Students experimented with mappings that were based on big data of migration and related regulations and policies in Jordan and Turkey on the one hand, and subjective narratives and experience on the other hand. Once the supposedly opposed scales of static factual data and of narrative experience of time and movement are juxtaposed, new readings of territories emerge.
With participants from Amman, Cairo, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Milan, New York, and Sharjah, the workshop was structured around theoretical readings (on human rights, spatial politics, and Jordanian and Turkish migration policies), field visits to refugee camps and other formal and informal temporary settlements, and public seminars and lectures delivered by academic researchers and humanitarian workers, which culminated into a series of conceptual spatial mappings and visualization exercises. The workshop was launched with a presentation and GIS workshop with Madeeha Merchant (Research Associate, Spatial Information Design Lab, Columbia University GSAPP) suggesting concepts and methodologies of mapping conflict.
Jordan has the highest ratio of refugees to indigenous population of any country in the world.** In Amman, participants formed four research groups, each focusing on one refugee community in Jordan: Palestinian, Iraqi, Somali and Sudanese, and Syrian. Having suffered two major waves of displacement into Jordan, Palestinian refugees from 1948 and 1967 played an important role in the shaping of Amman, in the country’s economy, and the formation of its identity. Jordan is an UNRWA registered Palestinian refuge and their descendants comprise up to 2 million of Jordan's total population of 6.5 million. In order to develop new critical readings of the landscapes of Palestinian displacement in Jordan, the group working on Palestinian migration into Jordan began with a seminar session with Nasser Abourahmeh (PhD candidate at the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department at Columbia University) on the Palestinian refugee camp, its temporality and materiality. Saba Innab (architect, artist, and Studio-X Amman Research Fellow) shared her long term exploration on the notions of temporality and dwelling (through writing, painting, and installation) which emerged from her work as a planner participating in UNRWA’s reconstruction of Nahr El Bared project in Lebanon. In addition, she shared her research on the evolution of Amman, the role which Palestinian camps played in the process, and her mapping methodologies developed for a critical reading of the city. In his lecture Lucas Oesch (Post-Doctorate fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation and Associate Researcher at the French Institute for the Near East - IFPO, Amman), discussed his doctoral research on the tensions between informal Palestinian settlements and formal urban improvement projects in Amman, while Samar Maqusi (Architect at the UNWRA Infrastructure and Camp Improvement Department and PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL London) discussed her current research on violence, humanitarianism, social behavior, and spatial segregation in Palestinian camps in Jordan. After visiting Wehdat and Baqa’a camps, participants developed a visual excavation, or archaeological scan, of Palestinian displacement on the backdrop of the historical shifts of borders and territories in Palestine, and of the regulations and policies affecting Palestinians’ movement and other rights.
(Xiaoxi Chen, Deema Abu-Dalo, Shireen Khamees, Asil Zureigat)
Today, up to around 1 million Iraqis reside in Jordan, most of whom fled to find refuge during the Gulf war in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Kate Washington (Technical Advisor, at CARE Jordan Refugee Program) shared her insight on Iraqi refugee settlement and housing conditions in Jordan. Also, students worked with Vanessa Iaria (Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the CBRL British Institute in Amman and Assistant Professor at the School of International Studies, University of Jordan) about the transnational livelihood patterns of Iraqis migrating between Iraq and Jordan on a weekly basis. After visits to Jabal al Hussein and other neighborhoods in the city hosting Iraqi refugees, students developed a storytelling/mapping tool visualizing the territories of conflict and threat faced by Iraqi refugees, and decision trees highlighting the incessant necessity to move in the constant quest for security.
(Yolla Ali, Cecil Barnes, Rasha al Sharqawi)
The comparative approach adopted at the Echoing Borders workshop required looking at migration policies and regulations in Jordan and Turkey and how they vary not only in time according to political events and agendas, but also according to the places of origins of refugees and asylum seekers. The infographic below represents the variation of waiting time for different refugee groups following major events of war or conflict in the region. Due to the funding structure of international humanitarian aid organizations, the waiting time for asylum seekers currently seeking refuge in Jordan to schedule an interview for status determination can vary from 1 day to up to 3 or more years, according to the refugee’s country of origin.
