Praxes of Care: Attention — Annmarie Adams & David Theodore

Thursday, November 11, 2021 6:00 pm - 6:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

 Praxes of Care Attention Annmarie Adams & David Theodore

Please join us for Caretaking, the fourth of five conversations on the theme
of attention, with speakers Annmarie Adams, McGill University, and David
Theodore, McGill University.  Their short presentations will be followed by a
discussion moderated by Fiona L. Kenney, PhD student, McGill School of
Architecture.

Praxes of Care asks, “what is an architecture of care?” Over four
terms–Fall 2021 to Winter 2023–a series of conversations will bring
together two or more architects, designers, researchers, artists, activists,
and care workers to discuss care processes according to the themes of
Attention, Action, Communication, and Maintenance. The series is curated by
faculty, staff, and representatives of student groups: Treaty Lands Global
Stories, Bridge, and the Sustainability Collective. Recent calls for change
have shifted the discipline toward the underlying social and ecological
processes enabled by the production of architecture. By listening to and
learning about care practices from interdisciplinary perspectives, we can
begin to reshape the discipline of architecture into a form of care.

FALL 2021: ATTENTION
“Caring about means that we are attentive to the needs that need to be
addressed. Before any caring process can begin, someone has to recognize the
need for care. This is a more difficult task than it at first seems: some
needs are made difficult to see or deliberately ignored.” — Joan Tronto

Paying attention is the initial step of the caring process. Western
technoscience theorists, Aryn Martin, Natasha Myers, and Ana Viseu, describe
attention as “a mode of inquiry mediated by hesitations, questions, and
observations: it is a practice of not knowing what to do even as one wants to
respond.”

What is observed, focused on, or paid attention to is filtered through our
individual experiences and understandings of the world. In bringing attention
to something, other things may be neglected in the process. What we pay
attention to effects and reflects our worldviews and the decisions we will
make. Not all attention will lead to action and that can be very important.
Yet the act of paying attention also calls on us to bear witness, fight for
recognition, and coordinate our efforts in the struggle for equity and
inclusion. This set of conversations explores how architects can be attentive
to care needs while remaining critical of how and to whom attention is given.

Accessibility: Waterloo Architecture is committed to achieving accessibility
for persons with disabilities who are attending the event. Closed Captioning
will be available during the live event. For accommodation questions and
requests, please contact us in advance of the event at
julie.dring@uwaterloo.ca.

For more information on this series and other events presented by Waterloo
Architecture, please visit waconnect.ca or follow us @waterloo_architecture.