About
The Atlas of Resistance examines the relationship between oppositional creative practices and urban transformation in early twenty-first-century Madrid, positioning the interplay between structural pressures and resistance as a defining dimension of urban life. Drawing on demographic, housing, surveillance, environmental, and urban planning data, the platform visualizes how these practices emerge within infrastructures that both enable and constrain agency, including zoning regimes, policing practices, tourism economies, and digital networks.
This proof of concept centers on the Lavapiés neighborhood, a district shaped by a long history of disenfranchisement linked to shifting populations of religious minorities, political dissidents, and racialized communities from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The project documents how residents and artist-activists responded to pressures such as surveillance, economic precarity, and gentrification between 2000 and 2020—a period marked by accelerated development and significant demographic change in both the district and Madrid more broadly.
By integrating cultural analysis, spatial data, and community perspectives, the platform offers a framework for understanding the reciprocal relationship between cultural production and urban change.
Team and Support
The Atlas of Resistance is developed by Catalina Iannone, Assistant Professor of Iberian Studies at The Ohio State University, in collaboration with the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), Maria de Rezende Grisi (OSU), and Daniel Miller (Center for Spatial Research, Columbia University). The project has been supported by internal funding from Ohio State, including the Inspire Innovation Fund and the Virginia Hull Research Award, which have enabled the development of its digital infrastructure, spatial analysis, and collaborative research components.
The platform’s cultural archive has been developed in discussion with local experts, including Andrés Senra, Mar Núñez, and David Moriente Díaz. Its visualizations draw on publicly available data and archival materials from municipal, regional, and national institutions in Spain.