ARK Porto A School at the Edge of Nowhere
Chronicles of the Margins. Lesson #7
July
2021
Mon
12
ARK Porto A School at the Edge of Nowhere
Chronicles of the Margins*
Lesson #7
Curbes_ESAP, Interpersonal Spheres in Public Places
The class by the Curbes_ESAP collective could not be more relevant in a time of pandemic as the one we’re experiencing, when the limits of physical proximity to/from others are constantly being questioned, threatened, redefined and even policed. In order to help us reflect upon what may be comfort zones as opposed to areas of tension or threat in this new paradigm of social contact, the collective explored a series of exercises with the participants that were the result of their research process.
The Curbes_ESAP collective comprises six post-graduate students in curatorship, urban culture and spatial practices from ESAP – Porto Higher School of Arts. They proposed seizing the Marquês Garden surrounding the ARK PORTO School at the Edge of Nowhere to map the invisible borders set up between the boundaries of intimacy and the social sphere in what they call “social negotiation choreographies”. Based on the notions developed by Edward T. Hall in the book The Hidden Dimension (1966), on the idea that we’re organised according to bubbles (intimate, personal, social and public), each with specific measures, such as the distancing to which we are subject today, they engaged in a careful, constant observation of how the Marquês Garden was occupied to draw the proxemics coined by T. Hall. Layers of graphics were added to the result of that mapping, representing different perceptions like fear, trust or safety. In other words, they explored the way we come closer and move away from each other, as well as the forces that expand or shrink those bubbles.
The dexterity with which they involved the participants was remarkable, having them move around all over the garden, watching it and interacting with it: resorting to a purpose-made object, the students were invited to draw circles on the ground that were defined by the sizes of the four bubbles (intimate, personal, social and public). A second and freer layer of how each one would expand or shrink those bubbles was then added - as long as it doesn’t rain, one can still find those marks on the ground in the garden.
As we walked and wondered what could’ve happened to the trick-taking games players whose tables we found abandoned, we were told COVID-19 had also changed this reality: ever since it was once again allowed to use the space last March, the players hadn’t returned to Marquês and had moved to other places in the city. Those tables remain abandoned. By the Pedro Ivo Popular Library there are still the ping-pong tables Inês Moreira and Clarice Cunha designed for the ARK PORTO School at the Edge of Nowhere—they can be removed and assembled elsewhere. We hope they can still be used by other players from other borderless classes, at least in the city.
*Chronicles of the Margins - Gisela Leal, The Chronicler of the Margins, will follow the trans/cross-border expeditions of ARK Porto A School at the Edge of Nowhere, mapping the coordinates and identifying the territories explored by the “new cartographers” of the city in this open-air classroom. She summarised the covered contents on a daily basis.
Chronicles of the Margins*
Lesson #7
Curbes_ESAP, Interpersonal Spheres in Public Places
By Gisela Leal
The class by the Curbes_ESAP collective could not be more relevant in a time of pandemic as the one we’re experiencing, when the limits of physical proximity to/from others are constantly being questioned, threatened, redefined and even policed. In order to help us reflect upon what may be comfort zones as opposed to areas of tension or threat in this new paradigm of social contact, the collective explored a series of exercises with the participants that were the result of their research process.
The Curbes_ESAP collective comprises six post-graduate students in curatorship, urban culture and spatial practices from ESAP – Porto Higher School of Arts. They proposed seizing the Marquês Garden surrounding the ARK PORTO School at the Edge of Nowhere to map the invisible borders set up between the boundaries of intimacy and the social sphere in what they call “social negotiation choreographies”. Based on the notions developed by Edward T. Hall in the book The Hidden Dimension (1966), on the idea that we’re organised according to bubbles (intimate, personal, social and public), each with specific measures, such as the distancing to which we are subject today, they engaged in a careful, constant observation of how the Marquês Garden was occupied to draw the proxemics coined by T. Hall. Layers of graphics were added to the result of that mapping, representing different perceptions like fear, trust or safety. In other words, they explored the way we come closer and move away from each other, as well as the forces that expand or shrink those bubbles.
The dexterity with which they involved the participants was remarkable, having them move around all over the garden, watching it and interacting with it: resorting to a purpose-made object, the students were invited to draw circles on the ground that were defined by the sizes of the four bubbles (intimate, personal, social and public). A second and freer layer of how each one would expand or shrink those bubbles was then added - as long as it doesn’t rain, one can still find those marks on the ground in the garden.
As we walked and wondered what could’ve happened to the trick-taking games players whose tables we found abandoned, we were told COVID-19 had also changed this reality: ever since it was once again allowed to use the space last March, the players hadn’t returned to Marquês and had moved to other places in the city. Those tables remain abandoned. By the Pedro Ivo Popular Library there are still the ping-pong tables Inês Moreira and Clarice Cunha designed for the ARK PORTO School at the Edge of Nowhere—they can be removed and assembled elsewhere. We hope they can still be used by other players from other borderless classes, at least in the city.
*Chronicles of the Margins - Gisela Leal, The Chronicler of the Margins, will follow the trans/cross-border expeditions of ARK Porto A School at the Edge of Nowhere, mapping the coordinates and identifying the territories explored by the “new cartographers” of the city in this open-air classroom. She summarised the covered contents on a daily basis.
© José Caldeira / TMP
© José Caldeira / TMP
© José Caldeira / TMP
