Notes on Session One

It is in some ways fortunate that you have two weeks to digest the first three texts, and that the part-time students get a chance to discuss them again tomorrow morning. This is not just because the contemporary situation presents us with some difficulties but also because the ground has to be laid, our 'foundations in reverse' need to be established. So here's some help with the take home message from the first session.
Alain Badiou's text is the most contemptuous, he is so uncomfortable with what is going on he has to parody it. As a Marxist philosopher and mathematician he has all the equipment at his disposal; this can be daunting for even a post-graduate student in 2014. I would suggest if you have no clue about what that Marxist background might entail, you read the excellent Marx for Beginners by Ruis. It will take you less than an afternoon.
Will Self was chosen as representing an opposite creed, well known as a 'psycho-geographer' he is far more of a phenomenologist; he is far more interested in (perhaps more resigned to) looking at the world rather than changing it. Whilst there are so many negatives in the project surrounding Battersea Power Station, Self is hence more mournful than angry. Phenomenologists tend to enjoy 'the experience' of architecture rather than it's materialist basis.
Noting the difference between these positions is important because as we move forward it will become clear to you that while I behave more like a quasi grumpy Marxist, Matthew might be described as a softer phenomenologist, so as you move toward in to your dissertation you will find yourself negotiating the territory between the two viewpoints and the two of us!
However Jonathan Meades would not fit kindly into either camp of thought, he is more impresario, more maverick, he would probably find Badiou hard work, and Self sulky. With his talent for stringing phrases together, he focuses us on language, and when he encounters Zaha, this is what he is most disappointed with, her ability to articulate (and our ability to articulate) what architecture is doing. But perhaps Meades is rather like Zaha, in their different fields of endeavour; with the shared attitude: 'art for art's sake'? Perhaps that's where we are now; so how does it feel?
Please note, no session next week for the full timers.