1

GLASS HOUSE: OBLIQUE SPACE

PHOEBE EUSTANCE

NOTE TO READER
The Glass House' in this document refers to a greenhouse located in a Victorian Walled Garden in the grounds of Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. The unique shape and scale of this particular structure is to do with its function as a Peach House, presumably a space for peach trees to occupy. It is thought to have been imported from Holland in the mid twentieth century and is the only one of its kind in England.

With thanks to Lady Willoughby for allowing me to live in her greenhouse.

GLASS HOUSE ARTICLE

It is December. Darkness descends rapidly. The space takes on a totally altered character. I am still in the same space, where I have sat since the morning, yet everything has changed. My desk lamp encases me in a bubble of dim light that enables me to moderately orientate myself in the space insofar as I know the table, upon which I write and place my books, is in front of me. There is a noise in the direction of the door; I tip the head of the lamp up to see. In slightly repositioning the source of light I switch dimensions. The light is now illuminating the vast and empty space between the door and me. The table is gone. To overcome this lack of security and stability I create my own place of refuge. A structure within a structure. A space within a space.

This is where I go to seek refuge. A small shelter of solitude within this disorientating space, awkwardly merging outside and inside.

The objects I could see so clearly are gradually buried underneath an opaque mass. I too, am consumed by it and yet it does not suffocate me. Rather I find myself to be protectively enveloped in the space.

The change in atmosphere allows me to focus intimately on what is before me and it becomes my world or immediate reality. What is external of this is temporarily eradicated. Despite the fact that due to the nature of the architecture I am completely exposed, illuminated by the desk lamp, this is forgotten. My world is the table upon which I am writing.

Not only does this change in dimensions cause significant disorientation but in seeing the bare architectural space the vulnerability I had put to the back of my mind has, without warning, resurfaced. This vast space, empty and exposed, bears no resemblance to a place of dwelling. By dwelling place I mean a space which holds an impression of seclusion and intimacy; the essence of a home.

This is a disorientating space. I feel disorientated. I feel exposed. I feel I had to seek refuge. I feel better now.

5
Even when I finally drift, which takes a considerable amount of time from getting into my sleeping bag, I can never relax into a deep sleep. I am always partially aware of my situation when all is still. The lack of security and stability, physically, means I have to find a way, mentally, to cope. The Refuge Space helps, to an extent, in giving me a hiding place to remain concealed and unobservable. However, I also need to construct mental barriers, to reinforce the malleable structure physically in place, to concentrate on my immediate situation within the Refuge Space.

Now, when the space becomes too overwhelming I make my daily, or nightly, transition from table to Refuge Space. I pick up the lamp and drag the electric heater into the space. These objects become ingrained into my daily routine. They are the closest things to me and I see them not only in their functional domain, as providers of heat and light, but also as implements of comfort. The pond fleece insulates the heat and illuminates the light.

And I am inside and, again, able to temporarily eradicate the external situation, safe within these soft walls enabling me to surrender myself to sleep. Admittedly, it has taken me some time to get to this point, being a keen advocate of darkness and silence. I turn off the artificial light and it is replaced by the illuminating glow of moonlight. The atmosphere accentuates the senses and I begin to hear, more profoundly, the whirring of the wind causing a tapping of the glass as it moves and collides.

A glowing triangle in a Glass House.

As a consequence of this fragmented sleep I often wake at night in a misty haze of darkness which, compared to when I awaken in broad daylight, is much more comforting, especially during the initial part of the experience when I had no side panels on the refuge space. Day breaks and the clear morning light floods in. I wake up and am instantly forced to recognize my situation. This immediate orientation and localisation within the world brings with it an extreme disorientation of the self.

The noise infiltrates the space.

6
It is not a gradual reformation of the self and the space, rather the experience is very abrupt. Usually when people wake up in their homes it might take them some time before they look out of a window and experience the natural light of outside. For the time being they are still in the bubble of their dwelling and are not externally aware. I dont have the safe and secure constructs of the home. As soon as I wake I am in the landscape; in the world. There is no idealisation of the outside world; it pushes on you in its obvious materiality and overwhelming immensity. I am living in a space that opposes the long established traditions of domestic living, a space that brings the vulnerability and danger of the outside, inside. I am not frightened. I have found a way to live in this space.

Disorientation liberation. The window, in the sense of a home, is very symbolic of our relationship with security. We cut out and isolate a part of the outside world, an idealised outlook that we can use to orient ourselves.

turns

to

I am facing the outside world. I am dwelling alone. I am exposed and therefore liberated. I am liberated in the space and situation. I am free from walls and barriers that hold me in.

INTRODUCTION

I feel the best way to describe whats going on in your art is to use a vocabulary other than an art historical, a critical, or perceptual rhetoric, to use something that has simply to do with the experience of how the thing was.1

How we make a space a home from what we allow to come into our space in terms of people and objects and reciprocally how certain ways of being or living determine what we bring into our space. The things that occupy our space with us are fundamental to our relationship with that space; in what author Sara Ahmed describes as the intimate co-dwelling of bodies and objects3. The inspiration of occupying this foreign space came from the observations I made whilst living in Lisbon. The most impacting image or memory was how the people living on the streets would create their own impressions of intimacy from what basic materials they could find; the raw need to put up barriers to the world even if they were without a home in the traditional sense. My intentions have changed and developed throughout this project and this document has taken a tripartite formation: from experience to analysis to placing the experience within a wider social domain. The Glass House article4, written whilst occupying the space, comprises of the more prominent eperiences, which, in experiencing them I felt I was able to understand more clearly how the pace affected me. The first chapter will endeavour to make some sort of resolution about

This thesis is centred upon the idea of occupying space and has come to encompass references to social and spatial orientation and disorientation. The decision to live in a Glass House was initiated by an interest in the architecture. It is a space that may be alluring for initial consideration but one that soon becomes uncomfortable and even ominous when enough time is spent within it. With it not being a conventional house in which to make a home I was able to concentrate on the intimate details and psychology of inhabiting space2 and specifically a disorientating space. When I speak of inhabiting space it is the way we situate ourselves in, and build a home from, spaces.
1

Dennis Wheeler sited in Experiment and Progress Failure, ed., by Lisa Le Feuvre (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2010) p. 172 2 The psychology of inhabiting space was termed, by Gaston Bachelard in The Poetics of Space, as Topoanalysis; which is defined as the systematic psychological study of the sites of our intimate lives. Bachelard starts with the basic premise that the psyche is a place, and the house is an extension of that place. Both the house and consciousness house memories. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 8.

I will be looking at Sara Ahmeds commentary on our relationship to objects and its effect on the way we inhabit space throughout this document. The main idea of her writing originates from the concept of orientation which allows us to rethink the phenomenality of space and how space is dependent on bodily inhabitance. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) 4 See Glass House Article

8 the psychology of inhabiting space from analysing and reflecting upon the article I wrote in the Glass House in light of existing theory on inhabiting and occupying space5. The second chapter intends to bring the Glass House experience into a wider social sphere focusing on the relationship between social and spatial orientation and disorientation.

