Untitled lecture on political and social space in Ancient Greece, by Mark Cousins, 21st October, 1999

Extent: 1 audio cassette (90min), 4 digital files (678 MB)

Comprises audio recording of an untitled lecture on political and social space in Ancient Greece, given by Mark Cousins on the 21st October, 1999. The recordings consist of a 90minute audio cassette tape, 2 digital preservation copies (553.1 MB, .wav format) and 2 digital access copies (125.3 MB, .mp3 format). Duration of access version: 47min 56sec.

Copyright: Architectural Association

Creator: Mark Cousins

Admin History: The lecture was part of the AA General Studies series 'Cultural Organisation of Space.' In this lecture, Mark Cousins puts forward a discussion centralised on Plato's idea of Khôra, from the work Timaeus. As a notion of space in which the interiority is a receptacle but without limit and exteriority, Khôra has an inevitable connection to pre-literate societies in Cousins' analysis. A space that refers to a kind of mental space, Cousins points out that the introduction of writing provided a dramatic rise of representational image in the classical period of Greek history. In a sense, the invention of writing opens a gap of luxury to escape from encyclopaedic memorising in oral tradition and enables an origin of philosophical questions about truth.

Custodial History: Audio cassette recording was made by the AA Audio Visual Departement 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

Publication Note: AA Events List, Week 3, Autumn Term, 18th - 22nd October, 1999