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Abstract
This article investigates what we call the architectures of youth. Drawing on the ‘unofficial’ audio-visual recordings from an ongoing research project, and contrasting this footage with the new building that ‘houses’ our project, we argue that the young people are being constructed in a range of problematic ways that continue to emphasise visibility. The school building, complete with its panopticon tower, is premised on the symbolic power of the visual. When pupils are given visual technology and asked to film around the school, however, negotiations with, and disruptions of, the visual become evident. This raises questions not only around the wider relationship between youth, place and space, but also around the imagined and lived dimensions of youth, which are brought to the fore through this project.
Cet article examine ce que nous appelons les « architectures de jeunesse ». Dans le cadre d'un projet de recherche en cours où nous contrastons des enregistrements audio-visuels non-officiels (Ndt: Il n'est pas clair ce que les auteurs entendent par « unofficial ») avec le bâtiment neuf qui héberge notre projet, nous affirmons que les jeunes [ceux qui participent dans le projet] se voient représentés de façon problématique qui met l'accent sur leur visibilité. L'établissement scolaire [où se déroule le projet], y compris sa tour panoptique, se base sur le pouvoir symbolique du visuel. Lorsqu'on donne aux élèves les moyens d'enregistrer visuellement ce qu'ils voient dans l'établissement on voit pourtant des négociations et des perturbations de ce pouvoir. Tout cela suscite des questions non seulement autour la relation plus large entre les jeunes, le lieu, et l'espace mais aussi autour les dimensions imaginées et vécues de la jeunesse qui sautent aux yeux à travers ce projet.
Este artículo se investiga lo que llamamos las arquitecturas de la juventud. Llevando de las grabaciones audio-visuales no oficiales de una investigación en desarrollo, y comparando estas secuencias con el nuevo edificio que se alberga nuestro proyecto, discutimos que los jóvenes han sido construidos en formas problemáticas que continúan enfatizar visibilidad. El edificio educativo, completo con su torre panóptico, está basado en el poder simbólico del visual. Cuando se dan tecnología visual a los alumnos y se piden que se graban videos de la escuela, negociaciones con y disrupciones del visual se llegan a estar evidentes. Esto se plantea unas preguntas no solo sobre la relación más amplia entre la juventud, el lugar y el espacio sino las dimensiones imaginadas y vividas de la juventud, que están llevados al primer plano a través de este proyecto.
Notes
1. The themes and design of the building is taken from the publicly available information on the schools website. They are not referenced here for ethic reasons and to safeguard the identity of the school.
2. To give a brief summary of the school: it is a local community Academy school, with a gender breakdown of 2/3 male and 1/3 female. The school caters for local children and the proportion of students eligible for free school meals, from minority ethnic groups, and whose first language is not English, is high (according to the Ofsted report, which, for anonymity, is not quoted directly or referenced here). The last Ofsted report (December 2010) rated the school ‘satisfactory’, but improving rapidly. It suggests that the main issue is behavioural difficulties for young people, as well as learning difficulties.
3. See also Althusser's (Citation1971) essay entitled ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus (Notes towards and Investigation)’, where he argues that the school operates as a microcosm for wider societal structures.
4. It is also worth noting here that this architecture may immediately lend itself to a discussion of the visual, but the spatial differentiations are also produced through the audio as well. Indeed, as Paterson (Citation2011: 264) has noted, there is a ‘visual bias’ within the disciplines investigating architecture that often negates the other senses. For this Academy School, the acoustic spaces of the building value certain sounds over others: the central hall, with its muffled soundscape produces a continuous drone that can be heard throughout the building. Individual voices can rarely be identified, but the drone is an ongoing background noise that indicates the activities experienced here. The classrooms, by comparison, mute this drone with closed doors, and emphasise silence and constructive two-way and/or group dialogue. Music rooms, computer rooms and science rooms may have distinct accompanying noises, but they are contained in each space, and cannot be heard by generic movement through the building. The background hum that is endemic to key moments in the day, when the hall is either moved through, or directly participated in, is synonymous with unimportant mobility, with chatter. The highly visible activities that occurred in the main hall during our research periods consisted of physical activities (karate and dance) and creative activities (the construction of an imagined street and village). Interestingly, the Assembly, where the housekeeping regulations are repeated and important daily events are flagged, occurred in the sports hall—a fully enclosed room away from this building. Here, pupils sit on the floor, immobile and silence is visually demanded through the gesture of a raised hand, that is kept aloft until the pupils cease chattering. Although we do not have the scope to investigate the soundscape of the building as it relates to the power dynamics of in/visibility and im/mobility here, it does seem pertinent to note these points, not least because the architecture of the building is implicit in producing them.
5. See also Grosz (Citation2001), Thornham (Citation2011), de Lauretis (Citation1984) and Walkerdine (Citation2007).