Piece by Piece
Student: Lenny Rajmont
The Assemblage
Futurity and Imagination
Introduction
A collection of images put together. Cut up, isolated, put together, torn apart, layered. What do they make together?
A cohesive image full of scale variety, perspectives skewed. Themes, colours, patterns, and photos mingle in a counterharmony to create a complex identity.
In my work, I have utilized collage to work with London’s Queer community as a response to the rapid closure of Queer spaces. (Salem, 2021) In the responses, I have hosted collage workshops allowing participants to imagine their Queer Space Utopia and exhibit the participant’s collages. Through these conversations and collage seances, I have started perceiving landscape and space interventions as forms of collage. This essay explores how collage can be used as a lens to queer landscape—both as reading existing landscape interventions through Queer collage lens and as imagining of future Queer space.
Collaging as a methodology offers a unique lens through which to explore the intersection of Queerness and design. Looking beyond its role as a visual form, collaging is a dynamic process that challenges normative narratives about design and re-constructs them in a way that challenges both societal and Architectural norms of presentation.
(Minden, 2021)
In this essay, I identify key strategies from the process of collaging to be used as a gateway into collage thinking. Next, those identified strategies are used to dissect the meaning of existing landscape interventions—namely the works of landscape artists Nills Norman and sculptor Jean Shin. Further, I propose how collaging can be used as a valuable tool for designers to Queer their practice and imagine Queer futures. Through this essay, I will share short snippets from conversations I have recorded through my Collage practice about Queer Space Imagination.
02/01/2024, 13:50
A Note on language
“Queer” is used in this essay as the most inclusive and practical term for individuals as well as concepts that are non-heterosexual and outside of the gender binary. It includes self-identifiers such as intersex, asexual and fluid identities. It is an umbrella term. It is not a choice without controversy (Drechsler, 2004) however it provides a non-hierarchical and inclusive descriptor. In this essay, the word Queer is also used to describe abstract concepts that fall outside of their “normative” or “expected” form and human identity.
Photo note
Figure 1: Imaginative Queer Landscape by Anonymous workshop particioant.
The Assemblage
Before dissecting collage as a methodology and as a process, I want to touch on the critical history of collaging as a form of Queer representation and Queer activism. As well as establish differences between Queer collage and Architectural collage for this essay and why this essay and my practice departs from traditional Architectural Collage.
Collaging has a rich history as a Queer method of expression. It has been used to document Queer life stories, narratives, political issues, and exploration of queer identities. It unearths struggles and experiences that are difficult to articulate using words. Abstract concepts like sexuality, gender, oppression, resistance, desire and similar are often the topics of Queer collage. (Allen, 2022) (Lahman et al., 2020)
Collaging is also associated with queer edges of resistance and political activism. The disruptive and chaotic practice of collage challenges normative narrative structures and expectations. Namely, the examples of Queer Anarchist Zines present itself as an example. (Duncombe, 1997)
While Queer collage methodology is a tool of expression, allowing for personal narratives to come through as well as abstract concepts, the focus of architectural collages is primarily functional and communicative. Architectural collages are created to provide an “objective” representation of proposed designs. (Minden, 2021) Architectural collages incorporate set elements like plans, elevations, and 3D renders and clearly follow a spatial formal form, for example, consistent scale, materiality, and perspective. (Ramadhaniar and Lukito, 2020) In modern architecture practice, collage is often used uncritically. Only to show realistic renderings, permanent sunsets, and a “kitsch” (or expected/industry standard) result. (Minden, 2021) To use collage this way, the designer lets go of any ethical responsibility to the elements, place, and people. In this way, collage becomes a way to represent normalcy. (Cruz and Santos, 2017)
Figure 2: Pages from Rebel Fux, 1998. This zine uses photo collage to explore "generfuckery"
Figure 3: Differences between Architectural Collage and Queer
In Landscape Imagination, James Corner describes collage as “inclusive and affiliative” and as “advancing emancipation, heterogeneity, and open-endedness.” (Corner, 2014) These descriptions position collage as an inherently Queer medium, aligning the goals of Queernes. James Corner shows that when used critically, Queer Collage addresses similar concerns of conformity like many architectural conversations highlighted before. The collage allows us to move away from the notion of the landscape as a finished whole into looking at its pieces. It brings forward the processes and construction in which landscapes are created. (Farías, 2011)
Additionally, Collage breaks the boundaries of time and space. It lets the maker use media from a variety of times and lets us break the “logic of space” by not following scale, perspective, materiality, sun, etc. (Minden, 2021)
The subversive, DIY and transformative nature of Collage makes it an ideal medium through which to explore identity, feeling and fluidity of landscape.
