The Precious, and Money. Basic readings on the invention of the valuable object.
"Money, money, one of these days I will say something about you. In this century he who does not dare tell the truth about money is no [poet] Architect." (in adaptation of Henri Micheaux).
In this lecture course we want to engage with the current interest in the Architectural Object in Architecture Theory Discourses. How can we understand this interest in referring to architecture through objects? Rather than by speaking about a house or a building directly? We will question this trend in relation to the traditional architectural category of "purposiveness".
We know since Plato´s Symposium that it is the presence of the uninvited third, at the table of the host where the relevance of something is up for discussion, that distinguishes a ceremonial ritual from academic discourse. With regard to the current interest in The Object, we want to suggest that this figure of the third is money. What does it have to say? What does it contribute to the talks?
The students will be introduced to basic readings on how to think about the role of money in relation to what counts as valuable/precious. The goal of this course is to examine how the discourse does not only co-constitute architectural objects but also orients and delimits creative thinking in architecture by selecting paradigmatic cases, establishing themes, raising and dismissing questions.
The course will be blocked into double-sessions (each two hours of lecture and discussion). Each session will be devoted to a reading assignment.
The final session will be a written exam (students are asked to write short statements on the theme of the course).
25 Oktober 2017: Marcel Hénaff, "The figure of the Merchant in Western Tradition" (p. 59-76 in The Price of Truth, Gift, Money, and Philosophy, Stanford University Press, 2010) & David Graeber, "The Myth of Barter" in Debt. The first 5000 Years, Random House, 2011.
22 November 2017: Friedrich Hayeck, "The Use of Knowledge in Society" & Brian Rotman, Signifying Nothing, The Semiotics of Zero (Stanford UP, 1987)
6 December 2017: Plato, The Symposium & Michel Serres, The Parasite
10. December 2017: Gilles Deleuze, The Exhausted
17. December 2017: Exam
The Seminar will be taught in English. But papers written in German will also be accepted.
