Momcilo explores how we understand and navigate physical space - and how those same principles might be applied to building richer connections between people.
Drawing on cognitive mapping theory - specifically the progression from landmark knowledge to route knowledge to full survey knowledge - Momcilo proposes that our social experience of a place is shaped by invisible layers that standard maps don’t show: the communities, events, flows, perspectives, and individuals that give a location its real texture.
He also introduces Kevin Lynch’s urban typology - paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks - and asked whether the same framework could map human archetypes. Different people play different structural roles in a community’s social fabric, just as different elements shape a city.
There’s a live demo of Momcilo’s prototype application, which uses a location-based map interface combined with user archetypes, tagging, and presence settings to help people signal who they are and what they’re open to - without requiring them to fully expose themselves. Users can remain anonymous while still benefiting from the network, with “landmark” users acting as visible anchors for others to navigate toward.
The Q&A ranges widely, touching on the pilgrimage as a model for meaning-making through travel and encounter, the challenges of trust in co-living communities, the fragmentation of mapping initiatives (and who might coordinate them), and the gap between theory and lived experience in intentional communities.
