Performance lecture with Ruth Beale, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, The University of Edinburgh, 30 October 2007

A lecture of in three acts – Revivalism, Heritage Industry and Architecture and Performativity – with accompanying costumes, reference material and props. The lecture gave an account of buildings and sites visited, and proposed narratives by which they relate to one another. Karen’s physical performance provided a counterpoint as she translated the content through statuesque poses, adorned and inhibited by her costume. The lecture combined factual information with subjective speculation, giving a picaresque journey from avant-garde interdisciplinary practice, to amateurism, philanthropy, and Romanticism, with buildings that show an eccentricity of style and purpose, whose architects perform or subvert the mantras of form or function, extending to now romantic readings of utopianism and ‘progress’.