Skip to content
1981
Volume 1, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2050-9790
  • E-ISSN: 2050-9804

Abstract

Abstract

This article explores the emancipatory potential of misuse. Through the practice of parkour, I investigate misuse as a form of empowerment within entanglements of power demarcating acceptable uses of city space. I critically examine my experience practising parkour on Monument Circle in Indianapolis, Indiana. The research questions include, first, how can we define the misuse of space? What can the misuse of Monument Circle teach us about how architecture communicates the interests of power? Can parkour be a practice of empowerment that challenges spatial expectations of use? Foucault’s discussion of disciplinary power theoretically frames the understanding of discourse, power and the use of misuse. Lefebvre’s theorizations on the production of space ground an understanding of the body in and around architecture. Offered here is an analysis of parkour’s misuse of architecture and its challenge of disciplinary power codified and maintained in the built environment.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jucs.1.1.107_1
2014-03-01
2024-12-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jucs.1.1.107_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): architecture; body; Foucault; Indianapolis; misuse; parkour
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error