DUBLIN
Caring Culture: Architecture, Commoning And The Politics Of Public Health And Wellbeing
(National College of Art and Design)
The Dublin strand of the Caring Culture project began in September 2024 as my thesis project for my Master’s degree. The project started with an exercise in cartography, which allowed me to analyse my ontology and the inspiration behind my previous work on caring culture. It then progressed into a public inquiry, where I used the creative intervention of the Dérive to explore the city artistically. This innovative intervention revealed that the town had changed significantly from what I once knew.
I began to investigate the role of gentrification in Dublin, using “The Point” as my case study for a public enquiry. This enquiry subsequently led me back to the location of my college, situated in the Liberties—a longstanding working-class area of Dublin undergoing rapid urbanisation. Inspired by my research, I asked: What is the role of the old economic culture in Meath Street, and what can we learn from its semi-circular economy?
Through my engagement with the public, it became clear that the community held a deep fear around the upcoming regeneration project planned by the Dublin City Council. The project now seeks to explore why this community fears such change and, should the regeneration result in gentrification, what the “day after gentrification” might look like.
This project stands as a critique of the laissez-faire urban planning of Dublin City Council and, through its critique, aims to develop a framework for socially engaged urban design.
WHERE MY COLLEGE
NCAD
WAS LOCATED
Two key concepts were essential in understanding why and how I focused my practice on art and social action.
Existentialism is a Humanism
While researching, I came across Jean-Paul Sartre’s lecture, Existentialism is a Humanism , where he presents Existentialism as a philosophy that highlights individual freedom, responsibility, and the creation of personal meaning in a world without inherent purpose. Sartre’s idea of "radical freedom and responsibility" resonated deeply with me: he argues that because there is no predetermined purpose, everyone has complete freedom to define themselves. But with that freedom comes the responsibility of shaping who we are and the world around us. This responsibility, Sartre explains, is fundamental to humanism; by making choices, we not only define ourselves but also set examples that influence humanity.
Considering Reflective Equilibrium
To capture my engagement with the creative task, mapping my practice would also allow me to map my reflective equilibrium.
Reflective equilibrium is an approach in ethics and philosophy for harmonising our beliefs, principles, and judgments. It involves balancing and adjusting specific judgments about situations with our broader moral beliefs until they align coherently.
This concept felt fitting for the work I developed, as much of my practice is shaped by theories and moral beliefs that stem from my education and life experiences. Influences from philosophy, political, and leftist theories have deeply informed my perspectives and guided my work.
As I worked to define my practice, I found that Sartre’s concept of Existentialism pushed me to question why I think, act, and create as I do. I began to consider how my map could serve not to “shape humanity” but to serve as a map or example in developing my practice.
At the beginning of the project, I was tasked with mapping my ontology, methodology, practice, and inspiration. This exercise served as a way of understanding who I was developing into as a socially engaged artist and what work I was interested in pursuing.
I wanted the work to invite viewers to explore and get lost, much like they would when wandering through a city. I hoped that the intricacy of the map would spark moments of discovery, allowing viewers to uncover hidden information that often goes unnoticed in familiar places, just as we experience when visiting cities that are not our own.
Street view of map
The street view is heavily influenced by the "en masse" era artists mentioned on the map, reflecting their collective impact on my understanding of art. Additionally, my journey in the arts began as a design and illustration student, which has shaped my perspective and approach to this project. This background informs how I conceptualise and visualise the elements within the street view, creating a dialogue between my past experiences and the influences that have guided my practice.
Portrait of Practice
The Portrait of Practice is directly inspired by the early stages of the project (Paris), where I aimed to construct a framework for my practice. This portrait features nine pillars, each representing an essential aspect of my moral compass and theoretical approach. However, I left these pillars undefined, inviting viewers to interpret and reimagine their meanings for themselves. This openness encourages a personal engagement with the work, allowing each viewer to connect with the pillars uniquely.
