Phoebe Agnew
Understanding the Significance of Lennox Castle Hospital’s Ruin
AAD Dissertation Studio 7 2019–20
Extracts from Phoebe Agnew,
Dissertation Studio 7 Thinking with Ruins Tutor: Danielle Hewitt
School of Art, Architecture and Design London Metropolitan University 2020
Chapter TwoDisordered: What Can Be Deciphered from Lennox Castle Hospital’s Ruin? The disorder of Lennox Castle Hospital’s ruin is powerful to experience, and it feels inexplicably overwhelming. Its enormous chaos feels like a rebellion against the authorities who enclosed people away for so many years. It remains in a strangely frozen state of limbo. It feels as though it has been forgotten about by humanity, left in a pocket in time, but not by other life forms. Its once grand, powerful structure, has been fatigued by an orchestra of persistent roots, winds and rainfall. It has been allowed to develop in peace, uninterrupted in its growth.
Figure 8- Window-frame balanced on a beam at Lennox Castle Ruin, Lennoxtown, by Phoebe Agnew, 2019.
In Observed Decay, Caitlin DeSilvey discusses her struggle with her role as a curator. DeSilvey observes how the boundaries between alluring, precious objects and repulsive rubbish are very intermingled. Here she describes the moment she discovered a box of books that was eaten by mice: …I saw that scraps of torn paper made up part of the box’s grey matter. I picked out a few legible pieces: ‘shadowed’, ‘show’, ‘here’, ‘start’, ‘Christ’. The words mingled with the mouse droppings, cottony fluff and leaf spines (and the odd mouse skeleton). Tiny gnaw marks showed along the spines of the books, half moons of stolen print. (2006. p.322) DeSilvey realized that her approach was problematic and began to question her authority. She realized that by trying to fit this mixed array of matter into objective categories, she would be inflicting her own expectations and presumptions onto the end narrative. (DeSilvey, 2006. p.324) It isn’t possible to apply subjective judgements to physical matter and create objective factual information about the past. In a bid
to preserve objects and their stories, the curator is decontextualizing objects through categorization, which interrupts the natural process of decay and causes different stories to be lost. Spaces which are allowed to grow, give huge insights into how much time has passed since human intervention and tell micro-stories about organic life. What remains at Lennox Castle Hospital’s ruin is a subtle hint of familiarity. The cemented approach-way softens the thump of footsteps with a rotting wood carpet. A curtain rail…. light switches… A pastel pink wardrobe once kept tidy and clean, is now layered with algae, rust and peeling paint. Windowsills have become overflown with crumbled wood and rusted nails, with a softly condensed pathway worn through the centre. Pipes that once rushed with crisp water now rest in organic blockages and dysfunctionality. A lightbulb bracket hangs precariously on its gas piping. A door has walked from its frame and hangs from its corner in a 360-degree tangle of beams. If a curator were to try and separate the ‘important’ parts of Lennox Castle from the ‘unimportant’ parts, they would immensely struggle. The evidence of time passing, a piece of history, would be destroyed.
Figure 9- An old concrete driveway, completely overgrown with a tiny pathway. By Phoebe Agnew, 2019
DeSilvey develops this idea in Observed Decay, describing how humans as a whole, fail to see the larger picture of the varied lives of objects. Although the matter may have been shaped or used by humans, it continues to exist beyond social, human use. These human uses for objects are… temporary arrangements: clear window glass, milled lumber, tempered fence wire. But these arrangements are unstable…Faded scraps of newspaper mingle with the husks of fallen leaves. Lichen grows on a standing building…” (2006. p.324) Caitlin DeSilvey proposes a system in which we widen our perspective to view objects as having human value but also “…biological and chemical lives as well…” (DeSilvey, 2006. p.324). Through the lens of DeSilvey’s argument, Lennox Castle Hospital’s ruin can be understood to contain ecological information about materials, such as seeing an ant colony’s home, as opposed to a useless, rotten window-frame. Most
importantly, DeSilvey argues against the altering of narratives of natural materials, because materials are naturally intertwined, as both artefacts and ‘ecofacts’ (DeSilvey, 2006. p.323). Developing on this anti-anthropocentric view of matter, Jane Bennett writes in Vibrant Matter, how she believes that all matter has a value and deserves to be listened to in a political system. She is not arguing that all matter is equal, but that there should be more communication between ‘actants’ and humans. Bennett defines Bruno Latour’s term, ‘actant’ as a “source of action that can be either human or nonhuman; it is that which has efficacy, can do things, has sufficient coherence to make a difference, produce effects, alter the course of events.” (2010. p.viii). She explains how food is an actant, which has an effect… “inside and alongside humankind, exerting influence on moods, dispositions and decisions.” (Bennett, 2010. p.xvii) Bennett argues that humans should dedicate more time to understanding non-human actants. She observes that our political system is an anthropocentric one; political decisions affect the whole world and humans should consider non-human needs when making decisions (Bennett, 2010. p.xvi). Bennett describes how, “We need… to devise new procedures, technologies and regimes of perception that enable us to consult nonhumans more closely, or listen and respond more carefully to their outbreaks, objections, testimonies and propositions.” (2010. p.108). Bennett’s philosophical theory about treating animals, plants and forces that we cannot see with respect, is a very democratic approach to matter, that would result in a fairer society. DeSilvey’s thoughts about leaving matter to freely decay and Bennett’s theory of inclusivity of actants’ needs, philosophically parallel with Lennox Castle Hospital. By allowing the site to be un-curated and free, no single authority is dominating the place, like the institution dominated its residents. Within Lennox Castle Hospital’s ruin, algae, plants and the wind have been allowed to regain their position within the ecosystem: each actant has equal opportunities. The ecological growth has risen back into power over the stone, metal and wood which was enforced on the site. Similarly, the ex-residents have risen to back into power over themselves and their lives, as equals to the staff who controlled them. It can be concluded that Lennox Castle Hospital’s ruin should remain in-situ. The rubble represents the eventual power of the slow, the natural disorder and re-instatement of human rights. The ruin is a democratic ecosystem that represents equality between the human and nonhuman actants.
‌ School of Art, Architecture and Design London Metropolitan University 2020
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