Wikibivouac project is aimed to construct and relay alternative practices (habits) of urban territory that encourage unusual logics of space (generally related to the property of space and the commercial principles which defines it) through the possibilities that ‘networked-knowledge’ allow. [1]
We understand ‘bivouac’ as a term that encompasses all these alternative practices. Indeed, these specific uses of space can be comprehended as an hybrid of regular city-dweller habits and ‘hunter-gatherer’ behaviours characterized by instability, multitasking, gleaning, recycling and so on.

We think that the urban environment offers an ‘infinity’ of possibilities for dwelling. Thus, our task do not consist anymore in building new spaces or new ‘environments’ but is to search for new possibilities to use, reuse and perform what already ‘exist’. These potential practices of space need to be known and classified in order to constitute an original knowledge that could then be spread. Because of its specificity, this kind of knowledge (understandable as ecological, enactive, sensitive, kinaesthetic and so on) should be collected by intermediary and hybrid methods, like collaborative means such as wiki [2]. These means do not rank information and thus permits interpretations and reconstructions by the ‘gatherer’.
‘Knowledge’ related to these specific practices of urban space (bivouac) is already constituted. It circulates through its producers but also within unofficial, popular and underground cultures. Generally, this knowledge is hardly legal regarding to cities policies and we are not interested in its understanding. On the contrary, our purpose consists in promoting its networking thanks to the possibilities that collaborative means allow. Finally, from this knowledge-grabbing protocol, a new knowledge about urban space and urban practices may emerge.

[1] We understand ‘network’ as ‘something which makes links obvious’. Therefore, the notion of network encompasses everything related to the communications: 1) territory and the physical structures that allow physical travel of humans and physical movement of objects, 2) ‘virtual structures’ that allow knowledge, communicative, and imaginative travel. Furthermore, the emergence of new behaviours, habits, and settlements related to new technologies (internet, embedded technologies etc.) is helpful to think about new practices of urban space (what happens if we think about urban space sharing in terms of ‘open source’, if we imagine a group of people as a search engine, if people can change the appearance of a place by selecting a ‘style sheet’ or specific sonic background?).

[2] Web and particularly Web 2.0 gives the possibilities for the kind of ‘knowledge-spreading’ we are discussing on. In many ways, Web 2.0 appears to be a networked platform that transforms territorial behaviours and practice.

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