Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 01:33, 11 June 2025

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==History==

{{More citations needed section|date=March 2021}}

During its 2-year 'Psychogeographical Survey of Glasgow' (1992–1994), the group concentrated on improving the relationship between the [[Lettrism|Letterist]] (and later [[Situationist International Situationist]]) techniques of "taken" and "built" situations. The outcome, described in the essay "Programmed and Constructed Drifting; the Event Architectures of [[Unitary urbanism#:~:text=Unitary urbanism (UU) was the International between 1953 and 1960.|Unitary Urbanism]]" (''Viscosity'' No.3 Glasgow, Jan 1994), highlighted the unnecessary separation of these two tools. The techniques were initially borrowed from the writing techniques of the [[Oulipo]], where the flow of an otherwise free ''[[dérive]]'' is directed in its apparent randomness (and given an element of control over its protagonists) by applying [[parameter]]s. The behavioral [[algorithm]]s employed by WNLA range from elaborate "drifting machines" that are carried across the land and deployed at intervals to generate repeating instructions for movement (non-linear feedback loops), to the simple "anywhere" hitchhiking sign, a regular sight in the summer of 1993, being held aloft on the pavement of the bridge on The M8's Great Western Road.

Artist [[Ralph Rumney]] (1934–2002) is credited with bringing the workshop's activities to a wider audience. He was acquainted with many of the original Parisian Letterists and participated in one of the group's ''dérives'' in London in 1995. It was assumed that WNLA had disbanded shortly after releasing the fourth and final issue of its journal ''Viscosity'', which is now infamous for being selected by the [[K Foundation]] to announce its 23-year ban on all artistic practice. However, the journal suggests that the temporary ban applied to the K Foundation and WNLA itself, with the group committing to stop intervening in their activities entirely until 2018.