Co-author: Vi Nguyen
“The nineteenth century found its essential mythological resources in the second principle of thermodynamics. The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed.”
(Foucault, M. 1967. “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias”. Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité, Jay Miskowiec (trans.).)
Since the beginning of mankind, there has been a continuous establishment of worldly dichotomies. In the beginning, there was survival. Men hunted. Women gathered. As humanity advanced and the concept of separate homes emerged, this dichotomy carried into the average household. Men worked to make money. Women made meals and tended the kids. Men socialized with others and were exposed to the public while women stayed home and remained more private. Men were required to be masculine and women were required to be feminine.
But what about today? Are we to accept the dichotomies that were established centuries before we were born, or can we begin to question its necessity?
This book was created to explore and challenge the spaces created by four main worldly dichotomies: men vs women, public vs private, social vs familial, and masculine vs feminine. By deconstructing these dichotomies, different sides of each binary are revealed, and social constructs and expectations of sexuality, gender, class, and race can be probed.
“The nineteenth century found its essential mythological resources in the second principle of thermodynamics. The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed.”
(Foucault, M. 1967. “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias”. Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité, Jay Miskowiec (trans.).)
Since the beginning of mankind, there has been a continuous establishment of worldly dichotomies. In the beginning, there was survival. Men hunted. Women gathered. As humanity advanced and the concept of separate homes emerged, this dichotomy carried into the average household. Men worked to make money. Women made meals and tended the kids. Men socialized with others and were exposed to the public while women stayed home and remained more private. Men were required to be masculine and women were required to be feminine.
But what about today? Are we to accept the dichotomies that were established centuries before we were born, or can we begin to question its necessity?
This book was created to explore and challenge the spaces created by four main worldly dichotomies: men vs women, public vs private, social vs familial, and masculine vs feminine. By deconstructing these dichotomies, different sides of each binary are revealed, and social constructs and expectations of sexuality, gender, class, and race can be probed.
