Everyday, citizens perform, on public surfaces, synchronised routines of elaborate moves. As we move across the city, laws define movements and gestures, unconscious reactions, behaviours and anticipations. They are sets of instructions, conditional statements, ultimately incorporating power; a structural force that plays into everyday life. What happens when we redefine the rules as the visible surface of a playing field? The act of assembling in public space is both an individual and a group activity, involving figures, interplay and synchronisation. As we turn law into a game, the distinction between unthinking movement and a conscious submission as participants start to blur.
Friction Atlas was initiated by Paolo Patelli and Giuditta Vendrame of design collaborative La Jetée for BIO 50, the 24th Biennial of Design (Ljubljana, 18.9—7.12.2014). It was further developed for Adhocracy Athens (Souzy Tros, 29.4—4.7.2015), Performing Mobilities (RMIT, Melbourne, 17.9—31.10.2015) and TodaysArt (The Hague, 23—24.9.2016).