in the midst of urban development and in the theatre of development dynamics. Relational art practices, the concept of the Commons, infrastructure in informal settlements – all are reminders that indeterminate territory and basic needs and services can be common ground. On the other hand, the failure of representation of both the city and its multiple publics – the paradoxes of public space and the relationship between architecture and dialogue, point out the difficult task of transposing particular collective connections, institutions and traumatic experiences into architecture. Ultimately, this issue is about the assemblage of public space and the agency of its publics. * Tim Beasley-Murray writes that ‘dialogue bears the imprint of its own failure’, meaning that, quite positively, dialogue fails to signify completely because it leaves room for response. The call for articles that went out was more the messy text of a conversation between Stephanie White and myself than a cleanly wrapped call, and one that indeed generated some reflection and exchanges on the ethics and publics of On Site review itself. The proposals that came in covered a wide range of subjects in the best possible messy way. Some had direct relations to ethical dilemmas and aspects of public representation, others teased out the latent ethical and representational issues within projects and processes. What stands out is the degree to which each contributor deals with critical self-reflection and sets up their own particular capacity for response. Each raises specific questions about assumptions, methods and hypotheses, courageously failing to signify completely. Whether it is in inviting critical reflection on ethical dilemmas at varying scales, or inviting a performative yawn/bark in the best dialogical way, the words and lines assembled here are opening thoughts, begging for response. c Beasley-Murray, Tim. Mikhail Bakhtin and Walter Benjamin: Experience and Form. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008 de Carlo, Giancarlo. ‘Architecture’s Public’ in Architecture and Participation , Jeremy Till, Doina Petrescu and Peter Blundell- Jones, editors. London: Spon Press, 2005 Folch-Serra, Mireya. ‘Place, Voice, Space: Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical landscape’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space , 8, 1990. pp 255-274 Forty, Adrian. Words and Buildings. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000 Till, Jeremy. Architecture Depends. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009
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