Writing the article ‘In Nouméa, “new” urban festivals and sensorial cartography’

Giving an account of the redaction of a scientific article is unusual. Generally speaking, little is known about the context in which it was written; only the published text remains, and becomes the sole object of reference for all readers.

Personally, I would certainly never have chosen to quickly describe the process of writing ‘In Nouméa, ‘new’ urban festivals and sensorial mapping’, but to me it carried a strong emotional weight, its ‘own’ little story, which went far beyond the simple final ‘result’.

But first, a bit of background: on 22nd August 2024, the website Visionscarto published my article ‘In Nouméa, “new” urban festivals and sensorial mapping’, in which I was coming back to my sensorial cartography workshop organised during the ‘Noumean Youth Identity Day’ (NYID) on 26 August 2023 and took the opportunity to analyse this urban festival, developing and presenting the French notion of ‘new festivals’.

But originally, this article never aimed to developp this distinctive sociological concept. It was only supposed to describe the various cartographic productions of the participants in this workshop, without taking a closer look at the NYID and the Local Youth Council (LYC) — the organisation in charge of the festival.

So, in September 2023, I started writing a standard first draft, focusing mainly on the context of production, the participants and the maps created. I also did some preliminary research, compiling information on the NYID and the LYC. Then, abruptly, I abandoned the article for a year — I couldn't even think about the subject, I couldn't think about the NYID or the LYC. I was also caught up in my personal life and the events in New Caledonia, and found it very difficult to ‘grasp’ the significance of this particular experience in regard to the explosion of violence following the night of 13 May. The NYID seemed totally ‘disconnected’ from these events and — in a way — rather uninteresting.

In July 2024, Joseph Bohbot asked me to write a short text explaining the different semiological choices made for his maps. I returned to writing and decided to go back to my article on the NYID. My plan hadn't really changed at that point; I was still planning on writing something very classic, going back to my old thoughts. But soon I realised that I needed to develop the context of my workshop much more, which led me to delve deeper into my bibliographical research.

I also had an epistemological problem with the NYID characterisation: what term did I need to use to define it? Should I just call it a ‘day’? A ‘festival’? A ‘popular festival’? An ‘urban festival’?

After making little progress, I stumbled across the notion of ‘new festivals’. Not only did it give me a better understanding of the different sensations I'd experienced, but it also allowed me to analyse the organizational choices and the day's proceedings. I was particularly surprised to find out that several descriptions of other new festivities corresponded almost exactly to NYID and my sensorial impressions — beyond the physical and temporal distance separating me from these events.

I then completely reworked my article around this notion and finally submitted it to the Visionscarto team. The correction and the porting process to SPIP took quite a long time: I'd like (once again) to thank the volunteer work of the proofreaders, and in particular Philippe Rekacewicz, who helped me to give it its final form.

Today, almost 5 months after its publication, it's hard to say what impact this article had. A whole year seems to have gone by, and I still have to produce an English version of it, even though I procrastinate on this task. It left me with a mixed impression, somewhere between a desire for meaning and a jaded account of a particular moment in New Caledonia.