Geografie del quotidiano: il video amatoriale e la rappresentazione dello spazio

Abstract

In this article the author aims, first of all, to outline a possible framework for a geographical analysis of amateur videos. Drawing on the notion of geosemiotics, developed by the Italian geographer Adalberto Vallega, the author reflects upon several issues posed by geography as the epistemic act of representing the space that surrounds us. If geography is, above all, a geo-graphy, we have a set of possible representations that exceeds verbal language: cartographies, paintings, and amateur films and videos as well. That being stated, the questions the author asks himself are thus as follows: how do amateur videos represent space? And, more specifically, which kind of space is described by the techno-gestures of home-videomakers? The article tries to answer them, analysing also a specific case study, a video shot by Luigi Cavallotti, an amateur film and videomaker from Milan.