Collage Strategies
Whilst considering the historical and cultural significance of collage and the desire to depart from expected architectural representation, this chapter introduces strategies of collaging. To identify critical elements of the process, I am drawing them as a parallel to the simplest, most ordinary form of collaging - utilizing scraps and collections of paper ephemera.
These materials can be gathered over a long time, with collage artists creating their personal archives and resources of materials from which to collage. The collected scraps and cutouts - ephemera of the print media have exhausted their primary function. For magazines and newspapers this is to inform the reader, for posters and flyers to grab our attention. Collaging repurposes them and by combining them or parts of them, gives the imagery a new meaning.
Through my collaging practice, I have identified 6 strategies used in collaging. These 7 strategies are not exhaustive of the flexibility collaging offers but serve as an entry point into the method. Whilst they might be literal in their description, later in this essay they gain a more abstract, identity-driven quality as they are applied to reading landscape interventions.
Authors Note
In my experience, these concepts apply to transitioning, queering one’s body and identity and occupying space in such form. Changing one’s body is a series of “collage strategies” carefully executed to find a place where one is comfortable with what is revealed, what is cut, what is added, highlighted and layered.
Figure 4: Representation of bending time, scale, materiality, sun, perspective and “logic of space”
Figure 5: Jay Cabalu’s (Vancouver collage artist) Shelves of magazines, and images sorted into plastic bins sorted by colour and theme help make collage process more efficient.
Cut
The act of cutting is guided by a deliberate decision to isolate a subject from its original context. This isolation can be as specific or as vague as the author pleases. An example of this is the use of typography in collage. Individual letters can be cut out close to their outlines. The cut itself can create an outline, or the cut can be utilitarian in its nature – isolating the letter in a box.
Tear
Unlike cutting, tearing creates unruly edges. There is little manual control over how the edges will turn out to be. Some of these edges might remove parts of the subject, some edges reveal the subject’s original context. These torn edges have a life of their own. In the case of printed media, they reveal the material itself. The weight and color of paper is suddenly visible in contrast to the subject.
Conceal
The intentional act of hiding lets the person perceive the assemblage wonder. The coverage of certain elements creates a mystery. It changes the subject’s identity and lets us find a new meaning. Concealing does not have to involve layer upon layer. It can be an act of creating negative space –an intentional removal of features.
Contrast
This is a use of elements that are different or opposite in nature. This highlights the differences. The contrast can manifest in diverse ways. Color, materiality, size, scale, themes, textures.
Layer
Layering brings more than subject upon subject. Items and meanings would not be revealed, concealed, or understood differently if it were not for the others in a layered assemblage.
Reveal
The intentional exposure of underlying elements and subjects in the assemblage. To reveal is strategically arranging layers and manipulating elements to allow specific components to be visible in the assemblage. The revealing may be done through cutting, tearing, peeling, and using negative space.
Integrate
Integrating is when individual elements become one when layered/combined/ cut/pasted together. They become one seamless whole. This creates a new identity for each element that is read as one.
Landscape as Collage
In reconsidering landscape as acts of collage, we shift the focus from the whole onto the individual elements. We can uncover hidden stories and nuances that make up the landscape’s identity in those elements.
This chapter examines the relationship between elements and how reading them through collage strategies changes their identity, perception and meaning. To start reading landscape interventions through said strategies, this chapter will look at the works of Nils Norman and Jean Shin.
Nils Norman is a British artist, writer, and educator. His interdisciplinary work focuses on architecture and urban planning. His installations explore public space and community engagement themes whilst challenging traditional urban design. His work often features temporary interventions. Norman uses elements common in the urban landscape to assemble his pieces. (Norman, n.d.)
Jean Shin is a Korean American artist famous for her site-specific interventions. Her work incorporates found and discarded objects like mobile phones, fabrics, leather scraps and wood. The everyday items collectively create identity, consumption, and cultural heritage narratives. (Shin, n.d.)
