Material Performative Endurance: An interplay of permanence and change

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Abstract / Description of output

The longevity of architectural artefacts and their relationship with urban space is an enquiry that falls into the field of the anthropology of architecture and cultural heritage studies, and suggests the see-ing beyond the artefact. It is a question of artefacts’ nature of being, or rather, an enquiry into their collective becoming (Deleuze and Guattari 1987). Taking as a starting point the perceived immobility of artefacts in (historic) urban environments, this paper investigates the notion of endurance in a locus that discloses concealed ‘metastable’ states. With the example of Chambers Street in Edinburgh, this presentation attempts to move the attention from the ontology, to the ontogenesis (Simondon 2009) of historic urban spaces, and to scrutinise the interplay between permanence and change through the locus’s material performative endurance: (i) Material because [the locus] it is tangible, sensed and seen; (ii) performative due to the movement of correspondences among participatory agents (humans and artefacts); and, endurance because it is a constant becoming towards something else. In this sense, this presentation aims to challenge the concept of endurance as being solely a material quality of the surviving architectural artefacts, and to attach to it an immaterial dimension, inextricably associated with the locus’s history.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusUnpublished - 2021
EventArchitecture and Endurance: European Architectural History Network Thematic Conference - Middle East Technical University, Department of Architecture, Ankara, Turkey
Duration: 30 Sept 20212 Oct 2021
https://endurancearch.wordpress.com/

Conference

ConferenceArchitecture and Endurance
Country/TerritoryTurkey
CityAnkara
Period30/09/212/10/21
Internet address

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