Massimiliano Malago '20 MArch Columbia GSAPP

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This project served primarily as an assessment of phenomenological architecture. The aim was to test the limits of such an approach to architecture. This museum does not display artefacts, instead it relies on the architecture to communicate the history of the human conception and western notion of “self ”. Each room in the building corresponds to a specific thinker or philosophical movement that contributed to the evolution of the notion of the “self ” (ie. Hume, Lacan, the Phyrrhonian skeptics, the Existentialists, and so forth). The spatial qualities of the rooms are meant to provide an experiential setting that would inform the visitors and orient their senses towards a specific category of rational realisations in what might tentatively be described as an Empiricist mindset and method.

(a) Core I. Prof. Inaqui Carnicero.

SECTION.1.

This project served primarily as an assessment of phenomenological architecture. The aim was to test the limits of such an approach to architecture. This museum does not display artefacts, instead it relies on the architecture to communicate the history of the human conception and western notion of “self ”. Each room in the building corresponds to a specific thinker or philosophical movement that contributed to the evolution of the notion of the “self ” (ie. Hume, Lacan, the Phyrrhonian skeptics, the Existentialists, and so forth). The spatial qualities of the rooms are meant to provide an experiential setting that would inform the visitors and orient their senses towards a specific category of rational realisations in what might tentatively be described as an Empiricist mindset and method.

(b) Core I. Prof. Inaqui Carnicero.

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Design for the DUMBO Public Library branch. The project is driven by a desire to encourage dialogue in the community as well as reinforcing the exposure of local citizen to new bodies of knowledge. The architecture of the building and the spatial strategies that are employed aim to fulfil this mission. The proposal features a building with an “enfilade” program such that users are coerced into experiencing and seeing various types of activities and program prior to reaching their desired destination. Small corridors where the horizontal circulation occurs facilitate encounters and human interaction. The eight equidistant entrances looking on all sides of the site de-hierarchize access to this public building. No main entrance is suggested to the guests as they approach the library through the semi-covered plaza made of stairs. The encounter with knowledge in this library occurs in a disordered manner.

Materials were carefully chosen and consideration of their respective qualities was cardinal in shaping the experiential character and the functional organisation of the building.

(c) Core II. Prof. Emmett Zeifman.

SYSTEM STUDY PROJECT. ARCHITECT. DRAWING. AUDIOGRAPHIC AESTHETIC DICT.

TRÈS GRANDE BIBLIOTHÈQUE. OMA. SAMPLING-LIKE APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURE. SACCADER LES ESPACES COMME UN SAMPLE BRUSQUE. [BOLERO- MAURICE RAVEL] + [LYK LYK - BICEP] + [IF THE CAR BESIDES YOU MOVES AHEAD - JAMES BLAKE].

“UTILITARIAN SUBSTANCE” - BOOK STACKS. WTF U ON ABOUT REM.

SECTION.1.

Design for the DUMBO Public Library branch. The project is driven by a desire to encourage dialogue in the community as well as reinforcing the exposure of local citizen to new bodies of knowledge. The architecture of the building and the spatial strategies that are employed aim to fulfil this mission. The proposal features a building with an “enfilade� program such that users are coerced into experiencing and seeing various types of activities and program prior to reaching their desired destination. Small corridors where the horizontal circulation occurs facilitate encounters and human interaction. The eight equidistant entrances looking on all sides of the site de-hierarchize access to this public building. No main entrance is suggested to the guests as they approach the library through the semi-covered plaza made of stairs. The encounter with knowledge in this library occurs in a disordered manner.

Materials were carefully chosen and consideration of their respective qualities was cardinal in shaping the experiential character and the functional organisation of the building.

(d) Core II. Prof. Emmett Zeifman.

SECTION.1. (e) Core III. Prof. Eric Bunge.

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Design for a 300-unit housing block between Claremont and Crotona Park, NYC. The project abides to a libertarian conception of both domesticity and urban interventions. This political lens through which it is conceived serves as a conceptual constraint and framework, and turns the design exercise into an operation whose aim is to transpose abstract principles into three dimensional forms (an endeavour that is itself questionable). The complex is made up of four tall “walls� of apartments close to the perimeter of the site. Each unit has its own entrance with its own outdoor corridor-bridge that connects to a larger circulation and basic amenities tower. This creates a form of tension in the complex where the extreme proximity of each unit is contrasted by their sharp separation of access, thus reframing next-door-neighbourdom dynamics. Access to the complex and the central garden is spatially unrestricted, meaning any pedestrian may walk across the block at all times in virtue of the porous way the buildings meet the ground. The project aims to have a minimal urban and pedestrian impact for the neighbourhood in this regard.

