THE TEMPLE SHOW: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARYProfile

by Joshua Harskamp, AA 4th Year and host of radio programme The Temple Show, broadcast on N10.AS  

08 February 2017 Montréal, Quebec, Canada   The Temple Show is a 60-minute architectural radio programme broadcast on the N10.AS network (pronounced ‘antennas’) out of Montréal, Quebec, Canada. Begun in February 2016, the show is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month with an episode featuring the landscape architect Pierre Bélanger as a guest (more on that later). Since the introduction of compact radio receivers by Lee de Forest in 1916, “the ability of radio to connect people beyond the visible horizon invented the globe itself”, states Mark Wigley in his recent biography of R. Buckminster Fuller. [caption id="attachment_6616" align="alignnone" width="360"] Host Joshua Harskamp produces full radio episodes from the comfort of his home and connects to the world thanks to the affordable yet cutting-edge domestic technology championed by the likes of R Buckminster Fuller.[/caption]

Yes- although the interface has changed and become impossibly sleek so as to further dissipate the notion of the invisible waves that soak us while we ride to wherever, it appears to be one of the forces alongside air travel that has permanently altered us (humans?), and then hung around. It is the invisible medium that makes present the relationships that can orient us at once on the globe (broadcasting out of Montreal via London)- a participatory medium that allows us to touch ground in a myriad of locations (“…today in Washington 470,000 women marched on the national mall in Washington D.C.”)- and maybe for the first time giving the notion (false promise?) of a universal consciousness- “…tonight the global music community grieves the passing of David Bowie”.   Buckminster Fuller referred to this as an ‘electromagnetic reality’- one that had the ability to pass through walls and human bodies, dogs, and forests. A reality of an electric medium that animates the individual rather than an individual animating a physical environment is an inversion that I find interesting when producing episodes for the show. If architecture is understood as material ‘stuff’ by my audience, then presenting it otherwise is a tricky business. And if drawings are as far away from materiality as the typical architecture student likes to get, then what if there weren’t even images? The key, in my opinion, is music. Since the first episode, the programme has paired conversations alongside selected tracks to enhance and compliment the tone and content of the conversations. For instance, when Olivia Erlanger and Luis Ortega presented their work establishing the historical typology of the garage in North American architecture, there was an obvious link (cable-stayed 6 lane bridge?) to cultural production in music. Going from a discussion about the self crafted mythology of Steve Jobs, facilitated by an empty room attached to a suburban home to a live performance of ‘Lithium’ by Nirvana, created a sort of weak telepathy by which the listener is enmeshed in an idea, a place, a sound, and a history. Maybe this is inventing the globe in a different manner? It is in these moments of resonance that I feel a sense of excitement in exploring architecture through radio, and relate deeply to Fuller’s words:

“Everything is a verb, a wave function. I am a wave. You only see me because of interference, because light is bouncing off me… I am not the tons of food, water, and air that have gone into supporting this patterned integrity for eighty-five years; I am the patterned integrity itself.” (Quoted in Wigley, Mark ‘Buckminster Fuller Inc. Architecture in the Age of Radio’ (L 1 ars Müller, 2016) p.66) [caption id="attachment_6615" align="alignnone" width="360"] Host Joshua Harskamp ‘visits’ the Canadian Pavilion ‘Extraction’ at 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, June 2016[/caption] This Wednesday, February 8th, Pierre Bélanger will join me on the show. The discussion will focus primarily on notions of colonisation and architecture as it relates to processes of resource extraction. As a landscape architect and urban planner, Bélanger ‘touches ground’ frequently to relate what is considered inconsequential, out of scale, and unrecognisable back to our contemporary urban situation. By bringing the forces of colonisation and centuries-old precedents in law to our attention, yet another invisible reality is brought to bear. I strongly encourage you to tune in and alter your ‘patterned integrity’.   Episode 10 with Pierre Bélanger airs 7pm Wednesday 8th February on n10.as For more information: For more exciting radio programmes The Temple Show full programme archive The Temple Show on Instagram Pierre Bélanger’s practice and current work To discover more about Extraction