READINGS

Ivan Illich, “The Dirt of the Cities, The Aura of Cities, The Smell of the Dead, and Utopia of an Odorless City”, in H₂O and the Waters of Forgetfulness, (London: Marion Boyars, 1986). Link to book. 

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, “Manifesto for Maintenance Art, Proposal for an Exhibition,” (New York, 1969). Link to manifesto.  

Sara Jensen Carr, “Quarantine, Eradication, and Prescription: How Health Segregated the American Urban Landscape” in Segregation and Resistance in the Landscapes of the Americas, eds. Eric Avila and Thaisa Way, (Harvard University Press, 2023). Link to book.

PROMPT

This week, each of the three authors makes related but different arguments about how architects and designers have played a central role in sanitizing space and distancing ourselves from waste, death, decay, pollution, and other seemingly unsanitary conditions. In your own words, describe the main arguments of the three authors, and where you see overlap between them.  

Optionally, you may also connect this discussion to the transformation of the Great Salt Cove, which—as we’ve heard from many sources by now—is portrayed as a particularly smelly place.