Maike Statz (AUS) and Danja Burchard (DEU), solo and simultaneously: ‘A World of One’s Own’. A beautiful double session blending in; a performative conversation and introduction into different speculative methods and assemblage-based ways of research, some sci-fi, too; between-the-lines; collapses and failure. Imagining possible realities and queering spaces (more info bottom this page). Hacking Zoom running this multi-screen beauty, inviting you in to an intimate and welcoming sphere of the house of Danja (normally a bedroom and living room) gathering some nice people in various locations and time zones around the globe. Duration approx. 80 min (including some chat and exchange). This is the first of a series of events with Danja and Maike that also includes publishing, and is linked to the Karmaklubb* collaboration with ‘Perfection/Speculation’ (PRAKSIS Residency 18) (NOR/GBR). And it was done on Danja’s 30th birthday. Post-join us!

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Above: The whole thing. Below: A 100 seconds snippet. Soundtrack for the occasion: ↗︎ Robyn, Between The Lines (2018). Enjoy!

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Maike: “Delving into the relationship between bodies and space, how is architecture and specifically the spaces in which we live shaped by visible and invisible power structures? Relating real spaces to imagined living spaces in feminist science fiction writing, how does this genre function as a speculative tool for architectural critique? In this talk, conversation, collage, I will look at specific works of science fiction, such as Ursula Le Guin’s ↗︎ The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) to consider how the author assumes the role of architect in their process of building a world of one’s own, where bodies / genders / sexuality have been re-imagined. World’s that are utopian, dystopian or something in-between. Following methods of assemblage close to my heart, in conversation with Danja we will talk about the potential of colliding personal experiences of space with fiction, spatial theory and other forms of research, from a queer perspective.”

Wohoo! Maike’s reference images from slides:

1. Eames Aluminium Group Chair, designed by Charles and Ray Eames (1958)
2. Scan: Woman on the Edge of Time, p. 69, by Marge Piercy (1976)
3. Bedroom View 01, by Maike Statz (2014)
4. Scan: The Left Hand of Darkness, p. 8, by Ursula Le Guin (1969)
5. Google SketchUp View, Saarinen Womb Chair, designed by Eero Saarinen (1946)
6. Scan: Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others, p. 53, by Sara Ahmed (2016 [2006])
7. Dining Table View, by Maike Statz (2021)
8. Scan: Bloodchild, p. 22, by Octavia Butler (1984)
9. Scan: Ahmed (2016 [2006]), p. 88
10. SESC Pompéia Table, designed by Lina Bo Bardi (1980)
11. Google SketchUp View, Rietveld Schröder House (1924)
12. Scan: Virus, p. 23, by Linda Stupart (2016)
13. Bedroom of Lina Loos View (1903)
14. Scan: ‘The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism’ in Sexuality and Space, p. 94, by Beatriz Colomina (1992)
15. Interior Design for Soyuz Orbital Module, by Galina Balashova (1964)
16. Bedroom View 02, by Maike Statz (2014)

Other references, roughly in order of talk progression:

• Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction, eds. Wendy Gay Pearson; Veronica Hollinger; and Joan Gordon (2008)
• Feminist Science Fiction and Feminist Epistemology; Four Modes, by Roberto Calvin (2016)
• 'Is Gender Necessary? Redux 1976/1987’, Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, by Ursula Le Guin (2018 [1976])
• ‘The City as Battleground: The Novelist as Combatant’ in Parti-Colored Blocks for a Quilt, by Marge Piercy (1982)
• 'Lesbians in Space. Gender, Sex and the Structure of Missing' in Gender, Place and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 1, by Elspeth Probyn (1995)
• Behind Straight Curtains: Towards a queer feminist theory of architecture, by Katarina Bonnevier (2007)
• ↗︎ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_Wikipedia_Design
• Feminist Futures of Spatial Practice, eds. Meike Schalk; Thérèse Kristiansson; and Ramia Mazé (2017)
• Writing Architectures: Ficto Critical Approaches, eds. Hélène Frichot & Naomi Stead (2020)

Danja: “What happens, when a line becomes a symbol, becomes a directive measure, becomes a proposal on how to behave, becomes a suggestion of differentiation, becomes a recommendation of care, becomes a carrier of trust? Whether it is taped line systems, queue labyrinths at train stations and airport halls, safety paths in factories, or even lines we cross or read between: How does the line as element act as an architectural container of social behaviour that guides, defines, and reinforces collective constructions of closeness, distance and/or movement, and thought? From a speculative, queer perspective — how can we grasp the performative interdependence between architecture and the social body? For this conversation with Maike, I will drag out some fluctuating ideas and thoughts around heterotopic architectural elements that shape, define and/or provoke configurations of closeness, distance and the other.”

