Tabea Michaelis: Showtime Wilhelmsburg

In a fictional dialogue with the French sociologist Bruno Latour and the philosopher Michel Serres, Tabea Michaelis sets off on a randonnée on Wilhelmsburg Island, which sits in the middle of the Elbe in Hamburg, and observes the everyday interaction of numerous human and non-human actors from the perspective of the actor-network theory. Using texts, photographs, open-ended stories, and drawings, she records sports cars tattooed with fancy designs on the side of the road, empty Yum Yum bags in front of building entrances, and the series of DIY constructions in the harbour area. Michaelis applies the iterative coding process of Grounded Theory and ultimately creates thirtyone conceptual terms reflecting the programme of the possible in a style both analytical and poetic. The book succeeds in bringing together the myriad episodes of a randonnée in the form of a catalogue, while its methodology affords us a new perspective of the city.