presentation critique

I used coded forms and architectural norms as if the final jury were the “board,” and the gradient of covert versus overt was at its most extreme. If the legislative agendas of Mississippi, the quantitative mapping relating to the larger region, and the documented queer experiences of the city of Jackson are any indication, this subversive pitch strategy is crucial to the viability of this proposal having any chance at being built and helping queer folk in the city and satellite small towns.

In order to get this kind of affront built, albeit as a theoretical suggestion, the subversion must extend to policy.

In the beginning “realistic” renderings, I only showed those parts of the project that were visible to everyone, or the “everyman.” The 20 seconds of excruciating silence, after the conventional plans and renderings were presented and I ceased speaking, were effective according to the jury, who were understandably worried after the pause. By presenting the project in this way, as “fakeout,” the critique effectively extends to all levels of architectural design and representation.

In terms of renderings, this one has a signal as well; the man in higher definition at center is one of those unknowing “passerby,” while the two shrouded figures behind his view are “in the know.” A community member points out the secret entry to a new sanctuary attendee.

I used this image as the “last slide” of the first presentation—the pivot point between the narrative—because it is the exact pivot point of entry in the project.

Once we pass through the filter and into the interior, the sanctuary comes into focus. Though it can be serene, the space can change aesthetics for a lecture or event, or even a rave when the pit can be used to full effect.

In the interior of the armory, light, shadow and filtering take on new meaning. An aquatic shimmering is filtered in through hover baths, while fortified wall punches give serial sifting. As for the people in the armory itself, specifically ones occupying the work spaces on the first level, they are elected democratically as part of the sanctuary community and work together, multi-inter-transdisciplinarily, to collaboratively enact change in the vein of design dispersion. There can be traveling plant events, live entertainment, academic lectures…

The pleasure gardens act as a kind of intermediary negotiation between the complicated binaries of internal/external and exclusive/inclusive.

The spaces here can be used for communicating, luxuriating, or loving. This exterior space can also at times be open to LGBTQ allies, so that they may support and enjoy the proposal without infringing on a sacred safe space.

The gardens can accommodate multiple agendas at once. A picnic and a reunion, for example, call for gradients of privacy. It’s not and/or, but both/and. The turning point from monastery to armory, pictured below, turns the corner both literally and figuratively from safe haven to defensive centre. The juncture of soft/ hard, sanctity/self, and community/ curvilinearity highlight the embedded embraces of the project.

I’ll end here with a theoretical “design” use of the armory that engages a transdisciplinary kind of queering. You can trace “the life cycle of a seed” in the previous diagram through four major steps: GET, GROW, GIVE, and GROW again.

In this example, the armory for design and defense is adopting a nonbinary “both/and” strategy; the designs here can be ecological, architectural, sociological… and begin building a coded network of safe spaces or rendezvous points that ripple far beyond the site.

In this way, one can trace the life of a single seed through many hands, places, and processes until it finds its way home. In this example, an ornamental planting such as a cherry blossom tree can become a coded signal—perhaps even monument—for community, companionship, and safety beyond any singular safe site.

GET seeds

the collaborative nature (pun intended) of a nursery space within the armory and/or garden facilitate longer-term community building and, throughout the life cycle on to build onto something more.

GROW seedlings

planting the seeds, either outside in the garden or inside the armory, begins the process of cooperative discovery through an ecolo ns that is both accessible and tangible.

GIVE plants

a crucial aspect of the seed’s trajectory comes in a moment of exchange; here the seed travels beyond the nursery space out into the world to queer folk/ allies, beginning the network.

GROW coded networks

once the planting is transplanted to another site, those “in the know” may utilize it as a rendezvous point, coded signal of safety, or any other form of as grown physically logically into something much larger.

Will you meet me under the cherry blossom tree?

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