unit2

- a border between countries
- personal borders/boundaries
- a border from an object
- overstepping a border
- inequality (different treatment)
- Borders closing in due to corona
- border of a city, of a province, of a suburb
- suttle borders/ hard borders
- visible borders, non-visible borders
- Refugees not being allowed in the country
- what is beyond a certain border
- borders that we create for nature to not
surpass them
- the (false) sense of security
- a border that may not be crossed (danger)
- always one instance that created the border
- closing off from others/ closing off for others
- segregation
- Corona (sense of belonging is missing, creates a border to normal life)
- the border between real and unreal

- close to the border
- trespassing
- on the edge/border of being ‘right or wrong’
- borders of our own house/ our own space
- moving between spaces + their borders or personal boundaries
- borders that are given to us
- borders that we create ourselves
- not knowing what is happening beyond a border
- what are human borders
- what are the borders of nature
- Is borders the same as boundaries?
- where is the end? what is beyond the end?
If there is something beyond the end, is it yet another border?
- borders of the planet (climate crisis)
- borders is something created, something man made
- some borders are just there for certain people
- once because of giving them themselves or because others give it to you
- There is a border that we do not want to change, out of the comfort zone
- a border to protect ourselves, imagining we protect others
- The border between nature and humans.
What happens when we overstep this -border or open it up?
- what is home?

Borders:
noun
plural noun: borders
1. a line separating two countries, administrative divisions, or other areas.
2. the edge or boundary of something, or the part near it.

Personal boundaries:
are guidelines, rules or limits that a person creates to identify reasonable, safe and permissible ways for other people to behave towards them and how they will respond when someone passes those limits.

Our associatons with borders:

Borders as roots of violence

Moving the center in my own mind

The center = also the way of thinking, talking, fashion, etc. Centralized cities, architectural, like church, political buildings, etc

Centre & periphery

Looking at the city
How the city is built
Power in the city
Layers of the powers in the city

Imaginary other= outside of the gate of the city
Looking at the rings of the power of the city

Medieval European architecture
Walled cities
Made for gating and makings gates

We can "record" ways of "being" in the "center" and in the "periphery" and ways in which people change as they move from periphery to center and center to periphery etc.

Ultimate decentering: decentering yourself

Notes/feedback discussing our topic in class (18-09)

Franziska:
When looking into methods of recording I was intrigued by telling stories through collected objects. It reminded me of Laundromat by Ai WeiWei. Below I wrote about my experience of the art work in hope it would be interesting to my team mates. This is one of the nicest pictures of the artwork I found online.

In 2016 the makeshift refugee camp in Idomeni, Greece, was forcefully evicted. People left in a hurry and left a lot of things behind. WeiWeis studio collected the clothing, cleaned it and cataloged it.

In 2019 I had the opportunity to see this art work in a major exhibition of WeiWeis work. I will try to give you an insight into my experience and the thoughts it provoked.
This artwork is the first thing you see when you enter this exhibition. It is a room that is shielded from daylight in the center of the exhibition. You do not have the ability to get an overview over the whole art work. You enter it.
The clothes are arranged on clothing racks, which are a bit higher than the average commercial one. This meant I was unable to look even over one of the racks. They are arranged like a maze. As soon as I entered I lost my friend who had joined me on the visit. The exhibition is busy even though it is the early morning. You don't have a lot of time to look at individual pieces of clothes. It is however very clear that have been arranged with a lot of care. This looks a lot more like an archive than a shop. There is a label on every single item. The clothing is sorted by object type (winter jackets, sweaters, t-shirts etc). One thing is very striking: There are a lot of childrens clothes.
But not a lot of time to think about the children which had to even leave their clothes behind. People are rushing through the maze. Then you are standing in a corner of this maze, alone. This shirt has been repaired with a lot of care. As if to say, this article has to be preserved. It is a document of this event. Sure there is some video material, but the quality is really bad. The people fleeing and being rushed out of the camp are mostly unrecognizable. Their clothing is the harsh evidence of this eviction. Over 2000 objects are cataloged in Laundromat. Who did they belong to? Where are they now?
There is a lot of pain and violence in the story of these clothes. The also show a lot of tenderness now, it is obvious how carefully they have been processed. This doesn't erase the story of the previous owner, but rather cherish their presence.

