A MEMORY OF BARCELONA

Structures, infrastructures, people, personal relationships, economic relationships, social relationships…: Urban Space.

The interaction between neighbours takes place by blending balconies and social networks, cafes and cybercafés, streets, squares, videogames and Apps. Physical reality, virtual reality and augmented reality coexist in the same environment and cyberspace sets itself up as the new agora, the new limitless public space. While the physical public space dwindles due to economic and politic exploitation, the virtual space increases. The lack of physical limits frees creation from the laws which restrict matter demanding, at the same time, the need of searching for new questions.

A Memory of Barcelona suggests a different way of looking at/ living the city: a route around the Gothic Quarter – with an added layer of augmented reality – will show us several objects using Layar’s AR application. The project combines the digital and the physical world. The objects displayed in the middle of public spaces bring back pieces of the city’s memory: the coastal Barcelona, the industrial one, the fashionable one, etc.

Tracking the city’s memory – even when this is not done in an exhaustive or objective way – allows us to reinterpret urban space, whereas modifying our perception of it can serve as a starting point to reflect on its current role.