Potlatch

pot路latch

pot·latch

Athens, Onassis Cultural Centre Adhocracy: From making things to making the commons April 29th—June 27th, 2015

Edward Curtis, Marsked Dancers

Helmsing H. Indian Potlatch Alert Bay, B.C. (1912)

McRae Bros._Indian Potlach Alert Bay B.C. (1910)

potlatch \pōt’lăch’\ n.

1. (Anthropology & Ethnology) anthropol a competitive ceremonial activity among certain North American Indians, esp the Kwakiutl, involving a lavish distribution of gifts and the destruction of property to emphasize the wealth and status of the chief or clan 2. US and Canadian a wild party or revel [from Chinook, from Nootka patshatl a giving, present] Collins English Dictionary-Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publisher 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

index

Edward Curtis, Marsked Dancers Helmsing H. Indian Potlatch Alert Bay, B.C. (1912) McRae Bros._Indian Potlach Alert Bay B.C. (1910) \pöt’läch’\

-------

Intro

• ••

CAD Assemblage The Gift

•••

“Your office is where you are”

••••

Museo Guatelli, Ozzano Taro, Parma

•••••

Donors Potlatch 2015 FAQ Aknowledgment

Umbrellas and sewing-machines The working class goes to heaven In A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Grundrisse), trying to define the general intellect, Karl Marx ’invents’ what will be later define as ’cognitive capitalism’. He writes: ”But to the degree that large industry develops, the creation of real wealth comes to depend less on labour time and on the amount of labour employed than on the power of the agencies set in motion during labour time, whose ’powerful effectiveness’ is itself in turn out of all proportion to the direct labour time spent on their production, but depends rather on the general state of science and on the progress of technology, or the application of this science to production. In this transformation, it is neither the direct human labour he himself performs, nor the time during which he works, but rather the appropriation of his own general productive power, his understanding of nature and his mastery over it by virtue of his presence as a social body it is, in a word, the development of the social individual which appears as the great foundation stone of production and of wealth. The theft of alien labour time, on which the present wealth is based, appears a miserable foundation in face of this new one, created by large scale industry itself. As soon as labour in the direct form has ceased to be the great well spring of wealth, labour time ceases and must cease to be its measure, and hence ex-change value [must cease to be the measure] of use value. The surplus labour of the mass has ceased to be the condition for the development of general wealth, just as the non-labour of the few, for the development of the general powers of the human head. With that, production based on exchange value breaks down, and the direct, material production process is stripped of the form of penury and antithesis. The free development of individualities, and hence not the reduction of necessary labour time so as to posit surplus labour, but rather the general reduction of the necessary labour of society to a minimum, which then corresponds to the artistic, scientific etc. development of the individuals in the time set free, and with the means created, for all of them. Capital itself is the moving contradiction, [in] that it presses to reduce labour time to a minimum, while it posits labour time, on the other side, as sole measure and source of wealth.

Hence it diminishes labour time in the necessary form so as to increase it in the superfluous form; hence posits the superfluous in growing measure as a condition - question of life or death - for the necessary. On the one side, then, it calls to life all the powers of science and of nature, as of social combination and of social intercourse, in order to make the creation of wealth independent (relatively) of the labour time employed on it. On the other side, it wants to use labour time as the measuring rod for the giant social forces thereby created, and to confine them within the limits required to maintain the already created value as value. Forces of production and social relations - two different sides of the development of the social individual - appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high.”

Only in more recent times, during the ’vigorous’ student demonstration of the 70’s and the far less ’vigorous’ demonstration of the 90’s this abstruse and prophetic passage has been reused as a fundamental text for the heterogeneous European movement that we will call the ’Immaterial Workers movement’ - a current which in addition to defining a conceptual frame of the contemporary postFordist production, tries to suggests new operative solutions.

In its hermeneutic approach, instead of creating a useless metalanguage, POTLATCH has the ambition of giving answers. Quoting an article’s incipit, signed by Paolo Virno among the others, we can read: ”The characteristic features of post-Fordist society are universally recognized: by technocrats, trade unionists, sociologi-sts, research centers, government agencies, parliamentary committees, the media, Veltroni, ’Matteo Renzi’. For sure in the future university courses will be set up on this subject.”

Having been studied and theorised for decades, there is a precise awareness and a vast body of knowledge of this particular socioeconomic context we are living in. Perhaps one of the disciplines to

INTRO

reflect this condition more than others is architecture. A discipline, originally an art and science of producing concrete monuments, after following unrestrained growth and excessive speculation, today produces virtual images in its worst case scenarios and knowledge in its best.

Someone with a cynical point of view on the contemporary condition of architecture may say that this is just a transitory moment of ’skinny cows’ for the construction industry, mentioning that Karl Friedrich Schinkel spent most of his career painting, before obtaining his first commission.

POTLATCH tries to read this condition as the beginning of a new phase, inseparable from the global evolution of productive systems and the economic transformations and to provide an antidote or, better, an ’apotropaic ritual’, which has the strength to chase away the fear of one day becoming ’creators of dreams’.

Ne travaillez jamais POTLATCH is an answer to the actual situation of Architecture focusing on the conditions of architects under 30 - marginal position that forces the ’young workers’ to lend their services to different employers for short periods, to enter into fast and perverse processes of production they don’t have any control of, only to get a chance to produce mostly immaterial and intellectual fragments, that are often set aside or abandoned, enriching a personal ’catalogue of scrapes’, an ’archive of horrors’ rather than themselves.

The attempt is to overturn this marginal condition celebrating a POTLATCH: a ritual in which all the scrapes of production are donated and experienced in order to disintegrate and consume their negative tensions. The aim is to reaffirm a status which seems lost or, at least, to imagine ’how to live in the new world’ , without any nostalgic or revolutionary wishes.

The fact that this dematerialization of architecture is structural rather than temporary is evident by enlarging the field of investigation to the scale of the new post-Fordist society arising from the crisis.

This transition changes the habits of work, modifying the workplace, creating a new arrangement of social interactions and changing the relation with the technique of production.

In essence, the meaning of the following four words is being redefined: The factory: Both temporal and spatial flexibility allow the new labour force to go beyond factory’s walls. Production is not anymore restricted to the workplace but may take place wherever a wifi connection is available, leading to the definition of a ’diffuse factory’ or ’global factory’.

Social classes: From working all together in the same space we shift to working in many different ways, in many different places. This particular tendency weakens the sense of belonging to a specific group.

The identity of social classes crumbles. The triumph of individuality.

The technique: it embraces the whole productive process. From the technique as a tool we move to the technique as a result, as final product, marketable and with its precise commercial value.

Productive time: the time stops being one of the productive parameters. The working time and the non-working time are no longer two different categories. New productivity is based on the use of generic human faculties such as language, sociality, capacity of abstraction, ethic and aesthetic inclinations. You never stop to work, by working less and less.

