Paper short abstract:

Based on Ling Hon Lam’s conceptualization of emotion as spatial (2018) and previous psychogeographical work that has served as ethnography, I would like to propose a fictionalized reading of Tirana’s development from settlement to city.

Paper long abstract:

Based on Ling Hon Lam’s conceptualization of emotion as spatial (2018) and previous psychogeographical work that has served as ethnography, I would like to propose a fictionalized reading of Tirana’s development from settlement to city. Starting off from walks that send one through the oldest streets of the Albanian capital, I make the effort to attune to the thought processes of its oldest inhabitants. Making reference to a series of authors that have explored the material via their affectivities, such as Bennett’s Vibrant Matter and Appadurai’s The Social Life of Things, I want to fictionalize knowledge that derives from such analysis. Family relations, good neighboring practices, views of the urban future and moments of rest and joy are all present in the surviving affective environment of the urban.

I will make use of photography and other visual material, to take the listener back in time.