Cüirtopia is a mapping project that reimagines how we register, represent, and document queer spaces in the Caribbean.
As an interactive map where a digital avatar called "Konpa" interviews users to ask them what they know, it is the only architectural and urban register of LGBTQ+ spaces in Puerto Rico. By recognizing LBGTQ+ spaces within contemporary cartographic practices, “Cüirtopia” inserts the buildings and territories that are significant to the queer community into the island’s architectural history, cultural infrastructure, urban memory, and political future. The map is both: an archival artifact and a speculative research method, testing innovative approaches between urban field research and socially oriented GIS technologies.
"Cüirtopia" exists across a variety of formats and iterations: this map; an exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; a short film at the MAXXI in Rome; a radio show; a fictional story told via Instagram; community events; architecture courses at the UPR; site-based installations; and more. It was funded by the FIPI Award (2020-2022) at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras, and is led by Dr. Regner Ramos.
Cüirtopia is a mapping project that reimagines how we register, represent, and document queer spaces in the Caribbean.
As an interactive map where a digital avatar called "Konpa" interviews users to ask them what they know, it is the only architectural and urban register of LGBTQ+ spaces in Puerto Rico. By recognizing LBGTQ+ spaces within contemporary cartographic practices, “Cüirtopia” inserts the buildings and territories that are significant to the queer community into the island’s architectural history, cultural infrastructure, urban memory, and political future. The map is both: an archival artifact and a speculative research method, testing innovative approaches between urban field research and socially oriented GIS technologies.
"Cüirtopia" exists across a variety of formats and iterations: this map; an exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; a short film at the MAXXI in Rome; a radio show; a fictional story told via Instagram; community events; architecture courses at the UPR; site-based installations; and more. It was funded by the FIPI Award (2020-2022) at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras, and is led by Dr. Regner Ramos.