Danja’s reference list:

• ↗︎ Hospitalidad e inmunidad virtuosa (2020), by Patricia Manrique
• ↗︎ Sopa de Wuhan: Pensamientos contemporáneo en tiempos de pandemias, eds. Pablo Amadeo / ASPO (Aislamiento Social Preventivo y Obligatorio). Contributions by Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj ŽiŽek, Jean Luc Nancy, Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, Santiago López Petit, Judith Butler, Alain Badiou, David Harvey, Byung-Chul Han, Raúl Zibechi, María Galindo, Markus Gabriel, Gustavo Yañez González, Patricia Manrique, and Paul B. Preciado
• ↗︎ Borderlands and Border Walls as Architecture, by Ronald Rael (2017)
• The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard (1964 [1958])
• Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others, by Sara Ahmed (2016 [2006])
• Totality and Infinity, by Emmanuel Levinas (1969 [1961])
• Images: Courtesy to the algorithms exposing vast amounts of images in Google searches.

Presented by Karmaklubb* and the IGWTLI publishing (WHEREVER) — expanded publishing — in association with the ‘Perfection/Speculation’ (PRAKSIS Residency 18) (NOR/GBR) (2020–2021) and supported by the Hordaland kunstsenter (NOR) as part of the Bergen residency 2021. ↗︎ FB event here.

Postscript

This Friday we got our minds tickled through the double session by Maike Statz (AUS) and Danja Burchard (DEU); ideas and tools on queering architecture(s) — it be physical ones taking shape as buildings or other constructs to inhabit, institution vice, a family structure, public space, history, or virtual realities. Challenging and question how these architectures work; how agencies play out, and what is at stake. The politics of such spaces. Who is present, who is not? Where does the concepts of I / non-I appear, creating ‘the other’? Danja is into discussing otherness but also questions sameness. Binaries in general defined by abstract conceptual lines and borders are only based on agreement, aren’t they? — Perhaps what characterises architectures in general is that it to some extent ‘proposes how to behave’ (Maike). Like a line directing the flow of bodies on how they are supposed to move through a space (Danja). Maike also interpret sci-fi as queer, in particular the examples that were presented Friday, such as written encounters by Ursula K. Le Guin. Not only when it comes to gender, but society as a whole; how it functions; how it can be a more generous place to be. Maike also showed a circular table as an example of a ‘horizontal construct’ that invites for gathering, safety, and conversation, where everyone has their space and are operating on the same level, beyond differences. Utopic? Karmaklubb* has a fundamental interest in the undefined passages that allows for flux, gaps, glitches, and hybrid spaces where potential for diversity and growth exists. It be walls of glass demonstrating the illusion of inside/outside, the space in-between that says “welcome”, or nomadic practices that do not follow existing tracks and perhaps creates unexpected meetings. Queerness bends lines. Plays with them. It negotiates, questions, ignores the borders, or at best: Just do not feel them. At least the potential is there. In that sense queerness is a radical tool for challenge whatever, speculate, to imagine, (re)think, and change. OK, enough manifest. Thank you so much for joining. TBC.

Karmaklubb* is also a publishing platform, the IGWTLI publishing (WHEREVER), established in 2018, that exists as essays, letters and gifts, transcripts, but also listening sets, podcasts, and an archive of ‘thought & pleasure’ — and new forms constantly to be explored. Critical reflections as well as pure joi [sic!], anchored in the Karmaklubb* morphing and transcending practice with people being part of the travel. Danja and Maike are part of that family. During the next years a series of these encounters on hybrid spaces — from art institutions to club spheres — crossing communities, queerness, and genders in flux will be published as an extension of Karmaklubb*, aiming to create a platform for an open feminist, queer discourse. A selection of these texts will be assembled in an anthology, hopefully during 2023.