Turfing, Desire Pathing, and Modes of Remembrance And Creative Citizenship Under Surveillance: Visuals Traveling Space—movement Traveling Time

Abstract

Focusing on Oakland as the sociogeographical site, and on turfing as a hood dance practice performed in Oakland, this article discusses modes of resistance, remembrance, as well as the desire to challenge sociocultural and political landscapes. This article introduces the concept of movement-based remapping as a sociocultural and political strategy and in doing so incorporates the architectural concept of desire paths. It frames turfing as event in the sense of it being essentially significant to how a difference in the lives of those who turf and beyond is made and manifested through repetition and the establishment of a movement vocabulary. Through a reliance on a variety of different data types, including visual and (audio)visual data, in this article I will be studying turfing with a focus on the differences it creates and how, and additionally with an attention to the newness it invites to modes of social interaction and processes of creative world making. In doing so, I will be incorporating Hannah Arendt's concept of action. This article suggests that movement-based remapping has the capacity to address racial inequality within the social fabric and cultural architecture of the street as a designed urban site of multiactor flows. I suggest that a movement-based practice of remapping is a tool with which to challenge ideas of power within a space, and to question everyday movement scripts whether spatial, social, or political, through repetition, heightened visibility, and creating pathways for interactions.