Untitled lecture by Mark Cousins, 21st June, 1996

Extent: 1 audio cassette (90min), 4 digital files (1.17 GB )

Comprises audio recording of an untitled lecture, given by Mark Cousins on the 21st June, 1996. The recordings consist of a Maxell audio cassette tape (90min), 2 digital preservation files (957 MB, .wav format) and 2 digital access files (217 MB, .mp3 format). Duration of access version: 42min 31sec.

Copyright: Architectural Association

Creator: Mark Cousins

Admin History: The recording is of the 24th lecture in the series entitled 'Damage', given by Mark Cousins as part of the AA General Studies programme, 1995-96. In this lecture, Mark Cousins discusses the human experience of time as a form of progressive damage. He questions the notion of 'ideal body', and asks at what age does one arrive at the proper being? Cousins posits that the sense of such 'proper body' almost always occurs in the past and that relations to our body is always mortified by the category of time. He sees it as the vanishing point of the body, where one reconstructs the perspective of an idealisation. Cousins also questions the radical and decisive de-sexualisation of the old body, as if the damage of time to the person must be bandaged by respectability.

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 Week 9, Summer Term, 17-21st June, 1996