This post riffs off of a recent prompt by the Journal of Architectural Education for the Spring 2025 Issue. Below is a portion of the prompt “extracted” from the full Call for Papers. Full CFP is linked here.
Architecture extracts. The term extraction derives from the Latin extrahere, meaning “to draw out,” “to drag out,” “to remove.” While extraction has been occurring for thousands of years, colonialism and global capitalism have together accelerated the removal and commodification of physical and non-physical resources, defining our current systems of extractivism. Situating architecture’s relationship with—and beyond—the many forms of contemporary extractivism and extraction more broadly, this issue reimagines this condition of ‘drawing out’ in expansive and inclusive ways that challenge the geo-logics of extraction within design.
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Drawing out — How do the tools of representation enable us to represent the spatial/ non-spatial forces of extraction, and what new modes of representation might allow for the transition to non-extractive practices?
Tools of Representation
- Something to write and draw with
- Something to write and draw on
- Something to measure the things being drawn
- Visual and written language to communicate what is being drawn
When thinking of extraction or non-extractive practices, it is not the pen that extracts, rather the person who is holding it. New modes makes me think of RULES of representation rather than the tools.
Rules of Representation
No tools should be made of materials that can harm the health of people or the land, or have been made with processes that result in harming people and the land
- The thing you use to write and draw with should be accessible to and usable by the people being represented
- The thing you use to write and draw on should be accessible to and editable by the people and places who are being represented
- The thing you use for measuring should be accessible and legible to anyone being represented or measured by the tools
- The visual and written language should be primarily in the language of the people’s being represented
What implications might this have? Especially for language? It means, you have to know the language first. It means, maybe, you shouldn’t be the one making the representation of a thing in the first place.
Because laptops, software, keyboard, mouse, and even the making of pencils and paper involve conflict minerals and extraction, this leaves out a lot of current practices. Which makes sense why current practices need to change. One of the most straightforward things that would not break the Rules of Representation is simply face-to-face communication. No recording, no podcasts, no notes – just day-to-day interactions. Spending time learning, eating, remembering, and talking of dreams. From there, you build.
Why do you need to represent a thing to someone who is there with you the whole time? To someone who shares the same experiences with you and is PRESENT? Much of the time, we use RE-presentations to show someone else a thing they have not experienced or seen themselves. It offers them a partial understanding of a thing that the person who made the representation deems as valuable or worth recording. This is already the first step of extraction. It reduces the thing to what the re-presenter deems worth representing. Even if it’s a photo.
You can never enclose the wholeness of a place or a person to a representation without taking something or “drawing out” what is deemed worthy of drawing. Even if the thing is not physically taken or extracted, if shown to others, it has now shaped their views of this thing they do not know. It has stolen the opportunity for the thing to speak for itself. It’s like being shown the spoilers of a TV show or video game content that has been data-mined and not yet released.
So what now? Do we just stop attempting to represent anything? No – and nothing is perfect or pure in this world. We do the best we can. We think of ways that follow the Rules of Representation. What if the thing you use to draw is made from the pigment found from the safer minerals of that place and the canvas is a visible wall or square where people gather? Then maybe the measurement is something people of the place have always used or custom for its purpose like stones or seeds or how far a you can hear someone’s call?
Standard notations and measurements help with ex-change and ex-traction, but do we not exist outside of transactions? Not everything needs and can be an “equal” transaction. A dollar is the not the same to a person with billions and a person with none. An apple is not the same as an orange, and even if one requires more effort to grow, they may be appreciated the same by different people.
Since unlearning is hard and change is difficult in a world built from extraction, maybe the first step begins by knowing and re-presenting yourself and your community instead of writing about how to represent others.
our way home 