Page 9 - JCAU-5-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Gestures for interdependence: Designing the unfelt

of my highlights of the Venice Biennale, knowing that it has sites, places, and more-than-human bodies, formerly
not been part of the main program. Although the content known as resources. Our aim is to expand design gestures
of the exhibition is very relevant to the topic of this paper, through staging and experiencing the unseen (sites) and
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I would like to direct your attention to one of the moments unheard (bodies) so that the unfelt (esthetics) can inform
just before my visit: a moment of an “asymmetrical” our design thinking, our design actions and our design
encounter with the larger ecological environment (the “being”.
island-as-city, the sea) that coconstitute Venice. When I Thanks to the “impromptu fountain” — and my feet
left my hotel, I already noticed that the tide was high. The getting wet — the Non-extractive Architecture exhibition
water was right at the edge of the shoreline near San Marco questioned an ontological engagement with a site (in this
Square. Just a couple of meters away from the cathedral, case, the city-as-island we call Venice), in contrast to
my eye got caught by an extraordinary performance: the comfortable “distant spectatorship” in regards to the
A subtle upward flow of water was being extruded by one problems of the “Great Acceleration”. It made me aware
of the drainage grilles, resulting in a small but highly poetic of the urgency of “being with” the water and the island.
little fountain. This infrastructural element — designed to Moreover, it made me aware of the possible different
evacuate and store incoming surface water — was in the agencies, we can have as designers: Toward designing
process of reappropriation as a consequence of climate experiences of interdependence and reconciliation or
change. The non-intentionality of this esthetic experience designing slow engagement with unseen landscapes and
touched me on a personal level. It made me wonder how I unheard bodies. In short, this experience brought me
could be a better listener to the Mediterranean as a “body closer to the necessity of designing the unfelt.
of water” for its unheard voice. From the perspective of a
designer-as-researcher, this particular experience asked In Section 2.2, we will expand on the dramaturgies for the
for a moment of renegotiation of a design attitude: from unfelt and how the fieldwork in Section 3 — all concerning
problem-solving (the water is rising, so let us “build a wall” “bodies of water” within the artistic practice of the TAAT
around the island? ) to accepting the aesthetic experience collective — will help us develop new design gestures to cope
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of the consequences of global warming and working with with the consequences of the Anthropocene, allowing us
its affects. But how do we raise our awareness of the esthetic to test the gathered gestures as design-tools for experiences
qualities of climate change? And how do we welcome the of interdependence and coexistence. Our goal is to (i)
rising water genuinely, making the act of listening to its understand better how spatial design can generate embodied
unheard voice into a political gesture? Expansive questions ways of experiencing interdependence and (ii) turn these
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that — in the instantaneousness of my aesthetic reality understandings into new polyphonic spatial design attitudes.
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there and then — had a very down-to-earth answer: These findings will give us a toolset to radically inform and
Wet feet. expand ways of doing-thinking-being “ontological spatial
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As poetics and esthetics are central to this research, design”. As a conclusion to this paper, I will end with a score
we will situate this paper in the growing intra-field of that can be read and implemented as a performative exercise
spatial dramaturgy, bridging performance design (Turner, in site-specific and space-oriented artistic practices dealing
2015), installation art (Rebentisch, 2012), and architecture with more-than-human entities. But let me first introduce
(Kleine, 2017). In the actor-network between unseen places you to a dramaturgical approach to spatial design.
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(sites of extraction and exploitation) and unheard bodies 2.2. Dramaturgies for the unfelt
(more-than-human entities that are currently silent),
spatial dramaturgy will allow us to explore relational To situate spatial dramaturgy as the main methodological
gestures between the dichotomies of bodies/entities and approach in this research, allow me to briefly introduce my
places/sites. Following the work by Arturo Escobar and trans-disciplinary background as an artistic practice-based
Sruti Bala , we will refer to our thinking-being-doing as a researcher. Through a series of collaborations (curatorial,
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collection of design gestures. We will call them “gestures 10 See also Marisol de la Cadena’s work on the Anthropo-Not-
for interdependence”. In this way, we aim to bridge the Seen.
dichotomies installed by modernity and restore a design 11 See Escobar, a way of designing in which different voices
attitude and framework based on interdependence with co-lead design processes instead of one dominant voice
12 Radical from the Latin word radix (‘root’), not intending to
7 See also https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53361958. break down dogma’s and install new ones, but going to the
8 Actor-network theory (ANT) is introduced by a.o. Latour, B. root of design practices that generate design gestures focusing
(2015). on grounding, rooting and therefor also interdepence.
9 Sruti, B., Gestures of Participatory Art, 2018, Manchester 13 A script that generate embodied action, in our case for
University Press (UK). workshops and experiments concerning groups of designers

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0358