Call for Papers: Dialectic VIII: Subverting – Unmaking Architecture?
DIALECTIC, a refereed journal of the School of Architecture, CA+P, University of Utah
In 1933, the father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier, infamously dedicated his pamphlet for The Radiant City to “Authority.” But he is of course not the only architect to fall under the spell of “authority.” His cynicism is akin to other architects’ retreats into “a-political” professionalism or “autonomous” aesthetics. Each of these forms of retreat amounts to a defeatist stance—that society gets the architecture it deserves. What about practices that oscillate in between, can they be regarded as subversive actors?
Subverting requires the presence of long established regimes to undermine, corrupt, unsettle, destabilize, sabotage, or pervert. There is no shortage of such regimes with the discipline of architecture. Our subversive efforts might take on its legal, professional, educational and authorial conventions.
Dialectic VIII invites articles, reports, documentation, and photo essays on subverting architecture and its unmaking. Following the thematic issues of Dialectic II on architecture and economy, Dialectic III on design-build, Dialectic IV on architecture at service, Dialectic V on the figure of the vernacular, Dialectic VI on craft and making, Dialectic VIII on citizenship and decolonizing pedagogy, this 8th issue will gather examples of subversive activities. It will reflect on actions that have successfully undermined the discipline’s elitism, machismo, whiteness, and bourgeois-ness.
The full call for papers with possible themes and ways of addressing subversion in architecture is available at this link.
The editors value critical statements and practices that hold a mirror to our disciplinary culture. We hope to include instructive case studies and exciting models for spatial practices. Possible contributions may also include mapping of ongoing debates across the world, and reviews of books, journals, exhibitions and new media.
Please send abstracts of 350 words and short CVs to Ole W. Fischer fischer@arch.utah.edu, Michael Abrahamson abrahamson@arch.utah.edu, Shundana Yusaf shundana@arch.utah.edu and Anna Goodman good7@pdx.edu by 1 June 2019.
Accepted authors will be notified by 15 June. Photo essays with 6-8 images and full papers of 2500-3500 words must be submitted by 15 August (including visual material, endnotes, and permissions for illustrations) to undergo an external peer-review process. This issue of Dialectic is expected to be out in print by fall 2020.