poetic terrorism.
a staged drama in the city

The project deals with actions,
as a kind of guide,
that does not become an image 
of a visited historical path;
in other words, a guide of actions,
a cartography of actions.
This guide of actions will be designed by constantly 
re-defining concepts, 
thereby re-configurating the topology of the environment.
In the urban field of experimentation,
every public, semipublic and private space
is mainly organized by social practices.
on the one hand, these practices are levels of official use, 
on the other hand, they are individual systems, 
yet, following legal tracks; 
but only until actions are condensed at one level;
this means, the user himself defines an intersection
between authorities and individuality.
This level becomes blurred in accordance with the individuality
and offers the opportunity to react to an intervention.
Dealing with specific characteristics of an 
urban site (geographical, social, cultural, imaginary),
may potentially initiate urban actions. 
At times when these sites are relatively open (carelessness or the user has failed to notice it),
they enable a kind of occupation.
City walks, which I define as studio walks, 
make it possible to establish a virtual three-dimensional map,
which, by observing the characteristics mentioned above,
uncovers sites for urban injections. 
How can a guide of actions be designed?
You can observe an urban situation and try to
document certain actions.
It is important to have an urban field of experimentation with strict boundaries.
The newly injected actions attract or in part, also, 
miss each other.
A new term is introduced in this field of experimentation.
In this project, the term heterotopia, one chapter of the guide of actions.
The term is examined via the
text (definition and analysis of the term) and 
visualization / haptics (possible urban consequences following the text).
The language / the text has to be integrated into the guide of actions,
to provoke  a necessary methodology of analysis.
The basis of the text is a narrative examination of action practices.
Hence, I deal with terms, actions and strategies,
to inject them in an urban environment, to document reactions
and to influence urban dynamic processes.
Not only virtually, but also tectonically.
A new urban state is, thus, created,
re-configurating virtual relations on the one hand and 
topological relations on the other. 
I am now talking about the relationships of actions, 
which, in their cartography, 
change the relation to the urban situation.
The injection of the action is examined via
its publication, the triggered reaction and a timeline,
which generates a relationship between virtuality and topology.
A tectonical modification of an urban site
changes  the cartography of a guide only slightly,
yet, in a familiar urban situation,
it may cause a moment of suspense.
We intervene in an urban tactic,
thereby creating a perception of phenomena,
that suppresses symptoms of the notion city (urbanity)
in a familiar urban superficiality.
This suppression can be considered as a ‘packaging’
of an urban environment, which avoids diverse extremities.
On the basis of an action timeline,
a seemingly certain urban stability is split and re-configured 
through establishing new ways of examination.
Through the action discourse, new practices are compared which
- in the course of mapped walks - haven’t evoked any significant methodologies of examination.
By injecting an urban action,
a moment of discourse is created, which may form the basis
for further urban strategies.
 When introducing a new urban detail,
new relations can be established virtually and topologically, 
which creates a new level of discourse.
The chapters of the action guide comprise of actions 
of a certain period of time.
A new map of the city can be drawn,
one which is the result of the relationship between user – tectonics and virtuality.
Reminiscence of actions already having taken place enable us 
to use this repertoire for new urban injections.
We spread a map of actions,
as its basis the concept of a guide,
and notice a change in our relation to a familiar urbanity.
A third ‘axis of actions’ is added to the two-dimensional guide. 
Hence, a three-dimensional, time dependent space of actions is created, 
whose representation depends on the examining or „guided“ person.
The guide of actions is to establish a new field of urban practices. 

