“Bridge and Door”: A workshop on connection and separation

SPACEX Workshop at Home for Cooperation by Dr. Mahsa Alami Fariman

Date: 4 September 2024

Time: 17:30-19:30

Photo credit: still from ‘Where is the Friend’s House’ (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)/ The Cinematograph, 2024.

Title: “Bridge and Door”; A workshop on connection and separation

Short description of the workshop: In his famous essay “Bridge and Door” (1994), German sociologist and philosopher George Simmel, discusses the correlation of separateness and unity through the bridge and the door. He indicates how the bridge accomplishes the connection between what is separated (for instance, we must first conceive the existence of two river banks as something separated in order to connect them by means of a bridge), and door represents in a more decisive manner how separating and connecting are only two sides of precisely the same act. The human being cut a portion out of the continuity and infinity of space and arranged this into a particular unity by means of a door. The door forms a linkage between the space of human beings and everything that remains outside it and transcends the separation between the inner and the outer.

How do you define bridge and door? Bring along a photo, a book, an item/object, or a story that present/tell your sense of separation, connectedness and unity. What do they activate in your perception of separation, connectedness or unity? What is shared across these objects? How are separation, unity or connection present in these objects and stories? How can we start a dialogue with these objects in 2024? Do these items or memories help us to connect through our separations or they merely signify our separatedness?

Note: In case you can’t get access to George Simmel’s article ‘Bridge and Door’ via the link below, please contact mahsa.alamifariman@coventry.ac.uk

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/026327694011001002,

Short bio: Mahsa is an urban researcher and educator with a background in Architectural and Urban studies. She is based at Coventry University, where she teaches on urban and human geography. She received her PhD in Urban Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London, and studied MA in Architecture (Cultural Identity and Globalisation) at the University of Westminster. Mahsa’s research focuses on open city, border and boundary, politics of space, the production of everyday urban life in the Middle East, and feminist urbanism.

Contact email for registrations or questions: mahsa.alamifariman@coventry.ac.uk