SECTION.1.

Design for a 300-unit housing block between Claremont and Crotona Park, NYC. The project abides to a libertarian conception of both domesticity and urban interventions. This political lens through which it is conceived serves as a conceptual constraint and framework, and turns the design exercise into an operation whose aim is to transpose abstract principles into three dimensional forms (an endeavour that is itself questionable). The complex is made up of four tall “walls� of apartments close to the perimeter of the site. Each unit has its own entrance with its own outdoor corridor-bridge that connects to a larger circulation and basic amenities tower. This creates a form of tension in the complex where the extreme proximity of each unit is contrasted by their sharp separation of access, thus reframing next-door-neighbourdom dynamics. Access to the complex and the central garden is spatially unrestricted, meaning any pedestrian may walk across the block at all times in virtue of the porous way the buildings meet the ground. The project aims to have a minimal urban and pedestrian impact for the neighbourhood in this regard.

(f) Core III. Prof. Eric Bunge.

Public Entrance into the Project

Private Entrance into Circulation Towers

SCHO OL

Personal Entrance into Individual Units

SCHO OL SCHO OL

SCHO OL

SECTION.1.

The act of enclosing an object within a walled perimeter can be seen as a strategy to augment the value of the given object. This is what the Hortus Conclusus — the 13th century European medieval garden typology — achieves. In designing a nature center for the Quassaick creek in the Hudson Valley, the walled garden’s formal strategy was adopted in conjunction with that of a Piano Key Weir system that resolved the sectional challenge of a 15 feet dislevelling. The combination of garden and weir infrastructure was arranged as a set of interlinked islands such as to protract the public's visit to the nature center. Indeed, the duration of the bank-to-bank journey is significantly increased by the multiple islands the visitor is forced to visit. In addition to this lengthened journey that aims to maximise the vistor's exposure to nature, the project's organised Italian garden offers an alternative experience of nature — one that contrasts with the otherwise untouched and disordered native environment of the creek.

(h) Advanced IV. Prof. Robert Marino.

SECTION.1.

The act of enclosing an object within a walled perimeter can be seen as a strategy to augment the value of the given object. This is what the Hortus Conclusus — the 13th century European medieval garden typology — achieves. In designing a nature center for the Quassaick creek in the Hudson Valley, the walled garden’s formal strategy was adopted in conjunction with that of a Piano Key Weir system that resolved the sectional challenge of a 15 feet dislevelling. The combination of garden and weir infrastructure was arranged as a set of interlinked islands such as to protract the public's visit to the nature center. Indeed, the duration of the bank-to-bank journey is significantly increased by the multiple islands the visitor is forced to visit. In addition to this lengthened journey that aims to maximise the vistor's exposure to nature, the project's organised Italian garden offers an alternative experience of nature — one that contrasts with the otherwise untouched and disordered native environment of the creek.

(i) Advanced IV. Prof. Robert Marino.

SECTION.1.

This project looks at the “State of Emergency” and the “Threat to National Security” as frameworks to address the Climate Crisis.

The political reality of emergencies differs drastically from that of civil society, with the enforcement of curfews, martial law and other safety and security measures.

This dystopian project imagines an authoritarian and militarised state that implements strategies of autarky to meet its environmental decarbonisation targets. The rationale for this dystopic hypothesis is that the level of urgency of the climate crisis requires unprecedented measures and that conventional democratic western levels of coordination cannot deliver our objectives in time.

It is a scenario that shifts the incentives of the population and polarises their agency towards the goal of avoiding a climatic catastrophe — a trade of freedom for survival. Drawing lessons from both the New Deal and the Green New Deal resolution, the project proposes the creation a Green Design Task Force to address the most pressing challenges of the climate crisis.

(k) Advanced V. Prof. David Benjamin.

SECTION.1. (l) Advanced V. Prof. David Benjamin.

S E R V I C E T O G E T H E R F O R E V E R

This project looks at the “State of Emergency” and the “Threat to National Security” as frameworks to address the Climate Crisis.

The political reality of emergencies differs drastically from that of civil society, with the enforcement of curfews, martial law and other safety and security measures.