Simultaneously and paradoxically, old terms and obsolete economies reemerges in the hyper modernity : many forms of trade reappears (in new knowledge and capacities), new forms of slavery (with exploitation of work based on specific ethnic groups ), corporations ( in order to protect the interests of the lucky few ) and informal economy ( used

INTRO

especially in the Third World Countries ).

In this context of primitive future even the POTLATCH re-emerges, as a destructive process, an unconventional theory of economy that promoted waste and excess, rather than accumulation, alternative to the additive nature of capitalism. A model is however not as utopic as it may sounds, based on congenital human qualities, as George Bataille recalls in his essay The Notion of Expenditure(1933): ” Human activity is not entirely reducible to processes of production and conservation, and consumption must de divided into two distinct parts. The first, reducible part is represented by the use of the minimum necessary for the conservation of life and the continuation of individuals ’productive activity in a given society’ it is therefore a question simply on the fundamental condition of productive activity. The second part is represented by so-called unproductive expenditures: luxury, mourning, war, cults, the conservation of sumptuary monuments, games, spectacles, arts, perverse sexual activity - all these represent activities which, at least in primitive circumstances, have no end beyond themselves.”

Give as much as you receive POTLATCH aims not only at a re-visitation, a re-use of exotic habits and folkloristic ballets.

POTLATCH is the most extreme representation of an alternative economy that has characterized, even in recent times, different cultures in the world ( from North America to Micronesia, China and India ).

POTLATCH looks at the gift in a different way, not as a demonstration of generosity but as a tool to activate dynamics and duties typical of an economic system: the duty of giving, the duty of receiving.

A system based on a temporary dependency of the one who receives on the one who gives. ’Ko Maru kai atu, Ko Maru kai mai, Ka ngohe ngohe’ is a Maori proverb that explains this concept and that could be roughly translated as: Give as much as you receive, everything will be fine.

Marcel Mauss in his The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies ( 1924 ) clarifies this idea : ”These great acts of generosity are not free from self-interest. The extravagant consumption of wealth, particularly in the potlatch, always exaggerated and often purely destructive, in which goods long stored are all at once given away or destroyed, lends to these institutions the appearance of wasteful expenditure and child-like prodigality. Not only are valuable goods thrown away and foodstuffs consumed to excess but there is destruction for its own sake - coppers are thrown into the sea or broken. But the motives of such excessive gifts and reckless consumption, such mad losses and destruction of wealth, especially in these potlatch societies, are in no way disinterested. Between vassals and chiefs, between vassals and their henchmen, the hierarchy is established by means of these gifts. To give is to show one’s superiority, to show that one is something more and higher, that one is magister. To accept without returning or repaying more is to face subordination, to become a client and subservient, to become minister.”

and: ”The facts we have studied are all ’total’, social phenomena. The word ’general’ may be preferred although we like it less. Some of the facts presented concern the whole of society and its institutions (as with potlatch, opposing clans, tribes on visit, etc.) others, in which exchanges and contracts are the concern of individuals, embrace a large number of institutions. These phenomena are at once legal, economic, religious, aesthetic, morphological and so on. They are legal in that they concern individual and collective rights, organized and diffuse morality they may be entirely obligatory, or subject simply to praise or disapproval. They are at once political and domestic, being of interest both to classes and to clans and families. They are religious, they concern true religion, animism, magic and diffuse religious mentality. They are economic, for the notions of value, utility, interest, luxury, wealth, acquisition, accumulation, consumption and liberal and sumptuous expenditure are all present, although not perhaps in their modern senses.

Moreover, these institutions have an important aesthetic side the objects made, used, decorated, polished, amassed and transmitted with affection, received with joy, given away in triumph, the feasts in which everyone participates - all these, the food, objects and services, are the source of aesthetic emotions as well as emotions aroused by interest.”

In the POTLATCH the gift becomes able to enable social relationships.

INTRO

Within the classical economy goods and services have an intrinsic value (usage value) and a trade value derived by market’s rules. If we accept the capacity of a donated good or a service as a third value of creating social relationships, we may conclude that there exists an extra value value of connection - in which the connection becomes more important than the good itself.

As in the archaic societies, in POTLATCH, the objects assume a ’soul’ which strongly connects them to their creators. These objects tend to become extensions of the donor who recognizes oneself in the goods which have been shared and donated. Evidence of this is the fact that the donors of POTLATCH, rather than a random piece of their immaterial production, sent the most complex, weird and representative ones. Once the ritual of potlatch happens and all the gifts are symbolically burned in the act of sharing they can return to their owner, deprived of their initial intrinsic negativity.

Random encounters POTLATCH is structured by a series of ’calls for materials’ which aim to obtain as much scrapes as possible. Composed step by step, the images are nothing but ’crystallizations’ of a wider and constantly-growing whole, supported by an endless surface of the virtual plan. All the edges are deleted, the objects are deployed without any figurative sense in order to create an unstable and imaginative representation of the enormity of the immaterial production. Beauty is caught in the random relations which are generated by the objects arranged in space: ”As beautiful as the random encounter between an umbrella and a sewing-machine upon a dissecting-table.” (Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautreamont) The ritual of POTLATCH does not generate beautiful images, nor is it a result of a single agency. It represents a collectively, a flea market where all the single pieces are arranged to be used in a free and disrespectful manner, as suggested by Guy Debord in his Methods of Detournement (1957): ”Any elements, no matter where they are taken from, can serve in making new combinations. [...] Anything can be used. It goes without saying that one is not limited to correcting a work or to integrating diverse fragments of out-of-date works into a new one one can also alter the meaning of these fragments in any appropriate way, leaving the imbeciles to their slavish preservation of citations.”

Beating the anxiety of restauration, reuse, recycling, etc. of wastes that is peculiar of our times, the goal of POTLATCH is in the annihilation of all the gifts, the symbolic and economic dissipation of the ’Immaterial’, an operation which doesn’t allow for any further speculation. There is no additional meaning as described by Baudrillard in When everything is taken away, nothing is left. (Traverses, n° 11, 1978): ”Today, the remainder has become the weighty term. It is on the remainder that a new intelligibility is founded. End of a certain logic of distinctive oppositions, in which the weak term played the role of the residual term. Today, everything is inverted. Psychoanalysis itself is the first great theorization of residues (lapses, dreams, etc.). It is no longer a political economy of production that directs us, but an economic politics of reproduction, of recycling-ecology and pollution a political economy of the remainder. All normality sees itself today in the light of madness, which was nothing but its insignificant remainder. Privilege of all the remainders, in all domains, of the not - said, the feminine, the crazy, the marginal, of excrement and waste in art, etc. But this is still nothing but a sort of inversion of the structure, of the return of the repressed as a powerful moment, of the return of the remainder as surplus of meaning, as excess, of a higher order of meaning starting with the remainder. The secret of all the ”liberations” that play on the hidden energies on the other side of the slash.

