On Saturday 26th of March 2022 the CLAIMING*SPACES collective hosted it's second international Conference WHOSE HISTORY? in cooperation with the Architekturzentrum Wien.
WHOSE HISTORY?
Is our knowledge of the past limited to who and what we see? What conditions have produced the writing of history, and the perspectives that orient it?
In this second Claiming*Spaces conference, we aim to interrogate the narratives of architectural and spatial planning history conveyed through the media, university, and curated canon.
One dimensional views, produced through particular structural conditions – only allow for the inclusion of perspectives that are familiar. Indeed, the writings of history become repeated and produced from the same structural viewpoint, denying diversity, contestation, and integration of difference. Multiplicities of history, and diverse approaches to the production of architecture, are erased and muted to facilitate the re-production of the one-sided canon.
Reflect on the demographics of the architects we are presented within university! The Icon Architect: Lone, never-sleeping genius, middle-class man, white, cis, able... penetrates beyond the boundaries of the university. Architectural practice, city planning, and cultural production are governed by, and produced for this image, thus structurally reproduced again and again.
To bring the question of ‚whose history‘ to the forefront of architectural discourse, we invite you to take part in unlearning the narrative we have been fed because it is in the best case lacking and in the worst case a lie. It is a collective responsibility to challenge, and change, who is teaching, what is being taught, and in what ways. Through that, we write future histories.
Welcome and Introduction
welcome and introduction:
→ Claiming*Spaces Collective, TU Wien
→ Angelika Fitz (she/her), director of the Az W
introduction and feminist insights:
Monika Platzer (she/her), Curator and Collection Az W
Educating Architectures. A Feminist Culture of Learning
Panel 1
↑
The Eurocentric, male history of architecture clearly influences today‘s situation at architecture and planning educational institutions. WHO: a majority of white, able, middle class, cis men are teaching a highly diverse group of students, a majority of them being women. WHAT: patriarchal perspectives and theories as well as almost exclusively men-made references determine teaching. HOW: female students are taken less seriously, have less speaking time. Didactical skills are considered superfluous in teaching. Sexual harassment is not being adressed. WHERE: existing academic spaces with their written and unwritten norms do not suit the multiplicity of others.
We are all educated in and for the patriarchal system. Normalization makes it invisible. There is a need to uncover the structures involved and how feminist futures can be learned and made together.
input & discussion:
→ Inge Manka (she/her), Sabina Riß (she/her)
with architecture students from TU Wien: Menat Abdou (she/her), Albina Aidaralieva (she/her), Marie-Claire Amann (she/her), León Ausserer (he/him), Paula Feichter (she/ her), Stefanie Fridrich (she/her), Valentina Gruber (she/ her), Janina Habekus (she/her), Dana Hintermair (she/her), Leon Hofenauer (he/him), Katharina Hohenecker (she/her), Sultan Kayan (she/her), Rebecca Koßler (she/her), Danai- Efstathia Kotsali (she/her), Pauline Krizmanich (she/her), Arzu Kurt (she/her), Nelli Menjailow (she/her), Eva-Maria Neumaier (she/her), Julia Pauer (she/her), Anna Prohaska (she/her), Ana Putric (she/her), Hannah Scholl (she/her), Martin Schreiber (he/him), Magdalena Steininger (she/ her), Marija Steko (she/her), Hanna Supka-Kovács (she/her), Emily Trummer (she/her), Anna Vass (she/her), Shriranga Wirth (he/him)
→ Michelle Howard (she/her), Luciano Parodi (he/him), Eva Sommeregger (she/her), IKA, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT)
→ Ena Kukić (she/her), Petra Petersson (she/her), Gender Task Force, Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz (AT
→ Brady Burroughs (she/her)(tbc), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, KTH Stockholm (SWE))
→ Afaina de Jong (she/her), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, 1. Claiming Spaces Guest Professor 2021, Amsterdam (NL)
Concept & Moderation
Inge Manka (she/her), Sabina Riß (she/her), Carla Schwaderer (she/her), C*S Collective Vienna (AT)
Gesturing Invisibilised Histories: On Performative Enactment of Spatial Narratives
Panel 2
↑
The intervention will consist of a site-specific performance around the relationship between architecture and conceptions of history; further, how bodily performance can challenge, illuminate and expand upon how we understand not only history, but history’s encasement and impact on the built environment. Afterwards we will engage in critical conversation about the ideas raised through the performance, and the research questions framing its curation:
What of the role of bodily performance in illuminating the structural forces behind how we see and think of history? Can performance call to question how we think about the past, and how this thinking is illustrated, and reinforced through the built environment? Can movements of the body present new avenues for understanding the production of space, and therefore, the fibres of history suggested by the buildings which surround us?
