Diffuse materiality in public spaces between expressiveness and performance (original) (raw)
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Materiality as performance : blurring the boundaries between the real and the imagined
2017
This is a dual paper in which I will introduce the notion of ‘materiality as performance’. Materiality as performance is a dialectical approach to urban space. It seeks to interrogate the interplay between the imagined and the material, and this way provide a powerful lens through which city residents can view their city and collectively envision, negotiate and articulate alternatives to present conditions. Urban inhabitants tend to be placed in passive roles as consumers rather than active citizens, framing the politics of the city as concerned with developing capitalist accumulation rather than human potential. Imagination is socially placed within the domains of non-authority such as the childish, placing the loci of authority in the marketplace, the state or the university – places that deal with the ‘real’ world. Seeing materiality as performance is an attempt to subvert this distinction between the ‘real’ and the imaginary by refusing to accept what is presented to us as given...
Performance Research, 2016
This is a dual paper in which I will introduce the notion of materiality as performance. Materiality as performance is a dialectical approach to urban space. It seeks to interrogate the interplay between the imagined and the material, and this way provide a powerful lens through which city residents can view their city and collectively envision, negotiate and articulate alternatives to present conditions. Urban inhabitants tend to be placed in passive roles as consumers rather than active citizens, framing the politics of the city as concerned with developing capitalist accumulation rather than human potential. Imagination is socially placed within the domains of non-authority such as the childish, placing the loci of authority in the marketplace, the state or the university – places that deal with the real world. Seeing materiality as performance is an attempt to subvert this distinction between the real and the imaginary by refusing to accept what is presented to us as given.
"Exhibition Design. Between Materiality and Spatial Dramaturgy"
CIHA 2024 LYON - 26 June 2024
This session focuses on the materiality of exhibition devices and their role in shaping knowledge. It is interested in examining the changing ontology of exhibition design, arising today from new curating approaches, such as hybrid installations, speculative narratives and aesthetic experience. Expanding existing scholarship and research on exhibition design studies, this session considers exhibition-making processes, materials and structures, and explores how the materiality of the exhibition (the curatorial and exhibition design practices) can spatialize aesthetic experience, foster spatial perception and, importantly, reposition the individual at the centre of newly-created social and spatial narratives.
2024
A well-established part of urban studies denounces the constraints of traditional urban design, linked to an almost exclusive focus on the technical, functional and material aspects of space, as well as to the disconnection from the embodied and embedded experience of places, capable of capturing the invisible. However, such research struggles to lead to experimentation with different approaches to design and space in professional design practice. Starting from these considerations, the paper presents Sulla Soglia, a program of participatory design and construction, developed by the Mare Memoria Viva Ecomuseum of Palermo, Italy, in an urban area perceived as inaccessible and dormant. Creative and performative methods were experimented to analyse the spaces and express, perform and represent the project. The bodily experience of space was the common thread throughout the process, intended to explore both the visible and the invisible and to produce new atmospheres, related to the lived and affective experience of spaces. / Uma parte consolidada dos estudos urbanos denuncia os limites do urbanismo tradicional, associados a um enfoque quase exclusivo aos aspectos técnicos, funcionais e materiais do espaço, bem como à desconexão com a experiência incorporada dos lugares, capaz de captar o invisível. Porém, estes estudos dificilmente conduzem à experimentação de diferentes abordagens ao projeto e ao espaço na prática profissional do design urbano. A partir destas considerações, o artigo apresenta Sulla Soglia, um programa de desenho e construção participativos, desenvolvido pelo Ecomuseu Mare Memoria Viva de Palermo, na Itália, numa área urbana considerada inacessível e adormecida. Foram experimentados métodos criativos e performáticos para analisar os espaços e expressar, realizar e representar o projeto. A experiência corporal do espaço foi o fio condutor de todo o processo, com o objetivo de explorar tanto o visível como o invisível e de produzir novas atmosferas, relacionadas com a experiência vivida e afetiva dos espaços.
Dressed bodies and built environments: the interactive composition of public space
The Journal of Public Space
The human body has been pivotal in much architectural research. Researchers of public space often underscore its interactive and transformative qualities as linking to a broader understanding of the different individual social practices taking place in such spaces. What seems to be lacking however is an analysis of the relationship between the dressed body and the built environment which together constitute a public space. The aim of this paper is to explore and elaborate on the interaction between dressed bodies and architectural structures and outline an alternative approach to understanding the different aesthetic forces at play in the constitution of public space. Using a photographic series of piloted experimental sites, this paper points out how the aesthetics of fashion enrich, contribute to, and change the aesthetics of urban architectural environments. The result prompts a clearer understanding of the interaction between dressed bodies and architecture and offers guidance f...
Deturned City Design as tool for Aesthetic Urban living
2011
In an urban context-there is an increasing need to find adequate architectural responses to urban challenges, where tourism and the experience economy are in focus. New architectural concepts are looking away from modernism's strong attachment to 'form and function' towards 'the sensual and the narrative'. In large prestige projects you often see that new expressive architecture is coupled with old industrial buildings in order to create strong stories about a future; similar art installations and temporary architecture are emerging providing the audience with spatial experiences questioning the way we are using urban spaces and interact in every day city life. This article presents concepts of performative architecture and urban scenography. It draws lines back to the artistic and architectural avant-garde in the 1960s. The aim is to evaluate the phenomenon of aesthetic experience in the urban environment and to look at the artistic methods and architectural tools that are involved in large art installations today. The article pays special attention to the use of temporary architecture in relation to festivals and events. It is an allegation that the temporary architecture provides a special freedom to construct spatial situations that promote an experimental life. Through symbols, ornaments and decorations it is possible create recognizable urban environments in which people can orient themselves, but also experience an aesthetically and bodily challenging environment. Through 'constructed situations' and grotesque aesthetics of temporary architectural design it is possible to create cross-border experiences. The thesis is that it may contribute to reflection and provide new demands to the performance of our urban environments in general.
Vague Space as Potential: A Fluid Design for Urban Public Space
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Vague Research Studios is a collective research duo with specialization in interactive material design and artistic processes in public space. This paper is based on a pilot project running 2012-2013. This project is geographically situated in the project area of Västra Frölunda, Gothenburg, Sweden and based on 'terrain vague', a concept coined by the architect Ignasi de Solá-Morale. Vague spaces also represent the issue of vacant land, which are both under the pressure of dense building in some areas and at the same time fastly reproduced in other places due to the recession. Both these processes give rise to reordering of ownership, claim and use of urban space. Our aim is to reveal results of a flexible and open urban design by focusing on vague spaces and uncertainty as potential rather than problem. The project is investigating into and concretizing Fluid Design, coined by Prof. Uta Brandes, Cologne, Germany. Fluid Design is described as being a non-authorative and emphatic design that allows for a variety of interpretations and possibilities. The result of a fluid design process tends to suggest options instead of prescribing them. Our results are presented in three formats, photography, narratives and textile material/artifact. The theoretical concept applied is the 'boundary event' by filmmaker and theoretician Trinh T. Min-ha. This research through vagueness gives results of a possible design of urban public space including diversity, selforganization and surprise. The result is also a critique of finality in development processes in urban space.