Stockholm Syndrome : architecture, politics and the human body

The exchange between the body and architecture walks a fine line between violence and pleasure. It is through the body that the subject engages with the architectural act, not via thought or reason, but through action. The materiality of architecture is the often the catalyst for some intense association; the wall that defines gender or class, the double bolted door that incarcerates, the enclosed privacy of the bedroom to the love affair. Architecture is the physical manifestation of Lefebvre’s inscribed space. It enacts the social and political systems through bodily occupation. Architecture, when tested by the occupation of bodies, anchors ideology in both space and time. The architect’s script can be powerful when rehearsed honestly to the building’s intentions and just as beautiful when rebuked by the act of protest or unfaithful occupation. This research examines this fine line of violence and pleasure in architecture through performance, in the work of Bryony Lavin’s play Stockholm and Revolving Door by Allora & Calzadilla as part of the recent Kaldor Public Art Projects exhibition 13 Rooms in Sydney. The research is underpinned by the work of Architect and theorist, Bernard Tschumi in his two essays, Violence of Architecture and The Pleasure of Architecture. Studying architecture through the lens of performance shifts the focus of examination from pure thought to the body; because architecture is occupied through the body and not the mind.

The subject and architecture

Invited Presentation on my book Architecture for a Free Subjectivity. In March of 1982, Skyline, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies serial, published the landmark interview between Paul Rabinow, an American anthropologist, and Michel Foucault, which would only appear two years later under the title “Space, Knowledge, and Power,” in Rabinow’s edited book The Foucault Reader. Foucault said that in the spatialization of knowledge and power beginning in the 18th century, architecture is not a signifier or metaphor for power, it is rather the “technique for practising social organization.” The role of the IAUS in the architectural dissemination of Foucault’s ideas on the subject and space in the North American academy – such as the concept “heterotopia,” and Foucault’s writing on surveillance and Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, subsequently analysed by Georges Teyssot, who was teaching at the Venice School – is well known. Teyssot’s work is part of the historical canalization of Foucauldianism, and French subjectivity more broadly, along its dizzying path, via Italy, to American architecture schools, where it solidified in the 1980s paradigm that would come to be known as American architecture theory. Foucault was already writing on incarceration and prisons, from the 1970s. (In the 1975 lectures he said “architecture was responsible for the invention of madness.”) But this work was not properly incorporated into architectural discussion until the early ’80s. What is not immediately apparent, what this history suggests to me is that subjectivity was not a marginal topic within “theory”, but was perhaps a platform and entry point for architecture theory. One of the ideas that I’m working on is that “theory” can be viewed, historically, as the making of architectural subjectivity, something that can be traced back to the Frankfurt School critique which begins with the modern subject...

‘He has a way gayer Facebook than I do’ : investigating sexual identity disclosure and context collapse on a social networking site

This study extends previous research into social networking sites (SNSs) as environments that often reduce spatial, temporal, and social boundaries, which can result in collapsed contexts for social situations. Context collapse was investigated through interviews and Facebook walkthroughs with 27 LGBTQ young people in the United Kingdom. Since diverse sexualities are often stigmatized, participants’ sexual identity disclosure decisions were shaped by both the social conditions of their online networks and the technological architecture of SNSs. Context collapse was experienced as an event through which individuals intentionally redefined their sexual identity across audiences or managed unintentional disclosure. To prevent unintentional context collapse, participants frequently reinstated contexts through tailored performances and audience separation. These findings provide insight into stigmatized identity performances in networked publics while situating context collapse within a broader understanding of impression management, which paves the way for future research exploring the identity implications of everyday SNS use.

Biceps femoris long-head architecture: A reliability and retrospective injury study

Purpose: To determine i) the reliability of two-dimensional ultrasonography for the assessment of biceps femoris long head (BFlh) architectural characteristics; ii) if limbs with a history of strain injury in the BFlh display different architecture and eccentric strength compared to uninjured limbs. Methods: This case-control study (control [n=20], injured group [n=16], males) assessed the BFlh architecture at rest and during graded isometric contractions using two-dimensional ultrasonography. The control group were assessed three times (>24hrs apart) to determine reliability. Previously injured individuals were evaluated once. Results The assessment of BFlh architecture was highly reliable (intraclass correlations >0.90). Fascicle length (p<0.001; d range: 0.67 to 1.34) and fascicle length relative to muscle thickness (p<0.001; d range: 0.58 to 0.85) of the previously injured BFlh were significantly less than the contralateral uninjured BFlh at all intensities. Pennation angle of the previously injured BFlh was significantly greater (p<0.001; d range: 0.62 to 0.88) than the contralateral uninjured BFlh at all intensities. Eccentric strength in the previously injured limb was significantly lower than the contralateral limb (-15.4%; -52.5N; 95% CI=-28.45 to -76.23; p<0.001, d=0.56). Conclusion These data indicate that two-dimensional ultrasonography is reliable for assessing BFlh architecture at rest and during graded isometric contractions. Fascicle length, fascicle length relative to muscle thickness and pennation angle are significantly different in previously injured BFlh compared to an uninjured contralateral BFlh. Eccentric strength of the previously injured limb is also significantly lower than the uninjured contralateral limb. These findings have implications for rehabilitation and injury prevention practices which should consider altered architectural characteristics.

