In “Unleashing the Archive,” Mark Wigley notes that “there is no such thing as designing without an archive... Buildings themselves can be understood as archives, that is, mechanisms for storing, classifying, and making historical research available.” Archives are not neutral, and neither are buildings. If the act of designing is comparable to the archiving gesture, what myths are perpetuated by the construct? During this Table Manners session with Leen Katrib, participants gathered in a pop up archive where they were invited to rummage through a collection of found, scanned, and produced historical materials on the development of the Auraria Campus—with a twist: featuring Mies van der Rohe.
Framed as an exercise in excavating official campus histories by activating an archival hivemind, the session invited participants to a moment of critical self-reflection: as designers and beneficiaries of higher-education, how do we confront the expansion of higher education institutions when it comes at the expense of displaced vulnerable communities? How can archival thinking produce a reparative formation that productively infiltrates a campus now confronting its long overdue history of Displaced Aurarians?
Table Manners is a series of academically engaging events that prioritizes bringing people together in unexpected ways that foster connection and interaction. Together, faculty, students, practitioners, theorists, and others partake in discussions through formats including, but not limited to dinner parties, picnics, games of musical chairs, performances, and more. The series also entails a series of closed-doors sessions—intimate conversations that encourage guests to discuss ideas that are not typically discussed in public, but which can lead to thoughtful collective action. Together, these sessions propose new forms of architecture through events, happenings, and other spatial detours.
