out of site / sight: contagious tactics for wicked urban problems

In times when wicked problems loom over our urban age, and uncertainty is the only certainty, it is our conviction that ‘undisciplined’ methods and trajectories can lead to resistance at local levels, crafting global change at diverse scales of actions. In this project, three teams from Kolkata (India), Xalapa (Mexico), and Lima (Peru) co-designed KITCHENING (verb) as a collective, transversal, and intimate methodology of action-research to embark on parallel journeys through the complexities within each context. KITCHENING, as a mutually contagious tactic, enabled the incorporation of multisensorial and experimental modes of inquiry. The three teams nurtured alliances with, and allowed themselves to be guided by non(human) allies—cow dung, quelites, and esteras—, which gradually opened questions and traced paths through grounded wicked urban problems.

BOOK

The project features a book with a series of photographs and graphic visualisations that explore inspiring formal(in)formal tactics of resistance, micro-infiltration, and restoration.

Download the book in single pages here (phone version)
Download the book in spreads here (computer version)

front cover and sample of graphics from the book | front cover image: TRES, 2023 | graphics design: Adriana Anaya Chávez

our KITCHENING (verb) methodology

The kitchen is a warm, busy place where everyday actions are performed and decisions are made. It can be understood as a pivot between what is personal and what is shared, the domestic and the outside, the formal and informal, the rational and intuitive, as it lies at the intersection of availability, possibility, and disposal. Even though each kitchen is situated—both culturally and personally—it is also connected and reliant on global flows. This meeting point embraces a series of scalar complexities and interconnections of food, water, waste, energy, materials, sources, infrastructures, etc. that position it at the beginning and end of global routes of production, supply, and consumption. As a place of great complexity and diversity, the kitchen as a metaphor echoes with the tricky and aggressive character of wicked urban problems (WUP). > see chapter 2 and 8

Joint cooking session during co-design workshop, Xalapa.
Photo by Diana Reyes Martínez, 2023

Talking about KITCHENING during co-design workshop, Xalapa.
Photo by Diana Reyes Martínez, 2023

NON(HUMAN) ALLIES

In this project, the fibres of reeds woven together by skilled hands, the precious products of animal digestion, and the stealthy leaves and stems of edible plants became our allies. These non(humans) acted not just as entry points that revealed and opened up all sorts of wicked urban problems, but in fact they played the role of KITCHENING comrades that accompanied us along our uncertain journey through complexity. Long forgotten or even despised, these non(human) allies (NhA) reminded us at every step that it is no longer possible to engage politically in urban research while ignoring the many forms of existence that the city unwittingly hosts in its entrails. Those silenced beings have contributed to our sustenance much more than we realise; it is time to recognise them! > see chapter 4

Cows grazing in the field EKW, Kolkata. Photo by TRES, 2024

Quelite, Xalapa. Photo by TRES, 2024

Building of viewpoint with esteras, San Francisco neighbourhood, La Balanza, Comas. Photo by Eleazar Cuadros, 2024

VIDEO

The book is accompanied by the video out of site /sight: contagious tactics for wicked urban problems that features footage from the three cities in an intimate visual exploration through the eyes of our non(human) allies.

co-direction: León Boltvinik Damian + team members | edition: León Boltvinik Damián, 2024

TEAM

Project coordinators: Katleen De Flander + TRES (ilana boltvinik + rodrigo viñas)
India team: Jenia Mukherjee, Shreyashi Bhattacharya, Sukrit Sen, Swarnadeep Bhattacharjee
Mexico team: Eugenio Tisselli Velez, Ilana Boltvinik Riesenfeld, Rodrigo Viñas Miranda
Peru team: Daniel Ramirez Corzo Nicolini, Javier Vera Cubas
Graphics and editorial design: Adriana Anaya Chávez
Accompanying project video: León Boltvinik Damián

EKW Excursion, Kolkata. Photo by TRES, 2024