This dystopian project imagines an authoritarian and militarised state that implements strategies of autarky to meet its environmental decarbonisation targets. The rationale for this dystopic hypothesis is that the level of urgency of the climate crisis requires unprecedented measures and that conventional democratic western levels of coordination cannot deliver our objectives in time.

It is a scenario that shifts the incentives of the population and polarises their agency towards the goal of avoiding a climatic catastrophe — a trade of freedom for survival. Drawing lessons from both the New Deal and the Green New Deal resolution, the project proposes the creation a Green Design Task Force to address the most pressing challenges of the climate crisis.

SECTION.1.

This project looks at the “State of Emergency” and the “Threat to National Security” as frameworks to address the Climate Crisis.

The political reality of emergencies differs drastically from that of civil society, with the enforcement of curfews, martial law and other safety and security measures.

This dystopian project imagines an authoritarian and militarised state that implements strategies of autarky to meet its environmental decarbonisation targets. The rationale for this dystopic hypothesis is that the level of urgency of the climate crisis requires unprecedented measures and that conventional democratic western levels of coordination cannot deliver our objectives in time.

It is a scenario that shifts the incentives of the population and polarises their agency towards the goal of avoiding a climatic catastrophe — a trade of freedom for survival. Drawing lessons from both the New Deal and the Green New Deal resolution, the project proposes the creation a Green Design Task Force to address the most pressing challenges of the climate crisis.

(m) Advanced V. Prof. David Benjamin.

SECTION.1.

This project looks at the “State of Emergency” and the “Threat to National Security” as frameworks to address the Climate Crisis.

The political reality of emergencies differs drastically from that of civil society, with the enforcement of curfews, martial law and other safety and security measures.

This dystopian project imagines an authoritarian and militarised state that implements strategies of autarky to meet its environmental decarbonisation targets. The rationale for this dystopic hypothesis is that the level of urgency of the climate crisis requires unprecedented measures and that conventional democratic western levels of coordination cannot deliver our objectives in time.

It is a scenario that shifts the incentives of the population and polarises their agency towards the goal of avoiding a climatic catastrophe — a trade of freedom for survival. Drawing lessons from both the New Deal and the Green New Deal resolution, the project proposes the creation a Green Design Task Force to address the most pressing challenges of the climate crisis.

(n) Advanced V. Prof. David Benjamin.

Freedom Restoration Act

Centralisation of Welfare and Financial Instituions

Energy and Industrial Privatisation Act

Timeline : 2-5 years post-mandate.

Educational training and measures for the reintroduction of a civilian class and civilian dynamics.

Return to Lib-Democratic values.

Timeline : 15-20 years post-mandate.

Return to a Free Market society through the denationalisation of the New American Energy, Transportation and Environmental Industrial Sectors.

U.S. Department of the Treasury shall take over the liberal economic framework by nationalising Healthcare, Finances and other. The various sectors will be managed by a new governmental entity that ought to re-organise current managerial structure and prioritise efficieny.

m yste ry s icia jud

Readjustment of Societal Normative Framework

New legislation to guarantee the formation of efficient and disciplined workforce. Revocation of the civilian penal code. Introduction and enforcement of the Military justice system. Observation of Martial Law and the UCMJ (aka. Unif-orm Code of Military Justice).

Revocation of voting rights and Individual rights.

civil ian lab our forc e

healthcare and banking

Restructuring of Civilian Workforce

Creation of a series of new National Corps and Guards to deliver the Green New Contract in 20 years.

These include : (A) The Green Bri-gade. (B) The Agricultural Corps. (C) The Conser-vation Corps. (D) The Green Design Corps. (E) The Green New National Lifeguard. (F) The Env-ironmental Armed Forces.

Freedom of choice in prof-essional matters is marginal.

Voucher and Loans denationalisation strategy

Timeline : 10 years post-mandate.

Sale of national assets to the American Public.

Return to Market Competition.

SECTION.1.

Design for Copula Hall & the border between the two fictitious cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. Upon reading the book you are thrown into a world of very peculiar tensions - almost unimaginable and difficult to grasp from our perspective. It’s almost something along the lines of a couple that is divorcing during Covid but is still living in the same apartment.

The design introduces some degree of rupture with the urban fabric (see the entrance of the valleys). If you look at it, the building it’s problematic. And I think that to some extent that’s a necessity because the relationship between these cities is a conflictual and hostile one, so the building does exactly that, it marks a pause in the normal functioning of the city to acknowledge that there is an issue, there is a conflict. This is a performative society, in the book, where people perform weird acts of seeing and unseeing the other city so I incorporated some of that in the circulation of the border. You go up the stairs and then down almost like a ritual, at the end of the day you’re just in the same alley you were at the beginning but the procession and the ritual make it such that you’ve crossed the border and are in a new country.

