POSTHUMAN INTERVENTIONS TO ARCHITECTURAL SPACE BY FOOD IN PERFORMANCE ART

Abstract

Posthuman studies are interdisciplinary studies that criticize the anthropocentric and dualist perspective of Western Humanist thought. In these studies, the relations between human and non-human agents are examined in the scope of subjects such as ecology, anthropocene, feminism, technology with disciplines such as medicine, sociology, law, history, art, design and architecture. At the intersection of posthuman studies within art and architecture, the concepts of time, space and body come to the fore as mostly discussed with topics such as virtuality, digitality, cyberspace, social media, metaverse, time travel, anti-aging, cryonics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the intersection of architecture and posthuman with the concepts of space and intervention in relation to performance art; and to assert a research that suggests food as an interdisciplinary art medium. Food has been used as a material in art and design, but as an artistic and architectural intervention medium it has not been investigated in the posthuman context. In this context, literature was reviewed on academic sources and applications, and these were reinterpreted to develop new suggestions with a qualitative research method. It’s observed that the post-dualist approach at the center of posthuman studies is placed in Fluxus events which problematize and criticize dualisms such as artist/audience, art/life, public/private. It was concluded that food isn’t just an art material in these performances; it's a medium that offers artists new contexts with its technical, creative and critical possibilities. Therefore as architectural interventions applied to public or private and indoor or outdoor spaces are going beyond the actions such as building, demolishing, displacing, excavating, filling, covering; and with a medium such as food challenging creativity, immaterial, intuitive and sensory interpretations of time, body and space are emphasized. In this context, it’s intended to create a contribution that offers alternative perspectives to the literature.