Did Someone Say Participate? : An Atlas of Spatial Practice

by Miessen, Markus

• ISBN13: 9780262134712
• ISBN10: 0262134713
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Did someone say we need yet another anthology of essays? According to the editors of Did Someone Say Participate?, the answer is an emphatic--or hysterical--"YES!" In fact, they'd go further and argue that the shifts that have taken place in the practice and pedagogy of architecture have been mirrored in other fields, and that this has happened to such an extent that an emerging generation of artists, activists, economists, curators, policy makers, photographers, editors (and, of course, architects) is reshaping how we look at contemporary social and political reality. Despite their apparent disciplinary differences, these professionals are all spatial practitioners. What was once seen as the defensive preserve of architects--mapping, making, or manipulating spaces--has become a new "culture of space" situated in the global market and media arena. Did Someone Say Participate? showcases a range of forward-thinking practitioners and theorists who actively trespass into neighboring or alien fields of knowledge in activities that range from collaborative forms of interdisciplinary practice to identifying practices of ethical terror. For the first time, architecture is here presented as the architecture of knowledge. Participation--social, political or personal--is once again at the forefront of research. Together, the contributions form an atlas of spatial practices resembling the early medieval maps that attempt to show the entire known world. Did Someone Say Participate? will be essential reading not only for those involved in the future of architectural research and practice, but for anyone interested in navigating through current forms of cultural inquiry and debate. Contributors: Aring;bauml;ke, Shumon Basar, Johanna Billing, Celine Condorelli & Beatrice Gibson, Keller Easterling, Francesca Ferguson, Justin Frewen, Stephen Graham, Joseph Grima, Mauricio Guillen, Michael Hirsch, Bernd Kniess & Meyer Voggenreiter, Armin Linke, Brendan McGetrick, John McSweeney, Markus Miessen, Matthew Murphy, Lucy Musgrave & Clare Cumberlidge, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Bas Princen, Wendy Pullan, Frank van der Salm, Luke Skrebowski, R&Sie(n) with Pierre Huyghe, Peter Weibel, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss and Eyal Weizman

Table of Contents

Preface: Participation Lasts Forever	14	(8)
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Introduction: Did We Mean Participate, or Did We Mean Something Else?	22	(8)
Markus Miessen
Shumon Basar
The Professional Amateur	30	(5)
Shumon Basar
Too Smart to be Right: The Stunning Political Successes of Special Stupidity	35	(7)
Keller Easterling
Augmenting Reality: Pervasive Computing, Spatial Practice Interface Politics	42	(10)
Luke Skrebowski
Terra Incognita	52	(5)
Pierre Huyghe
Don't Fuck the Authorshiplessness	57	(2)
Francois Roche
Moving in the Margins	59	(9)
Rebecca Gomperts
Brendan McGetrick
Glimpses of a Future Architecture	68	(12)
Matthew Murphy
Thurrock: A Visionary Brief in the Thames Gateway	80	(8)
Lucy Musgrave
Clare Cumberlidge
Did You Mean: Outsourcing	88	(8)
Joseph Grima
Armin Linke	96	(13)
Markus Miessen
Locating the Civic in the Frontier: Damascus Gate	109	(14)
Wendy Pullan
Architecture Minds the Gap: Berlin's Fragmented Urbanisation	123	(13)
Francesca Ferguson
Spaces, Places, Faces: Snapshots of a U.N. Worker's Year in Iraq and Beyond	136	(9)
Justin Frewen
Bas Princen	145	(8)
Shumon Basar
Magical World	153	(8)
Johanna Billing
Toward a Multi-lectics of Himalayan Water: Nepalese Hydro-politics and the Maoist Peoples War	161	(12)
John McSweeney
The Museum of the Future	173	(14)
Peter Weibel
Topoi: Policies of Assertion	187	(15)
Bernd Kniess
Meyer Voggenreiter
Remember Fallujah: Demonising Place, Constructing Atrocity	202	(15)
Stephen Graham
Frank van der Salm	217	(17)
Shumon Basar
Island Hopping: Politics of Visibility in Contemporary Mexico	234	(7)
Mauricio Guillen
School of Missing Studies	241	(16)
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss
Architecture, Power Unplugged: Gaza Evacuations	257	(16)
Eyal Weizman
Spatial Practices in the Margin of Opportunity	273	(17)
Markus Miessen
The Space of Community: Between Culture And Politics	290	(15)
Michael Hirsch
Mumbai City Dictionary	305	(18)
Celine Condorelli
Beatrice Gibson
Biographies	323	(8)
Acknowledgments	331