(o) Advanced VI. Prof. Annie Barrett.

Prof. Stephen Cassell.

SECTION.1.

Design for Copula Hall & the border between the two fictitious cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. Upon reading the book you are thrown into a world of very peculiar tensions - almost unimaginable and difficult to grasp from our perspective. It’s almost something along the lines of a couple that is divorcing during Covid but is still living in the same apartment.

The design introduces some degree of rupture with the urban fabric (see the entrance of the valleys). If you look at it, the building it’s problematic. And I think that to some extent that’s a necessity because the relationship between these cities is a conflictual and hostile one, so the building does exactly that, it marks a pause in the normal functioning of the city to acknowledge that there is an issue, there is a conflict. This is a performative society, in the book, where people perform weird acts of seeing and unseeing the other city so I incorporated some of that in the circulation of the border. You go up the stairs and then down almost like a ritual, at the end of the day you’re just in the same alley you were at the beginning but the procession and the ritual make it such that you’ve crossed the border and are in a new country.

(p) Advanced V. VI. Prof. Annie Barrett.

Prof. Stephen Cassell.

SECTION.2.

The Set-up of Critical (q) Prof. Andrés Jaque.

Spatial Practices — Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love.

Report structure: Part 1. Critical Spatial Practices. Origins & Methodologies. (p.4) (a) Early modes of critical intervention – Beuys, Levine & Magid. (b) Methods – Humour & Aesthetic hi-jacking.

Part 2. Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love. Couples & Singlehood in the era of Covid-19. (p.7) (a) Inequalities in normal times. i. Historical grounds for couple privileges. ii. Non-exhaustive list of right and privileges associated to couplehood. (b) Exacerbation of inequalities in the era of Covid-19 – Artifacts. i. Violence and the dissolution of the concept of domesticity. ii. Artifacts.

Introductory Quotes: “The theories of Marx and Engels had simply omitted mankind’s greatest happiness. It wasn’t just money that ruled the world — attractiveness did too. Beauty and charm couldn’t be redistributed any more than intelligence and entrepreneurial ambition — except what you got for it, could. And it wasn’t just the money and property (those generally considered beautiful earned 10 to 20 percent above the average salary) but love and sex as well. They called this approach Completism.” (p.74) Complete Love, Ingo Nierman.

“My work is not intended as a metaphor. It is important for me that my work actually engages the law and structures of control in both its finished form as well as through the process of making it. To enter a system that is seemingly impenetrable it is necessary to find a loophole. To confront the law, I take it literally.” (p.18) The Proposal, Jill Magid.

“The work feeds back to the university its own workings in an environmental laboratory situation. Red Tape works as a conceptual tool: a clear illustration of a system’s functioning creates an understanding of the requirements for improvement in that system.” (p.13) Red Tape, A New Work by Les Levine, 1970, Les Levine.

“Even in Onwuachi-Willig’s ideal world, marriage would remain the only relationship between adults recognised and supported by all fifty states, thereby privileging some forms of personal life over others. […] After all, states recognise marriage and only marriage - friends are generally grouped with strangers for purposes of family law.” (p.780,784) Marital Status and Privilege, Laura Ann Rosenbury.

“Saveth Pea Blad.”

Lev Tanju & the Palace Wayward Boys Choir.

Abstract.

This independent study takes the form of both a research and design exercise. It serves as an opportunity to combine two research interests of mine: the societal privileges of couplehood (both legally established and socially systemic), and the new set of domestic and social dynamics that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into our lives.

Rather than discussing inequality through the dominant lens of wealth, power, and race, this study aims to redirect and reframe the discourse by focusing on singlehood vs. couplehood during the pandemic. This alternative lens gives voice to those forms of inequality that are rarely discussed and that are hardly quantifiable – intimacy inequality, unequal access to psychological support, aesthetic inequality and the disbalance in power and agency that results from it.

In order to address these “other” modes of inequality, we framed our analysis by comparing the two opposing conditions of singlehood and couplehood. Singlehood, here, is understood as an equivalent of bachelorhood (ie. a condition of independence and singularity as a societal unit - defined by the lack of a binding relationship to another party). Couplehood, instead, is understood as the condition that covers these three modes of association: civil union, marriage, and informal romantic association. These conditions are respectively accompanied by a specific set of societal judgments, rights, and duties. It is through these parameters, judgments, rights, and duties, that we articulate our analysis of the inequality between singlehood and couplehood.

