Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 23:23:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Arindam Dutta <adutta-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Subject: Architecture Please visit our WWW site at http://www.princeton.edu/~majumdar/sanjuan.html IDENTITY POLITICS AND ARCHITECTURE: RE-ENVISIONING SAN JUAN I- PROJECT TEAM Prof. Susan Buck-Morss, Cornell University. Political Theory Prof. Lauro Cavalcanti, Director, Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro Latin American Architecture and Urbanism Prof. Briancel Chang, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Media and Postcoloniality Arindam Dutta, Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University. Post-Colonial Studies Prof. Mark Jarzombeck, Director, MIT History, Theory and Criticism History of Architecture, History of Theory Prof. Anthony D. King, Binghamton University Post-Colonial Theory Prof. Jorge Rigau, Director, School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico Program. Caribbean Architectural History Prof. Lucien Taylor, Universete des Antilles, Martinique. Visual Anthropology Prof. Mark Wigley, Princeton University Theory of Architecture Project Directors: Prof. Jorge Otero-Pailos, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico Prof. Vikramaditya Prakash, University of Washington II- INTRODUCTION Using San Juan as case study," Re-envisioning San Juan" responds to the pedagogical mission of the Polytechnic's new School of Architectureby opening a forum that will develop strategies for investigating the specific contracts that (can) occur between architecture and culture. The final goal of this project is not only to find ways of integrating such contracts into the pedagogical mission of the School, but to assess the manner in which they affect the broader profession, community, and region. The nature of a project that addresses identity politics is both complex and necessarily interdisciplinary. Intending to address pertinent issues in depth, "Re-envisioning San Juan" is set up as a collaborative effort consisting of a team of academics and professional from relevant fields and related interests. The project team will be convened in two stages -- in August and January -- first to familiarize itself with the city and to debate and discuss the pertinent issues, and then to conduct a workshop where these issues are tested in the laboratory of San Juan. San Juan's complex colonial history and multicultural contemporary contexts make the city a prime laboratory for such an investigation, since issues of identity are ineveitably foregrounded in transforming/hybridized situations like Puerto Rico, where identity production becomes an agential practice -- politically motivated as the voice from the margin. "Re-envisioning San Juan" will test the successes and failures of the city's architectural institutions by asking: In what way are issues of identity politics relevant to a professional education in the architecture and urbanism of San Juan today? How and which issues of identity are registered in the architecture and urbanism of San Juan? III- IDENTITY POLITICS AND THE ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSION Identity politics is critical to the economic and ideological make-up of San Juan. A complex set of local and derivative groups jostle together in the overlaid identitarian map of the city. Testing and contesting identity claims is an integral part of everyday as well as official culture. As important institutions of culture, both the School and the profession are implicitly or explicitly implicated in these processes. However, the specific ways in which the analyses of cultural studies can be brought to bear upon an affirmative practice remains an open question -- one that is of critical importance to a profession that perceives itself as marginalized. In response, the objective of "Re-envisioning San Juan" is to help establish a critical framework through which the institutions of architecture can develope a self-conscious and critical awareness of their role and agency in the identitarian politics of the community and the region. The referential focus fo the forum/workshop thus will be to test and contest the effectiveness of architecture professionals' performance as agents of social practice. The project team consists of academics and professionals who are interested in investigating the built environment from particular perspectives typically not associated with architecture. Such perspectives, having no investment in upholding the traditions of the architectural profession (its language, canons, images, etc.), provide insights that at times reinforce, but more often challenge, the narcissistic interests of architecture. AS such, this project will not only be a unique test-case of interdisciplinary praxis, but will more importantly facilitate the affirmative transformation of the local architectural profession. This project thus engages the participants in a mutually constitutive and beneficial contract between multi-disciplinary perspectives and the imperatives of architectural practice. IV- PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO THE OPERATIVE FIELD OF RE-ENVISIONING SAN JUAN The operative goals of the project team will be to: * develop and test techniques of documenting and theorizing identitarian practices in relation to the architecture and urbanism of San Juan. * produce alternative and critical analysis of the (possible) interrelationships between architectural and other institutions of culture, like tourism, folklore, music, film, television, etc. * debate, discuss and explicate the possible benefits and limitations, both to the Puerto Rican architectural profession and the socius it operates in, of explicitly and implicity investing the institutions of architecture in the extended field of identity politics. The following annotated list of "Identity Claims" and "Possibilities of Engagement" has been culled from the everyday knowledges of life in San Juan. It is intended to open up, rather than conclusively define, the field of discussion of "Re-Envisioning San Juan". At the same time, the list is intended to convey something of the "texture" of the discussion that is envisaged at this point. A- Identity Claims 1) Pre-Columbian The native inhabitants were fully colonized; remnant culture has been essentially erased; there are a few small ruins; the city's participation in a larger pre-Columbian culture is only possible through active re-membering. 