Fall 2018, Arch 200A – Positioning: Things Among Things

A thesis, fundamentally, is an act of positioning. To put, to place, to position – these are willful acts, which speak to ones’ agency as the positioner. The first question a thesis must answer is: What is being positioned? For something to be positioned it must be defined, it must be knowable; it is a construction of language. Positioning is, in itself, an act of framing, a defining of limits.

We will be positioning ‘things’ because they already, intrinsically occupy the space between abstraction and reality – they are at once general and specific. In the same manner, an M.Arch Thesis is highly intensive in its articulation, yet extensive in its disciplinary/architectural consequence. This is what makes a thesis, a positioning, instrumental, beyond the limits of the academy.