Momentography of a failure is a participatory research and photography project which seeks to develop a concept of citizenship through practicing forms of appropriation, collaborative research, and participatory photography. In a series of workshops, we use the Android/iOS smartphone app as a digital mapping tool which enables users to create augmented visual and textual layer on the world map. We observe particular districts in each city together with experts from different disciplines and residents of the area to explore the failures- problems or potentials- of the districts by mapping them in a variety of contexts such as Urban space, labor Rights, racism, etc.

Our workshop in Berlin has provided background on the history of urban planning and changing the socio-spatial environment of Marzahn and Hellersdorf districts. We explored construction during the post world war era, particularly since the 70s when the social housing and central planning under the Wohnungsbauprogramm transformed Marzahn to the largest prefabricated housing settlement in Europe. The workshop included excursions through Marzahn and Hellersdorf area exploring different perspectives to the post-socialist developments and everyday life together with the residents of the district.

Towards understanding the fragmented and segregated spaces of the area, we further discussed the academic studies on the area- ranging from social and economical critical papers about developments after the Wende, to case studies on different Plattenbau types. It was followed by discussing various approaches towards documentary photography, discussing indexicality and performativity, photography as speech act and appropriation of space by means of research, digital mapping and photography.

The workshop held by Parham Mortazavian urban researcher together with photographer Nafiseh Fathollahzadeh in a collaboration with Barbara Klage, Thomas Klage, and all the participants. This project is supported by BLO Ateliers and ECCE.