Reactivating the Social Condenser! Architecture against Privation


'In the habits and attitudes of the mass population,
low-voltage activity and a weak consciousness would be focused through
the circuits of these 'social condensers' into high-voltage catalysts of
change.' (Moisei Ginzburg, 1927)
1. We live in a time of privation, crisis
and stratification, in housing as well as in public space. Space has
become a commodity, and apathy is rife
2. For
nearly a century, architects, artists and thinkers have been inspired by
and toyed with the grand old Soviet idea of the social condenser. Most,
however, have attempted to tame this idea, or have done little other
than to pay lip service to it.
3. It is high time,
then, to reactivate the social condenser! We want to subject this
electrifying idea to serious and systematic re-examination, to re-charge
the social condenser as a vector for radical architectural thought and
practice.
Confirmed Participants:
- Nick Beech (Oxford Brookes/CCA) social condensations in 1960s London
- Jonathan Charley (Strathclyde) on radical architectural memories
- Udo Grashoff (SSEES, UCL) on 'schwarzwohnen' in East Germany
- Owen Hatherley (London) on 'actually-existing' social condensers
- Michael Marriott and Richard Wentworth (artists) on the 'laundry room'
- Michal Murawski (SSEES, UCL) on Stalinist social condensers
- Andrea Phillips (Goldsmiths) on housing, art and activism
- Jane Rendell (The Bartlett, UCL) on the social condenser and the setting
- Lukasz Stanek (Manchester) on Lefebvre and the social condenser
- Andy Willimott (SSEES) on everyday life in Soviet house communes
- Victor Buchli (Anthropology, UCL) Discussant
- Caroline Humphrey (Cambridge) Discussant
You must register via Eventbrite, socialcondenser.eventbrite.co.uk.
The conference is supported by the UCL Urban Laboratory, and the UCL Grand Challenge: Human Wellbeing and convened by Dr Michal Murawski (SSEES, UCL) and Professor Jane Rendell (The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL).
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Further information
Cost
Free
Open to
All