Both Artist’s work utilizes playful material reuse. In Norman’s work the materials themselves are an interesting example of collaging in his work. Some elements such as pallets and oil drums are items commonly found on any local high-street, dumpster or back of shops. This gives them a generalized identity. On the other hand, elements like TfL bus stop seats are much more specific.
The re-use of objects is also visible in Shin’s work. The use of discarded objects in Shin’s work parallels the use of media that has fulfilled its primary purpose, as explained in the previous chapter with printed media. In Shin’s interventions, the media mixing and mingling becomes a storytelling method. (Shin, n.d.) This approach, much like collage, carries cultural, social, and personal significance.
Figure 7: Nils Norman’s Open Assembly No. 1, Loughborough: Insects, Worms, Mushrooms, Birds.
Figure 8: Shin’s material reuse examples.
The strategies of collage and how they translate from paper to landscape starts to be apparent when we read individual elements that make up the installations.
In the work of Norman, Cutting and Integrating feels like the main collage strategy. Focusing on Open Assembly No. 1, Loughborough, the colorful elements - blue drums and red bus stop benches have an identity that has been clearly isolated from its original context. Yet, they have been integrated into a seamless function with other elements, in this example the Bus stop bench is still fulfilling its function as a bench, but this time at a table.
The example of cutting and integrating is not at first as obvious in the work of Shin. In Shins landscape intervention “Fallen.” Shin presents a tree log in a grass field. The log has been Cut and its branches are removed. Here, the Cutting is also working as Concealing. By Cutting the branches the identity of the tree has been hidden from the observer. The species is concealed, as we cannot see the leaves and other identifying elements. The concealment is furthered by the replacement of the bark with colorful leather scraps. The leather scraps are held on by brass rivets. The log rests on two boulders and its former bark are laid under as a shadow.
Figure 13: The tree cannot be easily identified without the “cut off” bark and removed leaves.
Figure 10: Illustration of the highstreet and materials from it.
Figure 9: Which bus stop are the benches taken from? Isolation of Bus stop bench by “Cutting” it out of it’s original context.
Figures 11 & 12: Details of “Fallen” the cut off branch and riveted leather is clearly visible as well as the full assemblage.
This hiding of identity (either by concealing or cutting, or in the bus-stop benches example displacing it) becomes a queer experience.
The tree/leather assemblage takes on a non-conforming identity. It can still be understood as a tree, with the anatomy of a tree from the inside. The leather even fulfills the same purpose as bark - protecting the cambium from the elements. But more than its utilitarian function, the leather re-shapes the trees’ identity. The leather itself invites questions about queerness in the natural world. It challenges presumed binaries too – plant based/animal based, organic/inorganic.
A Queer observer might draw parallels to Queer Leather Identities like Leather Dykes.
The binaries are another point of Queerness in reading landscape as collage. Traditional landscape interventions classify space in dualities like hardscape/softscape, indoor/outdoor (similarly to social binaries like male/ female). Collage introduces another set of variables into those binaries. By mixing materials in unexpected and unconventional ways, traditional ways of classifying space fall short. (Cruz and Santos, 2017)
Authors Note
Whilst traditional landscape works within binaries, more modern approaches introduce concepts like “indoor-outdoor” spaces. Though I argue that those fall into the category of Queer design by challenging the spatial form critically and allowing openendedness of the designs.
Going back to the works of Nils Norman, the disruption of binaries is visible in the layers of his work. His installation The University of Trash in collaboration with Michael Cataldi is an experiment in alternative architecture, urbanism, and pedagogy. It draws inspiration from utopian ideals, the installation creates a makeshift “University.” Beyond its subversive function, the layout is layered. With many areas concealed, some hidden entirely, come open and some inaccessible. Figure 15 shows how I have identified collage strategies in this installation.
These installations only serve as an example of reading landscape as Collage. By challenging ways of describing landscape and using a set of already Queered strategies from collaging, a new level of understanding of the environment becomes available to us.
Figure 15: Collage strategies in Norman and Cataldi’s installation The University of Trash.
Figure 14: Binary thinking in architecture: Outdoor/Indoor, Softscape|Hardscape.
