Body and Ground Lecture

Body and Ground brings together artists Jeneen Frei Njootli and Manual Axel Strain in a conversation on the interconnections between land, identity, and embodiment in contemporary Indigenous art. Through performance, sound, and material practice, both artists explore how the body becomes a site of resistance and renewal in dialogue with place and memory. The discussion is introduced and moderated by Patricia Marroquin Norby (The Met).

Abstract

And/Or Online Dialogues.The term ‘binary opposites’ is an important concept in linguistics, sociology and philosophy, referring to pairs of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Common examples that we use in everyday speech and thought include ‘good/bad,’ ‘inside/outside,’ ‘male/female,’ ‘presence/absence’ and so on. Architecture and our related disciplines of landscape and urbanism depend heavily on binary oppositions (‘inside/outside,’ ‘man-made/natural,’ ‘private/public,’ ‘digital/real’) but the adversarial tension set up between what we perceive as opposites often obscures a deeper and more complex understanding of the world.

Context

The term ‘binary opposites’ is an important concept in linguistics, sociology and philosophy, referring to pairs of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Common examples that we use in everyday speech and thought include ‘good/bad,’ ‘inside/outside,’ ‘male/female,’ ‘presence/absence’ and so on. Architecture and our related disciplines of landscape and urbanism depend heavily on binary oppositions (‘inside/outside,’ ‘man-made/natural,’ ‘private/public,’ ‘digital/real’) but the adversarial tension set up between what we perceive as opposites often obscures a deeper and more complex understanding of the world.

In this new online series, this lecture was curated by Martin Stigsgaard and argue that the traditional format of a single lecturer speaking to an audience sets up a binary opposite all of its own — speaker/listener, which simply reinforces the power structure between those who ‘possess’ knowledge and those who ‘consume’ it. In its place, the ‘And/Or Online Dialogues’ will present two speakers in conversation with each other, moderated by a third.

Credits

Architecture Filed Lab: Lecture Series

Collaborators: In the series other lectures curated by Viren Brahmbhatt, Ali C. Höcek

Location: Spitzer School of Architecture 

Year: 2021 

Contact: info@studiostigsgaard.com