Becoming-dust/ruin

mapping without a map/communicating without a name

Abstract

This work proposes an experiment to analyze the difference between theoretical and empirical translations of cartography of/in communication, analyzing the drift as a suitable methodological strategy to apprehend the intersubjective exchange with its epistemological consequences. “Eu, Villa Adriana” by Luca Vitone is visited at MAC-USP in São Paulo and “Io, Villa Adriana” at MAXXI in Rome, self-portraits printed by climate agents on canvas exposed to the ruins of Villa Adriana, residence of the Roman Emperor Adriano (II century AD). The text develops: 1. Outline: prescriptions, receptions, curatorship, routes; 2. Settings: the drift immunizes the map and creates drift in the territory, and 3. Redesign: re-edition of the map visuality to try to make its differences visible. The cartographic code established by the curatorship is surprising, in a drifting transgression through the imaginary. Drift as an event creates another curatorship that destabilizes cartography as a method, epistemology or empiricism. The possibility of mapping the concept itself changes when experiencing it under the risk of surprise.