(Ayla Akkad, Albert Franco, Ruby Muhandes, Rama Refaie, Rebecca Riss)
For refugees from Sudan and Somalia (usually coupled in existing research and media coverage due to the similarities of the challenges faced by both groups), the waiting times are exceptionally long. In order to overcome the challenges caused by insufficient humanitarian support during this state of suspension, Sudanese and Somali refugees in Jordan develop autonomous support networks for providing food and shelter for asylum seekers in Jordan aiming for resettlement in the United States of Europe. Usually located in the heart of East Amman, common shelter emerges in the left-over spaces of the city. Through conversations with Alice Su (Journalist focused on refugee survival in Jordan and Lebanon, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting) on “Forgotten Migration: The Impact of Media Focus on Refugee Status,” and Garrett Rubin, Ismail Haroun, and Jared Kohler on the housing conditions of Sudanese and Somali refugees in Amman, students focused on the questions of accessibility (to the city, to rights, to resources and support) and the complexity of status determination processes and resettlement procedures.
Since March 2011, an estimated 9 million Syrians have fled their homes taking refuge in neighboring countries or within Syria itself, leaving more than 40% of the Syrian population uprooted. So far, over 600,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan, around 20% of them living in camps. In a public seminar with Alice Massari (Head of Mission, Un Ponte Per…), students investigated the complex procedures of registration, “encampment” policies, and the intricate systems of permits and “bail” dictating the Syrian refugees’ movements into and within Jordan. In a field visit to Zaatari camp, where around 80,000 Syrians currently live, Kilian Kleinschmidt (UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator - who prefers the title “Mayor of Zaatari”) discussed the informal spatial reorganization, and growth of income-generating economies, within the camp. Students focused on representing the multiple forms (physical or legal) and scales of borders faced by Syrian refugees, both between states, or between the camp and the city, and the trajectories taken to cross them.
Sammy Goldenberg joined the workshop from the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD-Legal Aid) to provide an overview of the legal framework of refugee migration policies in Jordan. Similarly, upon the group’s arrival in Istanbul, Bertan Tokuzlu (Assistant Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University’s Law School) led a seminar on the challenges and prospects of Turkish migration law. The follow up lecture on Iraqi refugees in Istanbul by Didem Danış (Galatasaray University, Department of Sociology) portrayed the ambiguous legal, social and economical context refugees find themselves within Turkey. The emphasis of Emel Kurma and Ayşe Çavdar’s (Helsinki Citizens Assembly) lecture was on approaching refugees as ‘cityzens’ of Istanbul in addition to a debate on citizenship.
Questions on identity and belonging dominated the conversation once again in Turkey, in particular while attempting to analyze and visualize Turkish-Bulgarian cultural fabrics; communities oscillating and navigating between two nation states, also in relation to the inclusion of Bulgaria in the European Union. Working closely with [insert name and title], the mappings focused on developing a timeline of belonging (based on migration policies, housing conditions, inclusion or exclusion from citizenship) in an attempt to visually communicate the hybrid character and the transnational patterns of identity.
(Ayla Akkad, Cecil Barnes, Ceyda Pektas, Asil Zureigat)
Participants also studied the changing relationships between Turkey and African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Somalia and Sudan, by mapping political events, humanitarian actions, diplomatic meetings and economic trade between these countries from 1991 until present day. The resulting map shows that Turkey has increased its financial, social, cultural and educational investments in these four African countries over the last 25 years and particularly after 2002. Turkey's export sales to these same countries have exponentially increased during this time. The mappings aimed to contrast these trends with the relationship between the African refugee living in Istanbul and Turkish urban society, and the connections with or access to the city. The group focused on mapping the daily activities and revealing the networks of engagement but also the more dominating systems of exclusion and segregation.
