Hey there! It's been quite a while since I posted an entry to this blog.
So much so that I am now graduated from architecture. I would like to tell you about my thesis.

I presented a dissertation on the possibilities of installation art as a medium for social experimentation. This research explored the relevance of installation art, site-specific art and other related strategies, in contemporary architectural practice. I argue for the need of tools to address social conditions in space, and the potential of introducing these tools from art.

The dissertation is structured in three parts. First, I examine philosophical views of space as a social phenomenon, and compare them to the architectural conception of space set forth during Modernism. This evidences the absence of a profound understanding of the social dimension of space in architectural strategies and mechanisms.

The second part consists of an extensive analysis of spatial manifestations in art, guided by the development of installation art. Strategies such as environments, Land Art, Minimalism and public sculpture are studied. I also ponder on concepts such as site-specificity, social sculpture and relational art. Through this analysis, I determine the applicability of these manifestations as social catalysts, from an architectural standpoint.

In the third part, I develop this hypothesis with a deeper study of two concrete examples. I discuss the social, architectural and aesthetic implications of two urban interventions created in Mexico within the last decade. These cases allow me to attest the possibility of integrating installation art to architecture in order to examine and confront specific social conditions pertaining a given site.