Studio-X Amman

Studio-X Amman and Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture present

Janet Abu-Lughod Library Seminar IV
Online sessions with Ala Younis

Superheat
Bearable Substructures

In this seminar, we reflect on the temporality, vulnerability, and exploitation of lives on a construction site. Questioning the frameworks and sources of “third world architecture” history, we experiment with and produce the contents of Superheat, the first issue of an annual publication. While the intensifying heat warms up construction sites and their materials, the stories of the lives on these sites survive as they happen within a bearable substructure. Negotiations of weight, power, tactility and others leave their mark (on flesh, on concrete, in files). We will read from personal accounts, re-piece fragments of archives, foreground her side of the story, hear on stocking and reporting, and dig into murky political pasts.

The seminar will be held from May 27 – June 29, 2020 on Sundays and Tuesdays, 6-8 pm Amman time.
Public talks on Saturdays are open to the public.

Participation is online, free, and open to participants from around the world. Places are limited, and the call for participants is open until Monday May 11, 2020.

To apply, please send your cv and a short text of relevance (up to 500 words) to [email protected] with “JALS Superheat Application” in the subject line by May 11. The text can be a cover letter, an excerpt of an essay you wrote, or a short story. Selected participants will be notified by May 15.