Thresholds 32 aspires to shed light on an interdisciplinary range of interpretations and meanings associated with the theme of access.

Restricted access to certain architectural spaces is a phenomenon found in all cultures at all times, transcending limitations of genre, period, belief system, and nationality. Does the notion of access have any impact on the definition of architecture and more specifically on the theorization of certain architectural styles? How might an artwork or architectural space allow or prevent access? As globalization and technology give us greater “virtual” access, we are becoming arguably more restricted in a physical sense. Why do we still question what is accessible in our world of globalization and “virtual” nomadic wandering?

Call for Papers

For the Spring '06 issue of thresholds, we seek submissions from graduate students and scholars in a wide range of fields, including media and visual arts, architecture, and art history. We are interested in diverse inquiries related to the concept of accessibility, from purely theoretical and historical analyses to actual works of art and architecture.

To whom is access to a given space granted? Is it offered based on criteria that are economic, psychological, physical, geographical, political, or conferred according to national affinity, identity, religious orientation, ethnic background, and so on? Many minority communities in different societies have been denied access to places outside of their neighborhoods, whether these neighborhoods are actual ghettos or not. How do such physical restrictions interact with the related concepts of history, memory, nostalgia, nationality, politics, and power?

Similar restrictions extend also into the academic realm. Art and architectural history relies partially on archival evidence. How do we evaluate the historiography of art and architecture with regard to the accessibility of archives? In Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (1995), Derrida reminds us how, through turning Freud’s house in Vienna into a museum, the secretive became public. How does the accessibility of such sources affect our perceptions of the past? Moreover, there is a distinction between actual archives (official places for the retention of records, with systems of storage, organization, cataloging) and those that are often accessed through memory. How can a historian access memory, in a collective sense?

Historically, it has been possible to gain access to a restricted place through masquerade and transvestite disguise. Mikhail Bakhtin describes how in the medieval carnival there was a leveling of performer and spectator, a reversal of hierarchy, where boundaries were eliminated and the distances between people were suspended. Throughout the centuries, homosocial spaces gained ground in many Islamic societies due to the inaccessibility of the harem to outside men, and to the forbidden nature of public spaces to most women. Indeed, these processes are strategic rather than incidental. What particular role do politicians, architects, or even the police play in allowing or preventing access?

Submissions may address the above issues, but need not be limited to them.

Submissions due: 28 February 2006
Please send all submissions to thresh@mit.edu

or send your file on a CD or a disk to the following address :

Pamela Karimi, Editor
thresholds
MIT Department of Architecture
Room 7-337
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139

submission guidelines

Thresholds invites submissions, including but not limited to scholarly works, from all fields. thresholds attempts to print only original material. Manuscripts for review should be no more than 2,500 words. Text must be formatted in accordance with The Chicago Manual of Style. Spelling should follow American convention and quotations must be translated into English. All submissions must be submitted electronically, on a CD or disk, accompanied by hard copies of text and images. Text should be saved as Microsoft Word or RTF format, while any accompanying images should be sent as TIFF files with a resolution of at least 300 dpi at 8" x 9" print size. Figures should be numbered clearly in the text. Image captions and credits must be included with submissions. It is the responsibility of the author to secure permissions for image use and pay any reproduction fees. A brief author bio must accompany the text.