Ecologies Economies Technologies Book of Abstracts
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Architecture & Feminisms Book of Abstracts ARCHI- TECTURE ECOLOGIES ECONOMIES TECHNOLOGIES & FEMINISMS BOOK OF ABSTRACTS 13th International AHRA Conference www.architecturefeminisms.org KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) November 17—19, 2016 Stockholm, Sweden Architecture & Feminisms INTRODUCTION Book of Abstracts 13th architectural humanities research association international conference architecture and feminisms: ecologies, economies, technologies november 17–19, 2016 The 2016 AHRA conference addresses connections between Amidst what can be deemed a generalized, world-wide deple- architecture and feminisms with an emphasis on plural expres- tion of our material resources, social relations, and environ- sions of feminist identity and non-identity. From radical feminist, ments, the work of researchers and practitioners represented to lesbian feminist, to black feminist, to post-colonial feminist, in this book of abstracts explores how critical concepts and femi- to crip feminist, to queer feminist, to trans feminist, to Sara nist design tools might offer radical and experimental approaches to Ahmed’s feminist killjoy, to feminist men, to posthuman femi- creating more sustainable and resilient mental, social and environ- nist, to the liberal and neoliberal feminist, to material feminist, mental ecologies. to marxist feminist, to eco feminist, to Roxane Gay’s popular Bad Feminist and many others, even to post feminist voices, the The AHRA 2016 Architecture and Feminisms: Ecologies, claim to feminism continues to be tested and contested. And Economies, Technologies conference creates a space in which this conference will be no exception. to exchange and collectivise current research on critical, radical and feminist approaches to architecture that can be applied by Between architecture and feminisms our specific focus is upon all to the relay between architectural discourse and practice. transversal relations across ecologies, economies and tech- Although we acknowledge the historical and contemporary need nologies. Specifically, we are concerned with the exploration of for separatist spaces, we do not intend to create exclusionary ecologies of practice, the drawing out of alternative economies, places and practices at this event, but to experiment with ways and experimentation with mixed technologies, from (witch) of ethically coping in a world that is becoming increasingly craft to advanced computational technologies. We situate this unstable and contested. Our call appropriates Isabelle Stenger’s conference event amidst what has come to be known as the cosmopolitics, wherein she outlines an ecology of practices Anthropocene, a controversial term that calls for the recognition as a form of ethical experimentation in the sciences, which we of the formation of a geologic age in which global environmental suggest can also be applied to architecture. We also draw our conditions have been radically altered by accelerating process- theoretical framework from Félix Guattari’s three ecologies: es of human driven industrialization. Architecture has fully par- mental, social, and environmental, and their necessarily trans- ticipated in these processes, and we believe that an exploration versal relations. More generally we create an opportunity for of feminist, critical, and radical epistemologies and ontologies, the thoroughgoing reengagement in the histories and futures of methodologies and pedagogies in architecture — especially in feminist critical and radical practices toward the re-imagination light of the rise of artistic, design or practice-based research — of our precarious environment-worlds. We draw inspiration from might enable us to shift the values and habits that produce our the active archives of feminist and radically engaged precur- near exhausted existential territories. sors, existing, and reimagined, whose diverse projects, manifes- tos, and concepts can be reinvented in opposition to arguments that declare the approach of the end-times. Architecture & Feminisms THEMES Book of Abstracts 8 THEMatIC AREAS HAVE EMERGED ACROSS PEDAGOGIES: Directly addresses the crucial issue of the THE COLLECTED ABSTRACTS: formation of architects and the potential of radical and criti- ECOLOGIES / ECONOMIES / TECHNOLOGIES / cal pedagogies. This theme acknowledges the seminal work HISTORIES / PEDAGOGIES / STYLES / of bell hooks, Sara Ahmed, and also Gavin Butt regarding DOMESTICITIES / PROFESSION intersectional, queer, race, and post-colonial concerns con- textualised in architectural education specifically, and in the We assume that each thematic area inherently organises practice and discipline of architecture more generally. diverse ecologies of practice, and that the question