Open Letter as reparative interior: expanding, making, participating

Article Sidebar

cover of Journal Vol. 18 No. 01 (2021): (Extra) Ordinary Interiors: Practising Critical
PDF
Published: Aug 31, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37113/ij.v18i01.418
Keywords:
interiority participation letter reparative reading critical spatial practice

Main Article Content

Cathryn Klasto
University of Götenburg Sweden
Jonathan Orlek
Sheffield Hallam University, Studio Polpo

Abstract

Framing the open letter as an expanded interior-in-the- making, this visual essay documents a participatory experiment that took place between the cities of Sheffield (UK) and Gothenburg (SE). The experiment, as one of critical spatial practice, attempted to foster a temporal atmosphere of reparation which aims to counter the global condition of paranoia produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. This essay articulates the visual design of the experiment, the theoretical principles which underpin it, and the significance of critical reflection in the process. The experiment is intentionally left inconclusive, establishing an open networked approach towards publishing as a way of making public, and subsequently allowing the authors to invite readers to contribute to future iterations. As a way of rethinking the visual essay form, the essay deliberately blurs the line between image and text and their relation with the spatial structure of the page.

Article Details

How to Cite
Klasto, Cathryn, and Jonathan Orlek. 2021. “Open Letter As Reparative Interior: Expanding, Making, Participating”. idea journal 18 (01):223-36. https://doi.org/10.37113/ij.v18i01.418.
Issue
Vol. 18 No. 01 (2021): (Extra) Ordinary Interiors: Practising Critical Reflection
Section
Essays

Author/s and or their institutions retain copyright ownership over works submitted to idea journal, and provide the Interior Design / Interior Architecture Educators Association with a non–exclusive license to use the work for the purposes listed below:

  • Make available/publish electronically on the idea journal website
  • Publish as part of idea journal's online open access publications
  • Store in electronic databases, on websites and CDs/DVDs, which comprise of post-publication articles to be used for publishing by the Interior Design / Interior Architecture Educators Association.

Reproduction is prohibited without written permission of the publisher, the author/s or their nominated university. The work submitted for review should not have been published or be in the process of being reviewed by another publisher. Authors should ensure that any images used in their essays have copyright clearance.

Author Biographies

Cathryn Klasto, University of Götenburg Sweden

I am* a trans-disciplinary scholar and educator with a background in history of art (BA), gender and sexuality studies (MA) and architecture (PhD). My work falls within the realm of critical spatial practice, in that it explores the intersections between art-architecture (and other disciplinary fields), theory-practice, and public(s)-private(s). Within this terrain, I am committed to co-building lines of flight which centre (xeno)feminist (ie. anti-naturalist, pro-trans, anti-racist, queer, techno-material, eco) politics.

Current subjects of enquiry include: visualising networks, mapping relations, building archives, techno-materialism, meta-ethics (particularly in relation to the non-human), spatial writing, urban ecologies, spatial poetics and citational politics.

*pronouns are she/her/they/them

Jonathan Orlek, Sheffield Hallam University, Studio Polpo

Jonathan Orlek is an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, interested in the intersections between art, architecture and ethnographic research. He is completing a collaborative PhD between East Street Arts and the University of Huddersfield, which investigates artist-led housing as a critical spatial practice. He is also a director of Studio Polpo, a socially engaged architecture collective based in Sheffield.

References

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading; or, You’re so Paranoid, You Probably Think This Introduction is About You EVE KOSOFSKY SEDGWICK’, in Novel Gazing: Queer Readings in Fiction, ed. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 17.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘Paranoid Reading’, 9.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘Paranoid Reading’, 7. Original emphasis.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘Paranoid Reading’, 4.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘Paranoid Reading’, 25.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, ‘Paranoid Reading’, 6.

Kosofsky Sedwick, ‘Paranoid Reading’, 24.

Jane Rendell, ‘Seven Problematics for Neoliberal Times’, in Apolonija Sustersic Selected Projects 1995-2012, ed Peio Aguirre (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013).

Oliver Marchart, Conflictual Aesthetics Artistic Activism and the Public Sphere (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019), 87.

Legacy Russell, Glitch Feminism - A Manifesto (London: Verso, 2020), 11, 29-29.

Bruno Latour, ‘Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor-Network Theorist’, International Journal of Communications, no.5 (2011): 800.

Manuel Castells, ‘Communication is Power (2009)’, in Networks Documents of Contemporary Art, ed. Lars Bang Larsen (Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, Whitechapel Gallery, 2014), 182.

Erin Manning, Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009).

Jane Rendell, ‘Critical Spatial Practice as Parrhesia’, MaHKUscript: Journal of Fine Art Research 1(2), no. 16 (13 December 2016): 1–8, https://doi.org/10.5334/mjfar.13.

Sushma Subramanian, How to Feel - The Science and Meaning of Touch (New York: Columbia University Press, 2021).

Sara Ahmed, What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2019), 3.

J.K. Gibson-Graham, ‘Diverse Economies: Performative Practices for “Other Worlds”,’ Progress in Human Geography 32, no. 5 (1 October 2008): 613-32.