chapter: heterotopia

the basis: a text;
a text about heterotopias, 
heterotopias in the medical sense,
tissue at a place, 
where it normally doesn’t occur.
the text as the basis for a publication,
as a starting point for an action.
the project requires imagination,
a vague imagination,
a big unknown,
so that the action can be followed not only tectonically,
but also virtually.
in the field of acoustics, the propagation of sound 
- through void and volume – generates various perception strategies.
you could also consider actions, with regard to  
distinct topological situations, as a kind of propagation 
and draw tectonical borders,
with the ultimate challenge the changing relation between 
user and object.
a heterotopia is introduced.
the heterotopia doesn’t react to the mirror image of the existing, 
but rather modifies it through newly established actions.
thus, the action determines the examination of the image.
new synergies of urban strategies are generated.
a heterotopia is created when a specific function,
which cannot be understood by the 
topography of the place alone,
is ascribed to a place.
hence, the relationship between user and space 
can only be established by closely examining this place (topology).
the relationship (defined as a kind of chronology of usage)
creates both a virtual and a spatial link 
between the topology and the city space.
competing sites are created, 
which cannot exist without the place,
but are not clearly defined by it.
the relation site – topology is established.
the familiar sequence of time is neutralized, with simultaneity being created.
the history of the site acquires importance
and generates new ways of examination.
it becomes clear that 
there is only a relationship between heterotope topologies
and place and time if there is a relation between user and object.
the vector time or temporary functional topology,
may continuously change the relation to 
the current place, it may even leave behind an 
empty tectonical shell. 
considering the number of different action places, we can grasp what city could mean.
the relations between different intensities, velocities and contradictions 
can create an urban construct. 
heterotopias are an element of these relations. 
when are the remains of a tectonical 
spatialization a heterotopia? 
the simple act of occupying the site alone can create 
a competing situation,
which, at the time of the publication of the occupation,
generates a virtual heterotopia, without having to ever
explain the specific strategy of the occupation.
i now add the term anamorphosis to heterotopia;
an anamorphosis defines images that can only be seen from a certain perspective,
or under a special mirror or system of prisms.
thus, after an occupation 
(mental of physical), topologies will be considered as new competing constructs.
as a result, a kind of activator generates a topological anamorphosis,
not only in a virtual but also in a real situation.
an urban action should follow, 
which deals with a proclaimed spatialization 
and establishes new patterns of reality.
fantasmagoria of emile cohl shows us the desire to 
perceive alterable states. 
the constant metamorphosis, triggered by actions,
presents a constantly new perception of the initial state.
this leads to the following questions:
do urban places stir up interest by indirectly 
being brought into consciousness or
by being further concealed?
is it possible that a newly occupied overlooked place
generates a new public dynamic?
are social processes controllable by 
influencing them by means of unpredictable moments?
the answers can be found in the degree of public manipulation;
which means that only the user’s urban examination 
can define the nature of change of the urban dynamic.
it may show both the extremity of preservation  
and the will for change. 
if we do not look for tectonical structures in architecture only,
but for a form of acting events and dialectics,
the questions mentioned above get a topological aspect, 
which involves the user in its formulation.
kant or leibniz? this question organizes the main principle 
of the approaches mentioned before.
the intervention into an existing urban site 
alters not only the tectonical structure of this site,
but also the user’s individual examination of it.
here, I think of the configuration of a new site in the city,
which, through the introduction of the heterotopia,
establishes a virtual topological organization.
in the beginning only through the user, thus, an individual place of action,
later through a social ‚spatialization‘.
this event may not be recognized and 
remain in the spheres of intention.   
in the excess of abundance, familiar tectonical structures can be 
split, twisted, altered, re-structured.
not for the sake of destruction, 
but for a moment of surprise.
i think that surprise is an important element in this context.
i play with the idea of the mask, 
with manifesting an action step-by-step.
a controllable event of surprise is created and a possible 
negation of an attack could be forestalled.
a slow unmasking could strengthen the unknown
and create a moment of surprise.
this takes place in a shallow allusion to the new configuration,
to cause an individual virtual re-organization 
of each user’s (urban actor) urban site.
you have to confront yourself with the presence of the medium 
in order to influence the virtual urban re-configuration.
secret services use sleepers,
who, unnoticed, live among and from the society.
when the organization gives a certain signal, the sleeper becomes active
and acts according to a learned pattern.
an urban re-configuration may function in the same way - ,
hidden behind a reduced publication which uses an unmasking action.
a break-in into buildings without stealing anything, 
leaving behind poetic topologies
and giving up the topology at the moment 
when it is shown in a medium and represented and it is left behind 
as a tectonical (mental) shell.
this virtual project can be proclaimed, made public and looked at
as a developing one.
after making this virtuality public, the reactions of the public 
can be laid down in the guide of actions.
hence, new city maps can be drawn up,
resulting from the relation between user – tectonics and virtuality.
the attempt to approach the site,
occupied by the sequence of rooms of a brothel,
results in a re-organization of actions at that site. 
in this case, a familiar structure of actions is split
by re-establishing a certain unknown; 
an unknown that can only be found in imagination;
having negative connotations, socially exhausted; 
showing relations to different sociological levels of an urban walk.
i use an image not completely unfamiliar, however, it may
blur the borders of familiarity and, at exactly that moment,
influence the action structure of the urban procession.
familiar perspectives become unfamiliar tectonical compositions.
the brothel may leave its mark on the face of the city, 
alter gender relations and 
change the spatial organization of the society.
the urban structure of innsbruck’s old town plays with concealing 
and displaying; this means that, behind the facade, structures are
shown only to a very limited extent. we turn around this culture
and show a virtual obviousness, 
which, however, conceals observed actions – 
physically but not mentally.
this type of familiarity absorbs urban actions and may 
merge urbane topologies.
visitors do not want to be seen. 
neither when entering nor when leaving.
in a determined area, a place of action combines diverse 
ways of using the city. 
observing and being observed creates a new urban position;
a new examination of a clearly split structure.
i’d like to look at the urban user as an actor, 
who is not aware of this profile, nevertheless, (s)he operates with actions, 
with new topologies and virtual sites.
(s)he alters a familiar urban structure by a virtual intervention.
many actors know the sequence of a brothel only from eyewitness accounts
or from media reports.
one can walk through the sequence; potential experiences are questioned  
by this heterotopias rather than confirmed.
new spatial sequences alter the familiar face of the city,
we generate a situations of conflict through an urban environment and
control a public dynamic with a proclamation.
in an unexpected situation a relationship of conflict is 
established in a public place.
this results in a comprehensible, proclaimed, 
heterotope tectonical structure which is followed by a virtual presentation.
the public place requires that this relationship of conflict is dealt with.
the occupied site tempts the imagination.
diverse (re)presentations and different 
reactions may be created 
by injecting a process:
by public resources,
at a local level (feedback in a local place),
by depositing a position.
through this proclamation,
people start talking about a specific site, which is integrated into a new visual concept and
the topology is re-configured.
imaginations are projected,
passing-by may provoke an urban drama.
the heterotopia re-organizes tectonical and social processes
and generates comprehensive spatial concentrations.
on the one hand, virtuality is a level 
where the examination of the heterotopia takes place,
on the other hand, it is a possibility  
to visualize the guide of actions.
the visualization is one part of this chapter. 
it can be laid down in a text or presented by a medium, 
or it can be experienced haptically.
the chapter of heterotopia, which is the result of the text,  
is shown to the public by a media installation which is documented.

…..the text becomes an action.

bernhard obholzer, 2006


references:

hakim bey
die temporäre autonome zone
edition id-archiv
ISBN: 3894080394
paul virilio
ästhetik des verschwindens
merve verlag
ISBN: 3883960527
michel de certeau
kunst des handelns
merve verlag
ISBN: 3883960608
michel foucault
die heterotopien|der utopische körper
suhrkamp
ISBN: 3518584286
martina löw
raumsoziologie
suhrkamp
ISBN: 3518291068