Ports

The project 'Ports' is an investigation into real and virtual ports as hubs of globalisation. Ports is looking into traffic of goods, information and people, trying to map out their relations and transitions. Over the last two decades the traditional image of the city has given way to an understanding of cities as spaces of flow. Ports is an attempt to map this new reality with a variety of methods.

During his 9Pin residency commissioned by Scan and supported by ACE, Armin Medosch conducted a writing and research project that took him to Southampton, Portsmouth and Poole. Combining field work, research in libraries and on the internet he studied the history and present condition of the three port cities, focussing thereby on their role as communication interfaces. Using traditional writerly research methods such as walks, observations of the everyday and conversations with a wide range of people, he at the same time developed ideas for digital and networked tools which would serve the same overall research interest.

The research has lead to the development of five project proposals two of which have been developed further and are presented as working prototypes. The prototypes, the proposals and an extensive research journal are documented on the Ports Wiki, a multi-user open source publishing environment.

Credits:

Idea/Concept/Realisation: Armin Medosch
Graphic Design: Yippieyeah, Gunnar Bauer, Tina Borkowski
Programming (Community Mapping): Dave Mee
Wiki Customization: Pete Edwards, Jay Dunford
Collaborators: Helen Sloan, Olivia Hamilton, Joanne Bushnell, Martin Reid, Allan Ingham, Fiona Lewis