Preston, Julieanna. A Reconciliation of Carboniferous Accretions [performance]. Industries of Architecture AHRA Conference, NIEMME, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, 2014.

A Reconciliation of Carboniferous Accretions was a performative event advocating for architectural constructions as live corporeal confederations rather than simply assemblages of inert substances. This artwork responded specifically to the context of a conciliation room within Neville Hall (NEIMME) in relation to open-pit mining for coal and all the sooty matters inferred. Geological processes and the room’s material details form the basis of an ode, a lyrical poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form and expressive of exalted or enthusiastic emotion, and often centred on love, admiration or passion. Drawing from the philosophies of Lucy Irigaray, Donna Haraway, Jane Bennett and Elizabeth Grosz, this performance speculated on what new relationships can be incited through close and haptic interaction. The intimacy shaped by reading a love poem to other matter, matter extolling its live-ness in the deep stillness of a corpuscular ecology, aimed to nurture affirmative empathy.

Credit: Jenny Greveson, research assistant
 

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