Are Australian homes liveable and adaptable for Muslim families? - Six case studies in Brisbane

This paper investigates how Muslims living in Brisbane live within their current Australian homes and the liveability and adaptability of these homes from the perspective of home dwellers with respect to their Islamic faiths, cultural traditions and lifestyle. A qualitative case study approach was used to gather information about Muslims’ use of domestic spaces through their lived experiences, within an Australian context. Six participants were interviewed, including: a) three Muslim families residing in one suburb of Brisbane, and; b) three international Muslim students living in three different Brisbane suburbs. These cases indicate that apart from minor difficulties, case study participants were able to perform their daily activities within their current homes through various adaptations made to ensure their respective domestic domains provided their families with privacy and a sense of security and safety. Insight gained from these cases suggest the need for more research into the homes of Muslims homes within an Australian context and the development of culturally adaptable housing as a means of meeting the diverse needs of modern Australian multicultural society.

Curtains and the Soft Architecture of the American Postwar Domestic Environment

This article investigates the role of “soft architecture” and interior effects—including window treatments, textiles, and electric lighting—in the physcial and social construction of the postwar domestic environment in the USA. In this period the American home became an increasingly visual and visible space, defined more by the view out and the view in than by traditional conditions of domestic enclosure. Popular how-to columns and home decoration articles offered homemakers a variety of mechanisms for sustaining the appearance and psychological comfort of the modern domestic setting. Examining a range of popular decorative strategies used to mediate residential picture windows and window walls, this study challenges the deep-seated cultural and disciplinary biases associated with both the design and study of domestic architecture and interiors. Drawing upon historical documents and contemporary theorizations of the interior, this paper argues for the agency of “soft architecture” in the domestication of modern residential architecture.

Architecture, the body and authority in performance

This is a theoretical investigation seeking to learn more about architecture by looking at architectural practice through another discipline. In this research architecture is investigated by examining its relationship with bodies through performance and theatre set design. This thesis aims to build on existing architectural theory, in which an absence of discourse on the body has been identified, by analysing representations of architecture and the body in performance. The research specifically examines the relationship between the body, architecture and authority in performance through the analysis of several performance works.

Nuclear power and Japan's collective future: Understanding beliefs about how nuclear policies will affect society

Despite ongoing controversies regarding possible directions for the nuclear plants program throughout Japan since the Fukushima disaster, little has been researched about people's belief structure about future society and what may affect their attitudes toward different policy options. Beyond policy debates, the present study focused on how people see a future society according to the assumptions of different policy options. A total of 125 students at Japanese universities were asked to compare a future society with society today in which one of alternative policies was adopted (i.e., shutdown or expansion of nuclear reactors) in terms of characteristics of individuals and society in general. While perceived dangerousness of nuclear power predicted attitudes and behavioural intentions to make personal sacrifices for nuclear power policies, beliefs about the social consequences of the policies, especially on economic development and dysfunction, appeared to play stronger roles in predicting those measures. The importance of sociological dimensions in understanding how people perceive the future of society regarding alternative nuclear power policies, and the subtle discrepancies between attitudes and behavioural intentions, are discussed.

Influence of host plant structure and microclimate on the abundance and behaviour of Tephritid fly

Microclimate and host plant architecture significantly influence the abundance and behavior of insects. However, most research in this field has focused at the invertebrate assemblage level, with few studies at the single-species level. Using wild Solanum mauritianum plants, we evaluated the influence of plant structure (number of leaves and branches and height of plant) and microclimate (temperature, relative humidity, and light intensity) on the abundance and behavior of a single insect species, the monophagous tephritid fly Bactrocera cacuminata (Hering). Abundance and oviposition behavior were signficantly influenced by the host structure (density of foliage) and associated microclimate. Resting behavior of both sexes was influenced positively by foliage density, while temperature positively influenced the numbers of resting females. The number of ovipositing females was positively influenced by temperature and negatively by relative humidity. Feeding behavior was rare on the host plant, as was mating. The relatively low explanatory power of the measured variables suggests that, in addition to host plant architecture and associated microclimate, other cues (e.g., olfactory or visual) could affect visitation and use of the larval host plant by adult fruit flies. For 12 plants observed at dusk (the time of fly mating), mating pairs were observed on only one tree. Principal component analyses of the plant and microclimate factors associated with these plants revealed that the plant on which mating was observed had specific characteristics (intermediate light intensity, greater height, and greater quantity of fruit) that may have influenced its selection as a mating site.

Now everything looks like a game : Mobile phones and location-based games.

This paper explores how we may transform peoples’ perceived access to cultural participation by exploiting the possible relationships between place, play and mobile devices. It presents SCOOT; a location-based game in order to investigate how aspects of game-play can be employed to evoke at once playful and culturally meaningful experiences of place. In particular this paper is concerned with how the portable, communicative and social affordances of mobile phones are integral to making a “now everything looks like a game” experience.

Brain and cognitive development

'The Millennial Adolescent' offers contemporary, stimulating insights for those currently teaching as well as those preparing to teach. This book investigates the characteristics of Generation Y, using students own voices, generational theory and case studies. The text is structured around the principle that effective teachers need to know who they are teaching as well as what to teach, how to teach it, and how to assess the outcome. Using generational theory, 'The Millennial Adolescent' investigates the characteristics of Generation Y, or the Millennial Generation, and points out what all teachers need to know about working with this current generation of students who are described in a number of ways digital natives, team oriented, confident, multi-taskers, high achievers, and a generation unlike any other. The book contains well-known frameworks for developing understandings about adolescents, blended and contrasted with a contemporary socio-cultural construction of adolescence, set in our particular time, era and society. This book reflects the uniqueness of Australian contexts, while connecting with international trends and global patterns. Engaging and full of insights, this book is essential reading for all professionals dealing with adolescents.