Aesthetics and the spatial production of organization

Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
November 1, 2009
End Date
October 31, 2010
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Aesthetics
Space
Organization
Art
Description
While the notion of aisthesis as well as socio-spatial analysis have left their mark on contemporary strands of organization theory, the postdoctoral thesis will unfold the argument that a pluralistic view of organization has much to gain by drawing upon recent developments in aesthetic and spatial thinking and by bringing these developments together: Tracing the emergence of new forms of organizing implies exploring the undoings of given distributions of the sensible, reorderings of the manner in which spaces lend themselves to and are produced by processes of organizing. I thus seek to propose an understanding of organization as the general problematic of aesthetico-spatial (dis)ordering.
My line of argument will be developed through a dialogue with a number of case studies and examples from the field of cultural organization(s) and the arts. It is precisely the experimental modifications of the fabric of the sensible (potentially) provoked through artistic practices that offer rich material for a theorizing of organization that is sensitive to the multiplicity of organizational forces, its political implications and the possibility of 'other' organizational spaces.
Leader contributor(s)
Beyes, Timon
Funder

HSG – Grundlagenforsc...

Topic(s)
The spaces and aesthetics of organization studies / Towards a pluralistic view of organization / New conceptual movements: Towards an aesthetico-spatial perspective / Exercises in aesthetico-spatial analysis
Method(s)
Through both conceptual and empirical work
I seek to develop an aesthetico-spatial perspective of/on organization. The corresponding empirical investigations have been carried out in the field of cultural organization(s) and the arts.
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Eprints ID
54405

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    Item type:Publication,
    Öffentlicher Raum
    (Niggli, 2010)
    Beyes, Timon
    ;
    Hedinger, Johannes M.
    Type:book section
    Issue:No. 31
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/97078
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    Item type:Publication,
    Partizipation
    (Niggli, 2010)
    Beyes, Timon
    ;
    Hedinger, Johannes M.
    Type:book section
    Issue:No. 31
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/97077
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    Item type:Publication,
    The everyday production of space : Snapshots from spatial configurations in Chinese bureaucracy
    (2009-11-24)
    Beyes, Timon
    ;
    Zhang, Zhongyuan
    The paper applies and ventures to develop Lefebvre's theory of ‘the socially produced space' (1991/1974) in the studies of the day-to-day reality of organisational life. Following the Lefebvrian triad of conceived/perceived/lived spaces, it examines the ‘production' of organisational space on the basis of a one-year ethnographic study in a Chinese bureaucratic organisation. The paper finds the moments of conceived, perceived and lived spaces to be intertwined processes in the production of spatial reality of this particular organisation. Any spatial snapshot - be it a piece of organisational furniture, an architectural configuration, or a pattern of spatially located human bodies - is the result of the interactions among conceived, perceived and lived spaces. As an illustration the paper extracts from the ethnographic study four examples of such snapshots - the architectural appearance of the organisational building, the stairway, the office chair in use and green plants in employees' office - and traces their ‘productions' through the organisation's everyday lives. As Lefebvre has already noted in his book on "Dialectical Materialism", "the most trivial object is the bearer of countless suggestions and relationships; it refers to all sorts of activities not immediately present in it (…) Traditions (technical, social, spiritual) and the most complex qualities are present in the humblest of objects, conferring on them a symbolic value or ‘style'" (Lefebvre, 1968/1940, p. 128). Drawing together the notion of the social production of space and Lefebvre's longstanding interest in the complexities of everyday life, the paper concludes by sketching a basic framework for further studies into the production of organisational spaces as a hermeneutics of the everyday (Roberts, 1999). This framework, on the one hand, cautions against the over-romantic notion of "lived space' as an unfailing source of resistance and change, as some researchers hold, and on the other hand, against some scholars' tendency to separate conceived, perceived and lived spaces as distant and distinct "empirical' moments in spatial realities. It invites researchers to focus on the delicate and unfinished dialectical interplay between alienation and dis-alienation (Lefebvre, 2008/1961, p. 62) and thus on important nuances inherent to Lefebvre's theory when carrying out further field studies.
    Type:conference paper
    URL:http://www.henrilefebvre.org/hlt/fls/Lefebvre_program2009.pdf
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/75292
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    Item type:Publication,
    Alltag
    (Niggli, 2010)
    Beyes, Timon
    ;
    Hedinger, Johannes M.
    Type:book section
    Issue:No. 31
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/97076