Vita Havet : Whiteness and Otherness - Plaza De Mayo and Konstfack

Abstract: This text is written as a masterexam within an important Art institution in Stockholm as Konstfack, where the researcher has been studying interior and furniture design for the last five years. Therefore, it is the result of the knowledge accumulated during that period of time, in combination with the socio-cultural baggage that characterizes her identity and positioning towards the world. There are many ways of defining architecture and design. Also, within the concept of architecture, there are plenty of branches. This study is, as said before, a sum of the interpretation of how to use the education in order to socially contribute to a sustainable and more egalitarian world. As the writers' background profoundly influences her point of view, it seems essential to exhibit it for the reader.  Her parents came to Sweden as political refugees from Chile and Argentina during the military dictatorships that had taken over the democratic governments in those countries during the '70s. They, as well as the researcher, are by definition, either Swedish or "white". Even as born in Sweden and having Swedish citizenship, the law does not define the writer as Swedish. This fact has featured the formation of her identity as "not white," and in that way excluded from the dominating "ethnicity". Initially, the aim of the study contextualises by the description of the experiences and knowledge that have guided the author through her education at Konstfack. As a result,  there arise perspectives that criticize excluding power structures and how they reproduce through architecture and spatial design. Experiences, reflections, and knowledge that emerged through the described education at Konstfack led further into the exploration of the concepts inclusive-excluding design, activism, social and political architecture, postcolonial perspectives, and decolonizing processes. The study's theoretical part presents various practitioners that have inspired and empowered this project. Further, a more in-depth analysis of the institution responsible for the writer's education for the last five years results in unfolding problems and issues to give the reader an understanding of the chosen strategies to follow, starting with "manipulating manipulation". The fifth chapter consists of the study's method part, where the researcher describes the methods and strategies used. The results are presented based on spatial interventions, used as a tool to activate dialogues about shared spaces, here called common spaces. The reactions caused by the interventions are also a ground for analysis. Keywords: white supremacy, subversive interventions, disruptive aesthetics, activism, civil disobedience, architecture