Research on virtuosity and architecture.
About
An increasingly virtuosic existence is a symptom of post-Fordist modes of production that demand one’s communicative, cognitive and affective faculties. Labour in this sense subsumes sociability.
Virtuosity is also a response to precarization, a phenomenon described by political theorist Isabell Lorey as ‘an instrument for government’ that ultimately means ‘living with the unforeseeable, with contingency.’1
The potential of the performative: the necessary presence of others allows the performative the possibility for new publics and thus new commons.
Architecture can participate in the precarization of the individual and it can reflect the insecurity of the precarious. It may also be able to counter such insecurities by promoting an unproductive experience of the city, by accommodating the public and the commons, and by resisting capital’s control over built space.
Performer also considers virtuosity in the context of architectural practice. Architectural workers are not spared as the tendencies of precarization permeate the working conditions of architects worldwide.
Performer was initiated by Ian Lowrie in 2020.
Lorey, Isabell. State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious. Verso, 2015.