As a contemporary response, we have framed this Avani Annual Research Symposium 2022 as FRICTION: Towards a Postcolonial Pedagogy and Practice in Architecture. This is an attempt to expand on the nature of inequalities and exclusions, contested sites and other areas often difficult to access.
We are talking of space and a critical spatial practice beyond accepted architectural studies, existing archives, even existing research. We can speak of ‘the subaltern’ within this friction and the friction within the ‘subaltern’; those Invisible, contested, minor and marginalised architectures with uncharted, even unrecognized opportunities. Expanding ideas of tensions and friction, this also speak to “community as method”; how ‘community’ offers collective potential contributing to the complex, social relationships revealed within a subaltern architecture, where marginalisation and community begin to offer ways of (re)making and (re)thinking of architecture. What would our contribution be to an architecture as a direction towards post-colonial pedagogy? How do we ground this in our programmes and our research towards a re-aligned practice of architecture? Whether we choose to overlook, impose or mediate, these subaltern architectures and spatial frictions will define us as the century becomes our present not our future.
Theme 01: The Memories of Friction
Friction is a strong determinant of space in socially, culturally and politically charged nations. Friction is an Indian way of life. With a history of oriental subjugation and social inequities, India wildly oscillates between the ideas of being the land of mutuals, exclusives, communities, hierarchies, commons and segregations. Friction emerges from a process where two entities interact and in that first moment, there is a conversation. But it is this friction which often leads to a situation of compromise, of conflict where discourse becomes a monologue of bias. Architecture is then often translated into a product that becomes a Memory of Friction. How do we engage the architectural memory of friction as compromise or conflict? How can we shape brave methodologies in architectural practice and pedagogy conscious of all forms and translations, conscious of bias, conscious of friction itself. We seek critical responses to friction using spatial memory as a lens to probe into forms of cultural, geographical, social & national frictions.
Theme 02: Architecture of the Subaltern
Architecture of the Subaltern is an attempt to expand on the nature of exclusions, vulnerabilities, marginalisation and community; newer ecologies that can offer post-colonial approaches in the thinking, diagramming and making of architecture. Expanding ideas of tension and friction through the lens of the Subaltern, some of these architectures may be forcefully rendered invisible. Whilst contested, they become marginalised, de-territorialized spaces of production. The uncharted, even unrecognized opportunities to re-narrate histories could offer new directions to post-colonial pedagogy. Considering communities whose voices have been silenced and marginalized in the production of space and architecture we seek deliberate attempts to inform, decode and thereby, acknowledge the contributions of communities, especially those pushed to the edges by political forces. How to situate subaltern architecture as a potential tool to de-centre accepted western architectural practice and pedagogy? We invite scholarly and critical responses to study, analyse, theorize, contest and decode architectures as palimpsests revealing visible traces of struggle, apathy and subjugation.
Theme 03: Community as Method
Present times, often characterized by social, political, economic and technological complexities, including estrangement, isolation, loss and trauma, have seen the conventional understanding of community as the collective integration of “sameness”. The practice of community - faced with perceptions and experiences of friction, fragmentation, separation and re-assimilation. - depends on contradictory concepts of individual, shared identities and human diversity. By re-situating the intersections between the various complexities of community, can an architectural pedagogy reimagine the possibilities of building a community, inclusive of friction as it opens to a new understanding of collective potential and spatial practice? By reimagining ‘community as method’ we can embrace the differences that could foster generative spaces of human engagement. Can a “pedagogy of community” provide a conscious reorientation of architectural discourse which serves to recognise various narratives in discrete times and places? We ask for innovative papers and other responses to "community as method", drawing upon lived experiences, and the contextual roles and agencies within community, which could shape an active praxis of the human experience of being together.
Abstract:
We invite 300 word abstracts (as a .docx document): critical, honest and fearless inquiries into the nature of FRICTION. The submission should identify the sub-theme and by being original and critical have the potential to be translated into a form of scholarship of global relevance.
Abstract submission must include:
• Paper title
• Names and designation of the authors
• Significant references
• Author/s Bio of not more than 100 words (excluded from the 300 word count)
• Submission of abstracts and Comments or inquiries could be addressed to the convenors via email to symposium@avani.edu.in
Key dates and deadlines
Symposium Dates: 30 September 2022 – 02 October 2022
Submission of abstracts - 8 August 2022
Intimation of selected abstracts - 22 August 2022
Submission of expanded short paper and presentations – 25 September 2022
The scholars who are selected for presenting their work in the symposium will be asked to submit an expanded short paper (1500-2000 max) and a 20minute presentation (.ppt/readable AV format). All papers will be peer reviewed. Avani Publications as part of the symposium proceedings will publish the selected extended short papers with an ISBN.
Download the information related to this competition here.
Title
Call for Papers: FRICTION - Towards a Post-colonial Pedagogy and Practice in ArchitectureType
Call for SubmissionsWebsite
Organizers
Submission Deadline
August 08, 2022 11:30 PMVenue
Avani Institute of Design, Kozhikode, IndiaPrice
Free