Mapping the Voices of Others in an Urban Context

This chapter aims to discuss and rethink the urban space of Athens in the context of a succession of crises: the Greek economic crisis and the subsequent crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cityscape of Athens, interpreted as a map of the city’s surface, is examined as a ‘contested arena’; a multi-layered skin that can be seen as an alternative narrative of the crisis for further reading and understanding of the present time. Drawing on art-based and practice-based research, the chapter introduces new visual imagery that engages with the visual ruins of the crisis across the cityscape. To this end, a methodology is proposed that includes city wandering and periodic fieldwork in Athens, photographic documentation, archiving and mapping. The use of innovative methods to expand the spectrum of image-making, based on 3D visualisation software used to document the urban landscape, is the focus of the practice’s component. The new results are unique virtual objects that attempt to bring to light a distinctive way of using the 3D software to highlight glitches in the software used. The aim is to create a series of ruins that exist independently of their primary photographic references. These virtual entities are finally placed on Google Maps to provide a deeper perception of the crisis than sightseeing on alternative guided tours on the ordinary and commonly used Google Maps.