From 2015-2020, I served as executive director and curator of Materials & Applications, a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting new ideas and processes in architecture through built work and public programs. In 2021 I joined the MAK Center for Art and Architecture as its new director.
Since the introduction of Google Sheets, spreadsheets have also served as a site for collective anonymous outrage, reshaping the uses of spreadsheet from a tool for accounting to a tool of accountability. See Laida Aguirre, Jia Yi Gu, Gary Riichirō Fox, Cyrus Penarroyo, “The Open Letter and the Spreadsheet: Digital Vigilante Practices in Architecture,” MAS Context 33 (2021): 278–291.
Shippers and carbon calculators even share similar metrics of calculation including weight, distance, and transport type. See Gallery Climate Coalition, The Impact of Art Shipment on the Environment, 2020, ➝.
Mierle Ldaerman Ukeles, MANIFESTO FOR MAINTENANCE ART 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition "CARE", 1969.
A few architects have worked on this question of the afterlives of exhibitions. For Materials & Applications, Michigan-based studios EXTENTS project Lossy/Lossless (2019) and stock-a-studio’s installation (kit of these some parts) x budget gym) (2019) utilized ready-made and custom assembly systems to resolve the installation’s disassembly. Both yyy-mm-dd (Kate Chiu and Francois Sabourin) and Ang Li’s practices incorporate reuse through disassembly to build attention towards the material impact.
See Jeffrey Inaba, World of Giving (Baden: Lars Muller Publishers, 2010), 150.
These types of gifts (goods, services, property) are generally acknowledged in non-profit accounting: goods, services, and property. “In-kind goods” are forms of tangible property, essentially anything that is not money or labor, like furniture, computer equipment, food and meals, or hardware. “In-kind property” is a separate category, which encompasses donations of real property such as land, real estate, or equipment (not simply the use of the space, but the actual transfer of ownership). The third category, “in-kind services,” is a more discrete realm, and can only be recognized in financial statements if the services enhance the organization, require specialized skill, and would typically be purchasable if not provided as a gift.
In-kind services and contributions are valued at their fair market value or at their actual cost, so an architect who has contributed n hours of work to the building of their installation in theory could be said to have donated n number of hours of in-kind services. In this way, an exhibition requiring $1,000 in materials and supplies in fact can be accounted for and valued at $100,000 if the architectural labor expended carries the market value of $90,000. In 1993, the Financial Accounting Standards Board established the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 116 (FASB116) which sets the standard for recording in-kind contributions in the general ledger for accounting purposes.
Thanks to Ana Miljacki for the invitation to join her in dialogue on formats of care and institutional practices in architecture, where the early seeds of this essay unfolded in the series Conversations on Care on May 8, 2020, ➝.
On catalogs, see Gwen Allen, “The Catalog as an Exhibition Space in the 1960s and 1970s.” In: When Attitude Becomes Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013 (Milan: Progetto Prada Arte, 2013), 505–510. On storefronts, see Mike Cooter, “SPACES—The Storefront Gallery,” Art Agenda (2016), ➝. On exhibition design, see Mary Anne Staniszewski, The Power of Display (Boston: MIT Press, 1998).