Public Enquiry
Following my mapping project, I was presented with the public enquiry brief, allowing me to reconnect with my research from Paris in a Dublin context. I approached the project using Guy Debord's theory of dérive as a creative framework to explore and reinterpret the space and publicness within the city. Taking the time to reflect on what publicness felt and presented itself in these spaces. I used sketching and illustration to explore these feelings, generating a primary source of creative research.
While travelling through the city on an irregular path, I arrived at what I consider a "ghost" shopping centre. This location offered a unique opportunity to examine public space and publicness in a new way. It still operated as a public space, although remaining mainly vacant. I continued using Guy Debord's theory of dérive as a creative framework to explore and reinterpret the space, allowing me to navigate its emptiness and unlock its latent potential as a public place.
For a more in-depth analysis of the history of the "ghost” shopping centre, follow the link below.
Lacan's Le Réel and my exploration.
While preparing to explore public spaces, I was drawn to Jacques Lacan's concept of le réel, a foundational element in his psychoanalytic theory, which comprises three core orders: the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. These orders shape human experience and our perceptions of reality. The Imaginary refers to our realm of images and illusions, often linked to our self-image and personal fantasies. The Symbolic encompasses language, social structures, and systems that give shape and meaning to our world through signifiers. We construct our understanding of identity, relationships, and societal norms within the Symbolic. However, le réel, or the Real, represents what is outside and beyond these two orders—it is that which eludes symbolisation and disrupts our constructed sense of reality. Lacan describes le réel as something impossible to grasp or integrate into language fully; the unfiltered experience of raw existence resists our efforts to categorise it (Lacan, 1973).
In the context of public spaces, le réel reveals itself through disjointed, alienating encounters that disrupt our everyday interactions with the urban environment. Public spaces, often shaped by the Symbolic—with their defined roles, rules, and designs—frequently fail to account for the spontaneous and unpredictable nature of human experience. Moments when a space feels out of place or makes us uncomfortable, reflect this incursion of le réel, challenging the meaning and purpose we assign to our surroundings. By exploring public spaces with the Lacanian lens understanding, my research sought to confront the tension between our constructed realities and the often inexpressible sensations that arise when le réeldisrupts our expectations. This exploration invites a reconsideration of how urban environments can provoke feelings of alienation, reflecting Lacan's theories and the inherently complex nature of publicness.
Dérive , Le Réel and Escalators
Dérive or drifting
Letting go of the usual reasons for walking - and being drawn by the affordances and attractions of the place. (Triarch Press n.d.)
Living in Dublin intermittently, I have developed certain biases and preconceived notions regarding the city's public spaces. I have repurposed Guy Debord's theory of dérive to challenge these preconceived ideas about the urban environment. I chose this approach because it encourages playful, constructive behaviour and fosters an awareness of psychogeographical effects, allowing for a deeper exploration of the city's nuances.
Inspired by the concept of dérive, I crafted a brief to guide my research into the nature of publicness.
Pages 9 - 13 explain the theory of Non-Lieux in context of the Point shopping centre
As I cycled, I noticed a bench that struck me as utterly useless. It was positioned right before an advertisement, facing a bare concrete wall. There was little else to say about it. Still, this bench alone encapsulated everything I had felt about the city's design and its implications on how we are expected to live here. The bench embodies a supposedly public space, yet devoid of any real purpose for people beyond passive consumption.
Le Réel and Urban Disjunction
Lacan's concept of le réel, as explained in his Écrits, represents that which lies outside our symbolic frameworks and resists integration into language or meaning. Lacan famously describes it as "the impossible" because it exists beyond what can be fully expressed or grasped within our familiar symbolic structures (Lacan, 1977). Within my dérive through the city, I encountered this notion of le réel through experiences of urban spaces that felt strangely out of place, highlighting the gap between the intended design of these spaces and their actual function in daily public life. For instance, a bench awkwardly before a blank wall and an advertisement (Fig. 3.1) illustrates le réel in the cityscape. This design, which appeared to have no purpose, surprised me by showing something strange and unexpected in ordinary things, resulting in me feeling a range of emotions like amusement and frustration.
