This page contains a collection of resources – spanning academic essays, poetry, visual-arts projects and podcasts – that we hope congregate to elucidate the complexity of the bordered context that underpins Interface Architectures. This list is by no means exhaustive, yet has been thoughtfully curated, reflecting our understanding that the North and South of Ireland’s historical and present moment is slippery, and the borders that mediate the region elastic.
A prominent theme across these resources is the drive to center the voices of those ‘living experts’ who live in and among interface areas, yet whose experiences go vastly overlooked at a state-level. Further, and key to the project as a whole, is an understanding that borders are primarily repositories of imperial conquest, and violent mediators of daily life.
These sources span many of the themes and methodologies that we will deploy throughout the project, therefore we have placed them where they best inform our own research. If you feel we have overlooked a resource, or would perhaps like to share your own work with us, then we would love to hear from you.
books/publications
INTERFACES/BORDERS
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza”, Aunt Lute Books, California. 1987.
Cosstick, Vicky. “Belfast: Towards a City Without Walls”, Colourpoint Books, London. 2015.
Ferriter, Diarmaid. “The Border: The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics”, Profile Books Ltd, Newtownards. 2019.
Good, Kristin R., et al. “Segmented Cities? How Urban Contexts Shape Ethnic and Nationalist Politics”, University of British Columbia Press. 2014
Gržinić, Marina (Ed.). “Border Thinking Disassembling Histories of Racialized Violence”, Sternberg Press, London. 2018.
Kalantidou, Eleni and Fry, Tony. “Design in the Borderlands”, Routledge, New York. 2014
Leary, Peter. “Unapproved Routes: Histories of the Irish Border, 1922-1972”, Oxford university Press, Oxford. 2016.
Patterson, James Conor. “The New Frontier: Reflections From the Irish Border”, New Island Books, Dublin. 2021.
Tóibín, Colm. “Bad Blood: A walk Along the Irish Border”, Pan Macmillan, London. 2010.
Walia, Harsha. “Border and Rule Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism”, Haymarket Books, Chicago. 2021.
Walia, Harsha. “Undoing Border Imperialism”, AK Press, California. 2013.
Warren, Kay B. “The Violence Within”, Westview Press, Oxford. 1993
ARCHITECTURE/DESIGN
Dilnot, Clive and Staszowski, Eduardo. “Designing in Dark Times”, Bloomsbury, London. 2021
Hirst, Paul Q. “Space and power: politics, war, and architecture”, Polity, Cambridge, 2005.
Kaldor, Mary and Sassen, Saskia. “Cities at War: Global Insecurity and Urban Resistance”, Columbia University Press, Columbia. 2020.
Keith, Michael and Pile, Steve. “Place and the Politics of Identity”, Routledge, 1993
Krenn, Martin & O’Beirn. “Restaging the Object: A Participatory Exploration of Long Kesh/Maze Prison”, K. Verlag, Berlin. 2019.
Manzini, Ezio. “Politics of the Everyday”, Bloomsbury, London. 2019
Minton, Anna. “Ground Control”, Penguin Group, London. 2009
Rendell, Jane. “The Architecture of Psychoanalysis”, I.B. Tauris, London. 2017
Turner, John F. “Housing by People: Towards Autonomy in Building Environments”, Marion Boyars, London. 2009
POST/DE-COLONIAL
Federici, Silvia. “Enduring Western Civilisation”, Praeger, Connecticut. 1995
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “Braiding Sweetgrass”, Penguin Group, London. 2020
McVeigh, Robbie and Rolston, Bill. “Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh/Ireland, Colonialism and the Unfinished Revolution”, Beyond the Pale Books, Belfast. 2022
ECOLOGY
Barry, Orla. “Shaved Rapunzel, Scheherazade & the Shearling Ram from Arcady”, Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford. 2019.
Bridle, James. “Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence”, Penguin Group, London. 2023
O’Mahony, Deirdre. “SPUD: 2009 - 2019”, Callan. 2020.
Ichioka, Sarah and Pawlyn, Michael. “Flourish. Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency”, Triarchy Press, Axminster. 2022
Tamás, Rebecca. “Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman”, Makina Books, london. 2020.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Bew, Paul and Patterson, Henry. “The British State and the Ulster Crisis: From Wilson to Thatcher”, Verso Books, London. 1985.
Chamberlain-King, Reggie, et al. “The Black Dreams: Strange stories from Northern Ireland”, Blackstaff Press, Newtownards. 2021
Keefe, Patrick Radden. “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland”, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 2019.
McKee, Lyra. “Lost, Found, Remembered”, Faber & Faber, London. 2021.
Stewart, Paul, et al. “The State of Northern Ireland and the Democratic Deficit: Between Sectarianism & Neo-liberalism”, Vagabond Voices, Glasgow. 2018.
IRELAND
Allen, Kieran. “32 CountiesThe Failure of Partition and the Case for a United Ireland”, Pluto Press, London. 2021.
Foster, R. F. “Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923”, Penguin, London. 2015.
Keane, Fergal. “Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love”, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 2018.
O’Toole, Fintan. “We Don’t Know Ourselves, a Personal History of Ireland Since 1958”, Head of Zues, UK. 2021
Walshe, Eimear. “The Land for The People: the sexual case for land reform in Ireland”, The National Sculpture Factory, Ireland. 2021
FICTION
Calleja, Jen. “Vehicle”, Prototype Publishing, London. 2023.
Gallen, Michelle. “Factory Girls”, John Murray Press, London. 2023
Heaney, Seamus. “Field Work”, Faber & Faber, London. 1979.