Now we are faced with a much more original situation: not that of the pure and simple inversion and promotion of remainders, but that of an instability in every structure and every opposition that makes it so that there is no longer even a remainder, due to the fact that the remainder is everywhere, and by playing with the slash, it annuls itself as such. It is not when one has taken everything away that nothing is left, rather, nothing is left when things are unceasingly shifted and addition itself no longer has any meaning.”

INTRO

Bibliography G. BATAILLE, The Accursed Share. An Essay on General Economy, Zone Books, New York, 1991.

J. BAUDRILLARD, Quando si toglie tutto non resta niente, in Traverses, n°11, 1978.

Y. BENKLER, The Wealth of Networks. New Haven, Yale University Press, Londra, 2006.

M. BLOCH e J. PARRY (curated by), Money and the Morality of Exchange, Cambridge University press, Cambridge, 1989.

N. BOURRIAUD, Postproduction, Lukas & Sternberg, NewYork, 2002.

J.T. GODBOUT, The World of the Gift, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Kingston. Ontario, 2000.

M. GODELIER, The Enigma of the Gift, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999.

C. GREGORY, Gift and Commodities, Academic Press, Londra-NewYork, 1982.

A.R. HOCHSHILD, The Economy of Gratitude, in D.FRANKS e E.MCCARTHY, The Sociology of Emotions, Jai Press Inc. Greenvich. Conn. 1989.

B. MALINOWSKI, The Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Rutledge&Sons, London, 1932. (https://archive.org/details/argonautsofthewe032976mbp testo originale completo) M. MAUSS, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Routledge&Sons, Londra, 2002.

R. SANSI, Art, Anthropology and the Gift, Bloomsbury, Londra, 2014.

A. WEINER, Inalienable Possession: The Paradox of Keeping-while-Giving, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1992.

http://www.journaldumauss.net http://kunsthalaarhus.dk/en/research#overlay=en/research/on-sharing http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/potlatch30.html (nell’achivio dell’internazionale situazionista ci sono estratti della rivista Potlatch)

INTRO

CAD Assemblage M. Poli, CAD Assemblage, ABITARE, January 2014, n. 537

.

* Potlatch V LQJO >GD XQD YRFH FKLQRRN FKH VLJQL›FD GRQR@ Ű Festa cerimoniale presso alcuni popoli nativi americani della costa nord-occidentale del Pacifico, come un matrimonio o una successione, in cui il padrone di casa distribuisce doni secondo il grado e la posizione di ogni ospite. Tra gruppi rivali, invece, il potlatch potrebbe implicare doni stravaganti o la distruzione di oggetti di valore da parte del padrone di casa per ostentare la propria ricchezza.

Potlatch Q >IURP &KLQRRN D JLYLQJ SUHVHQW@ Ű A ceremonial feast among certain Native American peoples of the Northwest Pacific coast, as in celebration of a marriage or accession, at which the host distributes gifts according to each guest’s rank or status. Between rival groups the potlatch could involve extravagant or competitive giving and destruction by the host of valued items as a display of superior wealth.

18

537

POTLATCH 2013

.

fosbury architecture ------------Potlatch* ------------milano

537

POTLATCH 2013

19

.

Matteo Poli

CAD ASSEMBLAGE

C

In queste pagine: schermate di AutoCAD con esempi di librerie di immagini prodotte negli studi di architettura da stagisti.

Nelle ultime pagine, il Potlatch.

Those pages: screenshots of AutoCAD with samples of images libraries produced by interns. In the last two pages, the Potlatch.

20

hiunque abbia lavorato in uno studio sa bene che l’ultima sera di uno stagista si riconosce facilmente. Nonostante il suo compito sia esaurito, il giovane si trattiene un po’ più a lungo, con aria vaga passa da un computer all’altro copiando file su una chiavetta, dettagli da riutilizzare, librerie di simboli o materiali. Questa collezione di detriti e frammenti è generalmente un prodotto sterile, che perde di valore appena usciti dal luogo dove era sinergica a progetti veri, in costruzione, mentre diventa puro citazionismo grafico negli usi successivi.

La continua evoluzione dei file nelle settimane dopo l’uscita dell’intern diluirà mano a mano il suo contributo, fino a farlo sparire nelle fasi progettuali a venire: se fino a metà degli anni ‘90 gli autori di collage e disegni erano spesso noti e riconosciuti quanto i progettisti (da Madelon Vriesendorp ad Arduino Cantafora), con l’avvento di Photoshop e AutoCAD i materiali grafici non hanno più paternità (una bella mostra sul tema della dissoluzione

537

POTLATCH 2013

degli archivi – e degli autori – digitali si è tenuta al CCA di Montreal: Archaeology of the digital, catalogo edito da Sternberg Press, 2013). La rappresentazione non è più un punto fermo, ma è forse la parte più fluida e anonima della progettazione.

Oggi, nei grandi studi ma anche durante i fantomatici stage di 150 ore, migliaia di giovani architetti ritagliano, selezionano, incollano e assemblano librerie di immagini, collage, rendering: i nuovi operai, misconosciuti e incompresi dai sindacati e dal governo, detentori di partita Iva e come tali vittime di tassazioni sul lavoro spaventose, entrano in studio alla mattina ed escono dopo una pizza davanti al video, acquisendo frattaglie di conoscenza spesso totalmente inutilizzabili nel girone successivo.

“Un pezzo, un culo! Un pezzo, un culo! Un pezzo, un culo!” (Gian Maria Volontè a.k.a. operaio Lulù) in La classe operaia va in paradiso di Elio Petri, 1971, descrive in modo sintetico la necessità di estraniarsi dalla catena di montaggio, qualsiasi essa sia,

.

537

POTLATCH 2013

21

.

