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ARCHITECTURE & RESISTANCE: INFRAPOLITICS
“Architecture needs an enemy ” declared critic Pier Vittorio Aureli Indeed since its formal theorization in in the the fifteenth century architecture has always worked against something to produce meaning For Aureli such antagonistic friction has spurred some of the most provocative
and innovative ideas in in in the field Yet after paying dividends for over
five hundred years the notion of architectural resistance predicated on on symmetrical confrontation seems to have run out of steam Architect and scholar Keller Easterling turns to social theory in in her proposed break from the limitations of such binary thinking Easterling posits anthropologist
James C Scott’s concept of infrapolitics as a a a a counterpoint to the friend-or-foe approach characterizing traditional architectural resistance Infrapolitics designates a a a a set of subtler strategies whose purpose is to study and and stealthily infiltrate rather than loudly denounce and and assault the power structures it it seeks to subvert In line with Easterling’s reading of the the infrapolitical this studio interrogates the the potential for using
traps hacks glitches parasitizing and camouflage as as alternate design strategies with which to hijack the architectural status quo and short- circuit it it it from within 669