This was a workshop I ran together with architect Rasmus Pikk. Entitled: “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Apathy”, it took place 10.08.2020 as part of the European Architecture Students’ Assembly 2020 Summer School in Valga. The whole event was centred around the topic of “Apathy” - what does it mean for architects, for cities, societies and individuals and what to do with it.
The lecture portion focused on the role of narrative in architecture. We covered a series of key concepts including individual/collective, storyline and discourse coalition. Our aim was to employ these concepts in the workshop portion to enable a discussion about apathy with a critical eye on narrativity as the way we interact across the various scales and grades of society.
The practical portion consisted of participants recording a monologue of their individual narratives on the topic of apathy. They were also asked to come up with a sound which represents the topic best for them. These recording were layered on top of each other and replayed in recurrent loops in the open air, creating a temporary discourse coalition. The outcome was less important for us as facilitators, than the attempt to offer an introspective moment in an otherwise intense and packed summer school format. I think this worked and was received well.