Progetto / Project Potlatch Architetti / Architects Fosbury Architecture Gruppo di progettazione / Project team Jana Alaraj (PS), Josef Altshuler (USA), Mirko Andolina (I), Giacomo Ardesio (I), Emanuela Baldissera Pacchetti (I), Rodrigo Bandini Dos Santos (BR), Sebastiano Barbieri (I), Valentina Baroni (I), Caterina Battolla (I), Roxane Belot (F), Alexandra Berdan (RO), Benedetta Cairoli (I), Veronica Caprino (I), Ilaria Elena Catalano(I), Albero Cavallari (I), Leonor Chabason (F), Alice Colombo (I), Blerta Copa (AL), Dominykas Daunys (LT), Juan Antonio Del Bario Batista (PA), Michela Dell’Orto (I), Aurora Destro (I), Lauren Di Pietro (UK), Nadia El Hakim (F), Alba Escudier (E), Caterina Failla(I), Andrea Frignani(I), Jose Garcia Soriano (E), Elia Giampellegrini (I), Francesca Giannini (I), Federico Gobbato (I), Gloria Gorreri (I), Emanuela Gussoni (I), Brian Hamilton (USA), Ali Jesserwala Hussain Abbas (PK), Maria Kartseva (RUS), Anton Kotlyarov (RUS), Martina La Vista (I), Manuel Rodriguez Ladron De Guevara (E), Ana Lima (P), Antonio Giulio Loforese (I), Yiwei Lu (CN), Sarah Lyons (AUS), Filipe Magalhāes (P), Claudia Mainardi (I), Vittoria Marelli (I), Francesco Martinazzo (I), Daniel Munteanu (RO), Niccolò Ornaghi (I), Claudia Otten (USA), Gregorio Pecorelli (I), Francesca Pedroni (I), Pawel Pedrycz POL, Stefano Penazzi (I), Enrico Perini (I), Francesca Lina Pincella (I), Giorgia Pinoli (I), Michele Piroddi Frassinetti (I), Andrea Poloni (I), Giulia Ragnoli (I), Andrea Riva (I), Borja Rodriguez Menacho (E), Andrea Romano (I), Delphine Roque (F), Cecilia Salsi (I), Mariagiulia Federica Salvitti (I), Lera Samovich (RUS), Eva Seijas Marcos (E), Maria Clara Serenellini (RA), Livia Shamir (I), Ana Luisa Soares (P), Valeria Stress (I), Marco Taccagni (I), Damien Tammer (AUS), Marco Uliana (N), Kevin Van den Bulcke (B), Asya Vaynber (RUS), Magda Vieriu (RO), Patrick Zamojski (D) Timing 4.11-1.12.2013 Luogo / Location Il mondo / The world

22

per sopravvivere. Subito dopo, Lulù dichiara: “Visto che dobbiamo lavorare, lavoriamo. No?”.

Ovvero, troviamo nel fare la giustificazione dell’essere, o nell’eterno presente di Sant’Agostino la comprensione del passato e del futuro.

Il progetto Potlatch, ideato nel 2013 da tre giovani studenti del Politecnico di Milano (Alessandro Bonizzoni, Antonio Buonsante, Nicola Campri), raccoglie la sospensione esistenziale di chi produce frammenti e mai manufatti, permettendo una seconda vita ai resti della produzione architettonica agostinianamente sospesa nell’istante in cui viene rappresentata: “Potlatch è un progetto collettivo.

Scarti e pezzi di disegni prodotti durante tirocini e percorsi formativi frammentari, dei quali non abbiamo avuto il controllo dell’intero processo, qui si riuniscono in un cerimoniale. Così, blocchi di scale diverse, alberi autunnali ricalcati con cura, planimetrie di impianti sportivi per concorsi a inviti bavaresi, arredi urbani posizionati all’ultimo secondo sul file definitivo vengono qui rimescolati, riarrangiati e infine liberati. I frammenti andranno a comporre un disegno collettivo e potenzialmente infinito, che finalmente, nella bellezza del gesto, darà significato al nostro lavoro. Potlatch è una festa alla quale, con i loro doni, tutti dovrebbero partecipare. Al termine, il risultato finale sarà messo a disposizione di tutti coloro che hanno contribuito.

Partecipate al cerimoniale! Contribuite al Potlatch!”.

CAD ASSEMBLAGE

A

nyone who has ever worked in a studio is well aware that the last evening of an intern is easy to recognise. Despite the fact that the intern’s work is finished, the young person stays a little bit longer than usual and in a distracted way moves from one computer to another copying files onto a stick – with things which could be re-used and libraries of symbols and materials. This collection of remains and fragments is generally a sterile product, which loose its value as soon as you have left the place where it was linked organically to real ongoing products, while afterwards it turns into forms of graphic citationism.

The continual evolution of the files in the weeks after the end of the intern’s time in the post tends to dilute their contribution step by step, until it disappeared into future projects and design phases. Until about half way through the 1990s, the authors of collages and drawings went often known and recognised as much as the designers were (from Madelon Vriesendorp to Arduino Cantafora) – the rise of Photoshop and AutoCAD have meant that graphic materials no longer have authors. See, for this, the interesting exhibition around the question

537

POTLATCH 2013

of the dissolution of the archives, and of the author – which was held at the CCA in Montreal: Archaeology of the digital (catalogue Sternberg Press, 2013). Representation is no longer fixed, but is probably the most fluid and anonymous part of the planning process.

Today, in the big studios, but also during phantom 150-hour internships – thousands of young architects cut, choose, past and assemble libraries of images, collages and renderings. These new workers, who are misunderstood and ignored by the trade unions and the Government, with their self-employed tax codes which mean that they are taxed at a frightening level for the work they do, go to work in studios in the morning and leave after eating a pizza in front of their computers, gaining fragmentary pieces of knowledge which are often completely useless in the next round of internships or paid work.

“Un pezzo, un culo! Un pezzo, un culo! Un pezzo, un culo!” [“One piece, one ass! One piece, one ass!]: This phrase uttered by Gian Maria Volontè as the worker Lulù in the film La classe operaia va in paradiso di Elio Petri, 1971, was a good summary of the need of workers at the time to distance themselves from the production line – in whatever form it takes – in order to survive. Straight after that phrase, Lulù said this: “Seeing that we have to work, let’s work. No?” That is, we find a justification for being in the act of doing – and in the eternal present of Sant’Agostino we can understand the past and the future.

The Potlatch project, created in 2013 by three young students from the Politecnico di Milano (Alessandro Bonizzoni, Antonio Buonsante, Nicola Campri), encapsulates together the existential emptiness of those who produce fragments and never actual buildings – allowing for a second life to what remains of architectural production which is suspended in an Agostinian way at the same moment that it is represented. “Potlatch is a collective project. It shows works and fragments of drawings produced during internships and training schemes, where we have no control over the process itself – and these items are united in a kind of ritual or ceremony.

So, we have different stairway blocks, autumnal trees depicted in care, plans for sports centres for competitions in Bavaria (only for invitees), urban objects placed in files at the last minute are here remixed, rearranged and finally freed. These fragments will go on to make up a collective and potentially infinite design that, in the end, in terms of the beauty of a gesture, will give some meaning to our work.

Potlatch is a celebration in which, by giving some gifts, everyone should be a part of. In the end – the final result will be made available to all those who have contributed to it. Take part in the ceremonial feast!

Participate al ceremonial feast! Contribute to Potlatch!”.

.

