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PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:Minoring Architectural Research / ALICE
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20231023
DTSTAMP:20260407T081823Z
UID:b31f3eae23076e97fc0ea4f245729c6934150836a56d41ba2aca665c
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:A theoretical and practical reflection on the possibilities\, 
 positions and methodologies of a minor approach to architectural research 
 will reveal key concepts and tools to establish a critical position\, buil
 d a situated architectural investigation and produce research materials o
 therwise.\n\n\nMinor architectures are an open repertoire of spatial pract
 ices and know-hows based on the immanent differentiating agency of bodies.
  They feed on the circumstantial and experimental\, operating in the narro
 w margins and blind spots of major languages\, structures and knowledge\, 
 unsettling them and creating other worlds. While minor architectures work 
 with and within materially limited spaces\, tools and conditions\, they en
 large the world through forms of plural material entanglement. Minor archi
 tectures have been studied by different authors and under different names 
 in the last few decades\, from Gordon Matta-Clark’s and Robin Evans’ p
 arallel anarchitectures to the work of Jennifer Bloomer or Jill Stoner. 
 These practitioners have sought to unveil those practices affecting the or
 ganization of our everyday space—how bodies interact\, how environments 
 mediate. From those origins\, we seek to conceive within this doctoral cou
 rse what a minor architectural research could mean and bring to our practi
 ce.\n\nDeparting from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari initial use of th
 e term to read anew Franz Kafka’s literature\, we will describe and fram
 e this notion as a way of working with the living and material core of arc
 hitectural practices\, as well as its relations with the major practices a
 nd languages of the discipline and its institutions. We will consider the 
 relation between that living and material core and political agency\, to r
 eframe the relation between spatial practices and the imaginaries and acti
 ons of the multitude around our living together. To do this we will contem
 plate the potentialities of studying\, both in historical and operative te
 rms\, the conflict of the spatial forms and practices of the major languag
 es and those of minor practices.\n\nWe will also consider a different gene
 alogy of the architectural body\, against (and beyond) the Vitruvian man a
 nd the ideal of a singular\, male\, able\, white body and its ensuing geom
 etries and decisions\, we will follow the many (other) bodies of spatial p
 ractice\, from the non-male and racialized body to the overflowing body\, 
 the plural body\, the formless body\, and a long etcetera. Around them\, w
 e will define a series of notions\, from individual and plural spatialitie
 s\, touch\, traces\, dispositions\, and ecologies of signs. This exercise 
 will help us articulate a minor vocabulary able to analyze otherwise mater
 ial practices and conflicts from an architectural lens.\n\nAlongside\, we 
 propose to explore the uneven relations of architectural research to tempo
 ralities both in its objects and subjects of knowledge. Effectively\, the 
 minor enables us to reconsider the proximities and distances of plural tem
 poralities to our worlds\, questioning the presents\, pasts\, futures\, fu
 ture pasts and past futures and their a/effect on the actual\, and how the
 y are produced and reproduced. It unveils in which way the past as an epis
 temological category has been used as an imperialist instrument of relegat
 ion and subjugation of practices and knowledge\, and how the minor\, as a 
 contact zone\, invites us to dissolve Time in plural temporalities to work
  with.\n\nFrom that minor framework\, we will then consider its consequenc
 es for architectural research and develop a series of considerations\, exp
 lorations and tools to propose a minor conceptualisation of architectural 
 methodologies of research. The participants in this doctoral course will b
 e invited to apply them in a case study corresponding to their ongoing PhD
  thesis that will be worked upon throughout the duration of the course. Th
 e participants' outcome will be this minor analysis\, a preliminary outlin
 e of a minor research plan to follow up on their initial findings and a cr
 itical reflection on the notion of methodology in architectural research. 
 For students who don’t have a situation of analysis (or not yet)\, one c
 ase study will be provided to develop their minor analysis.\n\nParticipant
 s.\nThe PhDs students from architecture\, urban sciences\, sociology\, geo
 graphy and other disciplines related with spatial practices\, spaces\, its
  materialities and temporalities are welcomed. We are addressing students 
 from the EDAR\, from ETHZ\, and invite international students if they mana
 ge to join physically for the duration of the course.\n\nPersonal work.\nT
 o join the course\, PhDs students should submit a short description of the
 ir PhD research question(s) (300 words) to lucia.jalonoyarzun@epfl.ch. Du
 ring the seminar hours\, architectural research will be problematized from
  a minor key\, and on the workshop hours every afternoon\, students will p
 roduce cartographies and exercises oriented toward a minor analysis of a g
 iven situation and how it performs with their research methodologies. Fina
 lly\, they will be asked to produce a preliminary outline of  a minor arc
 hitectural research plan to follow up on their initial findings\, and a cr
 itical reflection on the notion of methodology in architectural research t
 oday. All that will be commonly discussed and explored in the final sessio
 n. \n\nInformation \n- The course will take place on site at the Lausann
 e EPFL Campus.\n- The course will take place from Monday\, October 23rd to
  Monday\, October 30th.\n- The first three days of the course (Mon 23rd to
  Wed 25th) will start with three hours each morning to ground concepts and
  relations through lectures and discussions around the provided reading li
 st. Each afternoon\, four hours of workshop will provide the basis to test
  practical tools in the production of mappings and a minor architectural r
 esearch plan. On Thursday 26th and Friday 27th\, the students will work on
  their final submission with the possibility of personally consulting with
  the course instructors if they wish so. On Monday 30th\, there will be a 
 joint discussion on the submitted work with orientations towards their fut
 ure applications.\n- Participating students are asked to read the basic r
 eading list before the start of the course. The theoretical sessions will
  be built around these texts.\n\nKeywords\nminor architectures\, situated 
 research\, ecologies\, plural temporalities\, drawing\, mapping\, agency\,
  materialities\, repertoire\, information\n\nBibliography\nComing soon.\n\
 n----\n[Image: Fragment from Statement by Gordon Matta-Clark published in
  the catalogue for the exhibition "Twenty Six by Twenty Six"\, held at the
  Vassar College Art Gallery\, between 1 may - 6 June 1971 / Collection Ce
 ntre Canadien d'Architecture / Canadian Centre for Architecture\, Montréa
 l. Don de la succession Gordon Matta-Clark / Gift of Estate of Gordon Matt
 a-Clark © Succession Gordon Matta-Clark © Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark]
LOCATION:
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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