The emergence of the crowd and crowdmapping practices: Reflecting on the postmodern spaces and its narratives

Abstract

The article intends to reflect on the relation among the convergence of media, responsible for distributing content in different formats, the rise of the crowd committed to produce information and the urban space. The hypothesis is that the relationship among them provides new experiences of the space as well as interpersonal connections. In view of this fact, we chose to analyze collaborative narratives, labeled as crowdmapping practices, bringing up key elements for theoretical reflection as geolocation, collective mapping, hybrid and urban space, and especially the action of a globally connected crowd. Contemporary forms of life are testifying the relevance of the concept of multitude (crowd), from the perspective of authors such as Antonio Negri and Paolo Virno, and the consequent dissolution of the concept of “people”. Plural nature and detached from a political unit or state, the crowd makes use of media to act in a non-representational form and demonstrates, in its narratives, new paradigms that shape contemporary society, its people and their spaces. Think on a postmodern urban space and its poetic, with the assumption of a culture where media are converging, demands us to list a number of changes regarding mainly the interaction between people and environments, as well as the production and consumption of information.