Friday 2 February 2018

'Let Me Tell You a Story' by Fenella Brandenburg


Let Me Tell You a Story: Presupposed actualization and the discourse of architectural development plans.

By Fenella Brandenburg.

Limited edition: only 10 available.

This essay is by the academic Fenella Brandenburg who is well-known for her appearance as keynote speaker at the Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography in September 2017 at Huddersfield University.

  • Published by Urban Gerbil
  • Size: A5
  • Pages: 33
  • Black and white images: 2
  • Colour images: 3
  • White cover with blue text



Abstract of essay:
This essay discusses how architectural development plans form a narrative that tells a story of the future space being proposed. This story, embedded in a discourse that is circulated by those in authority in regard to the project’s manifestation, has two main effects. Firstly, it changes the subjectivity of those involved in the decision-making process and, secondly, the ideological structure surrounding the development makes the anticipated project, in the minds of those involved, exist in advance. These effects are known as presupposed actualization. By providing an example of a development project carried out in the UK in the 1960s - and by using theories around narratology, ideology, discourse and representation – the author demonstrates how this comes about through the telling of a story and because of the material actions undertaken by those invested in the project.

You can buy your copy here for £3.45