Temporary Uses, Critical Praxis and Urban Water Spaces: A Case Study

Abstract

This research frames an expanded ‘temporal’ understanding of temporary praxis, disentangling it from contemporary concerns through close readings of a broad range of actors after the projects themselves have gone, framing them within the dialogue between researcher and participants. This thesis formulates temporary use as a critical spatial practice beyond the negative/positive polarisation dominating the literature, proposing it be mobilised through a relational ontology rather than as an outlier of existing praxis or a symptom of pre-existing urban discourses and debates. More broadly, it argues for the recognition of urbanisms such as the temporary as essential refuges from contemporary, dominant modes of urban production. Two case studies are mobilised, both sited on the River Tyne running through Newcastle Gateshead in the North East of England. A pilot case - Jetty Project (June-September 2014) by Wolfgang Weileder, built atop Dunston Staiths – is also used to assist unpacking the primary case - ~FLOW (March-September 2012) by Owl Project & Ed Carter, moored alongside the Millennium Bridge and opposite the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts. The research further situates the temporary in the specific spatial typology of urban water, mobilising it as a source of epistemological thickness, non-human agency and ecological articulation, and thus ensuring an epistemological view not subject to the unexamined assumptions of either researcher or subjects. Semi-structured interviews yield a series of interlinked, multivocal accounts through successive conceptual framings of key themes – resistance, legacy, catalyst and temporality – which feed into the conclusions.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Stephen Walker (Supervisor)