Building performativity : choreoarchitectural strategies for attunement to more‑than human bodies

This practice-led research project argues for a more-than-human architectural performativity which, I propose, can be transmitted to, and transduced by, humans through durational contact between human bodies and existing buildings as architectural bodies. I argue against commonly received notions that architectural space is activated by the human body (Merleau-Ponty 1945/1962); rather, the architectural body is constantly active, engaged in a performance that goes beyond quantitative elements.
Located within contemporary theories of New Materialism, this project frames buildings as vibrant material with what Jane Bennett (2010) calls ‘Thing Power’, a non-human agency that acts as an (im)material calling which can be sensed by humans after a process of body attunement. The project draws on Karen Barad’s (2003, 2012) concepts of agency and posthuman performativity, which are relational and manifest ‘intra-actively’, as opposed to ‘interactively’, insofar as there is no predetermination of independent entities that precede the action.
The research develops Choreoarchitecture as a mode of practice that investigates, mediates, and connects with autonomous material agencies of architecture as they intersect with choreographed, site-specific human actions. These actions are developed in a studio and on site through a series of durational Bodyworks designed and performed to attune human and architectural bodies. Using a range of (em)bodiments, I propose an iterative process of ‘scoring the skin within’ as an active participatory conjuring of relationships between bodies and the fleeting presences that construct the character of buildings and place. Buildings act in this context as place-writing bodies, in which place is written by, and writes upon, the interior of architectural bodies as a material score.
This project is framed by these research questions: How is non-human performativity embodied in architectural matter and how can it be registered/ rendered sensible to the human?

My research methodology draws on performative research (Haseman 2006; Bolt 2016) and practice-led research (Barrett & Bolt 2010; Smith & Dean 2009). I devise choreoarchitectural strategies that are emergent and iterative through practice. A key to these is The Performatives, a named and defined collective of collaborative, more-than-human actants that creates an ecology of agencies in-trans-action. They include human bodies, historical architectural sites (buildings), theoretical concepts, creative practices, and archival material. Together, and led by a process of body attunements, The Performatives choreograph, rehearse, and perform site-specific acts, in which the performativity of architectural bodies becomes apparent to humans.
My research turns scoring the skin within into an iterative, performative utterance designed to attune the material agencies of the human body and the body of architecture. New traces from body contacts are formed in every iteration of the process of scoring. These traces are assembled in the form of installations in gallery spaces and performance presentations, to demonstrate a new shared ecology of agency, re-performed by human and non-human bodies. As new bodies are affected, the performativity of the architectural body moves beyond the limits of its physical existence.
This research is presented as a performative and interactive digital exhibition for ‘The Reader’ to perform. The digital exhibition includes and operates within a selection of traces extracted from The Bodyworks and an exegetical text. All components are designed to be read, performed, and re-traced by The Reader, following written instructions which act as a speculative score. By performing the digital exhibition, The Reader becomes the last actant and performative; is encouraged to perform their own readings, attuning their human agency to the non-human agencies of the digital traces. In so doing, the architectural body transduces, and is transduced onto, new bodies, acting performatively again.