The most prominent theory on the way we exist in space has been translated from German philosophers (or phenomenologists) such as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and O. F. Bollnow. The German language seems to harbour a more extensive vocabulary around this subject matter than other languages do. O. F Bollnow, in his chapter Word usage and etymology, shows us how the German translation for space: Raum (as well as Ort, Stelle and Platz), becomes incorporated in many words which have some sort of connection to the notion of space. Unfortunately the English language is rather lacking in these terms and instead seems to put the word space after the noun, so I apologise for the amount of times this word will be mentioned.

9
It is December. Darkness descends rapidly. The space takes on a totally altered character. I am still in the same space, where I have sat since the morning, yet everything has changed. The objects I could see so clearly are gradually buried underneath an opaque mass. I, too, am consumed by it and yet it does not suffocate me. Rather I find myself to be 6 protectively enveloped in the space.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INHABITING SPACE

The external situation and climate of the world, in which the Glass House is situated, had a definitive impact upon this experience. The timing, a week which spanned from the remaining days of 2012 to the start of the New Year, meant that darkness came quickly and lasted for longer. This accentuated the disorientation of the experience insofar as winter is notably a time to dwell closely; Baudelaire sensed the increased intimacy of a house when it is besieged by winter7, a space far from the one I was in. The evolution of the space throughout the day in terms of day space and night space8 was remarkable.
6

This is an extract from the Glass House article. I will use these extracts throughout Chapter One in order to analyse my experience.
7 8

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 38. O. F. Bollnow dedicates a chapter, in Human Space, to distinguishing the diverse dynamics of space at night and in the day. Day space is described as unproblematic and sober whereas night space is much more mysterious; one feels the presence of the unknown. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) pp.202-215.

10 The architecture, mainly comprised of glass and a shell like frame, rendered the space inside totally at the mercy of the natural inclination of the world surrounding it. So at around four oclock every day the darkness would slowly creep in and the trees and objects I could see through the glass gradually became silhouettes and then disappeared completely. The darkness, similar to the constructs created by the homeless people, created my own impression of intimacy. I would describe this change as a coming of darkness rather than a departure of light and in this sense I would agree with O. F. Bollnow when he describes the darkness, which determines night space, as having a positive character of its own; it is more material than brightness9. At night the space comforted me and at the same time fascinated me. Wherever I took my lamp the light was reflected and bounced off from the multitude of glass panes, repeated at different angles until the whole space was looking in on itself. The outside space had vanished and was forgotten. When, for example, the world of clear and articulate objects is abolished, our perceptual being, cut off from this world, evolves a spatiality without things. This is not what happens in the night. Night is not an object before me; it enwraps me and infiltrates through all my senses, stifling through my recollections and almost destroying my identity.10 Merleau-Ponty articulately describes the paradoxical notion of the darkness as being comforting and at the same time overwhelming; overwhelming insofar as the ego comes second to the space. The forms of thought that emerge in night space are much more imaginative and much less coherent than those formed in day space. Bollnow eloquently captures this feeling when he said that the Romantics were totally right when they felt closer in the night to the origins of life11.

In this passage Bollnow is referencing Eugne Minkowski, who is known for his incorporation of phenomenology into psychopathology. Minkowski first developed his findings about dark space with reference to the world of the mentally ill. Schizophrenics have only one form of dark place, which rhythmically alternates with the other form, that of bright space. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p.212.

10

Merleau-Ponty sited in O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p.214 11 O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 214.

11
My desk lamp encases me in a bubble of dim light that enables me to moderately orientate myself in the space insofar as I know the table, upon which I write and place my books, is in front of me. The change in atmosphere allows me to focus intimately on what is before me and it becomes my world or immediate reality. What is external of this is temporarily eradicated. Despite the fact that due to the nature of the architecture I am completely exposed, illuminated by the desk lamp, this is forgotten. My world is the table upon which I am writing.

The objects that I brought into the space with me were not only useful as objects with an intended function but also useful as tools of orientation12. The term orientation can be applied in two ways13. The first is an objective interpretation. We are directed towards an object, we see it, and this helps us to locate ourselves within a particular space.

We adhere to strict definitions and boundaries; when you enter a kitchen you wouldnt expect to see a sofa, nor would you expect to see a microwave when you go to the bathroom. These traditional boundaries have been in place, in some form, since civilization began to dwell in houses. It is only now, with the ever-growing boom in technology and social media that we have started to allow the boundaries to be crossed; for example televisions and computers now make an appearance into nearly every room in the house and the push for open plan living means that the divisions are less defined. When living in a Glass House there are no physical boundaries, I strategically placed the objects, relying on their positioning in order to create a living space with different functions. In my case these were: sleep, eat and write. The second is a subjective interpretation of the object. We take a direction towards the object in terms of how we feel about it, whether or not we are drawn to it. Our orientation towards an object is dependent on how we inhabit space, which in turn is dependent on our social circumstance in a wider space. It also depends on our consumer habits, the reasoning behind why we purchase certain objects in order to fill our space. Sara Ahmed discusses human attachment to Happy Objects14 as a way of describing those objects that are supposed to bring true experiential delight to the owner or consumer.
14

12

Sara Ahmed talks extensively about how our orientations involve directions towards objects that affect what we do and how we inhabit space. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.28 13 Edmund Husserl discusses a similar idea, our interpretation towards an object, which he calls a twofold directness. Sara Ahmed then builds on this by applying the idea of orientation, which comes about as a response or reaction to an object occupying our space. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.28

Ahmed dedicates a chapter in her book The Affect Theory Reader to Happy Objects. Sara Ahmeds writing on Happy Objects is something that I will expand on in the second chapter.

