Food is a powerful cultural element. It’s in this context that community cafes exhist in London. They offer communal spaces for migrants who wish to keep close to their roots, and manifest their home culture.
Cultural Pot
Category: Studio
Positions Through Triangulating
∆ 3 Synthesis
The Shipping Forecast map was the starting point of my Unit 2 research, when I delved into the possibilities of mapping, and countermapping. I aimed to show the artificiality of borders and further challenge the map’s neutrality. Studying Forensic Architecture’s (2025) practice I saw an even stronger correlation between mapping and power. They tell stories of conflicts from the point of view of everyday people instead of governments and institutions. This inspired me to shift from a macro to a micro scale. Consuegra (2025) uses Google Street View to show the presence of food delivery riders, whose work goes unseen in the context of platform capitalism. Analysing his work made me reflect on the stories behind these workers. Exploring the amplitude of mapping led me to Knight’s (2021) abstract maps. The use of overlayed tracing paper added the time dimension, suitable for analysing workers who are always moving through space. This approach inspired my following experiment, when I observed and traced the paths of riders on Granary Square. Creating something from my point of view instead of secondary research, and doing field work made me feel closer to the subject.
Positions Through Triangulating
∆ 1 Studio
Language can be used to deceive. The term “gig” in gig economy attenuates the reality of not having job security by borrowing a word from the music industry. Similarly, corporations use branding to hide damaging aspects of its services. Deliveroo’s HOP feature nudges users into buying groceries after ordering food from a restaurant. The name makes it seem like it’s no trouble at all for the rider, hiding the fact that the rider will have to make an extra stop, which means more time waiting and not enough extra pay.
Language can also be used to send coded messages. This poster is written in Portuguese with some letters missing, making it very difficult to be read by British police officers. It features a large white area that would serve as a notice board for people who wanted to advertise accounts for rent, the only way migrants with no working visa can earn a living. It was screeprinted on Deliveroo’s HOP packaging.
Visual Essay
Positions Through Contextualising
Building on previous iterations, I started a medium exploration, folding my handmande countries’ names into a zine and I experimenting with the shapes of countries’ sea areas.
The resulting patterns relate to topographic representation or expansion of sea areas, and the zine format to folded maps.
Positions Through Iterating
I chose to revisit the Shipping Forecast work and during the first week I iterated on different mapping styles to show the FitzRoy sea area and its surrounding countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones.
Methods of Iterating
I worked mainly with HTML and CSS in the text-based editor TextMate for this brief. First, I tried to remake the website Stadium for the Future.
Next, I hacked my tool, coding, and explored how text-based editors could be used to create print projects, usually done with graphic software. I tried to find out if the unique aspects of HTML and CSS would yield unique results.
I chose to work with the postcard format because of its relation to the web, since it was used as a messaging tool before the internet became mainstream.
Remapping the Shipping Forecast
Analysis
The Shipping Forecast is a catalogue of reports that share the same basic structure. The main difference between them is the time period each one represents. The narrator also changes. Isolated itens are useful for people navigating the waters around the British Isles. Grouped reports can be used by meteorologists. The audience also includes the general public, as the Shipping Forecast has its place in British culture.
The latest report can also be accessed on Met Office’s website alongside a map showing the locations of the different sea areas and whether or not there are gale warnings, shown in red.
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