(Ibrahim Ibrahim, Ilgaz Kayaalp, Anna Oursler, Rama Rifaie, Burak Sancakdar)
Through conversations and fields visits the students mapped the topographical landscape of (both legal and physical) visibility and risk of Afghani migrants’ trajectory through Turkey into Europe. Participants developed mappings of multiple risk landscapes that Afghan migrants must navigate through on their journeys from Afghanistan to Turkey and Greece. Afghan migrants must weigh different types of risks and consider their physical and legal visibility within different landscapes and borders to determine the most appropriate route of travel. The varying physical terrain and differing legal policies between Afghanistan and Greece alters the perception of the borders between these two countries and reinterprets the notion of the border itself. The maps defined by risks rather than borders begin to blur the traditional lines of division; when different degrees of risk and visibility are considered in tandem, the region between Afghanistan and Greece becomes one continuous landscape that dismisses defined borders but instead suggests a new type of border defined by gradients of physical and legal risk and physical and legal visibility.
(Yolla Ali, Deema Abu-Dalo, Sune Fredskild, and Rebecca Riss)
Syrian refugees seeking shelter in Turkey are named ‘guests’ by the Turkish government. However, the hospitality declared in legal procedures does not necessarily translate to an ease of migration. Syrian refugees must navigate a complex journey also defined by landscapes of risk and security, policies, financial means, and social links and networks in Turkey. Through field visits and discussions, the border regions between Turkey and Syria were visualized through 3 different journeys to Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, to cities near the border, or to Istanbul (of different individuals or families) represented both geographically and through time (of transit or of waiting), in relation to factors of risk, financial means, and social or institutional/legal support networks.
(Xiaoxi Chen, Albert Franco, Ruby Muhandes)
Faculty:
Nora Akawi (Columbia University GSAPP | Studio X Amman)
Merve Bedir (Delft University of Technology)
George Katodrytis (American University of Sharjah)
Nina Kolowratnik (Columbia University GSAPP)
With:
Emre Alturk (Istanbul Bilgi University)
Ahmad Barclay (Visualizing Impact)
Ayse Cavdar (Independent Journalist)
Jawad Dukhgan (Studio X Amman)
Saba Innab (Independent Artist / Architect)
Madeeha Merchant (Columbia University GSAPP | Spatial Information Design Lab)
Participants:
NEW YORK (GSAPP): Cecil Barnes, Xiaoxi Chen, Albert Franco, Anna Oursler, Rebecca Riss
SHARJAH (AUS): Deema Abu-Dalo, Alya Akkad, Yolla Ali, Ibrahim Ibrahim, Ruby Muhandes, Asil Zureigat
AMMAN/CAIRO: Rama Al Rifaie, Shireen Khamees, Hadeel Khawaja, Manar Moursi, Rasha Al-Sharqawi
ISTANBUL (BILGI): Gupse Korkmaz, Ceyda Pektas, Burak Sancakdar
MILAN (POLITECNICO): Ilgaz Kayaalp
COPENHAGEN (ROSKILDE): Sune Fredskild
Guest Speakers, Collaborators, and Critics:
Nasser Abourahme, Luigi Achilli, Yaşar Adanalı, Rana Beiruti, Lilet Breddels, Güler Canbulat, Didem Danış, Sammy Goldenberg, Selva Gürdoğan, Vanessa Iaria, Ismail Haroun, Jared Kohler, Emel Kurma, Marina Otero Verzier, Samar Maqusi, Alice Massari, Philipp Misselwitz, Samar Muhareb, Lucas Oesch, Ceren Ozturk, Johannes Pointl, Garrett Rubin, Ege Sevinçli, Alice Su, Bertan Tokuzlu, Kate Washington
Collaborating Institutions:
Archis (NL), Bilgi University (Istanbul, Turkey), American University of Sharjah (Sharjah, UAE), Visualizing Impact (Beirut / Amman)
*Marina Otero, "Nueva York Geolocalizado," guía de El Viajero, El Pais, 2014.
**Geraldine Chatelard, “Jordan: A Refugee Haven,” Migration Policy Institute, August, 2010