12 The basic premise is that Happy Objects are focused around these normative traditional values, in particular biological reproduction, which affirms our place as a respectable figure of society. Edmund Husserl15 suggests that inhabiting the familiar makes things or objects into background for actions: they are there but we dont see them16. The impulsive desire that causes us to buy things soon fades into the background, as do the purchased objects, until there is a new desire. And the cycle of consumerism goes on. The table is an object that had been at the centre of many discussions around phenomenology and philosophy.17 The single table that I bought into the space became my centre of action. What makes the table what it is, and not something else, is what it allows us to do.18 With the table I occupy; I can write this document upon it, I can use it to eat from and I can place other objects upon it, as Sara Ahmed points out, the use
17

The importance of the table in philosophy is principally to do with the fact that this is almost always the closest, most prominent object in relation to the philosopher. The use of tables shows us the very orientation of philosophy in part by showing us what is proximate to the body of the philosopher, or what the philosopher comes into contact with. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p. 3. Sara Ahmed discusses both Edmund Husserls and Martin Heideggers use of the table in their philosophy. Husserl uses the analogy of the table as a writing table highlighting the difference between an object occupying a space and an object with a function to facilitate an action. It is not incidental that when Husserl brings the table to the front that the writing table disappears. Being orientated towards the writing table might even provide the condition of possibility for its disappearance. Heidegger also uses the example of the table, which Ahmed again sees as no accident, in order to discuss the question of occupation. Occupation in the sense of how we occupy these objects and what they allow us to do. What we do with a table, or what the table allows us to do, is essential to the table. The table provides a surface around which a family gather. The in order to structure of the table means that the people who are at the table are also what makes the table what it is and nor some other thing. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p. 45.
18

15

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was the founder of phenomenology. Phenomenology is the study of structures of subjective experience and consciousness. 16 Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.37

Objects do not only do what we intend them to do. Heidegger differentiates between using something and perceiving something. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p. 47.

13 of the word can helps to remind us that usefulness is not merely instrumental but is about capacities that are open to the future.19 Ahmed thinks about Husserls orientation towards the objects around him and if this has an impact on his phenomenology.20 It is interesting to think about the physicality of the writer when they write what we are reading. You, the reader of my dissertation, can now think about where I was, my situation, when I wrote this article in the space of which I am describing.
There is a noise in the direction of the door; I tip the head of the lamp up to see. In slightly repositioning the source of light I switch dimensions. The light is now illuminating the vast and empty space between the door and me. The table is gone. Not only does this change in dimensions cause significant disorientation but in seeing the bare architectural space the vulnerability I had put to the back of my mind has, without warning, resurfaced.

Disorientation, in this experience, occurs in the relationship between my body and the architecture. There is a mismatch in proportions. Night space, as I have touched upon, allows me to momentarily lose the architecture. The lamp, as my source of light, enabling me to see, created my world. A zoomed in world where the only activity is writing and the only objects in place are objects made to facilitate this activity. The source of light, my lamp, offers me security with the condition of the positioning of its head. This variable changes and my world is compromised.
19

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p. 46. 20 It is a desire to imagine philosophy beginning here, with the pen and the paper, and the body of the philosopher, who write insofar as he is at home and insofar as home provides a space in which he does his work. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.29

Moments of disorientation are vital. They are bodily experiences that throw the world up, or throw the body from its ground. Disorientation as a bodily feeling can be unsettling, and it can shatter ones sense of confidence in the ground or ones belief that the

14 ground on which we reside can support the actions that make a life feel liveable.21 Sara Ahmeds description of disorientation is a very poetic one and you can almost feel the sense of disorientation as she writes about the ground disappearing from beneath us. Moments of disorientation, as depicted in my physical disorientation due to the switching in spatial dimensions, are moments of a physical or mental change in dimensions causing your body to physically turn and leave the world where it was so comfortably settled; the table being my object of comfort. The change in direction of the light source made me lose what was before me and I was thrust into a very different world: the vast and empty world of the Glass House. Sara Ahmed describes disorientation as a sensation we share in common with all humanity. Moments of disorientation can occur emotionally and physically. The bodily feeling (heart in mouth) is the same in both cases however the time it lasts, or the time we take to get over it, is not. Previously I described night space as a coming of darkness rather than a departure of light and therefore giving it a material quality rather than it simply being an absence of day space. The same can be applied to this experience. The loss of perspective or focus is not an absence but an object, thick
22

with presence22; the presence of an absence. The loss of focus in one world or moment in time enables us to gain another; the disorientation comes from passing between these two worlds. With emotional disorientation, such a feeling of shattering or of being shattered, might persist and become a crisis. The question then becomes not about the experience of disorientation, for it is a commonality amongst us all, but how we cope with the way it impacts our bodies and orientation in space23. How we cope determines what happens next. Some people relish change and experiences whereas others are content with the safety and security of what they know and the social norms that have been repeated and passed down in society. However these may be the people that, when a disorientating circumstance does occur, might not be able to cope with it and the sense of disorientation will last longer.

21

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.157.

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.158. 23 Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) pp.157-158.

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This vast space, empty and exposed, bears no resemblance to a place of dwelling. By dwelling place I mean a space which holds an impression of seclusion and intimacy; the essence of a home. To overcome this lack of security and stability I create my own place of refuge. A structure within a structure. A space within a space. This is where I go to seek refuge. A small shelter of solitude within this disorientating space, awkwardly merging outside and inside.

temporarily setting up a tent25. Nomads live with no fixed home, their landscape and orientation in the world constantly changes. These are people who have come to accept disorientation as a frequent occurrence in their lives. As previously mentioned, my interest in the idea of seeking refuge within Refuge Spaces came from how the homeless people in Lisbon constructed their shelters from various to hand materials or existing structures. Many made use of shop entrances, rubbish bins or bits of disused cardboard to create these spaces. Even though these people are unhoused they still needed some kind of barrier to the external world in which they could hide themselves and seek refuge. The act of seeking refuge, which can be associated with Bachelards definition of primal images, is a very simplistic and primitive action that is embedded in our human nature. Both the dwelling places I have mentioned, in Lisbon and in the Glass House, have an association with nomadic structures and ephemeral architecture. Liberation comes in the form of a hiding-place or place of refuge. The desire to observe the world yet remain concealed is prevalent in humanity and especially in the child; we long to return to a primitive and simplistic way of being and living.26 This then leads us back to Bachelards basic premise: the joy of dwelling.

The idea of seeking refuge within an intimate space is one that can be attributed to Bachelards term of primal images, images that bring out the primitiveness in us24. The fact that these structures are described as primal goes to show that we do not need elaborate or fabricated constructs in order to dwell; we simply need a basic shelter or refuge. The house is the staple Western dwelling space. However, if necessary some modest corner would suffice. The idea of a structure for dwelling is imagined in many forms though historical and cultural circumstances. It is essentially the centre of that individuals world. Bollnow briefly discusses how such a centre (even if moveable) is created in nomadic societies by

24

Bachelard primarily ascribes this to the imagery of shells and nests. He then develops this into an act of withdrawing and the physical pleasure we get from withdrawing into our corner or shell as a symbol of refuge. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 91.

25

House and dwelling may be used interchangeably in this sense. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 125. 26 O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 152.

