Curious transcriptions Turning online meetings into illustrated spatial atmospheres

How We Stopped and Listened to the Birds is an ongoing urban illustrated reportage that follows my artistic practice as research in Amsterdam during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on informal online interviews with inhabitants and specialists in urban studies. Through this illustrated reportage, I wondered how the illustrator-researcher could embody urban space through digital/online mediums and online interviewing. Transcription refers to creating a written record of spoken or musical expressions. However, it falls short when it comes to interpreting these online conversations in illustration. Besides transcribing, the process of creating the illustrated reportage dealt with imagining the entanglement of memories, stories and geographies provided in the participants’ words and expressions in hopes of creating a sense of place in an affective storyworld. The transcribing of these online interviews in illustration reflects the interviewees’ perspectives and experiences and, simultaneously, my interpretation and reconceptualization of space. Consequently, How We Stopped and Listened to the Birds becomes a privileged space for discussion where the urban illustrations can disrupt official narratives of urban space by containing simultaneous traces of reality and imagination and creating a unique affective atmosphere between both.