Visualising Territorial Digitalisation through Film

Participants engage with the urban space through a feminist and postcolonial practice of flânerie and produce their own short film projects that shed light on the interstices and connections between digitalisation, urban life and spatial processes.

In today’s cities analog and digital spaces are constantly dissolving, dichotomies like ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ no longer seem appropriate. Understanding this newly emerging space as a third space opens up the possibility to critically examine the new characteristics of urban space and life.

Berlin – as many cities – is heavily influenced by digitalisation and platformisation that shape daily urban life. While several aspects manifest strongly in the visible realm – such as colourful jackets of food delivery riders or controversial office buildings by big tech firms that claim space within the inner city – other (infra-)structures remain blurred. Behind these digital-spatial processes lie intense discussions about the right to urban space, working conditions, and resources (to name but a few).

The workshop will sensitise participants to these in-between-spaces and discourses through walking practices in contested areas of Berlin, drawing on Mirjana Mitrovi?’s artistic research practice “Third Space Walk”. Grounded in flânerie after Walter Benjamin, the practice de- and reconstructs the method from a postcolonial and feminist point of view. This perspective is then combined with filmmaking as a critical documentary practice, theoretically guided and with hands-on practical advice by Jan-Holger Hennies. This covers the development of visual narratives over camera operation to basic editing.

Throughout the workshop participants will develop and accomplish their own short film projects that shed light on the interstices and connections between digitalisation, urban life and spatial processes. Hence, participants will learn how to engage with urban space in an innovative way and act upon their reflections through the use of (audio)visual media, creating an output that can be further shared.

Course leader

Mirjana Mitrovic and Jan-Holger Hennies