16 The space that I am in, a space to which I would associate Baudelaires key word vast, there are no intimate corners to seek refuge, no opaque walls in which to construct a sense of security or stability. The structure blurs the usually strictly defined spaces of outside and inside. Many philosophers have commented on the effect these spaces have on our way of being, and when confronted with outside and inside, think in terms of being and non-being.27 Gaston Bachelards reinforcement of the opposition, by making inside concrete and outside vast, poses a problem in defining the Glass House as belonging to either category. The Glass House is vast and not concrete, and therefore holds characteristics of outside space; however I am still physically protected from the external weather, albeit with a few leaks. This is what makes the space disorientating. Jean Baudrillard perceives the inside space as giving superiority to the family unit, which again the Glass House does not as I believe the superiority comes from the sense of it being a darkened enclosure limiting and controlling how much of the outside world you see with windows. O. F. Bollnow describes outside space poetically when he says: And if it was only this space that existed, the existentialists would be right and man would indeed remain an eternally pursued fugitive. This is why he needs the space of the house. This is why I felt the need to create a refuge because, as Bachelard comments, even the mere dwelling becomes a house in the real sense28.

27

Gaston Bachelard devotes a chapter in The Poetics of Space to the dialects of outside and inside. He describes them as being opposite poles, and compares it to the dialects of yes and no, which decides everything. However the two terms of inside and outside pose problems in that they are not symmetrical terms, therefore the first task would be, Bachelard argues, to make inside concrete and outside vast. This solution appears to be in contradiction with the interior space I have described. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 211 Jean Baudrillard also comments on the caesura between inside and outside, and their formal opposition, which falls under the social sign of property and the psychological sign of the immanence of the family, make this traditional space into a closed transcendence. Baudrillard is bringing this opposition forward into a more sociological field where the barriers to the outside give the family unit superiority in terms of inhabitance. Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects (London: Verso, 2005) p. 14. O. F. Bollnow, in Human Space describes the two spaces in terms of how a person feels and reacts to each one. The outer space is the space for activity in the world, in which it is always a question of overcoming resistance and defending oneself against an opponent; it is the pace of insecurity, of danger and vulnerability. Whereas when we are intimately inside man can relax his constant alert attention to possible threats, the supreme task of the house, Bollnow asserts, is to give this peace to man and in this way the space of security is distinguished from the space of threat O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 125.

28

O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 124.

17
This is a disorientating space. I feel disorientated. I feel exposed. I feel I had to seek refuge. I feel better now.

occurs we feel the need to crawl back into our shells, but the avoidance of exposure means the building of pressure. The refuge space became more of a pod or a capsule, which disappears into the space because of its nomadic and ephemeral characteristics. The pond fleece, from which it was made, gave it an unassuming quality. Although I built a structure in which to seek refuge I also started to embrace the space and take pleasure from the absence of barriers and things that get in my way. After the disorientation, comes liberation.

Again disorientation arises, not by a sudden detachment like the repositioning of a light but because of a gradual mental build-up of the space and the consequential realisation of where I am. Disorientated or oblique living (something that I will discuss further in the second chapter) can occur for reasons beyond the physicality of the space and at the same time affects how we inhabit space; the same gradual formation of the space mirrors the gradual formation of the self.29 The social circumstances we find ourselves to be in determine how we inhabit space. The exposure of someones private life because of circumstances in which they choose to live and inhabit space becomes more disorientating for that individual when they are going against the grain of normative living arrangements. They are exposed because society sees nonnormative as synonymous with not right and therefore wrong. It is for this reason we put up our refuges. It is hard to embrace the disorientation but in some cases exposure brings liberation. When a potentially disorientating or bad situation

29

Bollnow uses this specially to describe our localisation in space when we awake from sleep, which I will discuss in more detail later on in Chapter One. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 172.

18
Now, when the space becomes too overwhelming I make my daily, or nightly, transition from table to refuge space. I pick up the lamp and drag the electric heater into the space. These objects become ingrained into my daily routine. They are the closest things to me and I see them not only in their functional domain, as providers of heat and light, but also as implements of comfort. The pond fleece insulates the heat and illuminates the light. A glowing triangle in a Glass House.

We are turned toward things. Such things make an impression upon us. We perceive them as things insofar as they are near to us, insofar as we share a residence with them. Perception hence involves orientation; what is perceived depends on where we are located, which gives us a certain take on things.30 When these things are orientated it means they are facing the right way. The objects situated around or close to the body allow the body itself to be extended. This extension of the body means the object takes on qualities of the body in order to save us the trouble of physical effort. As Jean Baudrillard points out, the modern domestic world is governed by regular gestures of control and remote controls are replacing the traditional tools belonging to the field of practical meditation and phallic symbolism31. Consumer culture has, almost singlehandedly, eliminated any kind of effort people may have encountered in their domestic life.

The things that I intentionally brought with me into the space served a purpose beyond their intended functionality. They created metaphorical divisions within the Glass House. Inside the refuge space the mattress and pillow lay horizontal inviting me to sleep. The chair and table, on the other side, orientated me towards what was in front of me upon the table. Some objects worked interchangeably. The lamp and electric heater became my companions. I was orientated towards them insofar as I was in constant physical contact with them. I took them with me on the journeys of my daily routine and they occupied the space with me. They were my spatial followers.

30

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.27. 31 Baudrillard looks at our relationship with the functional objects we use and observes how we have become less rational than our own objects, which are now ahead of us, organising our surroundings. The physical relationship we had with objects is now weakened; Baudrillard compares our utilization of traditional tools, the gesture of pressing the whole body into the service of effort, with the rhythm of sexual exchange. This is now discouraged and demobilized with the advent of the technical object. Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects (London: Verso, 2005) pp. 51-57.

19 Every object claims to be functional, just as every regime claims to be democratic.32 Everything, now, is made for convenience. Our occupation with objects, as Sara Ahmed describes it, is relative to each person. An object tends towards some bodies more than others, depending on the tendencies of those bodies. Bodies and their objects tend toward each other they are orientated toward each other and are shaped by this orientation.33 Again, it is appropriate to use the analogy of the table; the writing table tends towards the writer in facilitating the act of writing. If both the body and the object are compatible, if they are orientated towards each other, then the action can happen. This action is dependent on how we are occupied with objects. The objects that are occupying the space determine what happens in a space. Going back to the metaphorical divisions I implemented, the space of study that I created was shaped by a decision, the decision that this space is for studying. This decision then shapes what objects, occupy the space and what actions happen in the space; action involves the intimate co-dwelling of bodies and objects.34 We are restricted by each particular space in terms of the activity we are able to do.35

32 33

Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects (London: Verso, 2005) p. 67. As previously mentioned, objects take on physical qualities of bodies to enable the extension of bodies in terms of functionality, Ahmed comments that objects may even take the shape of the bodies for whom they are intended, in what it is they allow a body to do. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.51.

34

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.52. 35 Ahmed sees the question of action as a question of how we inhabit space; how we use objects to direct us to the appropriate action of each space. ibid., p.52.

20
And I am inside and, again, able to temporarily eradicate the external situation, safe within these soft walls enabling me to surrender myself to sleep. Admittedly, it has taken me some time to get to this point, being a keen advocate of darkness and silence. I turn off the artificial light and it is replaced by the illuminating glow of moonlight. The atmosphere accentuates the senses and I begin to hear, more profoundly, the whirring of the wind causing a tapping of the glass as it moves and collides. The noise infiltrates the space.

