AR In design/architecture ‘listening’ can mean many things, the most intuitive is listening as a human-human interaction: with a client, with a brief, with locals etc. But I like to think about listening as a dialogue between a site and a person: what does a place have to say? What's the history of it? what does it ‘need’? What's its singularity? etc. I think you can listen to a place in so many ways: through drifting and psycho geographic play, through just your sensory experience in the place, through online research, through sampling, even duplicating on your computer makes you pay a specific attention to it. Listening is crucial when creating, especially in an ecological sense: I think we need a rigour and only create and propose once we are sure we have listened enough. I like this metaphor of listening because in the creative field, it is looking, observing that is predominant: we analyse via maps, diagrams and pictures but listening is a more holistic act: I guess you can't frame your point of view with “listening’ as much as with looking. And from my perspective (maybe off topic) I think listening as a preliminary step is not such a granted act: it requires time, tools, a sensitivity which is often seen as a luxury.

CR You often describe listening as a creative act: in what way does it become a gesture, an architecture, a trace?

AR I think when you put yourself in the position of the negotiator or facilitator instead of the author, listening is a creative act. You need tools, frames, lens to be a good ‘audience’ because it is not passive listening: you translate, you transcribe, you put a structure to your inputs, let it be people’s wishes or quantitative data about the place. And doing this requires a lot of designing no? It is exactly this idea of ‘trace’ (kinda like Tim Ingold intention). 

CR How can one “read” a space with the ears?

AR There is i think there are a lot of bridges to build with performers and filmmakers in the architecture field because there is a poetic space that is kinda missing when we do projects. Even with musicians and sound experimenters; I personally don't use my ears in a literal sense when I ‘work’ but I would use my body to get a sense of scale, and my skin to feel the sun exposure or the wind. I think having body  experience as a base of sketching is a strong strategy but it can also be a bit dangerous as it is very personal and you often need to build an argument that can convince beyond yourself. But a gesture is about speaking; you can read a space through conversations also. 

CR When does a gesture become form?

AR Ideally instantly (there was this Centre pompidou exhibition ; architecture intantanée). As soon as your gesture is applied to a surface it becomes a form no? But this is exactly what I tried to do with Site Drawing: use the pure gesture: the one that touches nothing, in the air, and translate it into a form using gps tracking as the translator. Now with VR or other technology you can do such things. But I'm sure you can do it in a more analogue interesting way: take a 1m roll of paper: with it around the site periphery and sketch in situ! On another note; I don’t think a gesture to be a human centered thing, this classical romanticism of the ‘hand drawing’ and the pen and paper is for me a bit outdated/ I think a dog running around a field is a gesture or flying a drone is another. Using your mouse on the laptop or laying on the ground are gestures as well. It is mainly about being conscious of them and archiving them (the gesture is ephemeral and the form is its afterlife).

CR How does your practice build spaces through the body? For you, is space a scenario or an effect of the gesture?

AR Well this question brings me to a more political thought on our passive relation to our urban space: it is a bit of this (richard sennet or yona friedman) question of appropriation. I think space is too much a scenario imposed on our bodies that is very normative, untouchable, turned into a picture and our embodied experience, our active reactions are very not welcomed.Ideally it should be an effect of our gesture, but not a singular ‘artistic’ authorship gesture (like frank ghery) more the outcome of our small daily gestures; of every inhabitant; that its nether completely ‘finished’.

CR How do you imagine the space generated by the gesture? Is it a device, a structure, a temporary environment?

AR I think a space generated by a gesture is like a collage, it is like a festival; with a plurality of shapes and materialities. the more I think about this question the more I think it is a cultural and legal act more than any objects or projects: it is about giving people agency, it is about making people care and be owners of their lived spaces. Deposito Vittoria by Penique productions It is about less rigid norms, more financial supports, about collaborations. It can be a device, it can be a structure or a environment but we need to be careful that this space is not just a token, a frozen gesture. At the moment, I am working with urbanthinktank_next and they have a good relevance to this with certain of their work in Colombia. Also in Brussels, I am part of a collective called Club dérive and they also think about this in scenography. It is easier because your allowed to do a lot  more as soon as you say it temporary… It is the challenge. I am going everywhere but if you think about it : its like informal settlements: slumps; bidonvilles etc: these are spaces generated from gestures: a thousands of them and the challenge relies into making it into a formal proposal (Lucien Kroll).

CR What form of writing can emerge from performance? Do you ever use models of notation, transcription, or archiving?

AR Because we are here playing with words, writing can mean many things too, it makes me think of choreographic partitions (like this :  from La partition chorégraphique : son histoire et son évolution - Master Danse ).I think the kind of writing I am looking for is of two types: one is a in -process tool and is about collecting glimpses; gathering rhythms, giving a scale to the thoughts. I don't draw very well but to compose on a page or on a screen is I think very important. The second one is a more reflection tool, an aftermath, what stays with you after, what you can learn and take with you. I am for example interested in pedagogies and methodologies: things you can carry with you all your life long and writing is essential in it. On another note, because you mentioned archiving, i think we need to ask ourselves where? Where do we archive, how do we organize that and who does it serve? Is it digital? Is it a personal archives? How my photo roll gallery can be an archive?  It is a question for example in Brussels that more graphics and alternative open-source communities are asking (Konstant, ERG, OSP). Because as a ‘designer’ I need to communicate my work, i need to promote myself, exhibit myself but also gatekeep a bit. And writing for articles or things like this is an amazing exercise (thanks for this small opportunity)

