AirAA is a multimedia platform that broadcasts conversations within the Architectural Association (AA) beyond its homes in Bedford Square, Hooke Park and Montague Street. Recorded and produced at the AA in London, the AA’s podcast series bring together voices from diverse disciplines. Series include On the Steps of 36, which features conversations between members of the AA community and invited guests; Files on Air, which provides audio readings from authors of selected essays from AA Files; and A Line Traced, which aims to ask challenging questions to examine topics that require urgent architectural responses.










For this last episode of How to Be Good Ancestors we are changing tides. Together with artist and academic Janice Cheddie, our aim is to expand the conversation into territories of resistance to the systems unpacked in the previous episodes. What mechanisms exist to rid oneself of debt without going through the painful processes of unfair repayment?
We will explore modes of resistance, focusing on the tools and the precedents which each of us and our guest value and rely on to imagine a common future. The conversation revolves around a series of artefacts including text, video, family heirlooms and memorabilia, reading into these objects’ histories as a method for imagining their future. In doing so, we are positioned both as inheritors of these stories and as forebears for the next generations. How do we become good ancestors for the world to come?
SHOW NOTES:
- For an extended interview with Janice Cheddie, click here.
- For more information on the Panchayyat Collection, click here.
- For further information on Afford, visit their website.
- For Janice Cheddie’s writing on her mother, click here.
- Find out more about the Tate Solidarity Conference, 2019, here.
RECORDINGS:
- Bandung Conference Introduction by Sukarno
- The Black Panthers in Algeria (see minute 28.00 for the segment discussing in the podcast)
- Audre Lorde Interview
ABOUT A LINE TRACED:
As our society continues to unveil fractures within its social and political systems, A Line Traced aims to examine topics that are immediate, prescient and impact the build environment in ways that require urgent architectural responses.
AirAA podcasts are conceived, recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes.
The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.