Sensing the Intangible City: Decoding Historically Centralised Narratives

How can digital memory practices and Black digital geographies inform community-based
approaches to re-centring narratives of Black, People of Colour (BPOC)?
Perspectives of enslaved and displaced peoples remain largely excluded from official histories. Mainstream media
frequently renders BPOC "ungeographic" (McKittrick 2006), displacing differences while naturalising dominant
regimes.
1. Critical Spatial Practices and Placemaking: This question asks in what ways participatory spatial interventions
can reshape understandings and narratives of space through creative digital placemaking practices and physical
visual spatial interventions (Farrelly & James, 2022). It draws on scholarship from Black geographies highlighting
how black lives and histories have been rendered "ungeographic" within traditional discourses that erase racialised
difference (McKittrick, 2021). Tactics for critical placemaking provide paths to reclaim narratives of resistance and
survival through creative practice.
2. Participatory Counter-Mapping of Intangible Heritage: This question asks how participatory counter-mapping of
intangible heritage can help uncover and amplify unremembered perspectives of Black diasporas excluded from
centralized historical narratives (Alia & Bull, 2005; Parker, 2006). It engages with postcolonial mapping theory
revealing biases that fail to capture the rich complexity of marginalised communities' lived experiences across
scattered geographies and generations (McKittrick, 2021). Reconstituting intangible heritage through collaborative
mapping holds the potential to bridge fragmented diasporic networks (Porter, 2022).
3. Transforming Narratives through Extended Reality:
This question examines the ways immersive technologies might transform dominant spatial narratives by centring
BPOC perspectives (Hoskins, 2018; Srinivasan, 2017; Valdivia 2010). It critically evaluates risks of perpetuating
marginalization within emerging media while considering virtual environments as participatory storytelling canvases
that could nurture empathy. Transporting audiences into contested pasts could catalyze more inclusive
understandings of place.
Theoretical frameworks from Black geographies (McKittrick, 2021), Afrofuturism (DeIuliis & Lohr, 2016), and feminist
participatory methodologies (Collins, 1990; hooks, 1993) originating from UK and international sources shape the
inquiry. Research activities prototyping novel interfaces for engagement intend to model equitable partnerships
between academic institutions and BPOC communities.
Research Methods
This project utilizes a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach (Freimuth et al., 2001) with BPOC
as co-producers of knowledge. Guiding ethics emphasize avoiding harm, mutual benefit, participant autonomy and
cultural sensitivity (Scheurich and Young, 1997).
It engages complementary datasets on transatlantic slavery including:
- Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (Eltis et al., 2021)
- Slave Biographies (Michigan State University, ND)
- Legacies of British Slave-ownership (Hall et al., 2014)
These sources incorporate personal narratives and human perspectives to complement quantitative data.
Through 12 iterative stages, the mixed methods incorporate:
1) Participatory counter-mapping workshops (McKittrick, 2021)
2) Data visualization design applying principles to humanize data (D'Ignazio, Klein 2023)
3) Site surveys gathering photographs, audio recordings, etc.
4) Media prototyping for accessibility
5) Co-creative production of artefacts
6) User testing & refinement to resolve issues
7) Development & iteration of final works
8) Dissemination as augmented reality installations (Black Cultural Archives, 2022)
9) Embedded qualitative observations (ethnographic analysis)
10) Impact tracking (analytics, attendance, engagement)
11) Assessment via interviews, focus groups, surveys (Collins, 1990)
12) Analysis, synthesis and archiving locally