537

POTLATCH 2013

23

The Gift

M.MAUSS, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Routledge&Sons, Londra, 2002, pp. 4-5

..

THE GIFT

M.MAUSS, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Routledge&Sons, Londra, 2002, pp. 31,35

..

THE GIFT

M.MAUSS, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Routledge&Sons, Londra, 2002, pp. 36-37

..

THE GIFT

M.MAUSS, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Routledge&Sons, Londra, 2002, pp. 38-39

..

THE GIFT

M.MAUSS, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Routledge&Sons, Londra, 2002, pp. 40-41

..

THE GIFT

”Your office is where you are” Stone and Luchetti, Harvard Business Review, 1985

...

1

2

7

8

11

12

13

17

16

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE” 19

20

21

...

3

5

6

9

10

4

14

15

18

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE” 22

23

...

1.

2.

Linkedin Headquarter, Sunnyvale

Linkedin Headquarter, Sunnyvael

8.

Action Office 1970

7.

Coworking

11.

12.

13.

Selgan Cano Offices, Iwan Baan

Mortage Broker Office, B.E. Architects

Dublin Google Campus, Henry J Lyons Architects

17.

16.

Mckinsey & Company Office, Oma, Hong Kong

Coworking Studio565

19.

OMA, New York

20.

21.

Mortage Broker Office, B.E. Architects

Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1911-59

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE�

...

3.

4.

Coworking space in Glasgow

Twitter Offices

5.

6.

Centraal Beheer Offices, Apeldoorn

Office

9.

10.

Cubicle

Twitter Offices

14.

15.

Chase Manhattan Bank, Skidmore Owings And Merril, New York, 1961

Dublin Google Campus, Henry J Lyons Architects

18.

Club Rooms Company, London

23.

Big Architects Office, Bjarke Ingels

22.

Architectural Office 1940

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE�

...

24

25

29

30

32

33

36

37

41

42

34

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE” 44

45

46

...

26

27

28

31

35

38

39

40

43

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE” 47

...

24.

25.

Barbarian Creative Group Offices, Clive Wilkinson Architects

Istitute For Forestry And Natural Research, Behnish & Patners, 1994-98

29.

Johnson Wax Headquarters, WFrank Lloyd Wright 1936 4

30.

Cubicle Farm

34.

Cubicle

32.

33.

Workspaces Proposal, Reinosa, Fala Atelier 2013

Marcel Proust Bed-Working Room

36.

37.

Internet Observatory, Michael Jantzen, 2001

Metropol 2 system, Mario Bellini, 1990s

41.

Telegraph Offices, 1900

42.

Onefootball, Berlin Headquarters, Tkzen Architects

46.

Consols Office Bank Of England, John Soane, 1894

44.

Olivetti, Serie Arco, Bbpr 1962

45.

Goldman Sachs Office, Trading Office, New York

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE�

...

26.

Action Office, 1965, Herman Miller

27.

28.

Marquette Park Proposal, Dogma, Chicago 2014

Sas Headquarters, Niels Torp, 1982, Stockolm

31.

Hot-Desking, Getty Images

34.

Cubicle

35.

Playtime, Movie Screenshoot, Jacques Tati, 1967

38.

39.

40.

San Girolamo Nello Studio, Antonello Da Messina

Ad Usum Conference Table System, Antonio Citterio, 1990

Masonite’s Competitions For An Office, Bbpr, 1940

43.

Neuebach, New York

47.

Olivetti

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE”

...

Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices.

Open Plan Office The Taylorist trend in office spaces originated from his concept of “Scientific Management”, which included principles like rationalization of work processes to achieve maximum of efficiency, clear-cut functional hierarchies and division of labor into repetitive tasks.

Taylorism

The management principles mirrored in the design and construction of office buildings: large open plans with rows of standardized desks, resembling factories, with limited access to lounges. Individual productivity rigorously monitored, unobstructed visibility, no privacy or separation between desks. An extremely hierarchical establishment with all the power residing at the top. Work processes strictly ruled by the clock. Punch time clocks at arrival and departure. Only one person at a time permitted to the water cooler or bathroom. It’s not allowed to talk to others.

Office landscape (B¸rolandschaft in German) was an early (1950s) movement in open plan office space planning.

Large open office environments have existed for a long time. However, these frequently consisted of many identical rows of desks or long tables where clerks, typists, or engineers performed repetitive functions. This layout was rooted in the work of industrial engineers and efficiency experts such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford. The office landscape approach to space planning was pioneered by the Quickborner Team led by Eberhard and Wolfgang Schnelle based in the Hamburg suburb of Quickborn. It was intended to provide a more collaborative and humane work environment.

Office Landscape

Cubicle

Office landscape (B¸rolandschaft in German) was an early (1950s) movement in open plan office space planning.

Large open office environments have existed for a long time. However, these frequently consisted of many identical rows of desks or long tables where clerks, typists, or engineers performed repetitive functions. This layout was rooted in the work of industrial engineers and efficiency experts such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford. The office landscape approach to space planning was pioneered by the Quickborner Team led by Eberhard and Wolfgang Schnelle based in the Hamburg suburb of Quickborn. It was intended to provide a more collaborative and humane work environment.

The Action Office is a series of furniture designed by Robert Propst and manufactured and marketed by Herman Miller. First introduced in 1964 as the Action Office I product line, then superseded by the Action Office II series, it is an influential design in the history of ìcontract furnitureî (office furniture). The Action Office II series introduced the concept of the flexible, semi-enclosed workspaces, now better known as the cubicle. All cubicle office designs can be traced back to Herman Millerís Action Office product lines.

Action Office The AO-1 (Action Office I) was initially a commercial flop.

Virtual office provides communication and address services without providing dedicated office space. It differs from “office business centers” or “executive suites”, which do provide office space.

Virtual Office

The virtual office idea came from a combination of technological innovation and the Information Age. The concept has roots in the Industrial Revolution, where parallels to current work styles, specifically working from home, have been drawn. The virtual office concept is an evolution of the executive suite industry. However, the inflexibility of an executive suite lease doesn’t work for many business models and helped spur the virtual office concept.

Parallel trend in office design is the casual office pioneered by Silicon Valley software firms in the eighties, which encourages highly personalised workspaces suited to long hours spent programming. The ëdress codeí of such an office became much more relaxed than a conventional office. As this approach becomes more widespread, especially in creative industries in fashionable central city locations, many others started to become open 24 hours to enable more flexible working patterns. Clearly these offices are the environments where design and creative thinking are developing new ideas that can make the office a more inspiring place.

Casual Office The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization. The onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution, just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age.

Informal Age

"YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE”

...

The practice of working from home or from a remote location from the office, enabled by new computer and telecommunications technology. Widely expected to render the traditional office obsolete in the early nineties, generally this has not happened due to the importance of social interaction within most organisations.

