Advisor/tutor: Marina Vishmidt

Arnhem, 2015

Abstract

By observing the constitution (in political, architectonical and emotional terms) of the home as a place of syncretism, other aspects of the lives of peoples of today can be explored. Through a collection of three particular examples of homes, these words are an exercise of movement; zooming in and out from the intimate and personal space of the human home–and the relations that exist within it–all the way out to the physical matter that gives body to the buildings, objects and spaces constituting such households.

This paper contains reflections on my experiences as a guest–or intruder–in Mongolia, Brazil, and Bolivia, respectively; at the gers of a nomad family of herders in the steppes of the Orkhon Valley, at the apartment of a young person in Sao Paulo, and at the ranch of an Aymara family by the shore of the Titicaca Lake. Partly through choice and partly due to being born within, the life projects of my hosts are an alternative to the contradictions, absurdities and violence of capitalism. People who live differently–who exist differently–have helped me to begin to understand my place in this world, to question how that place has come to be and how it has been constructed by myself and by others. Most importantly I can begin to question to what extent I am capable of–and furthermore responsible for–the architecture of my own place, my own home. I can explore the architecture of the subjectivity of my own life and how that affects and co-exists with the architectures or subjectivities of my neighbors, whether they are biological organisms or vibrant matter1 , capable of taking "the chance to mutate, to change, and to bifurcate."