Call for Participation: Embodied, Affective, and Critical Mapping Workshop

The Beirut Urban Lab is collaborating with the Aswat Festival to host an experimental mapping workshop, open to researchers from various fields, including social sciences, urban studies, architecture, and the arts. This three-day workshop, led by Monica Basbous, will explore alternative mapping methodologies that challenge traditional cartography.

Participants will engage with the urban environment of Bourj Hammoud, focusing on the Royal Cinema and its surroundings, through embodied, affective, and critical mapping practices. These approaches prioritize sensory, physical, and emotional experiences, offering creative ways to represent histories, narratives, and practices in their complexity.

Participation Requirements

No prior mapping knowledge is required, and participants can use their preferred mediums—whether writing, photography, sound, or digital tools—to create their maps. The workshop will also bridge cartographic methods with existing research tools participants are already familiar with. By the end of the workshop, each participant will have contributed a map that will be published collectively in an open-access format.

The workshop will be held in English, and full participation is mandatory.

Aswat Festival

This initiative is part of the Aswat Festival, an event dedicated to innovative research practices and artistic expression in the Arab world. Building on successful editions held in 2022 and early 2024, the festival returns with its third edition in Beirut on November 6–8, 2025. Researchers and doctoral students are encouraged to apply and join workshops on both documentary film/sound writing and the embodied, affective, and critical mapping presented here.

For additional details or inquiries, please contact: [email protected]