Untitled lecture by Mark Cousins, 4th November, 2005

Extent: 1 audio cassette (45min), 4 digital files (523 MB

Untitled lecture', given by Mark Cousins on the 4th November, 2005. T he recordings consist of an audio cassette tape (90min), digital preservation files (523 MB, .wav format) and digital access files (118 MB, .mp3 format). Duration of access version: 50min 08sec.

Copyright: Architectural Association

Creator: Mark Cousins

Admin History: The recording is of the 4th lecture in the series entitled 'Pain of Time Past', given by Mark Cousins as part of the AA General Studies programme, 2005-2006. In this lecture, Mark Cousins begins by considering melancholia becoming an index of seriousness, both in social culture and architectural discourse. He points out a fundamental confusion between melancholia and memory, a relationship between the 'lost object', aesthetics, the art object, and the architectural object. Cousins continues his argument through Freud's idea on stages of mourning to understand depression, grief, and love. He argues that death also comes in two stages, one in its physicality, then again from betrayal of sentimentality. In a sense, most theories of culture are deeply sentimental, and failed to understand the necessary condition of betrayal.

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 Libary 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