Street Protest Architecture ( Bad Subjects)

Here's an article from an online journal called Bad Subjects. I just posted the first paragraph. To jump to the entire article here.

Street Protest Architecture - Dissent Space in Australia

Gregory Cowan

Issue #65, January 2004

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Street protests appear suddenly in prominent public places — their effect is to stand out in public, in dramatic and symbolic contrast to a context. In their conspicuousness, they enliven and animate the city as a form of public theatre. Berthold Brecht developed the idea of 'city as theatre' in his constructivist creative productions in modern Germany, and Frankfurt School thinkers Benjamin and Adorno theorised its modernity. In such theatre-cities, protest structures surprise and challenge both governments and citizens, actively engaging them in public space as players in the 'political' affairs of the city and state. These constructions are more than mere physical phenomena, endowed with ideas and motivations on a larger scale than the city. They represent more than buildings, and however unsettling, they form a necessary part of the civic architecture. Protest structures help to bring human and domestic elements into public and political life. Architecture in western traditions connotes constructions of authority and significance owing to its definition of the Greek origin of arche tekton, original or authoritative making. As such, protest structures are frequently misunderstood as the antithesis of architecture, but on the contrary, their architectural role in democratic cities is significant.