The Funambulist Papers (Volume 1)

This book is a collection of thirty-five texts from the first series of guest writers’ essays, written specifically for The Funambulist weblog from June 2011 to November 2012. The idea of complementing Lambert’s own texts on his blog with those written by others originated from the idea that having friends communicate with each other about their work could help develop mutual interests and provide a platform to address an audience. Thirty-nine authors of twenty-three nationalities were given the opportunity to write essays about a part of their work that might fit with the blog’s editorial line. Overall, two ‘families’ of texts emerged, collected in two distinct parts in this volume. The first one, The Power of the Line, explores the legal, geographical and historical politics of various places of the world. The second, Architectural Narratives, approaches architecture in a mix of things that were once called philosophy, literature and art. This dichotomy represents the blog’s editorial line and can be reconciled by the obsession of approaching architecture without care for the limits of a given discipline. This method, rather than adopting the contemporary architect’s syndrome that consists in talking about everything but being an expert in nothing, attempts to consider architecture as something embedded within (geo)political, cultural, social, historical, biological, and dromological mechanisms that widely exceed what is traditionally understood as the limits of its expertise. TABLE OF CONTENTS WALKING ON A TIGHT ROPE: INTRODUCTION Léopold Lambert ENTROPY, LAW AND FUNAMBULISM Lucy Finchett-Madock THE CLEAR-BLURRY LINE Daniel Fernández Pascual POST-POLITICAL ATTITUDES ON IMMIGRATION, UTOPIAS AND THE SPACE BETWEEN US Ethel Baraona Pohl & Cesar Reyes THE MOSQUE: RELIGION, POLITICS AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Michael Badu NOTHING TO HIDE Mariabruna Fabrizi & Fosco Lucarelli BRIEFLY ON WALKING Caroline Filice Smith FEMICIDE MACHINE/BACKYARD Greg Barton BECOMING FUGITIVE: CARCERAL SPACE AND RANCIERIAN POLITICS Maryam Monalisa Gharavi MY DEAR FRANCIS . . . WHAT KIND OF PHOENIX WILL ARISE FROM THESE ASHES? Nikolas Patsopoulos MOVEMENT AND SOLIDARITY Zayd Sifri OPEN STACKS Liduam Pong A VISIT TO THE OLD CITY OF HEBRON Raja Shehadeh LAHORE’S ARCHITECTURE OF IN/SECURITY Sadia Shirazi RUIN MACHINE Bryan Finoki THE TEXTUAL-SONIC LANDSCAPE OF JACQUES PERRET’S DES FORTIFICATIONS ET ARTIFICES Morgan Ng MAPPING INTERVALS: TOWARDS AN EMANCIPATED CARTOGRAPHY Nora Akawi THE FUNAMBULIST ATMOSPHERE Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos APIAN SEMANTICS Matthew Clements DISSOLVING MINDS AND BODIES Hiroko Nakatani THOUGHTS ON META-VIRTUAL SOLIPSISM Fredrik Hellberg OLD MEDIA’S RESURRECTION Linnéa Hussein CINEMATIC CATALYSTS: CONTEMPT + CASA MALAPARTE Danielle Willems OFF THE GRID LEFT OUT AND OVER Carl Douglas TRANSCENDENT DELUSION OR; THE DANGEROUS FREE SPACES OF PHILLIP K. DICK Martin Byrne THE POSSIBLE WORLDS OF ARCHITECTURE Claire Jamieson PET ARCHITECTURE: HUMAN’S BEST FRIEND Carla Leitão BREAD AND CIRCUS: AGORAE VS ARENAS Eduardo McIntosh MOTION ARCHITECTURE Oliviu Lugojan-Ghenciu FIBROUS ASSEMBLAGES AND BEHAVIORAL COMPOSITES Roland Snooks UNFOLDING AZADI TOWER: READING PERSIAN FOLDS THROUGH DELEUZE Biayna Bogosian TWIN (TECHNOLOGY/ART INDUCED) ARCHITECTURAL DAYDREAMS Esther Sze-Wing Cheung DIY BIOPOLITICS: THE DEREGULATED SELF Russel Hughes TWO QUESTIONS FOR SEHER SHAH Alexis Bhagat THE GROUNDBRAKING CLARITY OF RYAN AND TREVOR OAKES Eve Bailey WOULD HAVE BEEN . . . AN INVENTORY Camille Lacadée