House. The vast space of the interior meant that light from the moon and noise from the interference of the weather on the architecture filled the space, bouncing off the reflective panes of glass and permeating the interior. The world changes for us when we are sleeping: our spatial orientation is lost. We are in the space and yet we have no recognition of the space. Time vanishes for us.37

Abandoning ourselves to sleep is reliant on the right conditions. I especially crave darkness and silence in order to shut out and let go of the external world; to solely concentrate on myself. O. F. Bollnow draws upon Johannes Linschoten to discuss falling asleep as a return to the unconscious mind. Linschoten interprets falling asleep as the becoming still of the reflecting spirit and the return of the experience of the unconscious mind [Seinsgrund]. Falling asleep means the renunciation of activity.36 Here Linschoten is describing a state where we are not interrupted by intervals of conscious reflection. In my case, the interruptions werent caused by conscious reflection but by the intervals of noise and light made possible by the Glass
36

37

Linschoten, Uber das Einschlafen, p.71 sited in O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 173.

Bollnow describes our relationship with the world when we sleep, man slips away from the space spread visibly around him. When in the world of sleep, time becomes irrelevant and the body loses itself in the present moment. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 174.

21
Even when I finally drift, which takes a considerable amount of time from getting into my sleeping bag, I can never relax into a deep sleep. I am always partially aware of my situation when all is still. The lack of security and stability, physically, means I have to find a way, mentally, to cope. The Refuge Space helps, to an extent, in giving me a hiding place to remain concealed and unobservable. However, I also need to construct mental barriers, to reinforce the malleable structure physically in place, to concentrate on my immediate situation within the Refuge Space.

We shall see that the imagination functions in this direction whenever the human being has found the slightest shelter: we shall see the imagination build walls of impalpable shadow, comfort itself with the illusion of protection.39 This passage links directly to the way I had to create illusions of protection in order to reinforce my created Refuge Space. This also relates to the situation of the people I observed living on the streets of Lisbon. Towards the end of the experience I found that I didnt need to have these physical security measures in order to sleep. It is possible to sleep in this environment. Therefore I slightly disagree with Linschotens thought: To fall asleep, I must feel safe, or rather, I must experience the security of the situation in its enclosing and protecting character. I must be shielded from hostile intrusion, in order to relax and sink into the oblivion of sleep.40 Although it was difficult, I did manage to relax and accept my situation even though I wasnt physically shielded from hostile intrusion. All I had was, as Bachelard describes, the slightest shelter41. However, combined with the strength, mentally, I was able to sleep. For this reason I have a problem with
39 40

Sleep is dependent on the feeling of security within ones private space. We fall asleep much more readily knowing that we are safe in our private space, with minimal chance of interference. Our space, as Bollnow reiterates, must have a certain character so that we can fall asleep in it, a character of protectiveness and trustworthiness, to which we can surrender ourselves without reservation.38 The Glass House had no measures of security. The Glass House as a house lacked all qualities of protectiveness and trustworthiness. I mentally prepared myself for sleep; in my mind I was able to bring forth the soft walls of the Refuge Space and leave the Glass House behind.

38

O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 175.

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 5. Linschoten, Uber das Einschlafen, p.73 sited in O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 175. 41 Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 5.

22 Bollnow deeming the unhoused as inhuman.42 As I have attempted to show, there is a way of living without the formal constructs of a house in the traditional sense; it is a mental strength that enables people to live this way.
As a consequence of this fragmented sleep I often wake at night in a misty haze of darkness which, compared to when I awaken in broad daylight, is much more comforting, especially during the initial part of the experience when I had no side panels on the refuge space. Day breaks and the clear morning light floods in. I wake up and am instantly forced to recognize my situation. This immediate orientation and localisation within the world brings with it an extreme disorientation of the self. It is not a gradual reformation of the self and the space; rather the experience is very abrupt.

There is a profound difference between waking up in day space and waking up in night space. When we wake up at night, it can be initially alarming as a lack of the familiar security of things43 however calm is restored when we succeed in finding that mystic unity in which night space comes to life from within.44. When I awoke at night I felt much more at peace and easily able to fall back to sleep, however when I woke up in the morning it was a disorientating and awkward experience. Waking up in day space is usually a steady process of localising ourselves within the gradual building up of near space. Bollnow maintains that only when localisation in space is
43 44

42

Here let us remember Goethe, who in one passage of Faust speaks of the fugitive, of the unhoused, the aimless restless reprobate; for if the houseless person is inhuman, in other words has fallen short of the actual nature of man, it follows conversely that man can only be truly human if housed. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 131.

O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 215. Ibid, p. 215.

23 complete are we ourselves again in the fullest sense. So regaining ones space means at the same time regaining oneself.45 Therefore, there is a fundamental link between the building up of space and the building up of ones own ego. In this case, the regaining of the ego is dependent on the regaining of the space46. The diverse characteristics of night space and day space, in terms of human and animal behaviour, can be seen in Cornelius Cardews score: The Tigers Mind47. The Daypiece shows the Tiger trapped in a circle and calm whereas the girl, Amy, is active. In the Nightpiece, however, Amy is dreaming, she recognizes her mind, and the Tiger is agitated; He storms at the circle; if inside to get out, if outside to get in. It is interesting to note the difference between human nature and the behaviour of nocturnal animals, we dream of being swallowed up by the darkness whereas these other animals are restless in the night space.
45

Usually when people wake up in their homes it might take them some time before they look out of a window and experience the natural light of outside. For the time being they are still in the bubble of their dwelling and are not externally aware. I dont have the safe and secure constructs of the home. As soon as I wake I am in the landscape; in the world. The window, in the sense of a home, is very symbolic of our relationship with security. We cut out and isolate a part of the outside world, an idealised outlook that we can use to orient ourselves in the world. There is no idealisation of the outside world; it pushes on you in its obvious materiality and overwhelming immensity.

As long as darkness persists, this ordering of the environment succeeds only to a partial extent. The light of day is needed for a final determination. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 172. 46 One cannot take hold of oneself, because one is in a state of constant transformation. Only by localisation at a particular point in space can the ego gain the strength to hold itself fast as something identifiable. The ego depends on localisation in space to gain full strength, thus space is the indispensable precondition for the formation of an ego that can develop freely from itself. O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 172. 47 Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) was an experimental music composer. Cardew, Cornelius The Tigers Mind <http://www.cacbretigny.com/inhalt/pictures/tigersmind/partitioncardUKTi ger.pdf> [accessed 2 November 2012]

Waking up in the Glass House was abrupt; I was instantly forced to recognize the space and my localisation in the world because of the glass exterior. The orientation in the world was immediate. There was no time to build up a picture from the objects around me, as you might do in a closed space. This immediate localisation left me feeling bemused. It might take a little time for a person to localise themselves within the wider world by looking out of a window. I did not have this luxury of choice.

