Untitled lecture by Mark Cousins, 24th May, 1996

Extent: 1 audio cassette (90min), 4 digital files (1.2 GB )

Comprises audio recording of an untitled lecture, given by Mark Cousins on the 24th May, 1996. The recordings consist of a Scotch CX90 audio cassette tape, 2 digital preservation files (973 MB, .wav format) and 2 digital access files (220 MB, .mp3 format). Duration of access version: 54min 46sec.

Copyright: Architectural Association

Creator: Mark Cousins

Admin History: The recording is of the 21st 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 considers the 19th century fear that there were too many humans for the available space within the world, arguing that such global claustrophobia and public anxiety becomes an idea that the outside world became internalised and projected as a certain form of fear. Cousins uses Freud's ideas on group psychology to understand how the formation of groups, through the utilising the mechanism of love, can create a powerful yet savage dimension. He outlines how, within the context of organised religion, this can take the form of the group being assigned as a 'family', with God as the parent and other believers as siblings - and how such an assignation also separates the non-believers or even the less believers as heretics. Cousins similarly considers that politics also exercise such faculty of love which demands devotion, self-sacrifice, and altruism - and that those who do not belong to the same party became projected as the hated. Cousins argued that such passions of the group can be seen in certain spatial or topographical terms, in terms of created boundaries of 'outside / inside' and of introduced hierarchies. He concludes that the creation of groups by such mechanisms of love have thus also created hatred, war, and segregation.

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 5, Summer Term, 20-24th May, 1996