Did Someone Say Participate?: An Atlas of Spatial Practice

by Markus Miessen (Editor)

Did someone say we need yet another anthology of essays? According to the editors of Did Someone Say Participate?, the answer is an emphatic--or hysterical--"YES!" In fact, they'd go further and argue that the shifts that have taken place in the practice and pedagogy of architecture have been mirrored in other fields, and that this has happened to such an extent that an emerging generation of artists, activists, economists, curators, policy makers, photographers, editors (and, of course, architects) is reshaping how we look at contemporary social and political reality. Despite their apparent disciplinary differences, these professionals are all spatial practitioners. What was once seen as the defensive preserve of architects--mapping, making, or manipulating spaces--has become a new "culture of space" situated in the global market and media arena. Did Someone Say Participate? showcases a range of forward-thinking practitioners and theorists who actively trespass into neighboring or alien fields of knowledge in activities that range from collaborative forms of interdisciplinary practice to identifying practices of ethical terror. For the first time, architecture is here presented as the architecture of knowledge. Participation--social, political or personal--is once again at the forefront of research. Together, the contributions form an atlas of spatial practices resembling the early medieval maps that attempt to show the entire known world. Did Someone Say Participate? will be essential reading not only for those involved in the future of architectural research and practice, but for anyone interested in navigating through current forms of cultural inquiry and Åbäke, Shumon Basar, Johanna Billing, Celine Condorelli & Beatrice Gibson, Keller Easterling, Francesca Ferguson, Justin Frewen, Stephen Graham, Joseph Grima, Mauricio Guillen, Michael Hirsch, Bernd Kniess & Meyer Voggenreiter, Armin Linke, Brendan McGetrick, John McSweeney, Markus Miessen, Matthew Murphy, Lucy Musgrave & Clare Cumberlidge, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Bas Princen, Wendy Pullan, Frank van der Salm, Luke Skrebowski, R&Sie(n) with Pierre Huyghe, Peter Weibel, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss and Eyal Weizman.Not for sale in the UK and Europe.

Genres: Architecture

331 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

Markus Miessen is a Berlin-based architect, writer, and Professor at the Academy of Design, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Reviews

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

art nerds, philosophy nerds, math nerds, science nerds, nerds without borders: nerds unite!

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I was in Atticus Books yesterday (my second favorite used book store in Toronto behind The Monkey's Paw) to get my dad a copy of Gehry Draws which I saw there a few weeks ago. It was for Father's day, which I thought was this weekend, but I guess I already missed. Oops.

Atticus is right near the U of T and specializes in academic and rare books. It's not very homey or cute inside, but decently organized, while maintaining a little rough around the edges scatteredness that one should expect/hope for in a used book shop. Scanning the shelves you'll see maybe 3/4 of the books are MIT Press, Verso, Routledge, or Zone Books. Lots of those mathematics and science shelves where all the books look exactly the same.

While I was in there (and this seems like a standard conversation based on my other times dropping by) a (prseumably) linguistics professor is asking about a specific hardbound edition of some linguistics book that the owner thinks is in storage. The owner says he'll have to call him tomorrow as the specific book in question might be in storage. The guy buys something else anyways, about which he says,

"Yeah I don't really know who this guy is. I'm not so into reading Chomsky these days so maybe this isn't going to be that great for me."

Owner: "Is he at MIT too?"
"No he's at Champaign, at least he used to be."
"well it's an MIT Press book, so you usually can't go wrong there."
to which the customer agrees.

While comparing the condition of the bindings on the two gehry books I find, I come across this intriguing little gem. It reminds me a lot of that catalogue from that show at the Walker "How Latitudes Become Form" How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in the Global Age. It's got a weird laminate hard binding and is monotone printed in dark blue ink with a couple color plates in the middle.

It's mainly architectural based, people coming out of, or having been associated with the Centre for research Architecture at Goldsmith's. I've just been flipping through and reading the first few essays but so far, so good. Most of the contributors are not artists so much. Eyal Weisman has something on evacuations of settlements from Gaza, there's an interview with the lady who set up the floating abortion clinics off the coasts of Poland, Ireland, and Portugal, and lots of drawings and diagrams of thinking in maps, which I of course love.

So anyways, when I bought it the guy says, "huh, weird binding?" and i say, "yeah it's so glossy. it doesn't have the usual MIT Press austerity aesthetic." and he says, "well you usually can't go wrong with MIT Press..."

[Danica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays put out by MIT press about "spacial practice". It has sat by my bed for 6 months or so, but it is really interesting, just bulky and hard to carry around.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

haven't read all of this one yet, but many of the essays have appeared in other publications, and are quite great.

[Kyla]

Looks intriguing, has been sitting on my bookshelf with other to-reads for a couple years. I picked it up this morning and was interested all over again, but I'm reading other books right now.