‘Traces, Glimmers, Residues, and Specks of Things’: Engaging with Urban Leftovers through a Counter-Archival Project

This article starts from the premise that urban leftovers hold unique potential, as their commonplace incompleteness and vagueness can be perceived as openness and possibility. However, this potentiality is often found hard to engage with, which leads to the disappearance of these spatial fragments due to redevelopments or transformations. How could their indefinite and vague status be maintained and enhanced to inspire care and interest? This article proposes to think about urban leftovers beyond mere by-products of fragmentation and perceive them as entities brimming with innumerable possibilities and operating in relationships instead (following McFarlane, 2021: 63). To properly interact with and safeguard these spaces, a novel methodological approach is undertaken—a counter-archival project—which might highlight the potentiality and heterogeneity of urban leftovers. A counter-archive of fragments could multiply perspectives and realities, encourage various interpretations, foster numerous connections and inspire open-ended journeys.Dechreua'r erthygl hon o'r rhagdybiaeth bod gan weddillion trefol botensial unigryw, gan y gellir ystyried eu hanghyflawnder a'u hamwysedd cyffredin yn agoredrwydd ac yn bosibilrwydd. Fodd bynnag, mae'r potensial hwn yn aml yn anodd ymdrin ag ef ac arweinia hyn at ddiflaniad y darnau gofodol hyn oherwydd ailddatblygiadau neu drawsnewidiadau. Sut y gellid cynnal a gwella eu statws amhenodol ac amwys i symbylu gofal a diddordeb? Mae'r erthygl hon yn cynnig meddwl am weddillion trefol y tu hwnt i sgil-gynnyrch darnio yn unig a'u hystyried yn endidau sy'n llawn posibiliadau di-rif ac yn lle hynny ynghlwm wrth berthnasoedd (yn dilyn McFarlane, 2021: 63). Er mwyn rhyngweithio â'r gofodau hyn a'u diogelu'n iawn, ymgymerir â dull methodolegol newydd - prosiect gwrtharchifol - a allai dynnu sylw at botensial a heterogenedd gweddillion trefol. Gallai gwrtharchif darnau luosi safbwyntiau a realiti, annog deongliadau amrywiol, meithrin cysylltiadau lu ac ysbrydoli teithiau penagored.