this & that—a gathering about climate and politics, architecture and ethics, academia and activism, networks and futures, models and utopias, being critical and being naive, transformations and resistance, rebellion and hope—Contributions
Over the past six years, the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture and the City (GTAS) at TU Braunschweig has been concerned with the advancement of feminist pedagogies and a radical commitment to the role of criticality within the profession and field of architecture. As part of this commitment, we have chosen to focus our work—teaching as well as broader interactions—on climate and the production of space in the racial Capitalocene. Our work attempts to make these complex and often violent forms of production visible in order to negotiate other ways of being, doing, living and working. We don‘t stop at understanding though, but are also interested in bringing together diverse knowledges in an attempt to reconfigure trajectories, imaginaries, and futures that have a future.
We must recognise, however, that we are living in times of extreme social polarisation, extreme wars and extreme environmental destruction. Militarised, contaminated, and destructive disturbances to ecosystems and networks of social relationships set in motion processes that will reshape climates for centuries to come: bombings and noxious waste, landmines or polluting agents, oil spills and scorched earth tactics exacerbate tensions, lead to displacements, create conditions of famine, make land unusable and render habitats inhabitable. Climate breakdown is a threat multiplier that heightens vulnerabilities in relation to livelihoods, the access to clean air, water and nutriment, both in the now and in the years ahead.
Engulfed by the singeing flames of war, broadcast second by second by second, it is impossible to contemplate the deep time of nature. At this moment in time, it may seem distant, impossible, or even hypocritical to consider any form of reconciliation. And yet, is there another option? What has to be done?
In our own work, we place nature‘s regenerative powers centre stage in order to imagine this other world: politically, materially, socially and metaphorically. We often start by looking at sites of dispute, contestation, and controversies, but do so to understand their settings and those settings‘ entanglements, the hopes and dreams connected to them as well as the forces that shape those worlds. The deep dives and engagements are attempts to stay with the trouble, to connect to the fissures, those rifts and cracks that point to futures that really are futures. Those controversies, therefore, are never just controversies, but moments where, in our reading, other futures emerge. Yes, they are sites of contest, but—at the same time—they also become sites of possible disarmament.
We asked people to position themselves, respond to the world around us and discuss this complex field: the violent, conflictual and ever so unsustainable and patriarchal presents that surround us, which are—at the same time—exactly those realities upon which (or: out of which) futures (have to be) built. We said we wanted to talk pedagogy and especially the role of a disarming pedagogy as a means to diffuse, gain | loose | shift power, change track, counter, craft, mesmerise, captivate, and to enchant current environments and situations.
As we grapple with these seemingly irreconcilable dimensions as well as with questions of how to navigate between despair and hope, the naive and the critical, the local and the global, practices of resistance or refusal and those of collaboration, tools for affectively interacting with and in the moment without losing sight of the devastating ecological outlook, what can those ways of doing, those practices and pedagogies of disarmament offer? Can they help us to overthrow tired political (and academic) rhetorics? What tools do we need to disarm hegemonic discourses and enter into dialogues, moments of real connection, and critical activation of already weaponised (university) spaces? How can we talk about handing over, and growing power in others, and how can we think about power in processes of transformation? What does it mean in relation to energy, soil, and landscape, in relation to communities and governance, in relation to the current news? Could disarming pedagogies help us let our guard down, and facilitate approaches that appear contrary to our usual instincts?
The responses to these questions are collated in the bigger of the two booklets. They range from short statements to visuals, from descriptions of practices to more theoretical elaborations, from suggestions for interventions during the gathering, to comments by proxy. Take the time to read them, look at them, and take notes. They are the ingredients to the programme—and the allies in the search for pedagogies of disarmament.
this & that:
Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux, Markus Bader, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Henriette Bertram, Tatiana Bilbao, Camillo Boano, Sarah Bovelett, Cristina Cerulli, Burcu Daglayan, Simone De Iacobis, Suryagayathri Devi, Diana Lucas-Drogan, Paula Erstmann, Manuel Falkenhahn, Lukas Feireiss, Kim Förster, Jan Gerits, Sabine Hansmann, Gabu Heindl, Beata Hemer, Jan-Holger Hennies, Arne Herbote, Jule Hillgärtner, Noor Khader, Valentina Karga, Gilly Karjevsky, Gosia Kuciewicz, Florian Kossak, Elke Krasny, Bernadette Krejs, Franca Lopez Barbera, María Mazzanti, Catalina Meija Moreno, Hanna Noller, Ayscha Omar, Jasmine Parsley, Ben Pohl, Anthony Powis, Sebastian Quack, Anna Richter, Drehli Robnik, Lara Roth, Rui Santos, Tatjana Schneider, Lisa Schwochow, Christina Serifi, Malkit Shoshan, Sumugan Sivanesan, Licia Soldavini, Stavros Stavrides, Ulrike Steven, Yue Sun, Ayat Tarik, Jeremy Till, Renée Tribble, Henrike Wenzel.
Critical Publishing:
Louise Nguyen with Nicole Adriputri, Reham Al Nasrallah, Hannah Deimel, Ketevan Gujejiani, Janis Hochbohm, Salem Jaza, Deniz Kudu, Antonia Nolte, Hannah Saraiva Pfeifer, Louis Seyler, Jonathan Schmitz.
The full booklet can be downloaded via the following link: https://leopard.tu-braunschweig.de/