Our autumn schedule is almost ready. Here’s a quick taster of the events confirmed so far. Talks start at 7pm.
Thursday September 4th
Architecture and Anarchism: Building without Authority
With Paul Dobraszczyk
We welcome Paul Dobraszczyk to discuss anarchist architecture, that is, forms of design and building that embrace the core values of traditional anarchist political theory since its divergence from the mainstream of socialist politics in the 19th century. These are autonomy, voluntary association, mutual aid, and self-organisation through direct democracy. As the Paul’s recent book on the topic shows, there are a vast range of architectural projects that can been seen to reflect some or all of these values, whether they are acknowledged as specifically anarchist or otherwise.
Anarchist values are evident in projects that grow out of romantic notions of escape – from isolated cabins to intentional communities. Yet, in contrast, they also manifest in direct action – occupations or protests that produce micro-countercommunities. Artists also produce anarchist architecture – intimations of much freer forms of building cut loose from the demands of moneyed clients; so do architects and planners who want to involve users in a process normally restricted to an elite few. Others also imagine new social realities through speculative proposals. Finally, building without authority is, for some, a necessity – the thousands of migrants denied their right to become citizens, even as they have to live somewhere; or the unhoused of otherwise affluent cities forced to build improvised homes for themselves.
The result is to significantly broaden existing ideas about what might constitute anarchism in architecture and also to argue strongly for its nurturing in the built environment. Understood in this way, anarchism offers a powerful way of reconceptualising architecture as an emancipatory, inclusive, ecological and egalitarian practice.
About the author
Paul Dobraszczyk is a teaching fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. He is the author of Future Cities: Architecture & the Imagination (2019); The Dead City: Urban Ruins & the Spectacle of Decay (2017); Iron, Ornament & Architecture in Victorian Britain (2014); London’s Sewer (2014); and Into the Belly of the Beast: Exploring London’s Victorian Sewers (2009); amongst others.
Paul’s beautiful book Architecture and Anarchism: Building Without Authority was published by Paul Holberton Publishing in 2021 and will be available on the night.
Saturday September 13th
Anarcho-Punk: Music and Resistance in London 1977-1988
With Dave Insurrection and Tony Drayton
We welcome David Insurrection and Tony Drayton to tell the story of an oft overlooked scene. Anarcho-punk in the 1980s truly rocked the boat. Much more than music it set out to change the world and in a not insignificant way did just that. It inspired a generation of activists, artists and musicians to take up the fight for a better fairer world. They tore down the walls. The Sex Pistols may have opened the door but the Crass punks charged through it. This is their story. As we return to the embattled 1970s and 1980s David takes us on a journey where we visit some of the scene’s most significant locations and hot spots, to places where change mattered and the spirit of revolt burned brightest.
The title of the book for me says everything – everything that we gave our soul to during those years. This book does a fantastic job at retelling that story.
Col Latter (Flux of Pink Indians)
This is a well-researched psychogeographical report on the anarcho-punk squatting scene in London in the late 70s and early 80s.
Tom Vague (Vague)
David Insurrection’s opus on the anarchist years that led to a movement of such creative force that remains unparalleled in our history, a moment captured for all time by a witness in words and with passion.
Chris Ward (Wet Paint Theatre Company)
About the author:
David Insurrection was born in 1962 and raised in NE Scotland. He’s married with one daughter. At the age of 17 in the autumn of 1979 he discovered punk rock. It would leave a lasting impression on him. In 1980 he first heard Crass. That experience changed everything and would determine the direction his life took from that point onwards.
In 1984 he began to identify as an anarchist and took his first activist steps. By this time he had immersed himself in everything anarcho-punk. In 1988 he produced his first zine. His next zine in 1990 was called Insurrection. In 1993 he moved to London. He stayed there for four and a half years returning to his native Scotland in 1997. It was during his stay in London that he first got a hankering for writing a book on anarcho-punk. He’s still involved in the scene to this day.
Tony Drayton of Kill Your Pet Puppy fame will be acting as discussant.
Monday October 13th
Mutant Ecologies
With Erica Borg and Amedeo Policante
Friday November 14th
Love and revolution: A politics for the deep commons
With Matt York
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