Migrating Structures

Question

How can architecture and design preserve oral storytelling?

Traditional oral storytelling is a shared event wherein storyteller and audience gather, listen, and participate in “accounts of past deeds, beliefs, taboos, and myths” (Utley, 2009)

‘Oral history’ predates the written word as the oldest type of historical inquiry, and across several traditions and cultures, oral storytelling has been the primary mode through which history, knowledge and values have passed from generation to generation

Oral storytelling, distinct from reading a story aloud or reciting a piece verbatim from memory, is retelling the story from memory, as vague or precise as it might be, and flavouring the story with one’s unique delivery

The verbal nature of traditional storytelling means that much of the oral history passed down by the different cultures and communities that employ it has been lost or whitewashed

However, Saxe (2012) suggests that culture naturally evolves as new ways of living are established Culture is perhaps not a static model that can be ‘lost’, but flowing and dynamic, changing to meet evolving society and ways of living

Young people construct new forms of knowledge (or of practice) in relation to ‘particular’ functions or “emergent goals” in the process of social activities (Saxe, 2012)

Trans For Man (8), Alicja Kwade

‘jack fell down’, Alison Lowry, 2012

Precious Item

My Grandmother’s Voice

My precious element is my grandmother’s voice Through her unique retelling of our family history, which she conveyed employing dynamic speech, facial expressions and gestures, my grandmother shared stories of our culture in her own matchless way Her voice is precious to me for the love and comfort it holds, but also for the deep wisdom and history it imparts

We often bury items that are precious to us to preserve them physically or symbolically The digging of an underground vessel within which to ‘preserve’ a voice or story recalls themes of ritual and ceremony

The gestures and expressions of an oral retelling are imprinted in the ground through markings during the process of digging an underground vessel for a voice The echoes, hums or whispers generated in the pockets of earth within the vessel hold the same meaning

Stack, white, Torbjørn Kvasbø

Lost in Thought, Tony Cragg

Sea of Memory 010, Noriko Kuresumi

Still Life with a Volume of Wither’s ‘Emblemes’, Edward Collier, 1696

Case study

Ishigami's architecture digs deep for house and restaurant in Yamaguchi, Japan”

Ishigami’s geological and organic Yamaguchi grotto is fully sculpted out of the earth, its form owing to an inverted fabrication process which included earth pigmentation and colouring obtained during the ‘revealing’ of the structure from its concrete mould

“Junya

The surrounding area of the site is renowned for its natural grottos and Ishigami honours the natural phenomena in the architecture of Yamaguchi grotto The building structure was created by drilling into the earth and pouring concrete into the organically shaped cavities Following this, the earth around the moulded concrete was dug and scraped

Model for Yamaguchi grotto house and restaurant, Junya Ishigami

Margate Main Sands

A seaside town on the south coast of the Thames estuary in Kent The site at Margate Main Sands, where the earth is granular and wet, created an interesting challenge in how an underground vessel might be dug in this geological context

Blean Woods

Blean Woods is a designated National Nature Reserve that covers 509 hectares, or 1,257 acres, of woods and heath The vegetation and compact earth of the woodland provided a vastly different topography to the Margate Main Sands site

Practice-led Research

As the ‘migrating structures’ project involved the digging of an underground vessel within which to ‘preserve’ a voice, experimental research involved the creation of a set of tools with which to dig the subterranean vessel The experimental practice entailed the fashioning of tools that are anthropologically and ergonomically suitable to the storyteller, the ‘digger’

Digging tools

Gestures

Facial expressions

Body movements

Appropriate voices

Speech patterns

Pointing Stare Slow smile

Leaning in close

Silence

Dramatic pause Drawn out words

Repetition

Etchings in clay mould during practice led research

Rudimentary tools

As Saxe (2012) suggested, “Young people construct new forms of knowledge (or of practice) in relation to ‘particular’ functions or “emergent goals” in the process of social activities” The adapted tool here demonstrates this

A trip to Dakar, Senegal during the December break provided an opportune occasion and location to continue practice led studies and the manufacture of digging tools As a West African country with an entrenched culture of traditional crafts practice, and a rich history of traditional oral storytelling, Senegal provided an immersive, inspiring and educational practice led research experience

Dibétou’s heartwood is yellow brown to dark brown usually with a golden coloured sheen, sometimes with dark streaks or veined (called tigerwood) Dibétou is native to West and Central Africa

Dibétou

Dimb is a compact, deciduous tree that is found across Western Tropical Africa, from Senegal down to Nigeria Dimb is generally yellowish, durable and suitable for carpentry and joinery Trunks of large, old, hollow trees are prized for making drums and dug out canoes

Drawings