Wahlseminar Topos in architectural theory (I. exercise) 10.10.

2022

Figure of hospitality: SYNTONIZATION: CORNUCOPIA

Cornucopia: In classical antiquity, the cornucopia, from Latin cornu (horn) and copia
(abundance), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment.

1. PLENTIFUL: but also by means of signs and representation: the size of the bull and
the sculpture of its muscles, the sow’s pink porcelain vulva, the rooster’s haughty
bearing, the beret of its crest and the chromatic range of its tail, the seductive
gentleness of the heifers, the colour, black or milky, of the mare’s coat made an
impression on each of us, father, mother, child or animal, according to the days of
the month and the individuals, submissive or powerful.
(Michel Serres, Hominiscence, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.)

2. COEXISTANCE: '…that animals, and, more specifically, eagles, defend the area which
constitutes their feeding ground.'
(Vinciane Despret, Living as a Bird. London: Polity, 2021.)

3. FEARLESSNESS: My peasant memories recall this vanished culture. We lived together,

animals and humans, in a convivial site, the farmyard, night and day for four seasons.
(Michel Serres, Hominiscence, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.)

4. DISTURBANCE: Henceforth without horses or scavenger birds, the cities and houses
of the West drive away all animal life from their walls and avenues even though
thousands of rats and billions of roaches invade them against their will; quite the
contrary, India grazes its cows in its streets.
(Michel Serres, Hominiscence, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.)

5. (photo: Dimitry Kokh; islands of Chukchi sea, meteorological station)

What habitat does the word ‘domestication’ refer to?

What relations have we maintained with animals ever since certain species
entered into our house?
(Michel Serres, Hominiscence, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.)
6. GUESTS: 'It is not an easy task to dehumanize ourselves but by all means a necessarry
and an urgent one. It is time we face the fact that the Earth is not ours, in fact, that
we, humans, are nothing but fungi on the face of the Earth. Or etter: the most
destructive life-form the Earth has ever hosted.'
(Rick Dolphijn, The Philosophy of Matter, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.)

7. AMAZEMENT '… I propose to explore how we are to deal with all that keeps us from
opening our eyes again and witnessing the Earth.'
(Rick Dolphijn, The Philosophy of Matter, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.)

8. WILD – CULTURAL: In this feature we could recognize a properly comic dimension

of analytic experience. I am referring to the autonomy of the (subject’s) sameness
that is operating “out there,” doing all kinds of
things, involving the subject in various possible and impossible
situations, sometimes very awkward ones.
(Alenka Zupančič, The Odd One In: On Comedy. London: The MIT Press, 2008.)

9. SHARED SPACE: 'From that point on, they isolate themselves from other birds,
selecet a particular place and confine themselves to it, singing ceaselessly from one
of their chosen promontories. Seemingly no longer able to tolerate the presence of
their fellow creatures, they furiously devote all their energy to a frenzy of threats and
attacs if any of these dares to cross a line, invisible to our eyes, but which appears to
present a remarkably well-defined border.'
(Vinciane Despret, Living as a Bird. London: Polity, 2021.)

10. FLOW: Past existences, from generation to generation, in the company of

domesticated animals, presuppose that humans constructed a common house with
them. So this habitat in which days and works mix produces varied cultures in which
life yields to our expertises and in which, conversely, our technical skills vary with life.
(Michel Serres, Hominiscence, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.)