Monstering: a transdisciplinary method for an unstable world

Abstract

This paper outlines the transdisciplinary practice of monstering, a toolset used by the Experimental Architecture Group (EAG) to engage with a world in constant flux. The chapter describes recent Experimental Architecture projects that draw attention to the need for radical change at a time of ecocide. Our ‘monstering’ perspectives draw inspiration from the countless forms of cooperation and acts of generosity that underpin healthy ecological systems. Throughout the text, a range of different voices, materials, media and practices are brought together to synthesise the potentials of monstering. Monstering generates qualitatively new encounters in the choreography of space and its inhabitation. It challenges normative protocols and existing practices by embodying the unknown and uncontrollable aspects of the world. Through monstering, we embrace our innate zoephilia (Braidotti, 2006, p. 41), increasing our capacity to respond to an ever-changing reality and finding new ways of diplomacy to better communicate and acknowledge the contributions of non-human agents to our reality. EAG’s monstering experiments seek to bring designed change to functionality (Haraway, 2015) through re-empowerment, re-connection and re-enchantment with an ecologically stressed world. The paper details monstering performances and installations as prototypes that draw attention to established preferences, conventions, and habits, celebrating diversity, difference and paradoxical encounters.