The design of speculative artifacts that display the disparate realities of enduring a pandemic as a couple versus the experience of living through it as a single individual is the final product of this study. The objects serve as reminders of the asymmetric conditions ascribed to singlehood. There is no desire to form any opinion or judgment regarding the two fundamentally necessary states of affairs of singlehood and couplehood. Rather, there is an ambition to show and untangle these contrasting situations.

The present report lays out (a) research on historically pertinent art forms that precede what has come to be known as a Critical Spatial Practice, (b) the methodology (ie. the development of a rhetorical strategy for a critical spatial intervention) and (c) the outcomes of this study focused on the exacerbation of couple privileges during the Covid-19 pandemic.

1.

Critical Spatial Practices. Origins & Methodologies.

In 2011, at the height of the Occupy movement, architects Markus Miessen and Nikolaus Hirsch created the “Critical Spatial Practice” Series at the Sternberg Press in Berlin. This new series had been conceived as an outlet for architectural practitioners to “rethink one’s modes of action and codes of conduct” and was designed as an editorial project that “reinvents its internal structure according to the content of each volume”. The new branch of the German publishing house sought to reinforce the existing body of literature and theory that lies at the intersection of art, architecture and critical theory: “Along with the Städelschule’s Critical Spatial Practice program, which draws on discursive potential of the relationship between architecture and related disciplines to reinvigorate architecture with cultural, social, and political criticism, the series navigates architecture as a spatial, cultural, social, and political tool.”

The first publication from this series featured a wide range of leading academics and practitioners and asked: “What, today, can be understood as a critical modality of spatial practice?”. [see Fig.1]. The responses varied a great deal in their scope and, most importantly, in their understanding of the term “critical”. David Adjaye’s take on the issue focused on the “collaborative engagement, and local engagement” of the architectural professional, while encouraging an “active negotiation of space”. Eyal Weizman, of Forensic Architecture, articulated a reading of the question in terms of architectural “agents” and “sensors”, as well as noting that the term “spatial practice” is often merely used as an attempt to democratise architecture, and such an endeavour is futile if one does not acknowledge the systemic and structural consequences of an act of design. Felicity Scott instead pointed to the changing meaning of the words that made up the very question and reminded the readers that “contemporary figurations of criticality differ significantly from (but remain in dialogue with the legacy of ) those operating within architecture during the 1970s and 80’s.”

The disparate voices of the authors make it difficult to reach a single and unmitigated conception of what a critical mode of spatial practice might entail, but Jane Rendell’s definition might perhaps sum it up most succinctly: “Critical spatial practices as those that question and transform the social conditions of the sites into which they intervene, as well as testing the boundaries and procedures of their own discipline.”

A better understanding of our specific notion of Critical Spatial Practice for the purposes of this project can be attained by examining three historical precedents upon which our study is based. (a) Early modes of critical intervention – Beuys, Levine & Maggid.

Our notion of criticality originated from Joseph Beuys’ Social Sculptures. Beuys’ seminal work in the 60’s and 70’s shifted the disciplinary goals and scopes of art by relaxing the boundaries of traditional artistic endeavours. Beuys’ conception of art, with its newly acquired ability to remodel, redefine, and pursue an agenda extraneous to art’s disciplinary discourse (ie. causes such as gender equality, social justice, and other fundamentally political questions), became a central tenet of the “critical spatial practices”. Cara Jordan writes of this innovation: “[Beuys] used social sculpture as a totalizing concept under which a myriad social issues fell.” The 1970 Organisation for Direct Democracy, an office established by the artist in Düsseldorf to educate the public about citizen-initiated referenda, was conceived as an intervention that provided a platform for political action: a “storefront meeting place [...] where the public could discuss how to transform West Germany into a more egalitarian society.” By instituting “social sculptures” as an alternative mode of practising art, Beuys set the stage for a shift from traditional representational mediums to a set of more elusive formats: direct social actions and politically-oriented performances. In that regard, we may claim that his practice reflects the methodological framework that Jane Rendell designates as foundational to a critical practice. Indeed, Beuys’ Social Sculptures do “question and transform the social conditions” of the site where he intervenes.

