Exploring the untapped narrative potential of the urban fabric,with an approach nestled between the practices of plein-air painting, mixed reality interventions and locative arts.

What a Mess is a collaborative project initially developed by Pedro Gil Farias and Hugo Pilate during the ‘Realities in Transition’ residency at V2_, exploring the untapped narrative potential of the urban fabric, and its place in the digital representation of cities.

Through multiple photogrammetry walkshops and individual explorations, we set out to digitally sample 3D parts of the urban environment and the multiplicity of stories each capture holds. The project uses 3D scanning as a way to create an hyper-personal archive of the urban space, capturing not only the physical aspects of the built environment but also the traces left on the captured surfaces. Asking the question: What is worth archiving in the urban environment?

Each set of captures (or specimens) were then contracted into aggregates, semi-living phygital entities, that invite the viewer to decrypt what might be the narrative potential behind each aggregate. Since the project has evolved and travelled, each translation of the archive from the digital world to the physical world is called a manifestation.