This confrontation with the absurd aligns with Debord's Theory of the Dérive, which explores how drifting through urban environments exposes the psychogeographical impacts of the built environment. Debord argues that this purposeless wandering reveals how these constructed spaces influence our thoughts and behaviours, uncovering hidden tensions within urban design (Debord, 1958). When considered alongside Lacan's le réel, the dérive reveals "gaps" within the city's symbolic order—places where the space's space intended function and actual experience diverge, producing feelings of disorientation and alienation. In this way, le réel is not merely an abstract psychoanalytic concept; it is a profoundly emotional experience within the urban landscape that confronts us when we observe it creatively. This fractured nature of our relationship with public spaces and our reaction reflects our sense of self within them.
According to Lacan, le réel disrupts the symbolic order, often leaving us at a loss and evoking anxiety (Lacan, 1977). This bench, devoid of functionality or aesthetic purpose, can be argued that it becomes a site of discomfort, reflecting a cityscape indifferent to the need for meaningful public spaces. It manifests what Marc Augé describes as "non-places"—spaces stripped of identity, history, and connection (Augé, 1995). My experience of creatively exploring Dublin thus reflects le réel as an underlying force shaping these non-places, rendering them symbols of disconnection and alienation. In exploring the city through Dérive, in the gaze of le réel, I attempt to make visible these contradictions, reflecting on how we navigate and internalise the alienating landscapes of modern public spaces in an urban setting.
Escalators
Upon reaching Point Square, I immersed myself in the interplay of the key concepts that surfaced throughout my research: Non-Lieux, Dérive, and le réel. As I stood in front of the escalators, a peculiar fascination took hold, as if I were observing a newly discovered species. I studied the escalators intently, sensing they might hold some hidden meaning or insight—clues that could deepen my understanding of public space and enrich my artistic practice. This moment encapsulated my journey, each concept I had been exploring woven into the fabric of this unexpected encounter. It was an experience that invited me to consider how these elements situated in publicness could inform my work as an artist.
To provide context, Point Square houses 16 escalators, which I have revisited several times since my initial visit. During my first exploration, I rode each escalator, observing the movement patterns within the space. Following that, I began interviewing staff designing a creative exercise for them to engage with the site through drawings and written responses. However, I am still waiting to receive their responses.
Interestingly, despite the shopping centre's pretence of public accessibility, security frequently approached me, watched closely, and followed as I moved about the premises. It became clear that my deviation from the expected consumer behaviour—a Dérive within a supposedly public space—was perceived as threatening the centre's carefully constructed environment. When I ceased participating in the centre's routine rhythms, I felt a palpable shift in how I was regarded, revealing a stark contrast between the space's claimed public nature and the controlled, commodified reality.
I began generating a log and a series of illustrations of my experience riding these escalators. (Page 27 - 31)
I arrived at The Point Square. Inside, the shops mainly appeared bare, with workers passing through to grab quick bites at Dunnes before heading back out. It felt transient, like a space designed for people to move through rather than stay. The quick exchanges and fleeting interactions reflected the transactional nature of the area—a place built more for convenience than connection or community.
Engagement and ethics
Concerned by the rapid urbanisation of Dublin and the effects of gentrification, I returned to where my creative intervention, the Dérive, had begun: the Liberties. The Liberties is a historical site of trade and commerce among Dublin's working class. This legacy is eroding rapidly due to gentrification and corporate interests.
I knew I would be investigating an emotionally charged topic to begin this project, so I had to consider my ethical stance and approach carefully. It was crucial to avoid "parachuting" into the community, potentially causing more harm than good—a challenge I, as an artist working with communities, have had to confront and navigate thoughtfully.