24 By looking out of the window this person finalises their orientation within space and the world positioned in the great order of horizontal and vertical.48 We are orientated in space only indirectly by the floor and the objects that stand upon it. Objects, as well as windows, give us a slight localisation in the world through the fact that they are physically bound by a horizontal and vertical axis. Bachelard maintains our desire to withdraw into a hiding-place comes from a primitive or childish desire to conceal ourselves from the world; we sense the joy of a delightful concealment49. However when the spyhole widens into a window, which no longer focuses on a single potential enemy, but fully admits the whole picture of the surrounding world, the function of a window immediately changes.50 Moreover, when the window widens into walls and ceilings of glass, no longer focusing on an idealised image but a 360-degree surround vision, the function changes yet again. It now opens up the inner space to the world as a whole. Through the window, the small dwelling space is placed within the large world. In the Glass House this orientation within the world is not so gentle.
I am living in a space that opposes the long established traditions of domestic living, a space that brings the vulnerability and danger of the outside, inside. I am not frightened. I have found a way to live in this space. Disorientation turns to liberation. I am facing the outside world. I am dwelling alone. I am exposed and therefore liberated. I am liberated in the space and situation. I am free from walls and barriers that hold me in.

In reflection upon this experience I feel that my thoughts on inhabiting space have become more liberal. Now I know that I can exist in a space such as the Glass House, with minimal objects. I no longer feel inclined towards the traditional concept of a home. Let us think about the traditional concept of a home; the family home. The one we grow up in, the one we start our own family in; sometimes the transition between the two is immediate. People in our society rarely get the chance to dwell alone. A lot of people have a fear of dwelling alone, of being alone, and feel the need to fill their space with bodies and objects in order to dwell in happiness.

48 49

O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 152. Ibid., p.152. 50 ibid., p. 152.

25 Just a single person is not enough to build a house, it is not enough for a single person to dwell in a house. We dwell plurally; we dwell with our family, with our own, but separate from others, the strangers.51 Bollnow, in this passage, is very forceful in his ideology of dwelling plurally. There is no other way about it: we dwell plurally. When thinking about how we dwell with other bodies I come across a slight contradiction with Bollnows statement and in my own mind. I have known people who live alone and it isnt a devastating and lonely existence but I also think that these particular people are so integrated within a certain community that the house or physical presence of the house becomes less of a defining aspect. I also think that separating ourselves from the strangers causes us to recognize and establish difference with others more easily which can lead people to be less accepting of people outside their intimate world. This is something I will discuss further in the next chapter, focusing specifically on people who may not follow the normative way of living.

51

O. F. Bollnow, Human Space (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) p. 126.

26

SPATIAL AND SOCIAL ORIENTATION

This chapter intends to bring the Glass House experience into a wider social sphere focusing on the relationship between social and spatial orientation and disorientation. Disorientation in this sense will identify with those people or communities who do not follow the decided normative way of living and being, but instead choose to live in an oblique world52. When I set out to do this project I had no intentions of using the experience as a metaphor for living in an oblique world. Likewise, I didnt comprehend the extent to how much the Glass House could symbolise in terms of social politics. Much of the theory I am referencing in this chapter was read after the experience.

52

This term denotes a world that is not straight but slantwise; a world that has an oblique angle in relation to that which is given. A conscious decision to live against, or at an angle to, the grain of normative society. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.161

27

DISORIENTATION

In Chapter One I spoke of disorientation in terms of how the architecture affected me as an inhabitant of the space, exposure from the surrounding glass walls and ceiling, as well as occupying the vast and empty space inside. I also briefly touched upon occurrence of disorientation for reasons beyond the physicality of space, something that happens as a response to certain social situations, which in turn determines how we inhabit space. Sara Ahmed shows us that the lines that direct us are lines of a performative nature dependent upon the repetition of norms and conventions, of routes and paths taken, but they are also created as an effect of this repetition.53 These lines have a cyclical nature, not only between the cause and effect of this repetition, but also because the repetition has been passed through generations and so, are embedded in our traditional value system. It might be useful to use the analogy of going off the beaten track when walking. The path is created to direct us in a certain way, towards a certain destination. By veering from this path we are risking potential danger, this is what we have been taught from numerous fairy tales and our parents.

Analogies, such as this, stay with us as we enter into adulthood. For women, especially, it is sometimes difficult to find liberation within these lines because of traditional conformities and value systems. Sometimes these lines can be deceiving. I recall a piece of gossip a family friend had overheard about my mother: from the way Jane Eustance speaks you would think they would have a lot of money. My mothers response to this was one of jest. However, whilst growing up we were taught, more so by my mother than my father, to always be conscious of how we appear to others. You can almost manipulate these lines to make them seem more linear. Nevertheless, it is also important to remember that life is not always linear or that the lines we follow do not always lead us to the same place54. Even if we follow the beaten track, and do the right things, these moments of disorientation can pull us from our paths and force us to struggle through the metaphorical foliage, creating new paths in order to get back onto the beaten track, or in some cases the struggle back causes a change in perceptions and we may never reach it, or no longer want to. The point is what we do with such moments of disorientation, as well as what such moments can do whether they can offer us the hope of new directions,

53

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.16.

54

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), p.18.

28 and whether new directions are reason enough for home.55 As noted earlier it is how we deal with disorientation that determines our future and how we continue to inhabit space. To overcome disorientation we can re-orientate our bodies so that the line of the body follows the vertical and horizontal axes. Such a body is one that is straight, upright, and in line.56 I clearly remember, from my childhood, family members and teachers telling us to pretend we had an imaginary string from the top of our heads and to pull it, every so often, to straighten our bodies. It represents a moral and social code of selfpreservation.

QUEER SPACE

Ahmed associates this kind of disorientation with queer space. The Glass House is a queer space. It is an unconventional space that challenges the way we dwell and therefore the way we exist. Queer is a term widely used to identify practices (particularly sexual) that defy the normative ways of being. In society normative is seen as an antonym of deviant. The repetitions of norms and conventions, here, are mainly about what is considered normal in our society, these traditional values of Western living are reflective of a distinct repertoire of habits57 which Judith Halberstram identifies as reproduction and family, longevity, risk/safety, and inheritance.58 These are the values I have grown up with coming from a long familial history of markedly heterosexual middle-class logic where the emphasis is placed on money, family and respectability. There is a strict and defined structure we are meant to follow that is heavily founded upon safety and security.

55

As Sara Ahmed points out it is how these experiences can impact on the orientation of bodies and spaces, which is after all about how the things are directed and how they are shaped by the lines they follow. It is widely perceived that straying from the conventional path causes you to live in a disorientated or oblique world. Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.158. 56 Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.159.

