Woolf, Beckett, Diller Scofidio + Renfro
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University of Alberta Archive, Transgender, Architecture: Woolf, Beckett, diller scofidio + renfro by Lucas Cassidy Crawford A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English English and Film Studies ©Lucas Cassidy Crawford Spring 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Abstract This project favours transgender narratives and affects inspired by exteriority, folds, queer décor, assemblage, and the archive. These spatial models help the project displace models of gender that are grounded in the concepts of enclosure, privacy, and property. As a response to the enforced interiority, integrity, and ownership of the trans subject, the project theorizes transgender as a series of modes (of actions rather than states) that push beyond the conscious agency of sovereign subjects to a new architectonic of ―transing‖ affect. The constellation of modernist architectures that comprise this project share many concerns: how to remember, how to forget, how to transform, how to feel differently, and, ultimately, how to use art and aesthetic inquiry to become something new. First, diller scofidio + renfro‘s (DS+R‘s) Brasserie space in Manhattan injects cheeky queer-coded décor and fashion into their space as a response to high modernist abjections of ―feminine‖ décor. The architects thereby turn the space into a self-conscious archive of gender. In Virginia Woolf‘s Orlando: a Biography, the trans subject itself is treated as precisely such an archive of décor – one whose temporality exceeds and critiques the generic conventions of biography (a genre often respected as the truest form of transgender history and experience). Written just as transgender was becoming codified as a sexological (and medical) subject, Orlando: a Biography shows us an early alternative theory of transgender – one that makes fantasy, art, and writing absolutely central. Woolf‘s critique of what this project calls the ―biographical imperative‖ of transgender studies is extended by Samuel Beckett‘s cryptic text, The Unnamable, in which the coherence of the subject is pushed to (and perhaps beyond) its limit – to a ―groundless‖ relationship to language not unlike that experienced by trans name-changers. Finally, the project turns from its implicit urbanism (and that of queer theory) to consider, with L. Frank Baum‘s The Marvelous Land of Oz, what might happen if less scripted spaces – such as ―the rural‖ – were inhabited both literally and metaphorically by transgender. Acknowledgements How does one craft a series of carefully scripted (yet sincere), public (yet password-protected), and heartfelt (yet necessarily disembodied) emotions to their supporters? I hope my friends will forgive me, as I hereby forego the generic convention of choosing one of our memories to serve as a synecdoche for all of what you have meant. I could list many relics of our times: a condemned house in St-Henri, a bottle of Chin-Chon, the Corona LRT, a wig-buying excursion, Prism, my angry neighbours, Red Star, Tristan chords, the Gansevoort, trombones, bruises, gin rummy, and lobsters. But, I heartily hope that you will find more insight and traces of memories in the document that follows. I offer heartfelt appreciation to my supervisors Cressida Heyes and Dianne Chisholm, whose time, efforts, and intelligence mark this project and its author in considerable ways. Thank you to my attentive readers, Mike O‘Driscoll and Mark Simpson for important feedback, generosity and interest. Susanne Luhmann joined us as ―internal external‖ for my candidacy exams and defense. I thank her for her enjoyment in the spirit of the project. To my external examiner, Ann Cvetkovich, I owe many thanks for her time, wonderful provocations, and support. Thank you all for the example of your own work. Other professors at the UofA provided early support: Julie Rak, Brad Bucknell, Cecily Devereux, Karyn Ball, and Heather Zwicker. Thank you to the organizations that have funded this research: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Killam Trust, the Government of Alberta, and the Trudeau Foundation. For early inspiration about Woolf and Beckett, I thank Jonathan Boulter. For introducing me to DS+R, I thank Kim Solga. In Montreal, I thank Annmarie Adams, Jill Connell, Coral Short, Richard Bishop, and Sarah Fuchs. Thanks to my favourite artists, activists, and friends for their work and for our collaborations (of diverse kinds): Betsy Boone, Deb Farstad, Derek Warwick, Ted Kerr, Barb MacLean, TL Cowan, Jill Connell, Norah Bowman, Rebecca Fredrickson, Alex Bailey, Danielle Peers, Anthony Easton, Nat Hurley, Alanna Chelmick, Anthea Black, Amanda Lim, Janis Ledwell-Hunt, Allie Karch, Josh Lambier, and Allison Sivak. To my best friends – Carmen Ellison, Marco Katz, and Melisa Brittain – I send my love. Thanks to my sister Jen, who participates in many events big and small in my life and always supports my obsessions (be they intellectual, juvenile, or both). And, no thanks will ever be enough for my dearest mom, Joan Crawford. You’re the greatest! The preceding statements are the barest formal signs of a gratitude that happens elsewhere, already, and always in the future – one that we will share here and there. Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Transgender Without Architecture ...................................................................... 5 Transgender as Home-Body .............................................................................. 15 Architecture Without Transgender .................................................................... 29 1. Architecture as Fleeting Femininity .............................................................. 31 2. Architecture as Cross-Dresser ....................................................................... 36 An Archive of Forgetfulness: a Methodology of Transing ............................... 47 A Blueprint ........................................................................................................ 60 Chapter One .......................................................................................................... 68 Mobilizing ―Stalled‖ Ideas ................................................................................ 73 Icing on the Cake ............................................................................................... 80 ―I Sink Therefore I Am‖ .................................................................................... 85 To Wash is to Dissimulate is to Normalize is to… ........................................... 93 The (Trans) Man in the Mirror ........................................................................ 102 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 109 Chapter Two ........................................................................................................ 119 Introduction: Not Your Mother‘s Vogue ........................................................ 119 The (Anti-Alpha) Omega Workshops ............................................................. 127 Sexology and ―Sexo-Aesthetic Inversion‖ ...................................................... 132 Biography, ―That Queer Amalgamation‖ ........................................................ 139 Attending ―The Ladies Lavatory‖ ................................................................... 144 Who‘s Afraid of the Empty Archive? ............................................................. 151 Only a Matter of Time ..................................................................................... 160 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 187 Chapter Three ...................................................................................................... 193 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 193 Improper Names .............................................................................................. 200 Transgender Monads ....................................................................................... 215 Get Out and Stay Out ...................................................................................... 225 Architectures of Grey Matter .......................................................................... 235 Décors of the Mind .......................................................................................... 239 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 254 Conclusion .........................................................................................................