Dwelling Agents enacted a research action in response to an invitation and provocation to consider How might we imagine – from the perspective of 2019 – Cork city in 2050?

This intervention aligns with critical thinking that examines how engagement with supernatural beliefs enable urban dwellers to navigate and understand their cities.

Our provocation gives attention to urban stimulus and to invisible infrastructures of the city by demonstrating the intelligence and sensitivities inherent in the body in response to invisible natural forces in a place.

Using the practice of water divining to survey the space our intention is to make these invisible forces visible to a witnessing audience of civic actors, artists, residents, planners, small business people, activists and researchers. Divining is carried out by holding two L-shaped rods perpendicular to the ground in the hands of diviners while traversing a space until the rods indicated a water source was present underground.

A strong current of water running beneath the floor was detected causing the divining rods to move into a cross formation when passing over this invisible natural force. Here we propose that unconscious peripheral perception is an undervalued human capacity and through ‘sensational cartography’ we can begin to understand and capture how we fully dwell in urban spaces in order to imagine future possibilities.