The second work that influenced our notion of “critical spatial practice” is Les Levine’s 1970 Red Tape. The nature of this project is critical insofar as its sole purpose of this work is not the artwork itself, but rather, the function it serves. Red Tape reveals the structures, mechanisms and workings of an academic institutions’ bureaucracy. His intervention also embraces a modern conception of progress insofar as the artwork renders the “requirements for improvement in the system” apparent. Red Tape is a conceptual tool, a passive act of scrupulous observation and documentation that provides feedback for its site of intervention (ie. the university). It is an artwork that aspires to be useful by providing an unbiased portrait of a bureautic apparatus.

Finally, an important reference was Jill Magid’s contemporary art practice that features a vast array of rhetorical techniques: love letters, exhibitions, dinners and artifacts. Her latest project, The Proposal, dismantles the regimented conditions under which Louis Barragan's legacy is carefully being constructed. In doing this, Maggid finds a way of uncovering the forces of capital that currently govern Barragan’s image through the ownership of his archive. Magid’s enquiry into the relationship between the ownership of cultural resources and architectural history is supplemented by a curatorial strategy that circumvents copyright infringement while revealing the unnegotiated territories of the law. As such, the artist does not limit her work to an investigation and a reflection on cultural heritage - rather, she “engages the law and structures of control” that determine the boundaries of her undertaking by manipulating them and turning them on their head. (b) Methods – Humour & Aesthetic hi-jacking.

Drawing from these precedents, we developed our own strategy for the delivery of a social commentary (ie. a rhetorical strategy). In doing this we studied Palace’s advertising campaigns as a resource and a model. Palace is an influential streetwear and skateboarding brand founded in London at the turn of the 21st century. Its notoriously provocative branding strategy relies on self-irony and pastiches of existing fashion houses.

The notion of aesthetic hi-jacking becomes useful at this point. The term refers to the act of replicating a widely-known image and altering its content to criticise it. The first step in this process consists of creating a recognisable and yet misleading image. Hence the term “hi-jacking”. In creating a signifier - an epistemological bridge between the receiving societal agent (ie. the viewer of the image or the customer in the context of a traditional consumer-brand) and the actual object of communication (ie. a critique of a societal state of affair) - we veil the critique under the guise of a seemingly innocuous message.

The 2018 Palace bus advertisement campaign is an example of this strategy deployed on London’s double-decker buses. [see Fig.2]. The campaign borrows the aesthetic language of major global major brands such as Selfridges, the Kooples and Saint Laurent by using their fonts, models and photoshopping techniques. This dishonest depiction of the brand tricks the viewer into thinking they are looking at a Saint Laurent advert, which in turns creates a sense of confusion and comedy, when they notice the model is holding a set of Palace packaging bags. The irony of this campaign lies in the fact that the largest portion of Palace’s target audience is made up of fashionable teenagers. The adult female depicted in clichéd high heels is therefore perceived as an anomaly and, a posteriori, a provocation. The critical component of the campaign is Palace’s act of self-derision. By producing an image of the brand that does not reflect its core mandate (ie. providing skateboarding gear and equipment), the brand formulates a compelling commentary of its own trajectory - from a niche skating brand to a high-profile fashion house. This commentary is compelling to consumers, long queues of customers regularly gather in front of their store at seasonal collection launches. [see Fig.3].

The technique we employed to convey our analysis of the exacerbated inequalities between couples and single individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic is therefore reliant on humour. Laughter is indeed a potent rhetorical tool that facilitates the communication of problematic or bitter realities. Our strategy opts for a blend of dark comedy and product design. By proposing a set of artefacts that manifest the unequal condition of couples vis-à-vis single individuals, we hope to communicate efficiently, the gap that separates the experience of quarantine in these two different states.

2.

Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love. Couples & Singlehood in the era of Covid-19.

This section of the report deals with the two states of affairs that lie at the heart of our study: Singlehood and Couplehood. The two fundamental questions we seek to answer are (a) what sets them apart? And, (b) of those elements that set them apart, which ones have been exacerbated during this pandemic?

(a)

Inequalities in normal times.

Singlehood and couplehood represent the two dominant intimate and personal associative states in which individuals pursue their lives in society. Each one comes with its respective set of privileges, rights and duties.

Marriage is often discussed as a societally advantageous form of association, but the status of un-married couples is also characterised by a large number of benefits that do not apply to single individuals. These advantages encompass, physical and emotional display of affection, biases and automatisms displayed ahead of a couple, and the ability to share the burden of childcare. It can be argued that singlehood also comes with its own set of privileges: unaccountability to other parties (ie. freedom), sexual emancipation and freedom, financial independence, greater flexibility to socialise. However, these benefits do not undermine the legal and social welfare-infrastructures of couplehood. i. Historical grounds for couple privileges.