Short film: "I dream"
by Zahraa Ghandour & Tarek Turkey

Ai WeiWei – Laundromat (2016)

Testing journaling by Franziska
I wrote some thoughts about borders I had at that moment
and tried to visually amplify the words.

Interview with my father on his connotations with borders by Yusser.

For some reason the file cannot be viewed unless in edit mode.
It is a recording of about 20 minutes.

Transcript of first few seconds:
I’m doing a project on borders. When you hear the word Borders,
what do you think about?
There are two stages, one point in time where I was living outside of Holland, and one when I was living inside of Holland.
We used to think about borders, as points, as places of inspection/frisking, where we had to have a passport, where we had to answer questions. Areas which were hard, which we were scared of.
When we came to Holland and started living in Europe, no, we didn’t think anything of borders. Within Europe at least there aren’t really borders.
But even when we went to Arab countries, we experienced them in a very normal way. Because, our possession of the European passport

Experimenting with sound and image by Bodine.

Having talked about the invisible borders between places and the separation between the center and the rest of the country I decided to archive this through sound and imagery.
I sometimes experience violence from the sounds of a big city like Rotterdam, in comparison with my home town Zwolle.
Unconsciously it triggers a lot of senses.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1

CLARA

I decided to focus my text on my view on how the course shaped and also will shape the project to come.

After this first Unit of Powerplay, I definitely know I made the right choice. Constantly having interesting input, being simulated during the discussions in class and having a broad range of reading that are provided for us.

Looking at the circumstances that we are all part of, I must say it is difficult at times to concentrate fully throughout the classes. My head is wandering off and even after such a long adaptation time to get used to the situation, it does not make it easier. Thanks to the good lead of the teachers and also some very present students in our group, I always get pulled back into the conversation.

From the beginning of the course, I knew I wanted to work with the topic of violence towards our natural environment. When it came to building groups, I was quite overwhelmed, as there were so many interesting topics suddenly occurring. The time was very limited to decide and to get into the topics that the classmates were suggesting.
Looking back at previous projects and also into the future of projects to come, I realised that the collaboration is most important for me. I am not an individual Designer, solely working on my own ideas. The dynamics that the group can create can not arise by yourself. Therefore I found it very difficult to not directly be able to choose with whom I work, looking at the personalities, if we align with our way of working or if we have good dynamics between us. I am curious now to see how the project will shape and I hope for a pleasant working atmosphere with my group.

BODINE

In the first class, we looked at different ways of recording. We started with watching a “situated testimony” of Forensic Architects and discussed the value of this investigating method. I think it is very interesting that architects and artists can use their skills for a very different purpose than they’ve learned. With the method of Forensic Architects, I think the testimony becomes a very real story in which you learn about the whole situation and get drawn more into it.  Then we visited Imperial courts which gives us a look into the neighborhood and its story through audio, video, and photos. These methods of recording give us another inside than when people in the neighborhood were being interviewed. We watch it from their point of view. There’s no prejudge in the filming but just showed as it is which I find a nice way to observe and listen.
In the end, we watched a deported woman recording violence by using her own body.
For me, that made it a very powerful performance. You can hear something and find it bad but it has never the same effect as seeing it. She showed how inhuman the protocols become when you no longer are seen as a citizen. How all of a sudden you no longer are viewed as human.

In the second class, we read a part of “The decolonial listening” and “Whites, Jews, and us”. The first text explains the challenge of decolonial listening, which means to listen to people outside your own frames and how Modernity maintains the way we view the world, from a white/western perspective.
"Whites, Jews, and us" show us how the white/western voice is being idolized and how we see ourselves as angels. We have reached modernity and therefore we are worthy, we are valued. We also feel the right to “help” other people in third world countries but only with our own visions. But we need to realize that because we never really listened to their needs we simply don’t know what is best for them.

It really confronts me how big this issue is rooted in our idea of being successful/a successful world which for me relates to power. This power creates a lot of violence and borders (access to countries, education, etc)