Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes a reflexion on the socio-material and situated city-making practices of Brazilian street skateboarders – with special attention to the agency of marble and Portuguese rocks as skateboarding surfaces –, as presented in the published specialized media.

Paper long abstract:

"When these creatures raised in prisons made of Portuguese rock, crooked transitions and rough edges where released on smooth floors, perfect curves and marble benches, the damage was done." These words were used by Douglas Prieto (skateboarder and editor of the Brazilian skateboarding magazine Cemporcento Skate) to describe the experience of an increasing number of Brazilian street skateboarders, "creatures raised in prisons made of Portuguese rock, crooked transitions and rough edges", who travel to Europe in search of "smooth floors, perfect curves and marble benches". The city of Barcelona is considered to be one of the main European street skateboarding cities, mostly due to its "smooth floors, perfect curves and marble benches". This paper will address the role of artifacts - with special attention to the agency of marble and Portuguese rocks as skateboarding surfaces - on this kind of socio-material and situated city-making practices of Brazilian street skateboarders, as presented in the published specialized media (mostly, the two main Brazilian skateboarding magazines at this moment: Tribo Skate; and Cemporcento Skate). More specifically, street skateboarding will be here understood as a technical-political hybrid "spot-making practice" ("spot" being the usual term for a place used for skateboarding): the activation of specific built environments by the distributed agencies of human bodies, material objects and environments. Going clearly beyond the planned territory, this paper will intend to highlight the ways in which the spot-making practices of Brazilian street skateboarders may contribute to the understanding of the varieties of city making processes.