Using Pierre Bourdieu's sociological framework, as explored in Distinction, and Bhaskar's critical realism and concept of causality, I approached the early stages of this work with a sociological lens focused on ethics.
Bhaskar argues, "Causality is not simply the occurrence of regular events, but the expression of deep, real structures that are responsible for the phenomena we observe". This framing of causality provides a foundation for how I have chosen to approach this engagement. Further elaborating on causality, Bhaskar writes, "The central task of dialectical critical realism is to uncover the real mechanisms that generate the phenomena we observe... This entails identifying regularities and understanding the deeper causal mechanisms at work, often hidden or not immediately visible". In the case of this engagement, the phenomenon I will investigate is the decline of independent businesses on Meath Street despite the strong community supporting these shops.
This stage of the project seeks to explore the urbanisation plan for Meath Street, framed as “regeneration,” It is a form of gentrification in reality. Gentrification is “a process of urban transformation that leads to the displacement of lower-income residents by wealthier newcomers, changing the character of the neighbourhood and its social dynamics”.
I am interested in exploring whether this redevelopment is truly gentrification in the long term, as suggested by conversations with locals on the street, the contents of the regeneration plan suggest it will bring to Meath Street “new uses such as small offices and cafes, the former of which have little street presence, but the latter has the possibility of re-animating the street scene”. The phrase “re-animating the street scene” through coffee shops and cafes has become a common trope associated with gentrification. As Dublin is already teeming with coffee shops, How many more are needed? And why is this their vision of Meath Street?
Early Stages
To begin the project, I felt it necessary to map the changes in Meath Street by researching the shops that once existed there. This initial form of engagement took place through Facebook community group chats. While this information and approach were insufficient to kickstart the project, they began pointing it in the right direction.
First Public Engagement
Through engaging in interviews, I uncovered valuable intransitive knowledge, which could later be reinforced with a more thorough investigation into contemporary transitive knowledge or potentially form new knowledge using past theories—though the latter is yet to be determined. It’s important to note that this engagement marks the beginning of my social action practice and is just the first step towards a broader project.
Second public Engagement
On the morning of Saturday, November 23rd, I set up a stall on Meath Street featuring a map I had drawn and three prompts displayed in pink. I posed two questions about capitalism alongside these prompts, intentionally avoiding framing them as overt critiques.
My partner, Celia Riego Liron, assisted in documenting the engagement by filming the project with a DJI camera. By this point, many of the locals on Meath Street had become familiar with me. While I tried to approach and invite passersby to participate, the reception was mixed. Some locals declined to engage, but many did participate in the project.
I condensed four hours of conversations with locals into key interviews in the documentation process. While every interaction held value, I prioritised those who directly interacted with the project’s prompts for inclusion in the final video documentation rather than including all exchanges.
Mapping Gentrification
I returned to the studio following the engagement to explore the original concept of mapping change throughout Meath Street. There, I began to consider how I might creatively capture this process.
The maps are designed to narrate the story of gentrification. The first map, displayed on the right, uses data to illustrate the growth of gentrification from 2006 to the present day. This map considers a range of indicators over time, including the percentage of high-income households (those earning above the median income), changes in ethnic composition, levels of university education, rates of professional employment, and housing costs exceeding the median rent. Together, these indicators paint a comprehensive picture of how gentrification has unfolded over the years.
Accompanying the map
Alongside the map I crafted an envelope using a print of a historical map of the Meath Street area, combined with photographs depicting the effects of gentrification. Inside, it contains a letter that provides a detailed explanation of the narrative of gentrification. The letter serves as a guide, offering a deeper understanding of how gentrification unfolded in the area, tracing its roots, its impact on the community, and the forces that shaped its current state. This combination of visuals and narrative invites reflection on the social and cultural changes experienced by the neighborhood.
Stage Two
Stage Two
The next stage of this project is under development and is expected to be completed by August 2025.