Teleworking This occurs when an organisation pays to have part of its work done by another company, often to cut costs or save time. Alternatively it is used to source services or skills that are not found within the organisation.

Despite the term outsourcing is known, its meaning is not unique.

Outsourcing

Some economists use it to indicate when customer (in English outsourcer) depends totally on the supplier (in English outsourcee) for the supply, because he is not, or is no longer able to play alone the activity subject to bargaining.

Therefore they distinguish from the more general subcontracting, which even if the subcontractor is able to perform under its own activity he prefer to delegate to another contractor the activity. (see. Eg. Van Mieghem, 1999).

Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed by the same organization. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent contractors, or people who travel frequently who end up working in relative isolation.Coworking is also the social gathering of a group of people who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with people who value working in the same place alongside each other.

Co_Working

Coworking offers a solution to the problem of isolation that many freelancers experience while working at home, while at the same time letting them escape the distractions of home

Hot_Desking

It’s the practice of not assigning permanent desks in a workplace, so that employees may work at any available desk

A word coined in the early nineties to describe the practice of working without a dedicated desk. Hot desking is especially suited to work that involves a large proportion of staff being out of an office at one time, desks and facilities are shared and occupied on a temporary basis as and when they are needed. Such a ëvirtual officeí relies on electronic routing of telephone calls and computerized storage of individual files, as well as lockers for personal storage.

A term used to describe the condition of supermodernity, the common global experience of shopping malls, airport lounges and motorways throughout the industrialized world. These ‘non-places’ exist apart from the traditional notions of place, defined by relation, identity and history. From the book by Marc AugÈ , ëNon-Places, Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernityí, Verso, London, 1995

Non_Spaces Organization Teory

A scientific approach to the study of organizations linked to the ‘human relations’ school of the 1930s and more recent ‘organizational psychology’. These studies stressed the importance of social networks and groups and the flow of communication within different types of organizations.

Dwight Waldo noted in a review of field work in 1978 : “Organization theory is characterized by vogues, heterogeneity, claims and counterclaims”.

Sick building syndrome (SBS) covers a range of unexplained symptoms that seem to be caused by the environment within a workplace. It has been linked with a range of causes ranging from poor indoor air quality, to a lack of staff control of heating, lighting and ventilation to the adverse effects of display screens.

Sick Building Syndrome "YOUR OFFICE IS WHERE YOU ARE”

Museo Guatelli Ozzano Taro, Parma

....

"The beauty of the aspects of everyday life that we have ignored and the value that we have not recognized, there have been shown by a simple man of the countryside near Parma. His name is Ettore Guatelli " Werner Herzog

The museum’s story is intertwined with the personal story of its author.

Ettore Guatelli, born in 1921 in a rural village, had not been able to devote himself to life in the fields, or receive a regular education because of a strong illness. After the war, in which he took part in the anti-fascist movement, Guatelli was able to resume his studies and obtain a diploma. In 1968 he passed the competition to become a teacher in a primary schools.

Afterwards, Guatelli began collecting objects to use in his school lessons.

He had told him ”stracciaio”, the collector of old stuff. Over 60,000 items fill every single inch of any available surface; every wall of the museum is covered of things in a magnificent narration. Tin cans, wagon wheels, lamps, buckets, wicker baskets, old barrels, sieves, alarm clocks, horseshoes, trombones, plaques and advertising signs. And again, toys, wooden dolls, shoe forms, hammers, nails, files, chisels and saws, shoes, photographs, costumes and musical instruments. But also vases, clocks, marbles, nuts, keys, beads and spoons. For almost every object, Guatelli drew cards to describe the object in its use and origin. The objects that he recovered and exhibited were not rare or valuable, but things of common use; they retained the imprint, the identity, the soul, the hau, of who, using them every day, has worn to the point to make them part of himself. Guatelli Museum, the Museum of the obvious.

MUSEO GUATELLI

Photographs by Luca Campri from Dapper Dan, Museo Guatelli

Donors

Following pages: screenshots of AutoCAD with samples libraries of images produced by Potlatch donors donors. The Catalog follows alphabetical order and collects 151 contributions.

.....

Alaraj Jana

Alia Arin

Altshuler Josef

Palestina November 2013

Italy March 2015

USA November 2013

Andolina Mirko

Ardesio Giacomo

Ardesio Giacomo

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Baldissera Pacchetti Emanuela

Bandini Dos Santos Rodrigo

Barbieri Sebastiano

Italy November 2013

Brazil November 2013

Italy November 2013

Baroni Valentina

Bassi Matteo

Battolla Caterina

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

DONORS

.....

Belot Roxane

Belot Roxane

Benzi Andrea

France November 2013

France March 2015

Italy March 2015

Berdan Alexandra

Bonetti Michele

Bonizzoni Alessandro

Romania November 2013

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

“Linea del tempo, perdita di tempo”

#UndKeineZeitUndKeineMachtZerstückeltGeprägt eForm,dieLebendSichEntwickelt

Borja Rodrìguez Menacho

Bosio Sara

Bruno Edoardo

Spain November 2013

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Buonsante Antonio

Busnelli Marta

Caccia Benedetta

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015 “I’ve decided to send this draw because Attila (this is his name) was the main character of a project of exhibition that i’ve made during my first university year.”

DONORS

.....

Cairoli Benedetta

Calcaterra Andrea

Calisti Giacomo

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

“It’s a draft of a “4 wooden peaces” chair that i had sketch, and then i had try to “misure-it” in AutoCAD!”

Campri Nicola

Cappello Fabio

Caprino Veronica

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

“The file signed _1 presented a original pizza margherita. The other file is a part of a structure of a public space redesigned to create the environment where I inserted my project for a contest”

Casati Federico

Catalano Ilaria Ilenia

Cavallari Alberto

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Cavallari Alberto

Chabason Leonor

Chatziioakeimidis Dimitris

Italy March 2015

France November 2013

Greece March 2015

DONORS

.....

Cicolari Martina

Cirla Francesca

Cogliani Marina

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Collignon Marine

Colombo Alice

Copa Blerta

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

Corell Escuin Rocio

Curini Enrico

Daunys Dominykas

Spain March 2015

Italy March 2015

Lithuania November 2013

Del Bario Batista Juan Antonio

Dell’Orto Michela

Destro Aurora

Panama November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

“l’unicorno guardava la torre mentre in cielo volava un deltaplano”

DONORS

.....

