Mapping Cities: the Bologna Self-Mapping Project

Abstract

Today, great transformations involve maps of cities and urban spaces. Everybody knows that "mapping", as a practice, has considerably evolved and represents now a universally shared and global experience, belonging, in everyday life, to the vast domain of popular culture (from Google maps, to gps and gis use in sports, holidays etc.). Based on these considerations, we would like to present the results of the first part of the Self-mapping project, a research project initiated thanks to the University of Bo-logna's public competition "topic ISA-2010". The project was designed to create a methodology for the analysis of urban space, attempting to include Gps tracking and ethno-semiotic methodologies. It regards the mapping of territories, intended to start in Bologna, with the idea of extending the research to other urban situations, including post conflict situation, such as in Kosovo and Bosnia. The overall intention is to study the crossing of urban space by its inhabitants, fo-cusing on the comparison of maps, as potential tools for urban policy regarding new forms of knowledge, marketing of the city and territory, as well as a possible means of "good practices".

Keywords

• mapping
• città
• urban space
• spazialità
• etnosemiotica
• geografia
• architettura