Sarcellopolis: virtual cartographies of multicultural living in contemporary i-docs

What is it about?

This project explores the graphic interface design of interactive documentaries (i-docs) about housing projects between Canada and France. Against the backdrop of the modernist, utopian fantasies that constructed these large-scale housing developments, contemporary documentarians intervene in the social space of the multicultural city via creative interface design. I-docs like Highrise (Katarina Cizek 2010-2015), (B4-Windows on the Tower, Jean Christophe Ribot, 2012), and Sarcellopolis (Sébastien Daycard-Heid and Bertrand Dévé, 2015) employ user interfaces that conjure the vertical and horizontal dimensions of social interaction in the urban built environment. They are most successful when they move beyond narrative to mobilize objects and space, thus enacting the ‘promiscuous relations’ of urban experience and simulating the chance encounters of the urban public sphere.

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