Each of these maps resonates with and supplements each other – and one can argue that the true map arises in between their superimposition, creating a map not only of the physical structures, but the ‘dynamic, temporal qualities of the city as a superorganism with its countless narratives, events and fluctuating systems’. 2
3 Photographic: ‘Stairway Camera’ mapped the comings and goings, and thereby the residents, of an apartment block (98 11th Street, Queens, New York). Different from a diagrammatic section of the building, the camera, activated by a false stair tread on the first flight, captured the ephemeral moments of passing-by of the postman, inhabitants, visitors and deliverymen – and the inherent temporality, velocity and movement of this due to the shutter being held open for as long as the shoe pushes the stair tread. A person running is hardly visible (as a consequence of an underexposed image) – the longer the moment lasts the more exposed the image becomes, eventually blending into one whole; one will become part of the staircase. The device, the stairway and inhabitants engage a performative relationship.
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above and below: Stairway Camera
Espen Lunde Neilsen
2 Brook, Richard, and Nick Dunn. ‘Films’ in Urban Maps: Instruments of Narrative and Interpretation in the City . Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, 2011
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