In the case of marriage, the framework of the privileges is the law: rights are formally granted to citizen through the institution of marriage in its capacity as a legal union contract. It is domestic legislation that sets the magnitude and boundaries of couple privilege, but it seems difficult to deny that most - if not all - societies grant special advantages to couples. The United Nation’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16, defines family as “the natural and fundamental group unit of society.” The United Nation’s 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights treaty, Article 10, reiterates this concept and adds that families should be accorded "the widest possible protection and assistance." Given that married and civil-partner couples remain the most common family type (with approximately 2/3rd of families falling under those categories) in the West, it seems plausible that couplehood privileges are entangled and inseparable from the legal framework that protects the marital status.

The following section of the report illustrates some prominent privileges and rights that apply to couples. ii. Non-exhaustive list of rights and privileges associated to couplehood.

Healthcare & insurance benefits: health insurance coverage that comes from a spouse’s employment-based medical insurance policy.

Inheritance: upon getting married, spouses immediately become next of kin, replacing each spouse’s parents and siblings as their closest relative. This means that spouses qualify to receive the majority of each other’s assets should either spouse pass away without a will. It also means that any inheritance received becomes a gift between spouses that is unlikely to be taxed. This right can have spatial implications insofar as a spouse can inherit land or properties.

Psychological support: singlehood can imply a certain degree of solitude in some cases. Couplehood is instead often synonymous with continuous support and the comfort of having someone to speak to. It can be argued that during this pandemic there is a genuine psychological advantage to couplehood that manifests itself as emotional support.

Physical & intimate proximity: physical touch, cuddles, caresses, sexual intercourse or even a simple embrace are actions that couples may perform and that are culturally expected.

Evidence in court: in the law of evidence, Communications privilege allows a witness-spouse to refuse to testify against the accused-spouse, thereby preventing a confidential communication that took place during the marriage from being used in court. A second spousal privilege in the law of evidence is the Testimonial privilege. A right that overrules a witness’s duty to reveal matters within the witness’s knowledge, whether at trial or by deposition.

Childcare: one of the informal privileges of couplehood is the ability to share the responsibilities and tasks that are associated to parenthood.

Taxes: the practice of transferring or gifting a property without being taxed is a privilege that applies to married couples.

SECTION.2.

The Set-up of Critical (r) Prof. Andrés Jaque.

Spatial Practices — Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love.

Citizenship & immigration rights: individuals can gain citizenship of a foreign country in virtue of their marital status.

Decision-making power over the life or death of a relative or spouse: by becoming a next of kin, a spouse gains the ability to make critical decisions on or for an incapacitated partner (b)

Exacerbation of inequalities in the era of Covid-19 – Artifacts.

A striking and recurring sight in the early days of the pandemic in New York City, was the unprecedented concentration of couples running, walking and shopping in pairs. For a brief period of time, the streets provided evidence of a peculiar phenomenon: the physical pairing-up of couples in a unitary household. To the prospect of indefinite confinement, most couples had decided to spend their quarantine together. This phenomenon has an inherent spatial condition to it, especially insofar as the domestic space was in the process of becoming - to the exclusion of every other place - the space of everyday life. i. Violence and the dissolution of the concept of domesticity.

It can be argued that the traditional notion of domesticy has changed as a result of the pandemic. The lives of citizens continue in a significantly diminished spatial realm. For many - the ones that can afford to stay at home and work from home - the domestic realm has become the only occupiable territory. As such, the notion of the domestic starts to dissolve. Speaking of a “domestic sphere” is meaningful as long as there is another sphere - a different sphere - we can contrast it to. But if life in its entirety is compressed into, and reduced to what we formerly had defined as the domestic, it seems futile to describe our homes as the “domestic spheres”: they are “domestic” as opposed to what? Indeed, for many, the space of our homes is all we have left.

The move from the city to the home as our habitat is also characterised by a form of violence. Here, the subject matter is not domestic violence - which is, in itself, a major issue that this crisis has exacerbated - but rather, the violence that derives from the violation of an individual’s autonomy of movement: violence in the sense that the domestic, which is our new terrain and reality, is an imposed space into which we are now forced to live. Both couples and individuals that share their dwelling with roommates face a “violent form of togetherness”. ii. Artifacts.

