November 1, 2009

Institutionalizing Beauty and Destabilizing the Map

During Week 48, Annika Enquist and Thérèse Kristiansson will join as guest lecturers, guiding a series of activities.

Refer to the main course page for times/places of activities in Week 48.

NBC does not conceive sites as neutral values but recognize them as social constructions that envisage and shape relationships of power. One aspect brought forward will be how we can change the experience of the urban landscape with alternative movements and taking places with our bodies.
We take our own experience within NBC as example and draw parallels to the dynamics of power manifested by architecture, behaviour and action. With this in mind, we will talk about how NBC operates, trying out different methods and how the practical experiments are entwined with theories on gender and queer etc and possible tools to reinterpret sites.


Part 1
Lecture "Institutionalizing Beauty"
In which we describe the story and idea behind the art project The New
Beauty Council (NBC) and specifically addresses the subject of construction of taste, beauty and ugliness. We will also talk about how value only exists if it is articulated by someone/something (Bruno Latour, The social practice of articulating value, Chantal Mouffe, Laclau). How could for example values of tolerance/intolerance be articulated? How does creation of values impact the decision-making in urban development and creation, selection and preservation of the city's cultural heritage? The protection of beauty, the protection of city-like aspects of the city, the city of Stockholm's "Snygg och Trygg" (Neat & Safe) -policies etc.

Part 2
Field trip into Public Space
In which we will discuss the role theatrical aspects such as stage design and selective narrations play in the creation of sites, pasts, “histories”, cultural heritages and identities. How architecture meet needs for ideological requirements to influence and control the public and how institutions have been used to impress on the masses ‘civilized’ behaviour and values (like manners and how to behave in public). We will use a queer and feminist perspective.

Part 3
Individual or group work on assignment "Destabilizing the Map"
In which the students' point of departure is to look into the persuasiveness of design, to find the psychological aspects in situated, embodied experience. They will analyze how articulated values constitute norms on how to behave in and use the city. One aspect in this analyzes should be how risk play a role in the policies. The brief includes taking these analyses to the next level by finding their own way of articulating value from their own or a taken/acted position/perspective. The assignment consists of the enactment of being a service provider/producer of a new experience/narration of a chosen site.

Part 4
Actions/Interventions/Presentations
In which the students take the lead and present their experiments and results as producer of a city walk with a stop each or other coordinated way.