Contributed by Gustavo:
Comparing critical space and public space to curatorial practice, no such thing as true democracy, a space for all. Once someone makes a decision or action, the other possibilities that could have been, are removed, thus eliminating a democratic voice.
‘’Space is a condition, a condition that is not stable.’’
The speed at which shifts are happening can change dramatically depending on numerous factors, with the political environment almost blindsiding people, gentrification being another factor and countless others. One solution for all is inherently impossible with this climate.
Question: Social consequences … how can they be foreseen in an unpredictable period? How can we force the future and imagine an alternative society almost?
Critical spatial practice seems to be almost asking architects to imagine possible futures, to look at all outcomes and choose based on that which may happen or may happen long down the line.
Looking into the future, but defining the space of now. This seems like an impossibility or one that cancels out the other…
‘’How they read in the future depends on how current events develop and play out’’
Questions:
Just how public is this methodology of publishing as practice?
Who is this for?
What public?
Does it create an echo-chamber?
’’Spatial practice: a plan drawing is not a practice. It is the action in space that makes the people critically engage. How do people act in space?’’
Something to question maybe. This can be compared to the act of artistic practice, once you place something in a gallery, is it only art THEN? Publishing has been considered to be a valid form of artistic practice, so why not architecture? The manifestation need not always be material.
Text Discussion: Critical Spatial Practice
Critical Spatial Practice, by Nikolaus Hirsch and Markus Miessen, is a collection of what different architects, artists and philosophers understand as critical modality of spatial practice. The individuals and collectives were asked: “What, today, can be understood as a critical modality of spatial practice?” How do they approach to this question?
Architecture is suitable for a chosen group of people. What does the architecture represent? Who is paying for it? Who is using it? How can people meet here? How will this contribute to the society? Try to create something that engages the space.
Criticality is looking at the status quo and asking the question ‘how is the situation today’?
How is the society run?
Critique can be very constructed. Critical spatial practice encourages us to analyse and critique the situation to understand it, and solve conflicts between different groups in a city. Architecture offices approach the situation by inviting the different parts to solve the problem between them.
Universal design is about creating a space with another attitude, and to discover other qualities and possibilities. Universal / inclusive design provides a special quality for everybody. A win-win situation. A space that everyone can access. A place where people enjoy being.
We can ask ourselves: how can the mezzanine be more than just a solved problem? How can we give the space more qualities? The design should not just be a ramp for wheelchair users, but a rich solution that everyone wants to use.
Spatial practice: a plan drawing is not a practice. It is the action in space that makes the people critically engage. How do people act in space?
Spatial practice can be so powerful if one practice in the right place at the right time.
The unused potential of a normal format.
How do things become barriers and how do things act as an opening between different groups / meanings?
We, as architects, create, organize and change spaces. How can people rethink places?
Essence of the House, by Nairy Baghramian
(page 16-17)
Assume the artwork as an object. A museum is a place for artwork. The artist puts their art into the museum, wanting to present their artwork in the best way possible.
The artist wants to show their work, so they try to integrate the space and their artwork - make them work together cohesively. The museum becomes a specific site for the artwork. Nairy Baghramian wants to make less connection between artwork and the space.
How can we put artwork into a space in a short time, without integrating it to a the museum/space? Then the artwork work by itself, and gets the focus and not the space.
A museum to store / house art pieces. The building of the museums becomes a context - a place people wants to visit. The museum becomes a show off and does not have any depth.
Knowledge Space, by Reza Negarestani
(page 94-95)
The importance of understanding the environment and the space. Understand it through others' experiences. Why is the room as it is, because how it was used as it was back in time. We have to understand the use back through history to understand the use today. Why do we look at ourselves the way we do? We have to understand how people understood their own use back in the time.
How is your understanding limited by your surroundings? Taste, smell, aesthetic is conditioned. If we agree that things are true, it is true. But someone have to prove that it is true mathematically and physically. The big narrative. A big construct.
Our knowledge is contextual. The truth is a very relative thing. We have been raised to know what is the truth and what is right and wrong. If you don’t know any better, the thing you know is the truth. Our personal experiences and cultural experiences - how do we define something? This is something that engages people.
You have to be able to understand the environment, not out of your own knowledge, but to be able to see it from other perspectives - to then change something that has already been made. To then be able to make a change that is working - understand how and why the people before you did what they did.
Layered Spaces, by Axel Jogn Wieder
(page 148-149)
The space is used as a medium; political and social. It creates interaction. The layer of the space of the exhibition space.
A rethinking of the tools - the question of how to represent something.
The logic of the space. Commercial museum, public museum - different spaces and different art. Is it paid and built by the state? Or by a private person?
The institutional critique. Made people re-questioning the thoughts of art. What is a painting? If everything can become art, then what is just a painting?
Discourse where the new art are being questioned. How will the reality be represented and understood? Is something art just because an artist placed something into an exhibition? What is it that defines what is art?
Art in the different contexts - the church, palaces/villas, castles etc. How you expect art to be in these different contexts. Who is buying it? Who made it and how was it made - the looking and understanding of the art piece.
Everyone can go into a gallery and question who inspired the artist, what made him/her make this? Engaging and being curious about the work - and questioning the work.
Week 8, 20.02.2019