On the whole, the writings and works that compose When is a House? are works of ‘architectural fiction’ or ‘speculative architecture’. My collaboration with Verwimp has powerfully informed both Verwimp and myself as we work toward ways to navigate the relationships between artistry, research, and collaboration.
Each of the writings of When is a House? are conceived architecturally, as rooms within a shared house. When is a House? is thus composed of a profound diversity of ideas and ruminations: shared exhibitions, performances, theoretical debates, and educational workshops conducted on the page and related to each other through the continuing dialogue between myself and Verwimp which ultimately sustains the project. Throughout the work, we question, theorize, and seek to enlighten the performative nature of architecture in relation to the architectural qualities of performance by thinking of how we live in relation to space, and how space comes into being in relation to our action.
In this work, we have been exploring the Batesonian concept of the metalogue as a method for artistic collaboration through writing. As defined by Jan Van Boeckel, “Bateson coined the term metalogue. A metalogue is kind of conversation about some problematic subject whereby the dialogue is such that the participants not only discuss the problem at hand, but the structure of the conversation as a whole is also relevant to the same subject” (Boeckel, A review of An Ecology of Mind, p. 2). By so doing, I seek to further unearth new possible relations between art-theoretical writing and artistic practice. Consequently, the writings I have produced thus far often take the form of epistolary literature. Through correspondence, I have sought to write to, through, from, of, into the other’s perspective, and to consequently produce bodies of writing that can cross differences of perspective to produce an exteriority to our perspectives that neither of us can obtain alone. Through such written conversations, our writings have ceased to represent our particular perspectives or positions. Writing has instead become a venue through which communication can appear as literary performance- as an event contained by none of the particular perspectives that witness it and conjure it into being.