Study. Be silent. Die: indeterminate architecture and the dispositif of studentification

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the relationship between architecture and social movements in general and the indeterminate architecture of ruin and an event of squatter protest in particular. As a speculative project it reflects upon an architectural setting in which a protest took place in 2011 at the University of Sydney in Australia. Examining the architecture of this specific event and the ways architecture allows such turbulent moments to emerge are the focus of this paper. In this examination I combine the Foucauldian notion of dispositif with the emerging notion of studentification (formulated within the disciplines of geography, sociology and urban planning) in order to understand the role of architecture as a significant element in the rise of urban uprisings.

Keywords:

• Apparatus of security
• dispositif
• indeterminate architecture
• social movement
• studentification

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to City Archives at the City of Sydney Council; University of Sydney Catholic Centre of St John Paul the Great; Sydney based architecture firm OCP architects; and, Dr Chris L. Smith for his insightful comments during the writing of this paper.

Notes

1. Although in multiple English translations of Foucault’s works the French term dispositif has been replaced with apparatus, deployment, or dipositive, in this paper I am keeping the French term. There are four reasons for not using the English equivalents in this paper: Firstly, Foucault carefully distinguishes his use of appareil (clear association with state mechanism of power) and dispositif (act of creating arrangement). Secondly, for Foucault, appareil is a smaller subset of dispositif. Thirdly, given that there is a substantial overlap between dispositif and appareil as they both refer to a machinery tool or technological device, Agamben traces this Foucauldian term to the Latin word positivité. Agamben argues that Foucault was influenced by his teacher Jean Hyppolite’s works on Hegel and as such the term positivité appeared in his Archaeology of Knowledge (Foucault, 2002) and developed in his later works. And finally, Agamben also uses two distinct Italian words apparato/dispositivo. Thus, there is a need to have two distinct words in English rather than rendering both dispositif/appareil as apparatus. On the other hand, there is not a single word that is agreed upon in English scholarship and therefore, I am using the French word. See: Bussolini (2010).

2. Cypress Hall is the only known Regency building in the Darlington area of Sydney and dates back to the same era as the Great Hall – Sydney University’s first building.

3. Preservation of the essential character of this surviving building was conducted in accordance with the Articles of the Australian ICOMOS Burra Charter 1999.

4. Such as St John and St Andrews College in 1877. (McAuley & Williams, 2012, pp. 3–4).

5. There are very few references available that refer to such an occupation within the various assessment or development applications submitted or produced by the City of Sydney Council. It is only through an archival photographic recording by OCP (produced as a heritage assessment report) in February 2013, that the squatter’s life is discernible.

6. For instance under ‘Restriction on Student Accommodation’ in the Modification Approval documented by the City of Sydney, it is noted that: ‘The accommodation portion of the building must only be used for student accommodation and not as residential accommodation, serviced apartments, private hotel, tourist or backpackers’ accommodation or the like’. (Jahn, 2013b, p. 15).

7. When approached for this study, Urbanest Darlington refused to disclose any data concerning its occupants, regarding this as private information. Access to the nationality of the occupants was not possible.

8. Urbanest Darlington is one of the many projects that have recently emerged in Sydney. Another project which requires another independent research is college accommodation on the Kingston campus of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), completed in 2014 and advertised as suitable for Islamic students: ‘This new development includes the rebuild of Basser, Philip Baxter and Goldstein Colleges as well as a new fourth college that will be open to all students but also meet the unique needs of Islamic students who may wish to reside on campus and a new self-catered Seniors College’. (UNSW Senior Project Manager, 2013).

9. This is likely a reference to a soundtrack by the Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone from their 1993 album Under a Funeral Moon.

10. As one is no more capable of coping with the accelerating pace of technological changes and the social transformation coming with them, Žižek suggests, one can regard Western Buddhism as a perfect ideological complement for a capitalist society; to ‘let oneself go’ and admit that Self is only an illusion (Žižek, 2014, p. 65).

11. For example in The History of Sexuality, Foucault (1990, p. 115) identifies the advent of prohibition as a ‘rupture’ in the seventeenth century and the relative tolerance of sexuality as an ‘inflexion of the curve’ in the twentieth century.