2) As Spanish postcolony Spain remains the "mother-land"; Spanish is the principal language; nostalgia (contra the Americans) is common, frozen structure of old San Juan stands as an emblem of lost civilization; colonial architecture is seen as "indigenous" to land and culture; colonial architecture is imitative but localized through adaptation. 3)As American Territory First re-structuring of urban texture of San Juan around turn of century; military bases; New Deal social housing, modern architecture and hypothetical "tabula rasa" schemes for development of city. Currently Puerto Rico's history, ambivalent political position, and economic policies are constructed around a dual identity where the advantages of autonomy and dependency are simultaneously exploited. Puerto-Rico's political status as an American "territory" is currently the site of heated debate amongst identitarian politicians of both the mainland and the island. 4) Cultural Melting Pot Beginning with indentured labor from the African continent, legal and illegal migration from the Dominican Republic. 5) As Carribbean Latin Area Identity formation linking Puerto Rico, Cuba and Dominican Republic as Spanish post-colonies with formal structural similarities in architecture; the possibility of a Caribbean Latin architectural project as Frierian endeavor re-centralizing dispossessed knowledges; variously proposed as an ideal, political, utopian project. 6) As Latin America Identity formation linking Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. 7) Real Estate Development Real estate development with consumer capitalism following the American model accounts for almost all the construction in the city; wide-spread single family plotted homes and high rise structures in the 50's and 60's; large scale theme developments are current trend. 8) Tourist imperatives Preservation of the old city through ordinances, marketing of Puerto Rican image as "isla del encanto" ("Island of Enchantment"); projection of image of island as the experience of the exotic, primitive, land withthe comfort and security of American amenities. 9) Nationalist sentiment Early in 1996 independent party (PIP) leader Juan M. Bras renounced his North American nationality. U.S. immigration and naturalization accepted to revoke his passport. In keeping with current legislatures, the Puerto Rican government was unable to offer an alternate passport. The gesture sparked an ongoing debate over the reality of Puerto Rican sovereignty. B- POSSIBILITIES OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGAGEMENT 1) No Active Engagement: Economic Determinism This is the real estate industry. 2) No Active Engagement: Response to Mainland/Global fashion Utilization of intra-disciplinary language and formal canon, usually imported from the center of the Academy. 3) Critical Regionalism Reworking of local building traditions through contemporary aesthetic and technological frameworks 4) Modernism Importation of the universalising claims of an autonomous architectural vocabulary and philosophy 5) As Voice from the Margin Assumption of the role of "representative other", catering fundamentally to the image and conceptions of the metropolitan center. 6) Strategic Deployment of Subject Positions Assumption of negotiable strategic subject position dependent on the inter-subjective interests and desires of the representer and represented. 7) Development of Strategic Contracts with other Professions Strategic location of professional subject positions and alliances with the objective of centralizing architectural interests in the socius. 8) Other? %%% overflow headers %%% To: poco <postcolonial-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu>, architecture -- Aparna U Datey <adatey-AT-MIT.EDU>, Arindam Dutta <adutta-AT-Princeton.EDU>, Sonit Bafna <sonit.bafna-AT-arch.gatech.edu>, Shubhagato Dasgupta <ucfusda-AT-ucl.ac.uk>, "Muhammad I. Muzaffar" <Muzaffar-AT-Princeton.EDU>, Jagan Arvind Shah <jas150-AT-columbia.edu>, Manu Prithvish Sobti <Manu.P.Sobti-1-AT-tc.umn.edu>, Minakshi Maniben <minas-AT-MIT.EDU>, Peter Scriver <pscriver-AT-arch.adelaide.edu.au>, Pratap Talwar <Prtalwar-AT-aol.com>, Ritu Bhatt <rb34-AT-cornell.edu>, Vaishali Patel <vpatel-AT-acnet.pratt.edu>, Vikramaditya Prakash <Vikram-AT-asu.edu>, archtwo -- HAIDERI ABBAS IBRAHIM <abba-AT-falcon.cc.ukans.edu>, Ashish Dave <sanjeev.atz-AT-axcess.net.in>, Dipankar Mukherjee <u2165169-AT-keystone.arch.unsw.EDU.AU>, Jorge Otero-Pailos <jotero-AT-ns1.pupr.edu>, "Sanjay M. Kewlani" <smk2312-AT-hertz.njit.edu>, kamal kishore <hsb957119-AT-rccvax.ait.ac.th>, Meghana Parikh <tonyc-AT-shellx.best.com>, Partho Dutta <partho-AT-MIT.EDU>, Sapna Mehta <u2165189-AT-keystone.arch.unsw.EDU.AU>, union street <102630.1201-AT-compuserve.com>, uday shridhar andhare <uday-AT-unm.edu>, Vivek Agrawal <vivek-AT-world.std.com>, "John S. Coburn" <socrates-AT-user1.channel1.com>, "Helene M. Furjan" <hmfurjan-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, "Jonathan R. Massey" <jmassey-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, Sasha Sattar <ssattar-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, "Jennifer M. Beningfield" <jmbening-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, Anna Abengowe <abengowe-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, Ashish Dave <sanjeev.atz-AT-axcess.net.in>, Satish K Kolluri <kolluri-AT-comm.umass.edu>, "Sarah A. Lappin" <salappin-AT-phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, Susan Michael <ruminant-AT-netwizards.net>, Vidhya Sampath <vidhya-AT-obr.nl> %%% end overflow headers %%% --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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