On Queer Futurity and Imagination
Queer communities often face limited availability to imagine the future of landscape and space. This is due to numerous factors, most notably the fastpaced decline of queer spaces or their temporary nature. (Salem, 2021)The lack of permanent safe and accessible space does not allow the queer community to imagine what it could be as we are grateful that these spaces “just exist.” (Oswin, 2008)
Further, the imagination of space feels inaccessible by the perceived gatekeeping of architectural methods and lack of access to architectural software. (Groat and Ahrentzen, 1996) As described in the first chapter, architectural collage rests on set and definable elements like plan and perspective, which the public might not be familiar with. As introduced earlier, the fluid and non/conforming identity of collaging makes it more appropriate for conversations with Queer communities than traditional architectural language.
From the conversations I have had with the London’s Queer community, I felt a barrier in imagining spaces. This is where carrying simple strategies like the ones introduced in this essay can be helpful for designers. The strategies I have identified in this essay are simple to explain and simple to execute with common materials. Most of these materials can be acquired for free, like I have done in my practice.
I argue that sparking imagination of future queer spaces is essential for resistance and resilience of the Queer community. Collaging removes the barrier of architectural education and lack of technological knowledge and access. It also allows both designers and people involved in the design process to think freely and express abstract concepts without the need to justify them or bound them by measurability.
Authors Note
The aim of these conversations was to interact with participants on an intimate and qualitative level, quotes and insights presented in this essay are not a result of a qualitative research but of a situated and personal sharing of Queer experiences and imaginations.
On the "Whole"
Clearly, collaging is a subjective process. Queer collage does not seek to rationalize or even justify its assemblage, it is process and its output. That is precisely why it lends itself as a useful design tool for landscape architecture. Designers can use it to develop their own design process, research, and practice whilst being site responsive.
Beyond their own practice, it is a great lens to utilize in participatory research, as mentioned in Notes on Futurity and Imagination. It can give designers valuable insight into the complex needs of participants whilst being accessible financially and skill-wise.
The examples of work of Shin and Norman reveal how collage strategies transform the identity of our surroundings. The acts of cutting, pasting, concealing.... become a lens through which we can look at the narratives and relationships in the landscape. The deliberate act of reshaping identities sparks reevaluating our relationship with the environment. By reading their work through the 6 collage strategies, we can read how both artists redefine the identity, perception and meaning of used elements, making their interventions dynamic and multifaceted.
These interventions become a nuanced commentary on urban spaces. Whilst not all presented as queer, the works challenge traditional binaries inviting reflection from the observer.
The hidden stories and meanings are revealed in this reevaluation of landscape through collage. They are creating a rich tapestry that challenges preconceived notions and invites a Queer perspective on the interconnectedness of materials and their cultural, social, and personal significance in the environment.
References
Allen, S. (2022) In My Skin, Her Skin: An Artistic Exploration of the Intersection of Queer Femininity and Body Image. [online]. Available from: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses/554.
Corner, J. (2014) The landscape imagination : collected essays of James Corner, 1990-2010. Alison Bick Hirsch (ed.). [online]. Available from: https://issuu.com/papress/docs/landscape_imagination (Accessed 28 December 2023).
Cruz, J. & Santos, A. C. (2017) Queerying Design: MATERIAL RE-CONFIGURATIONS OF BODY POLITICS.
Drechsler, C. (2004) We are all others:An argument for queer. Journal of Bisexuality. [Online] 3 (3–4), 265–275.
Duncombe, S. (1997) Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture. Verso.
Groat, L. & Ahrentzen, S. (1996) Reconceptualizing Architectural Education for a More Diverse Future: Perceptions and Visions of Architectural Students. Journal of Architectural Education. 49 (3), 166–183.
Lahman, M. K. E. et al. (2020) Research Falling Out of Colorful Pages Onto Paper: Collage Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry. [Online] 26 (3–4), 262–270. [online]. Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/ doi/10.1177/1077800418810721 (Accessed 24 November 2023).
Minden, J. (2021) Cutting out Queer assemblages for alternative Design futures.
Norman, N. (n.d.) Dismal Garden [online]. Available from: https://www.dismalgarden.com/information/bio (Accessed 28 December 2023).
Oswin, N. (2008) Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality: Deconstructing queer space. Progress in Human Geography. [Online] 32 (1), 89–103.
Ramadhaniar, P. & Lukito, Y. N. (2020) ‘Collage in architecture and its use as a design method. Reviewing the design of Villa Isola’, in AIP Conference Proceedings. [Online]. 4 May 2020 American Institute of Physics Inc. pp. 1–4.