These observations sparked our reflection on the unequal condition of couples and single individuals in this historical moment of crisis. If it is true that a pandemic magnifies wealth and civic inequalities, as several studies have shown, , then it is also presumably true that the pandemic exacerbates inequalities between couples and single individuals. Of the nine privileges we listed in section 2.(a).(ii). four have been exacerbated by the crisis: Psychological support. A combination of two factors has aggravated this inequality. On the one hand, single individuals have been further isolated in their domestic space, without the possibility of gathering with friends, colleagues or occasional amorous partners.

On the other hand, couples as we mentioned above have reinforced their status by moving in together and increasing the amount of time spent together. I noticed that in my own case, even though my partner is in LA at the moment, I still benefit from this emotional form support in virtue of the regular phone calls and letters we have manually started sending to each other. [see Fig.4].

Physical & Intimate Proximity. Of the exacerbated privileges, this is perhaps the most visible one. At the supermarket, the park, and in the street, couples (and families more generally) are exempted from social distancing. This is a highly spatial form of privilege. And as our relationship to objects has changed (insofar as we are now much more aware that touching things, touching people, and breathing the same air in an enclosed space can be a life-threatening choice), the action of touching someone becomes a true privilege.

Childcare. During the pandemic, it can be argued that single parents are affected more than parents in a couple. To some degree, this is a spatial matter as couples usually enjoy the usufruct of the partner’s space, or, they jointly own a larger space where the children can spend their quarantine. The second, non-spatial benefit of couplehood with regard to the pandemic, is the fact that parents can split childcare duties in a united household, meaning they have more time to dedicate to their professional obligations or to taking care of miscellaneous domestic tasks.

Citizenship & immigration rights. This acutely spatial right opens up borders and access to new territories: gaining citizenship to a foreign country through a spouse is synonymous of the acquisition of a certain degree of geographic-freedom. In the context of Covid-19, this right has secondary implications regarding healthcare benefits: the ability to travel and reside in a foreign country that provides free healthcare (such as many European countries) can save ones life.

Accordingly, we designed a set of 6 objects that address 3 types of exacerbated inequalities. These artifacts are imagined as devices that would remind a couple of their privileges. It is through the subversion and modification of familiar objects that we aim to communicate a specific form of inequality between couples and single individuals.

Artifact 1. The Mug for Two. [See Fig.5] This object is a mug with two handles and two compartments for the containment of fluids. It addresses the inequality of physical proximity and intimacy. The act of sharing a mug or sharing any object upon which residues of our saliva can be found, emphatically pertains to the condition of couples during the Covid-19 pandemic. This mug serves as a reminder of the comfort of physical touch.

Artifact 2. The Abyssal Bed. [See Fig.6] This object is a double bed with a large gap in the middle. It addresses the inequality of physical proximity and intimacy. The gap obstructs partners from interacting as they usually would, reminding them of their privilege.

Artifact 3. The Restricted Telephone. [See Fig.7] This object is a laptop that features a limited Zoom call of 30 minutes on the screen. It addresses the inequality of psychological support. The 30-minute benchmark is used as an arbitrary duration that represents a limited timeframe a single individual spends speaking to friends in this era of isolation.

Artifact 4. The Dividing Mailbox. [See Fig.8] This object is a mailbox that separates the main of a household’s mail in compartments for its multiple recipients. It addresses the inequality of psychological support. The compartmentalisation of the mail emblematically disjoints the notion of a united household and reminds partners of their privileged domestic configuration in the pandemic.

Artifact 5. The Vacated Photo Frame. [See Fig.9] This object is an empty photo frame on a piece of furniture. Photo frames are an ordinary way of displaying memories with or of loved ones in a home. The removal of pictures from the frames function as reminders that not all in this pandemic have the comfort of spending time with their loved ones.

Artifact 6. The Double Authentication Toy. [See Fig.9] This object is a game console that requires two separate authentication keys (one from each partner) to be used. It addresses the inequality of shared childcare. Since both parents are prompted by the child to use the device, they are reminded of the burden single parents face in this pandemic.

SECTION.2.

The Set-up of Critical (s) Prof. Andrés Jaque.

Spatial Practices — Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love.

SECTION.2.

The Set-up of Critical (t) Prof. Andrés Jaque.

Spatial Practices — Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love.

SECTION.2.

The Set-up of Critical (u) Prof. Andrés Jaque.

Spatial Practices — Systemic Spatial Privileges of Love.