Di Pietro Lauren

Diaz Gemma

Dios Clara

UK November 2013

Spain March 2015

Spain March 2015

Domeniconi Giulia

El Hakim Nadia

El Hakim Nadia

Italy March 2015

France November 2013

France March 2015

Escudier Alba

Failla Caterina

Faravelli Luca

Spain November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Febbraro Daniele

Freijeiro David

Frignani Andrea

Italy March 2015

Spain March 2015

Italy November 2013

“I made the drawing of the English bulldog based on a photo of my dog, Lola. I wanted to made a paper 3d volumen folding and shaping a flat sheet of paper.”

“Drawn fish because of an animal-house design assignment during the first term of 2012 in the Gazapo Teaching Unit - ETSAM-UPM, Madrid.”

DONORS

.....

Garcia Pepe

Garcia Soriano Jose

Giampellegrini Elia

Spain March 2015

Spain November 2013

Italy November 2013

Giannini Francesca

Gobbato Federico

Gorreri Gloria

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Gussoni Emanuela

Gussoni Emanuela

Hamilton Brian

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

USA November 2013

Iosif Andreas

Jesserwala Hussain Abbas Ali

Jimenez Ruiz Esther

Cyprus March 2015

Pakistan November 2013

Spain March 2015

“The drawing was made on occasion of the “Ciprian Porumbescu public space” architecture competition held in Brașov.”

“A flower [orchid] during a 2nd year program “investigation” course.”

DONORS

.....

Kartseva Maria

Kotlyaron Anton

La Vista Martina

Russia November 2013

Russia November 2013

Italy November 2013

Ladron De Guevara Manuel Rodriguez

Laforese Antonio Giulio

Laguzzi Giovanni Maria

Spain November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

1. Casa di Giulio Romano 2. Palazzo Te 3. Castello di San Giorgio 4. Palazzo del Capitano

Lainz Hugo

Laruffa Antonio

Lepre Federico

Spain March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015

Lombard Rodrigue

Lu Yiwei

Luque de Diego Rodrigo

France March 2015

China November 2013

Spain March 2015

DONORS

.....

Lyons Sarah

Macchi Davide

Madelli Stefano

Australia November 2013

Italy March 2015

Italy March 2015 “An archipelago of memories from Granada, Hannover, Ljubljana, Marseille, Milano, Napoli, Padova, Piacenza, Roma, Tokyo, Vittorio Veneto, Venezia.”

Magalhães Filipe

Mainardi Claudia

Mainardi Claudia

Portugal November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Manchon Marine

Marcelli Melissa

Marelli Vittoria

France March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

Markaki Metaxia

Marongiu Stefano

Martinazzo Francesco

Greece March 2015

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

“Here is some random stuff West 8 keeps in their autocad libraries.”

“It is a “waste” produced during my diploma project, a piece of a street facade in Metaxourgeio, Athens.”

DONORS

.....

Mastro Irene

Mera Diana

Moriggia Sara

Italy March 2015

Spain March 2015

Italy March 2015 “Prospetti parziali di Viale D’Annunzio a Milano, Darsena, frutto di alcuni file rimasti relativi all’ultimo lab di progettazione.”

Muntenau Daniel

Nicoletti Alessandro

Ocon Raquel

Romania November 2013

Italy March 2015

Spain March 2015

“The pigeons are scraps from my competition entry for the Romanian Pavilion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale.”

“Eco-neighborhood is a place where people could make their own food and drink.”

Ornaghi Nicolò

Otten Claudia

Palencia Ana

Italy November 2013

USA November 2013

Spain March 2015 “These shapes took an important part in a project about Henri Matisse. They reflect Matisse universe of colors and figures.”

Papadantonakis Andreas

Pecorelli Gregorio

Pedroni Francesca

Greece March 2015

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

“The dwg file contains nine different CAD-objects produced mainly during my architecture studies.”

DONORS

.....

Pedrycz Pawel

Peluso Salvatore

Penazzi Stefano

Poland November 2013

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

Perini Enrico

Petrova Margarita

Pincella Francesca Lina

Italy November 2013

Russia March 2015

Italy November 2013

“These are open questions, I know; [...] The question I raise is a general one. It may be the right time to ask it. “ David Malouf - First Place

Pinoli Giorgia

Piroddi Frassinetti Michele

Poloni Andrea

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Ragnoli Giulia

Riva Andrea

Romano Andrea

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

Italy November 2013

DONORS

.....

Romano Andrea

Roque Delphine

Salsi Cecilia

Italy March 2015

France November 2011

Italy November 2013

Salvitti Mariagiulia Federica

Samovich Lera

Scaccabarozzi Marta

Italy November 2013

Russia November 2013

Italy March 2015

Seijas Eva

Seijas Eva

Serenellini Maria Cristina

Spain November 2013

Spain March 2015

Argentina November 2013

Shamir Livia

Soares Ana Luisa

Spadoni Caterina

Italy November 2013

Portugal November 2013

Italy March 2015

”Sagome della sezione prospettica di un museo.

Progetto di concorso presentato dello studio AlvisiKirimoto + Partners.”

DONORS

.....

Sportaro Elisa

Stress Valeria

Stress Valeria

Italy March 2015

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Swerdlin Joey

Taccagni Marco

Taccagni Marco

USA March 2015

Italy November 2013

Italy March 2015

Tammer Damien

Tavecchi Giovanna

Uliana Marco

Australia November 2011

Italy March

Norway November 2013

“Prospetti parziali di Viale D’Annunzio a Milano, Darsena, frutto di alcuni file rimasti relativi all’ultimo lab di progettazione.”

Valeri Gabriele

Vanden Bulcke Kevin

Vaynberg Asya

Italy March 2015

Belgium November 2013

Russia November 2013

DONORS

.....

Vecchi Veronica

Vieriu Magda

Vipparti Aditya

Italy March 2015

Romania November 2013

India March 2015

Winkler Moritz

Zambetti Michele

Zamojski Patrick

Germany March 2015

Italy March 2015

Germany November 2013

“A fly, scrap of respectable biodiversity that is now commonly proposed as the solution to the ills of the post-fordist city.”

Zanotto Francesca Italy March 2015 “Prospetti parziali di Viale D’Annunzio a Milano, Darsena, frutto di alcuni file rimasti relativi all’ultimo lab di progettazione.”

DONORS

.....

DONORS

Brazil

Argentina

Panama

Usa

Norway

Lithuania

Romania

Palestina

Pakistan

India

China

Russia

Australia

The map shows the set of all the countries in the world who participated in Potlatch. For each of the states represented in black, there was at least one architect who contributed in Potlatch. Total of 151 donors over 25 countries. As you can see from the diagram below, the highest density of donors, is between the European countries. For obvious reasons of proximity, Italy is in first place with 89 donors.

DONORS

Total:151 contribotors over 25 countries.

UK

Poland

Albany

Egypt

Cyprus

Germany

Greece

Belgium

Italy

France

Spain

Portugal

.....

Potlatch 2015

The drawing represents the printed fabric of Potlatch for the exhibition Adhocracy Athens, 2015.

