Citizen, Explorer, Gamer

Think about when you experience a place in a transient way (for example as a commuter or an out-of-town student). When you don’t actually inhabit a place, you’re often uninterested in its future. This happens especially when a place is just a stopover or has a bad reputation in the urban fabric. In short, when that place is not “home.” Still, it is important to care for places, particularly when they have issues. It is essential to know their story and explore their possible futures, see ordinary things with new eyes, and better understand the social, economic, and political issues within these neighborhoods. Moreover, it is important to do something, participate, and feel that the future of these places is also in your hands. We can explore them beyond simply passing through and start living a more participatory life in unfamiliar urban environments. We can build up a sort of “pedestrian enunciation,” an art of doing that addresses and gives new meanings to residual spaces when crossing them, sometimes even against the established logic of the city. Moreover, this approach can also be extended to people who actually reside in these locations, to stimulate a deeper and more conscious involvement in the future of places in their hometown.