Anthropocene Feminisms: Architecture & Gender
This Spring 2018 Critical Studies in Architecture, Architecture and Gender elective seminar will take up the near-exhausted concept of the Anthropocene in order to explore the relationship between feminist practices and theories and the question of how we can care for our local environment-worlds. Coined by the ecologist Eugene Stroemer in the 1980s, and popularised by chemist and atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen in the early 2000s, the Anthropocene describes the global impact of human industrial activity, from the development of agriculture to the construction of urban environments. This furious and fiery activity has incrementally produced an indelible geological trace on the surface of the planet earth, imprinting the earth with the “writings of the geologic record” (Yusoff 2015) as though in anticipation of a future reader. Theorists and practitioners who discuss the Anthropocene – a term that is composed of a ‘cene’ (a very long span of time) characterised by the material impact of the human creature (the Anthropos) – frequently posit a thought experiment: What would a future being, even an alien other millennia from now bear witness to when casting their gaze upon the planet earth? Such a thought experiment attempts to imagine a post-human future in the aftermath of the Anthropos. The apprehension of the Anthropocene – less something that can be discretely observed than a concept – produces a mixture of hubris and horror that confounds human understanding. It has produced a transdisciplinary outpouring of discourse in need of critique. Rather than cast our gaze speculatively into the distant future, this seminar will look to the dirty real of the here and now. We will do this by addressing the specific relationship that can be forged between the Anthropocene thesis and feminist theories and practices in relation to our local environment-worlds.
The murmuring discourse of the Anthropocene, together with the urgent need to reconsider of our environmental relations amidst contemporary crises, was part of what motivated the recently published collection Architecture and Feminisms: Ecologies, Economies, Technologies, edited by Hélène Frichot, Catharina Gabrielsson, and Helen Runting. Anthropocene discourse and the environmental humanities have likewise influenced the soon to be published special issue of ATR (Architectural Theory Review) Resist, Reclaim, Speculate: Situated Perspectives on Architecture and the City, edited by Isabelle Doucet and Hélène Frichot. The Anthropocene has entered architectural thinking and practice in books by Renata Tyszczuk, two books edited by Etienne Turpin, and in a special issue of the Journal of Architecture edited by Daniel Barber. It is an issue squarely addressed in Anthropocene Feminism, edited by Richard Grusin who posits it as a provocation to experiment from amidst our feminist theories and practices.
Can a critical and creative engagement in the Anthropocene thesis produce a reorientation of our thinking and practicing, including an experimentation with new methodologies and novel means of story-telling in architecture? Participants in this seminar will be asked to develop a relationship with a specific site deemed to be at the brink of environmental exhaustion. Whether this site is local or further away, material or immaterial, circumscribed or distributed, will depend on the choice that is made. From the outset it will be assumed that your chosen site is a complex hybrid of natural and cultural forces. The site you choose to address will be the site you apply yourself to with radical care throughout the duration of the seminar. You will return to it regularly, you will lavish attention on it, you will document and map it, and tell stories of its human and non-human relations.
Please note that this seminar course will include 5 meetings, 3 of which will be offered as intensive morning AND afternoon sessions. For our scheduled of readings please see: https://archandphil.wordpress.com/category/01_readings/
SCHEDULE
ONE: Wednesday 21 February – Introduction 14.00-16.00 (Room: A524)
The Anthropocene Thesis and Your Local Environment-World
Thursday 22 February – KTH LECTURE 18.00 (attendance strongly recommended)
TWO: Wednesday 7 March – 10.00-12.00 (A534) and 13.00-17.00 (Room: A123).
Cartography of Exhaustion
This week the seminar will commence in A534 with just our group, and then after lunch we join with all the elective seminar groups for a half day event in which we will discuss design research methods, the aim of which is to help you prepare for your diploma thesis projects.
13.00-13.15 Introduction
13.15-14.00 Helene Frichot presents: “Design as Research”
14.00-14.45 Brady Burroughs presents: “Fiction as Design”
15 min break
15.00-15.30 Helen Runting presents: “Theory as Project”
Thursday 22 March – KTH LECTURE 18.00 (attendance strongly recommended)
THREE: Wednesday 28 March – 10.00-12.00 (A524) and 13.00-15.00 (A524)
On Things and How to Follow the Material
FOUR: Wednesday 11 April –10.00-12.00 (A124) and 13.00-15.00 (Room A524)
Anthropocene Story-Telling
This week, during the morning, we will join Sepideh Karami and Adria Carbonell Rabassa’s elective seminar to undertake exercises in story-telling and architectural fiction.
FIVE: Wednesday 25 April –13.00-16.00 CONCLUSION and EXAMINATION (Room A524)
Thursday 26 April – KTH LECTURE 18.00 (attendance strongly recommended)
TASKS and ASSESSMENTS
01::PART ONE: 50% Discussion and BLOG activity
Every week in response to the given readings you will be requested to submit an image and text BLOG post. You will also be required to write a 300-500 word response to the weekly reading and in relation to your site of engagement.Be sure to upload your image and text before each seminar! We will use your BLOG posts during our seminars as an inspiration and prompt for group discussion. The blog posts (6-7) will be compiled as an Anthropocene Feminisms pdf booklet, which will be presented at the final seminar.
To be uploaded on the discussion link of our BLOG: https://archandphil.wordpress.com/category/02_discussion/
and presented each week in class.
02::PART TWO: 50% Anthropocene Feminisms pdf Booklet
FINAL SUBMISSION: Anthropocene Feminisms BOOKLET
Compile your 6 to 7 Blog posts as a series of chapter in a graphically formatted pdf booklet, and upload to: https://archandphil.wordpress.com/category/02_discussion/
Your Anthropocene Feminisms Booklet must include: 1. a title page, and don’t forget your name! 2. Contents page (with 6 – 7 chapters based on the themes discussed in our meetings) 3. a brief introductory essay that explains how you have organised your booklet and introduces your key discoveries and reflects on what you have achieved in the seminar. 4. 6-7 Chapters based on revised blogposts (be sure to reference the readings too) 5. Bibliography where you should include not only all the references you have made to the readings (and whatever other references you have found useful), but also references to any appropriated imagery or creative projects you might have used from architecture, art, film, literature. The booklet needs to use appropriate references, such as endnotes or footnotes or in text referencing throughout.
Final presentation of pdf booklet in draft form: Wednesday 25 April 13.00
FINAL DEADLINE: final submission of revised pdf booklet Wednesday 9 May 2018.
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