Year Two Theory
Composed of notes, writing, research and endless explorations…
Week One – INTRODUCTION ‘What is theory’
‘trying to figure something out, generally in writing, generally in public’.
For this weeks tutorial, our essential readings were How to Encounter a Puddle by Anny Li and Index of Agency by Sophie Chien. Featured below are the tutorial questions and my interpreted answers for both readings.
Following on from the tutorial session, I revisited and reviewed both readings, creating in depth analysis notes of key ideas, concepts and discoveries within the texts. These notes allow me to break down the various conceptual ideas each writer is depicting, as well as understand which key elements of the text I resonate or respond too, or are simply curious about.
Week Two – SUPPORT STRUCTURES
‘what bears, sustains, props, and holds up’.
For this weeks tutorial, our essential readings were Too Close to See: Notes on Friendship, A Conversation with Johan Frederik Hartle by Celine Condorelli and Support Structures: An Interview with Mark Cousins by Celine Condorelli. Featured below are the tutorial questions and my interpreted answers for both readings.
Following on from the tutorial session, I revisited and reviewed both readings, creating in depth analysis notes of key ideas, concepts and discoveries within the texts. These notes allow me to break down the various conceptual ideas each writer is depicting, as well as understand which key elements of the text I resonate or respond too, or are simply curious about.
Week Four – ECOLOGIES + LANDSCAPE
‘nature is perhaps the most complex word in the language…any full history of the uses of (the word) nature would be a history of a large part of human thought’ – Raymond Williams.
For this weeks tutorial, our essential readings were Reading and Writing the Site by John Dixon Hunt and The Orbits of Earthly Bodies by Rebecca Solnit. Featured below are the tutorial questions and my interpreted answers for both readings.
Following on from the tutorial session, I revisited and reviewed both readings along with another reading titled The Ecological Thought by Timothy Morton, creating in depth analysis notes of key ideas, concepts and discoveries within the texts. These notes allow me to break down the various conceptual ideas each writer is depicting, as well as understand which key elements of the text I resonate or respond too, or are simply curious about.
For the two annotations that needed to be selected from the prescribed readings, I chose to annotate the texts How to Encounter a Puddle by Anny Li and The Ecological Thought by Timothy Morton. Both these readings discussed differential topics in a thoughtful, inquisitive way. They referenced the importance of perception and observation within contrasting concepts, which I found very interesting and wanted to unpack further. Both readings proposed extremely valuable ideas that I knew I would learn and understand greatly from.
When it came to selecting our chosen resources for the Annotations Assessment, I decided to research into more theoretical and philosophical based readings as I find great interest in learning about different perceptions and principles, especially relative to design or creative practices. The two texts I decided to annotate were titled The Modern Interior: A Space, a Place, or a Matter of Taste? by Penny Sparke and Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers by Leonard Koren.
Once I had read and reviewed both readings, I began creating in depth analysis notes of key ideas, concepts and discoveries within the texts. These notes allowed me to break down the various conceptual ideas each writer is depicting, as well as understand which key elements of the text I resonate or respond too, or are simply curious about.
Featured below are my four annotations, composed of two which are responses to prescribed readings, and two which are self chosen readings. Creating and developing these annotations was highly beneficial in allowing me to deeper understand and analyse all of the thoughtful ideas discussed within each text.
Week Five – INSTALLATION AND ARCHIVES
‘installation art is not an art form or art-historical movement, but a collection of approaches and modes of practice that aim to extend the boundaries of the work of art beyond the boundaries of an art object’.
For this weeks tutorial, our essential reading was Politics of Installation by Boris Groys. Featured below are the tutorial questions and answers for the reading.
Week Six – FASHION + TASTE
‘taste as a concept is about the aspect of judgement that goes with those discussions’.
For this weeks tutorial, our essential reading was Radical Interiority: Playboy Architecture 1953-1979 by Beatriz Colomina. Featured below are the tutorial questions and answers for the reading.
Week Seven – Heritage
‘a repackaging of the past for the present’.
Week Eight – Wiggle Room
‘wiggling is this movement against, breaking the flow and switching directions, at the same time calling attention too or pushing apart, showing a little bit of extra space where there wasn’t before’.
For this weeks tutorial, our essential reading was Wiggle Room by Sara Ahmed. Featured below are the tutorial questions and answers for the reading.
Week Nine – Community and Audience Engagement
‘Objectspace – Community Development Projects’.
Week Ten – Local Vs Global Space
‘sense of place vs placelessness’
As part of the development for my final Abstract and Contextual Practice Essay I began establishing my thoughts towards what ideas, contexts, concepts I wanted my piece of writing to explore, in relation to my own design practice. I started to select various texts and resources that I wished to reference within my essay, with some texts being previously covered in tutorials and other resources being self selected. The two texts I chose that had been discussed formerly within tutorials were How to Encounter a Puddle by Anny Li and Wiggle Room by Sara Ahmed. The externally chosen resources that I self selected in correlation with my contextual essay and the ideas being considered were WTF is…Relational Aesthetics? by Kyle Chayka, a creative work by Rirkrit Tiravanija titled untitled (free/still) and connection to my design intervention artist model Studio Renesa and their work The Geometrication.
Featured below are my analysis and annotation notes on the article WTF is…Relational Aesthetics? by Kyle Chayka, where I am breaking down the different ideas discussed and how these ideas are connected too or can be implemented within my own contextual consideration.
Before constructing my abstract and essay, I decided to do some conceptual planning and brainstorming of my ideas and different exploration routes I could take with them. Writing down and mind mapping out my various ideas was extremely helpful in clarifying what exactly I wanted my abstract and essay to discuss, compose my referenced texts and resources, as well as establish deeper connections, ideas and perceptions relevant between my chosen resources, my own thoughts and my overall spatial design practice.
Featured below is my Final Assignment Submission for Spatial Theory II: Abstract and Contextual Practice Essay.
Spatial Design 