Doctoral Project
Iʁúsan, or Canting for Architects.
Doctoral Project
Nicholas Stefan Drofiak
Iʁúsan, or Canting for Architects.
Iván Ilič Leonidov sovét iʁusbetʃ ovilda. 1931ka USSR bū 2,800km Moskvádiŋal Igárkadiŋa dudaqoldan, qadé kiˀ tɯ̄lbaŋd kɯʃnna ə̄ʃbaŋ idiŋbetesaŋ. A Igárkabaŋ qā bənʃaŋ: kidé baˀŋ ostɯɣanna qaˀdi. Arhitekturdeŋ an tqajiɣisejen evrópdeŋna qaanga - a ostɯɣanna qaˀdi kənbaŋ bìl evrópdeŋna qaandi kənbaŋdil. Omba, ətnna baŋga, beˀk 70 deˀŋ ostɯɣanna qaˀ manmáŋ. Ū īdiŋ asaʁən Leonidovdaŋta ostɯɣanbeʃ sim nimáŋ, qaanka ilbaŋ(ɯn) haj boŋguləŋ sabotnd ɯnbalga əəlam i bə̄n boɣosam, etta qode qod ana qaˀbeʃ. Enaʁo 2013baŋdiŋa, qōt lovet Leonidovdaŋta haj ostɯɣanna qaˀ boɣos baˀŋ delduɣabetn, tam ana aana bə̄n īdiŋ asaʁən Leonidovdaŋta âʃkeʃ bə̄n ʃidaʁat eŋŋuŋka ostɯɣanbeʃ sim dukijoŋɣavetn. Benijuɣovej, kidé ʃidaʁat projékt asaʁən Leonidovdaŋta «camera-obscura»beʃ Qūk qatopdiŋa daeʃkava; lovetdita Zoja Vasil’evna Maksunova Baklanihaka idiŋen ostɯɣanbeʃ dakijoŋɣavet. Projéktbeʃ Leonidovesaŋ dbotɯŋdəŋɣavetn, haj ʃinga bītdəŋtaqn.
In 1931, the Soviet architect Ivan Il’ič Leonidov was sent 2,800km northeast of Moscow to help to design the Soviet Union’s new arctic port, Igarka. The act was presented as an inscription of the future into the vast nothing of Northern Siberia; it was not, of course. Northern Eurasia was and is no blank. The Igarka region specifically is traditional territory of the indigenous, isolate language Ket – a model of reality entirely unrelated to those of the Indo-European family that dominate architectural discourse. Ket is spoken today – to any degree of fluency – by fewer than 70 persons. When used to represent an interpretation of architecture, the structures by which it organises experience, the distinctions it inscribes into the landscape, and the specific relationships it establishes between facets of reality – the selections, in other words, that it makes in encoding information – are as with all languages, unique. Yet until 2013, despite their clearly suggestive geographical coincidence, academic discussion of Leonidov’s architectural fictions had never taken place in the medium of the Ket language. This is an omission that my research project attempts to rectify, by means of a camera obscura that simulates the appearance of Leonidov’s fantasies on the shores of the Enisej river, and a series of interviews, in its presence, with with one of the last remaining Ket speakers, Zoâ Maksunova. Translation as a research practice forms my attempt to enact Leonidov’s own fictive strategies of provoked, perpetrated and productive uncertainty. Preliminary findings indicate that what results from this experimental collision is an orbital dive akin to the flight of the red-throated diver (gavia stellata).
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Nicholas Stefan Drofiak
Iʁúsan, or Canting for Architects.
Representations of an Obscure Happening in the Enisejan North;
An Experimental Investigation in the Construction of Fictions;
The Provoked Collision of Ivan Leonidov and the Ket Language;
The People of the Light and the City of the Sun;
A Tale of Loss and Divers.
Iván Ilič Leonidov sovét iʁusbetʃ ovilda. 1931ka USSR bū 2,800km Moskvádiŋal Igárkadiŋa dudaqoldan, qadé kiˀ tɯ̄lbaŋd kɯʃnna ə̄ʃbaŋ idiŋbetesaŋ. A Igárkabaŋ qā bənʃaŋ: kidé baˀŋ ostɯɣanna qaˀdi. Arhitekturdeŋ an tqajiɣisejen evrópdeŋna qaanga - a ostɯɣanna qaˀdi kənbaŋ bìl evrópdeŋna qaandi kənbaŋdil. Omba, ətnna baŋga, beˀk 70 deˀŋ ostɯɣanna qaˀ manmáŋ. Ū īdiŋ asaʁən Leonidovdaŋta ostɯɣanbeʃ sim nimáŋ, qaanka ilbaŋ(ɯn) haj boŋguləŋ sabotnd ɯnbalga əəlam i bə̄n boɣosam, etta qode qod ana qaˀbeʃ. Enaʁo 2013baŋdiŋa, qōt lovet Leonidovdaŋta haj ostɯɣanna qaˀ boɣos baˀŋ delduɣabetn, tam ana aana bə̄n īdiŋ asaʁən Leonidovdaŋta âʃkeʃ bə̄n ʃidaʁat eŋŋuŋka ostɯɣanbeʃ sim dukijoŋɣavetn. Benijuɣovej, kidé ʃidaʁat projékt asaʁən Leonidovdaŋta «camera-obscura»beʃ Qūk qatopdiŋa daeʃkava; lovetdita Zoja Vasil’evna Maksunova Baklanihaka idiŋen ostɯɣanbeʃ dakijoŋɣavet. Projéktbeʃ Leonidovesaŋ dbotɯŋdəŋɣavetn, haj ʃinga bītdəŋtaqn.
In 1931, the Soviet architect Ivan Il’ič Leonidov was sent 2,800km northeast of Moscow to help to design the Soviet Union’s new arctic port, Igarka. The act was presented as an inscription of the future into the vast nothing of Northern Siberia; it was not, of course. Northern Eurasia was and is no blank. The Igarka region specifically is traditional territory of the indigenous, isolate language Ket – a model of reality entirely unrelated to those of the Indo-European family that dominate architectural discourse. Ket is spoken today – to any degree of fluency – by fewer than 70 persons. When used to represent an interpretation of architecture, the structures by which it organises experience, the distinctions it inscribes into the landscape, and the specific relationships it establishes between facets of reality – the selections, in other words, that it makes in encoding information – are as with all languages, unique. Yet until 2013, despite their clearly suggestive geographical coincidence, academic discussion of Leonidov’s architectural fictions had never taken place in the medium of the Ket language. This is an omission that my research project attempts to rectify, by means of a camera obscura that simulates the appearance of Leonidov’s fantasies on the shores of the Enisej river, and a series of interviews, in its presence, with with one of the last remaining Ket speakers, Zoâ Maksunova. Translation as a research practice forms my attempt to enact Leonidov’s own fictive strategies of provoked, perpetrated and productive uncertainty. Preliminary findings indicate that what results from this experimental collision is an orbital dive akin to the flight of the red-throated diver (gavia stellata).
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