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Athanasios Lazarou The PhD School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Adelaide, AUS ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01 “Annotative Architectures: Politics, Space and the Event in Crisis-Athens” The PhD is an examination of the Greek crisis from the discipline of Architecture. It is set to conclude in late 2016. The most alluring stories about cities are those that +revolve around our relationships to space and power. On the streets of Crisis-Athens, new urgencies have given form to a particular way of organising how the political sphere coalesces within ideas of space, enabling a study of the city that addresses spatial discontinuities as structuring elements by which to enlist space for political ends. As thousands take to the streets on a daily basis, it is important to think of each demonstration as part of a connected narrative, yet singular from the last; it is as Heraclitus famously said: “You cannot step twice into the same river.” AnnotativeWelcome to the flood. Architectures ____________________ Athanasios Lazarou Supervision Team -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Principal Supervisor: Dr. Peter Scriver Co-Supervisor’s: Dr. Amit Srivastava, Dr. Julian Worrall Contact Details ---------------------------------------------- [email protected] @_athanasios @athanasios_lazarou SABE Abstract PhD: Annotative Architectures ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 02 “Annotative Architectures: Politics, Space and the Event in Crisis-Athens” The creation of new physical spaces has been notably absent during the What has been discovered about the spatial practices in Athens during the crisis? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- protest movements in Athens. What has instead transpired is a layering of “Territorial claims align themselves politically; symbolic histories onto the things that are revealed are confessional.” existing spaces and social structures - or what I call: annotative architectures. These architectures don't reveal themselves in tradtitional architectural Abstract ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- methods of representation, rather, they are revealed in There is no time like the present crisis. the urban through the act The PhD is formed as an inquiry into the present conditions, possibilities and of the event. limits of politics and space. At its subject lies the Greek crisis and the complex relations present at the perceived site of the crisis; Syntagma Square, Athens. This socio-political realism is engaged in a series of exercises that collect and classify the numerous spatial actions and political stages of the demonstrations, before expanding to assess the role of periphery protest movements throughout the city. The project encompasses a discussion on how abstract political movements represent themselves within the context of architectural vocabulary. It Speak To Me interrogates the relationships present within the public square – where people ---------------------------------------------- and architecture become linked by their contextual dependency – before Why Athens? Why Space critically reflecting on the visible role of architecture in facilitating events during and Poltics? Why now? the political crisis; in essence, the story of the architectural turns of the crisis. Greece is the word. Crisis is an instrument of power. By understanding these turns the project distinctively expands on the type of Poltical Demonstrations knowledge that can be considered architectural. are a repeateable Within the materialism of the encounter, the research questions how phenomenon that allow slow increments of change contemporary architecture operates in spaces of global capital, probing what to be measured. the architecture field offers in the context of crisis. These overlapping The shifting relations questions are approached strategically through a series of case studies between people and situated within specific events of the protest movement - ranging from the buidlings in Athens during the crisis allows a new monumental to the particular - and utilising a toolset of definitely architectural approach to how we techniques that expand upon existing PEA (protest event analysis) models. In consider what knowledge doing so, what is revealed overlaps with theories and enquiries of the event can be considered that are of a philosophical nature, before engaging with more terminological architectural. slippances and philosophical exegesis to reveal how the detailed reading of What have been the highlights of your spatial processes in a specific demonstration can become a model of thought. candidature? Specifically, the unfolding political crisis is being examined as a spatial crisis. It has to be presenting at International Conferences (Historical Materialism ____ ____ ____ ____ 2014 in London, UK and Candide 2015 in Aachen, GER), the feedback and the exposure is welcoming. Research I was very lucky in London to have Panagiotis Sotiris moderate my panel (part of Gap the Leadership group of 1. In recent crises around the Greek anarchist party world, Marxist and ANTARSYA). and to post-Marxist analyses have encounter Stathis Kouvelakis (part of the failed to properly grasp the SYRIZA leadership group). ability of space to shape the How have you political process. researched the protest movements in Athens 2. Spatial events in Athens Simple: joining in. But in all are lacking analysis from the seriousness, i’ve been architectural discipline. lucky to have access to Journalist credentials, so I 3. PEA nominally focuses on try to hang out with the scale and content (to press pack. I also find address large social myself amongst the demonstrations. I’ve been changes), lacking a tactical at a majority of the main dimension events of the crisis including the storming of 4. Alain Badiou is to release the ERT (State a new book focusing on the broadcaster), November 17 philosophy of the event in demonstrations (marking the anniversary of the late 2016. Polytechnic uprisings) and 5. The architectural story of the January 2015 elections the crisis has yet to be told. where SYRIZA came to power. When will the PhD Finish? Late 2016. Context PhD: Annotative Architectures ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 03 Context For the past five years, the social and poltical unrest in Greece has been What has been discovered about the spatial practices in Athens during the crisis? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- broadcast around the world. Clashes between political groups, the state “Just as New York City in the early 1900’s was and its citizens, and even defined by the Roquettes at Rockefeller, space itself have been witnesses from thousands Crisis-Athens is defined by the demonstration.” of perspetives. The problem with writing about cities is that what often emerges is a watered down representation acting wholly representable. In the outline that follows, the shifitng phantasmagoria has been frozen: the things that are revealed are confessional. Architectural Vocabulary Never send a Marxist to do an Architect’s job ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04 Protest Movements are Engendering Architectural Vocabulary Marxist and post-Marxist analyses have failed to properly grasp the ability What has been discovered about the spatial practices in Athens during the crisis? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- of space to shape the political process. “When we think of Egypt, we think of Tahrir Enter architecture. Square. When we think of Turkey, we think of Taksim Square. When we think of Occupy, we think of Wall Street.” What has been discovered about the spatial practices in Athens during the crisis? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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