EROS & EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE
towards the reinvention of the architecture practice
Jolien Naeyaert
Master studio – Brussels
2024-2025 – 3rd semester
Mediating Tactics Engagement
“The erotic is the nurturer or nursemaid of all our deepest knowledge.” (Audre Lorde, 1978)
Designing by means of embodied knowledge; intuitively, sensorial, emotional, subjective, tactile, physical. How can ‘Eros’ – of which Audre Lorde speaks in her essay ‘Uses of the Erotic. The Erotic as Power.’ (1978) – be implemented within the architecture practice?
Which design methodology, orientation, handwriting, form of knowledge, space emerges when we look, feel, listen, deep inside ourselves? Do we all dare to look each of our authenticity and ‘urge’ in the eye to develop suitable tools in the setup of an idiosyncratic architecture practice? Can these embodied ways of knowing also establish a collective practice, space and/or form of knowledge?
The location of the master studio transforms gradually and takes on several shapes:
…with a nod towards Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929)…
YOUR OWN BODY
YOUR OWN ROOM
A COLLECTIVE ROOM
These rooms can be both physical (in-situ), mental as corporeal/performative. They are explored and given shape by means of different media (drawing, text, video, audio, performance, movement, …). Exchange of knowledge is at core within the studio, in a very physical way; moving together, openly reflecting together, exploring together, eating together, dancing together, questioning together, sketching together, being together, walking together, creating together.
“When we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic…, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense.” (Audre Lorde, 1978)
To be(come) ‘response-able’, reaching out towards other disciplines and forms of collaborating, this master studio resonates with the Mediating Tactics Engagement.
Parallel: during the studio this year, each participant will have a one on one encounter with Leendert Van Accoleyen, with whom they will spend one full day and exchange practices with. Van Accoleyen lives a nomadic lifestyle and collaboration is a key element. He creates sculptural installations using various materials. His work represents a critical train of thought that examines common understandings of socio-spatial realities. Van Accoleyen is represented by Pizza Gallery, his work is part of the collection of the Muhka and many private collections.
Sources:
LORDE. A., (1978). Uses of the Erotic. The Erotic as Power. Uit Sister Outsider. Crossing Press, Berkley. Listen to Audre Lorde herself via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWmq9gw4Rq0