Giuditta Vendrame

Department: Social Design
Website: www.giudittavendrame.net

“WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR VISIT"

The research addresses the fluctuating relations between the state, the individual and the territory, through design(ed)interventions. These changes go unrecognized and largely unaddressed, as they are eclipsed by the rise of instant global communications, complex interactions of goods and capital across borders, and an increase in visible and invisible frontiers. Yet the personal connects to all of these through the notion of citizenship. How is it changing today? I examine this question through different lenses: economic (e.g. citizenship by investment), digital (e.g. e-estonia and jus algorithm), temporal (e.g. Vatican State citizenship). I mix existing case studies with fictional accounts, as in InfiniteCitizenship.org, a noncommercial platform for citizenship exchange, based on existing services for house swapping. As a critical response to these complex dynamics I undertook a journey to the high seas, defined by UNCLOS (United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea) as a portion of sea where no State can claim sovereignty. I intend the high seas as a zero degree space, where it is possible to reimagine the relations between state, individual and territory, and therefore citizenship status. The purpose of this symbolic trip is the collection of international water, which I will transport to different geographical and juridical areas, suggesting the presence of a temporary exception zone, like an embassy without nationality.

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