DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS kicked off in late 2008 under the name Collective 34. The collective was intended to be a platform and a space for critical thinking and practice for many professionals interested in the un/built environment outside the typical, daily workplace burdened with making a living. The group started with Fadi Shayya, Nancy Hamad, and Danny Khoury.
The collective emerged in Sector 34 of Beirut, i.e. the ever vibrant and alternative Hamra; and, it occupied a physical office space in the same area. The architecture was direct and simple: the place was one of a 1960s apartment building with a high ceiling, a claustra wall, and metal-glass façade openings. The main space had a 2×4 meters work table, a library and archive, 3 small individual work desks, and a wireless internet connection.
As long as we afforded the rent, where we hosted designers, social scientists, and activists and we networked with many people, consuming lots of coffee, tea, and biscuits. A year later, the burden of making a living faced us big time; we had to give up the place and continue to prove that space might be enough to survive for a while!
Today, the collective still operates albeit with new conditions. Our space of interaction is the many public and private spaces with negotiable borders, practically the urban landscape. Our mode of production is multifaceted, energy efficient, and resource responsive. And, our team is not defined yet growing and experimenting with new processes of cultural production, pedagogical critique, and political practice. We tend to think that we were inspired by a change in discourse and that we dialectically aspire to instigate discursive formations.