Test

I’ve taken a short break from blogging at CTlab to concentrate on managing/coordinating some of the things we have cooking for 2009, including a busy schedule of book symposia. Tom Vigar is putting together a promotional poster for it, and I’m looking forward to seeing what it looks like. We’ve also started work on the new CTlab website using a new platform, which opens up some exciting possibilities.

I recently finished reading Eyal Weizman’s Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (Verso, 2007), and I’m now in the midst of transcribing my reading notes into Endnote. It’s a remarkable text, in its narrative of spatial gerrymandering and in its sensitive articulation of applied architectural theory.  There are a couple of passages in particular (bridging archeology to architecture in Jerusalem; the palindromic commonality of architectural and legal “space”; Gen. Kochavi’s rejection of Derrida in favor of Tschumi; bridging from Fanon and the Algerian experience), that suggest my research is on the right track. I’ve discussed this a bit with Matt and Tim, who tell me there’s a similar tale to be told wrt British approaches to Belfast and Derry during The Troubles.