The composition is built upon a regular grid and it results by assembling all the wastes of 151 Potlatch contributors.

The graphic is reproduced in the following pages in 32 units downscaled by 50%

Details: veil of cotton 100% cotton - 100g/m2 dimensions 150x840 cm unit 52,5x42 cm area 12,6 m2

- testi tutti in splendid 66 bold pt.10 o 11 - griglia sottilissima tipo 0.15 tratteggiata. ( l'importante che si veda ) - il profilo esterno della griglia non so vedete voi se sta meglio linea piena o tartteggiata - le stanghette linea piena stesso pt della griglia. o forse anche pi첫 spesse. linea piena margine / tacchette piene 0.15 o 0.25 0/2 - scala metrica

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

a

b

9

9 10

1011

1112

1213

1314

1415

1516

16

a

b

9

9 10

1011

1112

1213

1314

1415

0

1516

0

16

100 50

10

1A

2A

1B

2B

3A

4A

3B

4B

5A

6A

5B

6B

7A

8A

7B

8B

9A

10A

9B

10B

11A

12A

11B

12B

13A

14A

13B

14B

15A

16A

15B

16B

FAQ

1. What is Potlatch?

Potlatch is a collective project led by Fosbury Architecture. We gather together autocad scraps and assemble a temporary composition in order to release them.

In the Maori language this power is called "hau”.

2. What does “Potlatch” mean?

Literally, it means a gift.

POTLACH here, is a metaphorical celebration of a ritual, in which production remains are donated and consumed, to exorcise their negative charge.

3. What is the origin of Potlatch?

It is from Chinook. See the definition at the beginning of the book.

4. Is Potlatch open to everyone?

No, only to architects under 30 or students of architecture.

5. How many architects took part in the project?

151 6. From how many countries?

25 7. How come so many italian people and so few panamanians one took part in Potlatch, and, above all, why there are no dutch contributors?

Good question.

8. Is Potlatch in favor of speculative economy?

No, it is based on gift economy.

9. Why are you doing it?

To change the world.

10. What did you do so far?

Two call for materials, a publication, a promotional video and a website 2.0.

11. Where can I find info on Potlatch? http://cargocollective.com/ pot-latch 12. What kind of materials did you ask for?

Production wastes collected during internship, job or academic career, only useful in themselves.

13. Did you ask for beautiful or ugly wastes?

The uglier they were, the more they were welcome.

14. What did you actually receive?

Lovely pieces of drawings, precious artworks.

15. When you speak about the ‘soul of things’ what do you exactly mean?

That objects are an emanation of the person who produced them. They are a kind of vehicle of his magical, religious and spiritual power.

16. Could you be more precise?

We will tell you about the "hau”. "Hau” is not the wind. Not at all. Suppose you have some particular object ("taonga”) and you give it to me you give it to me without a price. We do not bargain over it. Now I give this thing to a third person who after a time decides to give me something in repayment for it ("utu”), and he makes me a present of something ("taonga”) . Now this taonga I received from him is the spirit ("hau”) of the taonga I received from you and which I passed on to him.

The "taonga” which I receive on account of the "taonga” that came from you, I must return to you. It would not be right on my part to keep these "taonga” whether they were desirable or not. I must give them to you since they are the "hau” of the "taonga” which you gave me.

If I were to keep this second "taonga” for myself I might become ill or even die.

Such is "hau”, the "hau” of personal property, the "hau” of the "taonga”, the "hau” of the forest. Enough on that subject.

17. What does the installation of Potlatch for Adhocracy Athens represent?

An intimate place of contemplation, maybe a huge shower.

18. Have you complied with your budget?

We exceeded just a little.

19. How much measures the tent?

Exactly 12,6 square meters.

20. Who came up with the design?

Nicola’s grandmother (she is really cool).

21. Who chose the eyelets?

Roby’s mum.

22. Do you really believe in Potlatch?

Yes, obviously!

23. Does Potlatch have anything to do with the Situationist magazine published in 1954?

No. 24. Does Potlatch have anything to do with the book by George Clutesi published in 1969?

Probably, if only we had read it.

25. How have you been able to publicize the event so effectively?

We sent a spam email to 5.000 people.

FAQ

26. Which one is your favorite drawing?

Do you really think we will ever answer to this question?

27. Who is your favorite contributors?

Lera Samovich.

28. Why do you start the introduction of this book with a long and almost incomprehensible quotation

by Karl Marx?

Because we like his beard.

29. Can I skip the long and almost incomprehensible quotation by Karl Marx at the beginning of the introduction?

Do not worry, you will get the point even if you skip it.

30. Which is the complicated algorithm underlying the random composition of Potlatch final design?

No algorithm.

31. Why should architects study anthropology?

To undermine their ego.

32. Why should I take part in Potlatch?

Because if you do not take part in the ritual you lose your status and people will start calling you ’rotten face’.

33. Would you like to be called ‘rotten face’?

No! Never!

34. Do you also accept material downloaded from .dwg databases or otherwise found surfing the internet?

We do, nevertheless, if we catch you, you will make a really bad impression.

35. Is there any reward?

Sure.

36. Which is this famous reward you are always talking about?

We are still working on it.

calls an ”image of thought”, based on the botanical rhizome.

40. Where can I find information on Fosbury Architecture? http://fosburyarchitecture. com 41. What does this Maori proverb mean:”Ko Maru kai atu, Ko Maru kai mai, Ka ngohe ngohe”?

Give as well as take and all will be right.

42. What is the first item you received?

Two little stick birds.

43. What is the last one?

A favela.

44. Have you ever received a dwg file with the drawing of Angela Merkel?

Nop. 45. And a drawing of Berlusconi with sunglasses?

Yes. 46. What did you mean in the last call when you asked for a tweet of the drawings?

Pure curiosity. We invited all donors to write 140 letters on their drawing just to know something more about the stories behind every scrap.

47. What’s the next step?

The composition will become a platform, an interactive website open to all Potlatch contributors.

48. How does it work?

As in a flea market you can wander freely and lose yourself among objects.

49. Does anyone ask you to do this book?

Absolutely not.

50. Which is the slogan of Potlatch?

Celebrate your waste! Take part into the banquet!

37. Which is the font of Potlatch?

Splendid 66.

38. What is Fosbury Architectue?

Fosbury Architecture is a collective of architectural research and design with an open and rhizomatic structure.

39. What does ‘rhizomatic’ means?

The terms ’rhizomatic’ means a mode of research that allows for multiple, nonhierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation. ’Rhizome’ is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project. It is what Deleuze

FAQ

FOSBURY ARCHITECTURE Milan-Rotterdam www.fosburyarchitecture.com

F FOSBURY ARCHITECTURE