Magee, Audrey. “The Colony”, Faber & Faber, London. 2023
Miéville, China. “The City & the City” Macmillan, London. 2009
Mulvey, Niamh. “Heart & Bones, Love Songs for Late Youth”, Picador, London. 2022
articles
Marenko, Betti. "Stacking Complexities: Reframing Uncertainty through Hybrid Literacies". Design and Culture, 25 May. 2021.
McLintock, Maria. “In the Interface: Unbuilding Belfast’s Dividing Walls.” Architectural Review, 20 Aug. 2021.
McLintock, Maria. “Lives Laid along the Line: The Lived Realities of the Borderlands.” Architectural Review, 6 Nov. 2020.
McLintock, Maria. “The Peace Walls at the Centre of Recent Unrest in Northern Ireland.” Failed Architecture, 8 June 2021.
McLintock, Maria. “Peace-walls, flags, and dark passages.” Materia Arquitectura, no. 20, 2020, pp. 118–121
Tuck, Eve and Yang, K. Wayne. “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Decolonization, Indigeneity, Education and Society, VOL.1 N0.1, 08 Sep. 2012.
podcasts
Anne McCloy aka Some Product - multi-disciplinary artist working in the visual and multimedia arts and design.
Array Collective - group of individual artists rooted in Belfast, who join together to create collaborative actions in response to the sociopolitical issues affecting Northern Ireland.
BlackBird Culture Lab - creative cultural laboratory based within a working farm that is transitioning towards regenerative agriculture practices.
Creative Reaction Lab - equity-centered community design to achieve sustained community health, economic opportunities, and social and cultural solidarity.
Deirdre O’Mahony - visual artist whose practice is informed by a deep interest in rural sustainability, farming, food security and rural/urban relationships.
Eimear Walsh - artist, writer, and educator from Longford whose practice is based on research in fiscal and sexual economies and histories.
Future Philosophical Pills - a world-building future-crafting card game. A tool for interrogating and imagining futures by Hybrid Futures Lab.
Healing Justice - creating capacity for transformation, health and healing justice via cultural repair, dignity and liberation practices.
Wall Archive - a case study of urban division in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Performing Borders - curatorial platform exploring relations between live art and lived experience of borders.
Resolve Collective - interdisciplinary design collective using Art, Architecture, Engineering and Technology to address social issues in the built environment.
Tanistry - local man, cause supporter & United Irelander studying and disseminating Irish history through a lens of Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Colonialism.
The Designer's Critical Literacy Alphabet - card based tool introducing designers and design students to critical theory by Lesley-Ann Noel.
Untethered Magic - encouraging growth and independence, an unlearning and relearning space for process, life and art in Kenya.
SERIES
Commoning Design/Designing Commons - introduces the notions of commons and commoning to design, making the concepts more approachable to design practitioners and researchers alike. By the Interest Group on Commons and Commoning, ITU Copenhagen (DK)
United Ireland - 32 Episodes. 32 Counties. 32 Questions. Looking at how issues in small places have a much bigger context. By Andrea Horan and Una Mullally.
A Workers Guide to Everything - from the anti-sectarian unit of the Irish Labour Movement based in Belfast focusing on political economy and solidarity economy. By Trademark Belfast.
EPISODES
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “The Psychological impact of Poverty with Dr.Katriona O Sullivan.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 30 Aug 2023.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Mythology, Rewilding Forests and indigenous knowledge with Manchán Magan.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 09 Aug 2023.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “The colonial history of Fish Fingers.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 14 Jun 2023.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “The role of Art in the Housing crisis.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 05 April 2023.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Mental Health, Biodiversity and Mythology.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 29 Mar 2023.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Gutta Percha Overdrive.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 25 Jan 2023.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “There's a housing protest in Dublin on the 26th of November.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 24 Nov 2022.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Irish Folklore and Environmentalism with Manchán Magan.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 12 Oct 2022.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Analysing Class structure with Darren McGarvey.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 20 Sep 2022.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “The strange English dystopian Sci Fi Novel about Ireland.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 04 May 2022.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Fenian Sandwich Sectarian Carrot.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 23 March 2022.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Topographia Hibernica.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 24 Nov 2021.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Science, Art, Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 10 Nov 2021.
Boatclub, Blinboy, Presenter, Producer, and Researcher. “Pineapple Folly.” The Blindboy Podcast, Acast, 07 July 2021.
Lenihan, Eddie, Presenter. “The Black and Tans”. Tell Me A Story with Eddie Lenihan, Acast, ep.22, 02 Mar 2022.
films
DOCUMENTARY
“Walls / Muros”. Iraburu, Pablo and Molina, Migueltxo, Arena Comunicación & Txalap-art, 2015.
ART
“History of the Present”. Fusco, Maria and Salmon, Margaret, 2023.
“The Land Question: Where the fuck am I supposed to have sex?”. Walshe, Eimear, 2020.
“The Persistent Return”. O’Mahony, Deirdre, 2018.
FICTION
“The Wall”. Parker, Alan, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Tin Blue Productions and Goldcrest Films International, 1982.
artists/projects
Belfast Feminist Network - grassroots collective of individuals building a platform for feminist education, awareness raising and campaigns.
Belfast Interface Project - membership organisation developing creative approaches to the regeneration of Belfast's interface or 'peaceline' areas.
Belfast Won’t Always Be Like This - a progressive, humanist, and inclusive project that highlights community organizations, grassroots projects, artists, and activists.
Duncairn Community Partnership - A cross-community partnership in the Duncairn area of lower North-Belfast.
End Deportations Belfast - Campaigning group opposing border regimes, detention and deportation in NI.
Groundwork NI - community development and regeneration charity delivering services across Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.
SolidNetwork - Network for those working to build an economy based on co-operation and solidarity in Ireland.
Trademark Belfast - Anti-sectarian Unit of the Irish Labour movement.