57

Melchionne, 1998, p.192 sited in Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013] p.5. 58 Halberstram, 2005, p.6 sited in Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013] p.5.

29 We study in an endeavour to get a job; we get a job to obtain financial security through a regular income; we get married to ensure security through another person (and for many women this is also financial security); and we start a family to build our own mini empire to preach these values. Queer in this sense (describing specific sexual practices) would refer to those who practice nonnormative sexualities (Jagose 1996), which we know involves a personal and social commitment to living in an oblique would, or in a world that has an oblique angle in relation to that which is given.59 In the sense of being queer we come across a slight juxtaposition, in the desire to act upon natural instincts and live naturally we choose a life which runs against the norms or normative desire and therefore choose to live in an oblique world which doesnt adhere to the linear lines of what is deemed as normative. Queerness is seen as an oddity; if something is queer it is strange.

GLASS HOUSE: OBLIQUE SPACE

The Glass House can be appropriated as a metaphor for the sense of exposure and disorientation people face when inhabiting space in an oblique world. Disorientation could be described here, as the becoming oblique of the world a becoming that is at once interior and exterior.60 The Glass House is a structure that is at once interior and exterior and therefore can be described as an oblique space or a structure that houses an oblique space. To begin with, let us take the physical architecture of the Glass House. From the outside you can see inside and from the inside the space is vast and empty with no partitions to segregate spaces. Jean-Ulrick Dsert61 suggests that the conditional acceptance of queer communities is predicated on their existence within private spaces; the opposite of the Glass House. It is acceptable for people to practice this deviant lifestyle as long as they are not open about it. Ulrick argues that queer communities must often choose committedly between isolationism and publicity. Remaining a closed, private society would reinforce the belief that it is not normal
60

59

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.161.

Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) p.162. 61 Jean-Ulrick Dsert is an artist, from Haiti, who has published writings on the impact of social space on the queer community.

30 and therefore wrong. Ulrick opts for a refusal of secrecy and to, instead, turn to openness and liberation. As a task of liberation, queer spaces pursue the erosion of parameters between private and public spheres.62 The physical merging of outside and inside, as depicted in the Glass House, translates into a social merging of private and public. As a subject of architectural design, the Glass House counteracts the usual demands of domestic space, and incites queer feeling in both its spectators and its occupants.63 The feeling we get from the space is relative to any queer feeling that is initiated by an exposure to something strange. The Glass House seems to go against all traditional domestic values (values of privacy, of order, of structure) in ones life that the house is supposed to provide; the house provides illusions of stability and security64. The Glass House, however, provides a way of life that carries the possibility of constant surveillance and therefore can give no relief from an unrelenting selfconsciousness at potentially being watched. This type of exposure runs parallel with an exposure that comes from how you live your life and inhabit space if it isnt the decided normative way. The distinctive characteristic of the Glass House that makes it a queer space is the absence of matter. It is in the domain of the home and interior design that we may be most convincingly taught that commercial products and their normative arrangements are able to infuse ones life with true experiential delight.65 This established domestic culture or way of life is ubiquitous across Western civilization unaided by the constant barrage of advertisements for things to fill our space with. Sara Ahmed considers this type of consumerism as human attachment to Happy Objects, the most salient of these pertaining to notions of familial closeness and the happy effects of biological reproduction. Those not capable of or desiring biological reproduction are therefore alienated from the promise of happiness.66 My Auntie, for example, who doesnt have children, suffers from this segregation to the point where avoidance to large familial gatherings is habitual. She, although not practicing deviant sexualities herself, is well embedded within the queer community.

65 62

Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013] p.3. 63 ibid., p.2. 64 A house constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) p. 17.

Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013] p.6. 66 Ahmed argues that the link between objects of happy affect and biological reproduction constitutes a degree of marginalisation to alternative sexual communities that is complete in its segregation. Sara Ahmed, The Affect Theory Reader (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010) p.41.

31 In the space left by detachment from normative happy objects, there is a vastness and a space of questioning for the affective alien. To think about Sara Ahmeds affective alien we can swap disorientation for alienation. Alienation, like disorientation, is a feeling we all relate to. We can think about alienation in terms of happy objects, when we feel pleasure from such objects, we are aligned; we are facing the right way. These objects are culturally rumoured to bring happiness to the beholder so when we arent turned towards these objects we create an anxious narrative of self-doubt67; why are we alienated from this shared happiness? The feminist is an affect alien: she might even kill joy because she refuses to share an orientation toward certain things as being good because she does not find the objects that promise happiness to be quite so promising.68 Our social orientation towards objects holds the key to how we live. To counteract this alienation people aim to orientate themselves towards these objects, to stay within the linear lines. This extracts from happiness all aspects of spontaneity and organic development, favouring a linear transaction between object and individual, and envisaging a standardised communication of the happy effect.69 The move away from spontaneity to a more linear way of being and thinking takes away any kind of excitement from life. Everything is predetermined and grounded by these values, we allow ourselves to stay within the normative majority because of the security and stability it brings. It takes mental determination to disassociate oneself with these cultural preconceptions; similar to the experience I had when forging illusions of stability inside the Glass House.

69 67

Sara Ahmed, The Affect Theory Reader (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010) p.37. 68 Ibid., p.39.

Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013]

32 Domestic space acts as a particularly insidious harbour for these types of objects70 but not in the Glass House. This space is not made for elaborate decoration or objects pretending to be useful. In the Glass House I am the contents of the work, there is no refuge from ones exposure to the surrounding landscape and no need to indulge in objects. Normally we fill our space with objects so we feel less on show and can alleviate attention onto something else. In a strange way we are more proud of our possessions than we are of ourselves. Returning to my family home for Christmas last year, the main topic of conversation was my parents investment in a woodburning stove, followed by numerous tours to the living room where it was on display. In actual fact, they had bought a size too big and my brother spent most of the winter season in his swimming trunks when inside. Thinking about the relationship between the occupant and the architecture, the Glass House, as I experienced, can cause a person to feel completely dominated by the space. Bollnow describes our relationship with night space as the ego coming second to the space; the same can be applied in this relationship. The world obtains a 360-degree angle of not only the exterior structure but also of the interior living space, which can be oppressing. However, the occupant also has a 360-degree view of the world, they face the world. The sense of disorientation at one moment can turn to liberation with the next. The exposure to outside space imposes upon the occupant the sense of being a flneur; the occupant is on the outside of society, even from an interior situation. It is queer precisely because it is at once private and public.71 It is the task of liberation to open spaces up into the public sphere and not create secular units. Instead of thinking about the constant pressure of the outside attempting to infiltrate your personal space and private life you should embrace it. People, before and after the experience, were responding to this project in a very apprehensive and almost shocked manner, exclaiming, Werent you frightened? In actual fact it took a surprisingly short amount of time to acclimatise myself to the situation. By the end of the experience, the space and my routine began to feel normal.

