Name: Amir Shahhosseini Angas, PhD in Philosophy student at University College Cork (UCC),
Presentation Title: Ocularcentrism in Philosophy and Architecture: Bodily Experience in Architectural Phenomenology of Blindness
Bio: Studying architecture in both bachelor’s and master’s informed me that architecture not only can be informed by other disciplines but can also inform other disciplines in a very influential way. One might ask, ‘Why philosophy and not architecture anymore?’ I would say that is one of the major problems that modern, postmodern, and now contemporary architecture is suffering from this separation between the disciplines, especially its separation from the humanities. I never had the desire to become a philosopher, and, I have also never dared to see myself as a professional architectural designer. My desire lies within rebuilding the bridges which once existed between and connected architecture and other disciplines. I am only one person and not capable of doing all of this, but if I can lay a cornerstone for better bridge builders to rebuild those bridges, I can feel satisfied.
A Brief Description of Talk: Western philosophy has been a tradition of ocularcentrism. It has been pointed out by many scholars that the hegemony of vision is a danger to knowledge, truth, understanding, and the unified perceiver and the perceived world. The aim of my project is to ask what we can learn from the experience of the visually impaired. Where I seek to advance beyond the state-of-the-art in the various domains of research I plan to synthesize, is in asking what I take to be a potentially more profound implication of my studies. This question is whether architecture designed and constructed with blindness in mind, might serve a purpose beyond simply accommodating those who are visually impaired. My question is: Is it possible that architecture, which challenges the hegemony of the visual, also provides a way of being in architecture, which evades the dangerous aspects associated with ocularcentrism for all people, not only the blind. Thus, the question is: Is non-ocularcentric architecture a social good, and if so, how can Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy lead us to articulate the correct principles to follow to attain this goal. However, despite the exact similarity of the second half of the title of this presentation to my thesis title, the first half of it has intentionally been changed to “Ocularcentrism in Philosophy and Architecture,” for I am going to talk about Ocularcentrism, where, and it roots.
