Extent: 1 audio cassette (90min), 4 digital files (959 MB )
Comprises audio recording of a lecture entitled 'The Death Drive and the Space of Repetition' given by Mark Cousins on the 4th May, 2001. The recordings consist of a TDK 90 audio cassette tape, 2 digital preservation files (782 MB, .wav format) and 2 digital access files (177 MB, .mp3 format). Duration of access version: 1.hr 2min 27sec
Copyright: Architectural Association
Creator: Mark Cousins
Admin History: The recording is of the 15th lecture in the series entitled 'Psyche and Space', given by Mark Cousins as part of the AA General Studies programme, 2000-2001. Mark Cousins begins in this lecture by pointing out two spaces: a psychically organised space that is fantasy, and a reality space which functions as an obstacle. He continues with a discussion around the idea of the state of trauma, drawing upon Sigmund Freud's work on the subject. Cousins relates that to relieve the trauma, one must treat the neurosis, as the path of mastering trauma is somehow blocked. Cousins then discusses the formulation of Freud's 'death drive', whereby space is organised around the dismantling of complexity, and repetition is the representative of death in the field of complexity. At the conclusion of the lecture, Cousins returns a discussion of Freund's 'pleasure principle' and its own logic of the catastrophe. Cousins proposes that relations to reality are fundamentally organised by the pleasure principle, of being 'belated' - that we are all too late and always beyond everything.
Custodial History: Audio cassette recording was made by the AA Audio Visual Department and retained by the AA Photo Library until 2019, when it was transferred to the AA Archives.
Aquisition: Audio cassette was transferred from the AA Photo Library to the AA Archives in 2019. Digital preservation and access copies were created by the AA Archives in 2021.
Archive Note: Catalogue description by Ke Bo Tsai
Publication Note: AA Events List, Summer Term, Week 2, 30th April - 4th May, 2001.