of precar- ious mental, social, environmental ecologies pertains to all. STYLES: Supports a variety of presentation formats, includ- We likewise assume that across these categories there can be ing papers, installations, interventions, dialogues, demon- discovered many explorative and even performative approaches strations, performances, and places a central emphasis to architectural research expressing a sensitivity to intersec- on queer spatiality and aesthetics, in order to take up the tions of gender, race, sexuality, class, age, ability, ethnicity, and unfinished revolutions of such thinkers as Gloria Anzaldúa, so forth. Each thematic area is curated by a team of convenors Hélène Cixous, Audre Lorde, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. who have a history, or an association with Critical Studies in Architecture, KTH Stockholm. DOMESTICITIES: Challenges the uncritical allocation of feminine attributes to what is assumed to be the secluded ECOLOGIES: Looks to our fragile and tenacious relational and private sphere of home life. The cordoning off of the ecologies, including ecologies of practice across disci- space of domesticities, the binaries set up between public plines and practices. Here Peg Rawes’s anthology Relational and private, are issues that a critically engaged architecture Ecologies has been a great inspiration, as well as Félix should be prepared to persistently interrogate. Guattari’s essay The Three Ecologies. PROFESSION: Is where architectural practitioners and ECONOMIES: Searches for alternative economies that researchers must act to make a difference when it comes persist amidst the hegemonic forces of neoliberal advanced to the adequate representation of women and minority Capitalism and is much inspired by the work of economic groups in roles of leadership and influence. In what ways geographers J.K. Gibson Graham. can the work habits and culture of the profession be transformed through the interventions of feminist theory, TECHNOLOGIES: Acknowledges the relationship between analysis and activism? craft and advanced technologies, and draws on thinking in Science and Technology Studies, including feminist technol- ogies. The legacy of philosopher of science Donna Haraway can be acknowledged here. HISTORIES: Is concerned with the historical archive as an active force in the present and engages in critical histories of feminist theories and practices in architecture, including the theories and practices of overlooked minorities and communities. Architecture & Feminisms SCHEDULE OVERVIEW Book of Abstracts thursday 11.00—11.30: FIKA (coffee break) 17 november 11.30—13.00: Parallel Panels 03: Various Rooms Location: School of Architecture KTH 13.00—14.00: LUNCH 11.45—12.45: STYLES intervention in the entry level 14.00—16.00: Architecture and Feminisms KTH Architecture, and installations throughout the ROUNDTABLE SALONS: Various Rooms conference event 16.00—16.30: FIKA (coffee break) 13.00 (A108): Welcome from the AHRA 2016 Organ- ising Committee. Katja Grillner: A Brief History of 16.30–16.45: Walk to DOCH School of Dance and FATALE and Critical Studies in Architecture KTH, Circus KTH Main Campus and Malin Åberg Wennerholm (KTH Architecture) 16.30—onwards DOCH: STYLES SALON 13.30—15.00 (A108): KEYNOTE PANEL: Lori Brown including KEYNOTE DIALOGUE Styles: MYCKET (chair) and Parlour (Karen Burns, Justine Clark, (chair) Yvonne Rock and Fanny Söderbäck. Naomi Stead, Gill Matthewson) Architecture and Feminisms Dinner at DOCH, and SALON continues 15.00—15.30: FIKA (coffee break) saturday 15.30—17.30: Parallel Panels 01: Various Rooms 19 november 17.45—18.20 (A108) Amanda Fröler and Aysegul Alayat of Kvinnors Byggforum. Presentation of Location: School of Architecture KTH AHRA Architecture and Culture Journal, and Critiques Publications (Igea Troiani) & Publication 9.00—10.30 (A108): KEYNOTE PANEL Technologies: approach of the conference. Introduced by Catharina Gabrielsson. Jane Ren- dell (chair) Katie Lloyd Thomas, May-Britt Öhman, 18.30—19.30 (A108): KEYNOTE LECTURE by Martin Hultman Despina Stratigakos. Introduced by: Helena Mattsson. 10.30—11.00: FIKA (coffee break) 19.30 (KTH Architecture Entry Level) Elke Krasny, 11.00—13.00: Parallel Panels 04: Various Rooms Exhibition Opening and Reception Drinks; Book Launch of Meike Schalk, Thérèse Kristiansson, 13.00—14.00: LUNCH and COFFEE Ramia Mazé, eds, Feminist Futures of Spatial Practice: Materialities, Activisms, Dialogues, 14.00—15.30: Parallel Panels 05: Various Rooms Pedagogies, Projections. SHORT BREAK friday 15.50—16.15: Presentation of the 2017 AHRA inter- 18 november national conferenceat Birmingham City University (Christian Frost). Locations: School of Architecture KTH and DOCH 16.15—17.15 (A108) KEYNOTE DIALOGUE Ecologies 8.00—9.00 (KTH Architecture Entry Level) and Economies: Introduced by Meike