perfomance:
→ Raymond Pinto (he/they), Artist, Performer, New York(US)
concept & moderation:
Carmen Hines (she/her), Bernadette Krejs (she/her), C*S Collective Vienna (AT)
input & discussion:
→ Ofri Cnaani (she/her), Artist, Educator, Researcher, London (UK)
→ Lisa Moravec (she/her), Art Historian, Vienna (AT)
→ Afaina de Jong (she/her), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, Amsterdam (NL)
Unseen Realities
Panel 3
↑
The panel Unseen Realities focuses on invisible work and authorship in the everyday life of architectural production - whose realities, whose histories? We critically question the structures and mechanisms that contribute to manifesting today‘s hegemonic realities in architectural practice and explore how different forms of cooperation can arise.
A series of short inputs will lead to a panel discussion in which we investigate and demonstrate strategies, show solidarity and learn from each other.
concept & moderation:
Lauren Janko (she/her), Julia Nuler (she/her), Leon Scheufler (he/him), Julia Wannenmacher (she/her), Elisabeth Weiler (she/her), Veronika Wladyga (she/her), C*S Collective Vienna (AT)
input & discussion:
→ Roberta Burghardt (she/her), Architect, Co-founder of the architects collective coopdisco, Berlin (DE)
→ Marisa Cortright (she/her), Independent Writer, Editor, Researcher, Zagreb (HRV)
→ Elke Krasny (she/her), Cultural Theorist, Curator, Urban Researcher, Vienna (AT)
→ Zaida Muxí Martínez (she/her), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, Barcelona (ESP)
On Saturday 26th of March 2022 the CLAIMING*SPACES collective hosted it's second international Conference WHOSE HISTORY? in cooperation with the Architekturzentrum Wien.
WHOSE HISTORY?
Is our knowledge of the past limited to who and what we see? What conditions have produced the writing of history, and the perspectives that orient it?
In this second Claiming*Spaces conference, we aim to interrogate the narratives of architectural and spatial planning history conveyed through the media, university, and curated canon.
One dimensional views, produced through particular structural conditions – only allow for the inclusion of perspectives that are familiar. Indeed, the writings of history become repeated and produced from the same structural viewpoint, denying diversity, contestation, and integration of difference. Multiplicities of history, and diverse approaches to the production of architecture, are erased and muted to facilitate the re-production of the one-sided canon.
Reflect on the demographics of the architects we are presented within university! The Icon Architect: Lone, never-sleeping genius, middle-class man, white, cis, able... penetrates beyond the boundaries of the university. Architectural practice, city planning, and cultural production are governed by, and produced for this image, thus structurally reproduced again and again.
To bring the question of ‚whose history‘ to the forefront of architectural discourse, we invite you to take part in unlearning the narrative we have been fed because it is in the best case lacking and in the worst case a lie. It is a collective responsibility to challenge, and change, who is teaching, what is being taught, and in what ways. Through that, we write future histories.
Welcome and Introduction
welcome and introduction:
→ Claiming*Spaces Collective, TU Wien
→ Angelika Fitz (she/her), director of the Az W
introduction and feminist insights:
Monika Platzer (she/her), Curator and Collection Az W
Educating Architectures. A Feminist Culture of Learning
Panel 1
↑
The Eurocentric, male history of architecture clearly influences today‘s situation at architecture and planning educational institutions. WHO: a majority of white, able, middle class, cis men are teaching a highly diverse group of students, a majority of them being women. WHAT: patriarchal perspectives and theories as well as almost exclusively men-made references determine teaching. HOW: female students are taken less seriously, have less speaking time. Didactical skills are considered superfluous in teaching. Sexual harassment is not being adressed. WHERE: existing academic spaces with their written and unwritten norms do not suit the multiplicity of others.