AR In design/architecture ‘listening’ can mean many things, the most intuitive is listening as a human-human interaction: with a client, with a brief, with locals etc. But I like to think about listening as a dialogue between a site and a person: what does a place have to say? What's the history of it? what does it ‘need’? What's its singularity? etc. I think you can listen to a place in so many ways: through drifting and psycho geographic play, through just your sensory experience in the place, through online research, through sampling, even duplicating on your computer makes you pay a specific attention to it. Listening is crucial when creating, especially in an ecological sense: I think we need a rigour and only create and propose once we are sure we have listened enough. I like this metaphor of listening because in the creative field, it is looking, observing that is predominant: we analyse via maps, diagrams and pictures but listening is a more holistic act: I guess you can't frame your point of view with “listening’ as much as with looking. And from my perspective (maybe off topic) I think listening as a preliminary step is not such a granted act: it requires time, tools, a sensitivity which is often seen as a luxury.

CR You often describe listening as a creative act: in what way does it become a gesture, an architecture, a trace?

AR I think when you put yourself in the position of the negotiator or facilitator instead of the author, listening is a creative act. You need tools, frames, lens to be a good ‘audience’ because it is not passive listening: you translate, you transcribe, you put a structure to your inputs, let it be people’s wishes or quantitative data about the place. And doing this requires a lot of designing no? It is exactly this idea of ‘trace’ (kinda like Tim Ingold intention). 

CR How can one “read” a space with the ears?

AR There is i think there are a lot of bridges to build with performers and filmmakers in the architecture field because there is a poetic space that is kinda missing when we do projects. Even with musicians and sound experimenters; I personally don't use my ears in a literal sense when I ‘work’ but I would use my body to get a sense of scale, and my skin to feel the sun exposure or the wind. I think having body  experience as a base of sketching is a strong strategy but it can also be a bit dangerous as it is very personal and you often need to build an argument that can convince beyond yourself. But a gesture is about speaking; you can read a space through conversations also. 

CR When does a gesture become form?

AR Ideally instantly (there was this Centre pompidou exhibition ; architecture intantanée). As soon as your gesture is applied to a surface it becomes a form no? But this is exactly what I tried to do with Site Drawing: use the pure gesture: the one that touches nothing, in the air, and translate it into a form using gps tracking as the translator. Now with VR or other technology you can do such things. But I'm sure you can do it in a more analogue interesting way: take a 1m roll of paper: with it around the site periphery and sketch in situ! On another note; I don’t think a gesture to be a human centered thing, this classical romanticism of the ‘hand drawing’ and the pen and paper is for me a bit outdated/ I think a dog running around a field is a gesture or flying a drone is another. Using your mouse on the laptop or laying on the ground are gestures as well. It is mainly about being conscious of them and archiving them (the gesture is ephemeral and the form is its afterlife).

CR How does your practice build spaces through the body? For you, is space a scenario or an effect of the gesture?

AR Well this question brings me to a more political thought on our passive relation to our urban space: it is a bit of this (richard sennet or yona friedman) question of appropriation. I think space is too much a scenario imposed on our bodies that is very normative, untouchable, turned into a picture and our embodied experience, our active reactions are very not welcomed.Ideally it should be an effect of our gesture, but not a singular ‘artistic’ authorship gesture (like frank ghery) more the outcome of our small daily gestures; of every inhabitant; that its nether completely ‘finished’.

CR How do you imagine the space generated by the gesture? Is it a device, a structure, a temporary environment?

AR I think a space generated by a gesture is like a collage, it is like a festival; with a plurality of shapes and materialities. the more I think about this question the more I think it is a cultural and legal act more than any objects or projects: it is about giving people agency, it is about making people care and be owners of their lived spaces. Deposito Vittoria by Penique productions It is about less rigid norms, more financial supports, about collaborations. It can be a device, it can be a structure or a environment but we need to be careful that this space is not just a token, a frozen gesture. At the moment, I am working with urbanthinktank_next and they have a good relevance to this with certain of their work in Colombia. Also in Brussels, I am part of a collective called Club dérive and they also think about this in scenography. It is easier because your allowed to do a lot  more as soon as you say it temporary… It is the challenge. I am going everywhere but if you think about it : its like informal settlements: slumps; bidonvilles etc: these are spaces generated from gestures: a thousands of them and the challenge relies into making it into a formal proposal (Lucien Kroll).

CR What form of writing can emerge from performance? Do you ever use models of notation, transcription, or archiving?

AR Because we are here playing with words, writing can mean many things too, it makes me think of choreographic partitions (like this :  from La partition chorégraphique : son histoire et son évolution - Master Danse ).I think the kind of writing I am looking for is of two types: one is a in -process tool and is about collecting glimpses; gathering rhythms, giving a scale to the thoughts. I don't draw very well but to compose on a page or on a screen is I think very important. The second one is a more reflection tool, an aftermath, what stays with you after, what you can learn and take with you. I am for example interested in pedagogies and methodologies: things you can carry with you all your life long and writing is essential in it. On another note, because you mentioned archiving, i think we need to ask ourselves where? Where do we archive, how do we organize that and who does it serve? Is it digital? Is it a personal archives? How my photo roll gallery can be an archive?  It is a question for example in Brussels that more graphics and alternative open-source communities are asking (Konstant, ERG, OSP). Because as a ‘designer’ I need to communicate my work, i need to promote myself, exhibit myself but also gatekeep a bit. And writing for articles or things like this is an amazing exercise (thanks for this small opportunity)