In the
19th century, the "century of the barricade", building a
barricade could bring down a state. Today, however, a barricade
cannot rely solely on itself as-architecture, (or 'as-object') for
the interruption of order and the creation of exceptional space. Not
only are battlegrounds and the lines that define them are
increasingly blurred, but progressions in technology, control and
surveillance mean that, with ease, state forces could destroy all
that a traditional barricade could materially ‘stand’ for : by
tank, by drone or by camera.
During
the talk, we’ll explore the barricade as a disobedient object on
the battleground of the city, going through barricade archetypes in
terms of their architectural form and their urban strategy. I’ll
try to show how the barricade has developed from ‘stopping’ or
‘blockading’ movement to moving in and of itself, how it's
spatial quality has moved from the 'static' to the nomadic.
We’ll
then look at how the barricade is as much about the bodies upon it as
about the form it takes, or, the relationship between insurgent
objects and insurgent subjects. I’ll try to show how, in the
material sense, the insurgent uses the barricade as both offensive
intervention and defensive protection, but also how, in the
immaterial sense, the insurgent uses the barricade as both
spectacular symbol and rhetorical device. I’ll try to show how
subjects and objects come together as-barricade, and how in losing
power as one or the other, they gain insurgent potential in the
ambiguous space between the two.
We’ll
hopefully see how the barricade is as much about what it is as about
what it does, as much an object as it is an subject, as much a noun
as it is a verb.
The
Architecture of the Barricade - part of Anti University Now Festival
Facilitated
by Charlotte Grace.
Saturday,
June 11, 2016
Open
School East - 43 De Beauvoir Road, London, N1 5SQ, United Kingdom