We are all educated in and for the patriarchal system. Normalization makes it invisible. There is a need to uncover the structures involved and how feminist futures can be learned and made together.
input & discussion:
→ Inge Manka (she/her), Sabina Riß (she/her)
with architecture students from TU Wien: Menat Abdou (she/her), Albina Aidaralieva (she/her), Marie-Claire Amann (she/her), León Ausserer (he/him), Paula Feichter (she/ her), Stefanie Fridrich (she/her), Valentina Gruber (she/ her), Janina Habekus (she/her), Dana Hintermair (she/her), Leon Hofenauer (he/him), Katharina Hohenecker (she/her), Sultan Kayan (she/her), Rebecca Koßler (she/her), Danai- Efstathia Kotsali (she/her), Pauline Krizmanich (she/her), Arzu Kurt (she/her), Nelli Menjailow (she/her), Eva-Maria Neumaier (she/her), Julia Pauer (she/her), Anna Prohaska (she/her), Ana Putric (she/her), Hannah Scholl (she/her), Martin Schreiber (he/him), Magdalena Steininger (she/ her), Marija Steko (she/her), Hanna Supka-Kovács (she/her), Emily Trummer (she/her), Anna Vass (she/her), Shriranga Wirth (he/him)
→ Michelle Howard (she/her), Luciano Parodi (he/him), Eva Sommeregger (she/her), IKA, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT)
→ Ena Kukić (she/her), Petra Petersson (she/her), Gender Task Force, Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz (AT
→ Brady Burroughs (she/her)(tbc), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, KTH Stockholm (SWE))
→ Afaina de Jong (she/her), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, 1. Claiming Spaces Guest Professor 2021, Amsterdam (NL)
Concept & Moderation
Inge Manka (she/her), Sabina Riß (she/her), Carla Schwaderer (she/her), C*S Collective Vienna (AT)
Gesturing Invisibilised Histories: On Performative Enactment of Spatial Narratives
Panel 2
↑
The intervention will consist of a site-specific performance around the relationship between architecture and conceptions of history; further, how bodily performance can challenge, illuminate and expand upon how we understand not only history, but history’s encasement and impact on the built environment. Afterwards we will engage in critical conversation about the ideas raised through the performance, and the research questions framing its curation:
What of the role of bodily performance in illuminating the structural forces behind how we see and think of history? Can performance call to question how we think about the past, and how this thinking is illustrated, and reinforced through the built environment? Can movements of the body present new avenues for understanding the production of space, and therefore, the fibres of history suggested by the buildings which surround us?
perfomance:
→ Raymond Pinto (he/they), Artist, Performer, New York(US)
concept & moderation:
Carmen Hines (she/her), Bernadette Krejs (she/her), C*S Collective Vienna (AT)
input & discussion:
→ Ofri Cnaani (she/her), Artist, Educator, Researcher, London (UK)
→ Lisa Moravec (she/her), Art Historian, Vienna (AT)
→ Afaina de Jong (she/her), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, Amsterdam (NL)
Unseen Realities
Panel 3
↑
The panel Unseen Realities focuses on invisible work and authorship in the everyday life of architectural production - whose realities, whose histories? We critically question the structures and mechanisms that contribute to manifesting today‘s hegemonic realities in architectural practice and explore how different forms of cooperation can arise.
A series of short inputs will lead to a panel discussion in which we investigate and demonstrate strategies, show solidarity and learn from each other.
concept & moderation:
Lauren Janko (she/her), Julia Nuler (she/her), Leon Scheufler (he/him), Julia Wannenmacher (she/her), Elisabeth Weiler (she/her), Veronika Wladyga (she/her), C*S Collective Vienna (AT)
input & discussion:
→ Roberta Burghardt (she/her), Architect, Co-founder of the architects collective coopdisco, Berlin (DE)
→ Marisa Cortright (she/her), Independent Writer, Editor, Researcher, Zagreb (HRV)
→ Elke Krasny (she/her), Cultural Theorist, Curator, Urban Researcher, Vienna (AT)
→ Zaida Muxí Martínez (she/her), Architect, Teacher, Researcher, Barcelona (ESP)