70

Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013] p.7.

71

Ulrick, 1997, p.21 sited in Erin Brown, We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEverywhere.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013] p.8.

33

DWELLING HISTORIES

My structured upbringing was reflected in the space we inhabited. I resided in two houses; the first in the years prior to and during my primary school education, and then moving to a town house, a decision orientated by the desire of my parents to be in the catchment area of a good school. This upbringing directly contrasts to my way of living after leaving my familial home, since moving out I have lived in eight different domestic spaces72. The experience of constantly relocating and adapting to different spaces brings with it an independence and greater certainty of the self. Henri Lefebvre describes space as a social morphology. Space, he emphasizes, is to lived experience what form itself is to the living organism.73 We need space in order to grow and by frequently experiencing diverse spaces or environments you remain the only unchanging variable and therefore are not influenced by the familiar or familiar surroundings. It is about being outside of your comfort zone, outside of the linear lines. Experience of the other gives a better understanding of the self.

The experience of living in Lisbon has a profound effect on my way of thinking. The current economic climate meant that there was a lot about Lisbon that was unfinished. There were a lot of unfinished spaces. This meant these spaces were empty and not in use, which is problematic when thinking of the many people living without a home and on the streets. As Bachelard aptly puts it life quickly wears it down. And besides, for one living shell, how many dead ones there are! For one inhabited shell, how many are empty! This can be used to describe the relationship between the amount of people without a home and the number of abandoned houses without inhabitants. The Glass House can be described as an empty shell, whereby the potential of human inhabitance is inconceivable to most.

72 73

See Dwelling Histories: Visual Address Book [1990-2013] Lefebvre, Henri, Social Space, in The Production of Space, trans., by Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford UK & Cambridge USA: Blackwell, 1991) p.94.

34 Dwelling Histories: Visual Address Book [1990-2013]74

6 Bertie Close, Swinstead, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG33 4PW 4 Providence Avenue, Leeds, West Yorkshire, 2HN

17 North Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9AP

Calada do Desterro 12, Lisboa, Portugal 2715-311

J45 Rootes Residences, Gibbet Hill Road, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL

Rua do Baro 27, Lisboa, Portugal 2715-311

6 Buckingham Mount, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS6 1DN 1 Brudenell Grove, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS6 1HP

5 Ashville Terrace, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS6 1LZ

The Old Walled Garden, Grimsthorpe Castle, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 OLT

74

Source: Google Maps Street View

35 Considering the effects of disorientation, individually and collectively, in our modern society has led me to the conclusion that the feeling of disorientation is intrinsic in someones social and personal development. Reiterating the notion I previously stated that experience of the other gives a better understanding of the self. The notion of disorientation, as shown to be a result of the loss of ones orientation, is what I physically experienced in the Glass House and what people feel as a reaction to something that causes them to leave their original world. Using the term oblique to describe the Glass House as a space means it is in a constant state of disorientation. As are the people living in Ahmeds oblique world. In this sense the oblique space and oblique world are more liberated. They are already at a slantwise angle and therefore are free from the continual pressure to stay within the linear lines, as are the people that inhabit these spaces or worlds. There is no need for anxiety over becoming the affective alien or in having desires pre-determined by the media or by consumer culture. This thesis is the product of an experience and because of this the intentions and outcomes were never certain. The journey I have undergone as a person can be mirrored in my dwelling histories. The most profound experiences being those of living in foreign spaces, foreign in terms of another country and in terms of unconventional or strange. This project has progressed organically, from thinking about my own body occupying space to considering the occupation of a social body.

DISCLAIMER

Throughout this document I have made references to links between the Glass House experience and the observations of the homeless I made in Lisbon. It has to be acknowledged that for all the slight challenges I faced during this experience, they face every day in a much more aggressive way. I always knew I had a home to go back to and that this was a temporary experience.

36

37

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ahmed, Sara Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006) Ahmed, Sara The Promise of Happiness (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010) Ahmed, Sara, Happy Objects, in The Affect Theory Reader (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010) 29-44. Web. Bachelard, Gaston The Poetics of Space, trans., by Maria Jolas (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) Baudrillard, Jean The System of Objects, trans., by James Benedict (London: Verso, 2005) Berger, John Ways of Seeing (Penguin Classics, 2008) Betsky, Aaron Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1997) Betsky Aaron, Architecture in a Floating World, in Bartlett International Lecture Series, Christopher Ingold Auditorium, UCL, 12 December 2012 17.30 19.00 Bollnow, O. F. Human Space, trans., by Christine Shuttleworth (London: Hyphen Press, 2011) Brown, Erin We Are Everywhere: Queer Space and the Art of Living in Glass Houses <http://www.sfu.ca/sca/global/pdf/Erin_Brown_WeAreEvery where.pdf> [accessed 29 January 2013]

Condorelli, Celine; Pavilion Artist Talk, Roger Stevens Building, 1 November 2012, 18.00-19.30 Cardew, Cornelius The Tigers Mind <http://www.cacbretigny.com/inhalt/pictures/tigersmind/part itioncardUKTiger.pdf> [accessed 2 November 2012] (Dsert, Jean-Ulrick) Artist Website <http://www.jeanulrickdesert.com/> [Accessed 8 February 2013] Heidegger, Martin, Basic Writings: Martin Heidegger, ed., by David Farrell Krell (London: Routledge, 2011) Kristeva, Julia, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, trans., by Leon S. Roudiez. (New York: Columbia UP, 1982) Lefebvre, Henri, Social Space, in The Production of Space, trans., by Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford UK & Cambridge USA: Blackwell, 1991) Le Feuvre, Lisa, Failure, Documents from Contemporary Art, (London: The Whitechapel Gallery, 2010) Mawer, Simon, The Glass Room (Great Britain: Abacus 2010) Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception (Psychology press: 2002)

38 Schweder, Alex and Bayar, Lamis; Practice Architecture: rehearse here, perform everywhere Duveen Galleries, Tate Britain, Friday 1 February 2013, 18.30-21.30 Yrj Kukkapuro One Family One Room, in Apartamento, Issue #09 ed., by unkown Wheeler, Dennis sited in Experiment and Progress Failure, ed., by Lisa Le Feuvre (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2010)

EVENTS Forthcoming Feminisms: Gender, Activism, Politics and Theories, Weetwood Hall, Leeds, 26 October 2012 9.00 17.00 Performing Architecture Late at Tate Britain, Tate Britain, Friday 1 February 2013, 18.00 22.00 FEMINISM-CURATING-ARCHIVE: Roundtable Discussion Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, 8 March 2013, 13.00 16.30

Phoebe Eustance ARTF 3080 Practice in Context