Salem, A. (2021) LGBTQ+ Venues in London: An investigation into the socio-economic, technological, and cultural drivers of nightlife decline.
Shin, J. (n.d.) Jean Shin Bio [online]. Available from: https://jeanshin.com/bio (Accessed 28 December 2023).
Bibliography
Cottrill, J. (2006) Queering Architecture: Possibilities of Space(s).
Elkins, A. E. (2023) “Collage and Queer Embodiment,” in Crafting Feminism from Literary Modernism to the Multimedia Present. [Online]. Oxford University PressOxford. pp. 169–200.
Farías, I. (2011) The politics of urban assemblages. City. [Online] 15 (3–4), 365–374.
Micocci, F. (2018) The City as a Collective Collage.
Nusser, S. (2010) What Would a Non-Heterosexist City Look Like? A Theory on Queer Spaces and the Role of Planners in Creating the Inclusive City.
Rossi, S. & Farias, P. (2023) Queer Scrapscape.
Vaughan, K. (2005) Pieced together: Collage as an artist’s method for interdisciplinary research. [online]. Available from: www.akaredhanded.com.
Wehmeyer, S. (2021) Collage-Based Research and Design. Research Perspectives in Architecture. [Online] 0125–35.
Worthham-Galvin, B. (2016) Towards a Queer Urban Design Methodology. [online]. Available from: http://amst. umd.edu/powerlines/.
List of Figures
Cover Image: Anonymous (2023) The ‘Banana Tree’.
Figure 1: Anonymous (2023) ‘Imaginary Queer Space’. London.
Figure 2: Huh, K. (1998) Rebel Fux. Available at: https://archive.qzap.org/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/105 (Accessed: 04 January 2024). Pages from Rebel Fux, 1998. This zine uses photo collage to explore “generfuckery”
Figure 3: Camden Highline (no date) Camden Highline Meadow, Camden Highline. Available at: https://www. camdenhighline.com/home#benefits (Accessed: 04 January 2024). & Anonymous (2023) ‘Imaginary Queer Space’. London. With author’s annotations.
Figure 4: Author’s own image (2024). London. Representation of bending time, scale, materiality, sun, perspective and “logic of space”
Figure 5: Cabalu, J. (2022) Vancouver Guardian. Available at: https://vancouverguardian.com/vancouver-artist-jay-cabalu/ (Accessed: 04 January 2024). Jay Cabalu’s (Vancouver collage artist) Shelves of magazines, and images sorted into plastic bins sorted by colour and theme help make collage process more efficient.
Figure 6: Author’s own image (2024). London. Visual representation of collage strategies.
Figure 7: Norman, N. (2010) Open Assembly No. 1, Loughborough: Insects, Worms, Mushrooms, Birds , Dismal Garden. Available at: https://www.dismalgarden.com/projects/open-assembly-no1-loughborough-insects-worms-mushroomsbirds-and-students (Accessed: 04 January 2024).
Figure 8: Shin’s material reuse examples. Taken from: Shin, J. (no date), Jean Shin. Available at: https://jeanshin.com/ (Accessed: 04 January 2024).
Figure 9: Author’s own image (2024). London. Which bus stop are the benches taken from? Isolation of Bus stop bench by “Cutting” it out of it’s original context.
Figure 10: Author’s own image (2024). London. Illustration of the highstreet and materials from it.
Figures 11 & 12: Shin, J. (no date), Jean Shin. Available at: https://jeanshin.com/ (Accessed: 04 January 2024). Details of “Fallen” the cut off branch and riveted leather is clearly visible as well as the full assemblage.
Figure 13: Author’s own image (2024). London. The tree cannot be easily identified without the “cut off” bark and removed leaves.
Figure 14: Author’s own image (2024). London. Binary thinking in architecture: Outdoor/Indoor, Softscape|Hardscape.
Figure 15: Cataldi, M. (2009) University of Trash, Michael Cataldi. Available at: https://www.michaelcataldi.com/theuniversity-of-trash (Accessed: 04 January 2024). Collage strategies in Norman and Cataldi’s installation The University of Trash. With Author’s annotation.
Figure 16: Anonymous authors (2023). LondonDetails from anonymous Queer space imagination collages.
Figure 17: Anonymous (2023) ‘Queer outdoor space collage’. London.