This work is part of Creatures Of Habit, a long-term research project that explores the complex system of power dynamics that affect the relation between bodies, space, and environment.

This research examines the most basic human functions such as breathing, sleeping, and eating: although vital and shared by (almost) all living creatures, these activities are conditioned by social and cultural superstructures and technological infrastructures that have modified their evolutionary patterns.

Habits are here conceived as bodily practices that are radically connected to political dynamics such as class inequalities, gender issues, colonialism, anthropocentrism, and bio-politics.

Within these relations, architecture and design play a controversial and at times ambiguous role. On the one hand, being practices of artistic creation, they widen the gaze towards possibilities of an alternative life. On the other, being techniques, they function as tools of social control and bodily normalization.

Through catastrophes, the space of human habitat renews itself, responds to medical emergencies, fixes social dislocations. Then it crystallizes and becomes the norm, the dominant model.

Breathing

Breathing is the essential practice of being in the world, and thus also of dwelling.

Breathing is an involuntary action, yet – from the point of view of ecology – a complex one, for the system of relations and balances it generates.

Breathing is also a lens that allow us to critically observe the contemporary situation of dwelling, which is suspended between health (of the individual bodies and of the mass) and the control of the bodies in the space.

The latest global development in which our lives are inevitably immersed are a fundamental food for thought. The virus affects the possibility to breath. Post-colonial racism is also metaphorically suffocating (I can’t breathe). The pollution of victimized lands has both effects.

Our need to breathe, however, is an essential factor that has shaped the space and time of urban routines.

The video tackles the theme of breathing in three sections.

—

 

 

Breath

Do you know how or where they’ve been producing your clean energy?

Do you know where they extract lithium for batteries?

Do you know where the vegetables in your poké come from?

 

Decentralized production is the latest form of colonialism. It is perverse for western people to wonder why Asian cities are so polluted.

 

“It is hard to breathe in many places – in some places more than others, for some bodies more than others.” (Timothy Choy)

 

When did breathing safely – or breathing at all – become a privilege?

 –

Urban life is based on the intersectionality of species.

Insecticides subtly penetrate the body. Insects are more porous than us. They inhale and exhale with their whole body.

Pesticides are processes of purification from any living entity classified as an inconvenient agent, a plague. Legitimate interspecies genocides.

 

The impossibility of breathing is territorial, it alters the breathable atmosphere.

When affected by pathologies and physical oppression, the breathing of the colonized is occupied.

 

“We can no longer allow others to turn our mucous membranes, our skin, all our sensitive areas into occupied territory – territory controlled and regimented by others, to which we are forbidden access.” (Félix Guattari)

 

 

Air

We always live in a post-disaster condition. Life is what happens between the last and the next disaster. The reason we exist – and breathe – is an event known as the Oxygen Holocaust, that started 2.4 billion years ago and is ongoing. Before it, creatures weren’t based on oxygen. Oxygen was a waste product. Cyanobacteria produced too much of it and caused a mass extinction by rendering life impossible for themselves. From then on, some bacteria evolved to live inside bigger breathing life forms. What we call anthropocene is nothing but a grain of sand inside a bigger catastrophe that gave birth to complex organisms – with eyes, sphincters and lungs. Laid flat, human lungs would cover about 80 to 100 square meters – the size of an average residential unit in Europe. The living space for a traditional nuclear family. Mom, dad, child, small dog. Standard apartments are a modern technology. At one point in human history, architecture started to be thought of as a medical device. A sanatorium for everyday life. “Tuberculosis helped make modern architecture modern” (Beatriz Colomina). Architecture evolves through emergencies, and the emergency is always about bodies. Individual bodies, medical bodies, ill and sanitized bodies, collective bodies, racialized bodies, migrant bodies. Civilization has always been an immunological effort. An act of self-insulation by determining volumes of space disconnected from the surrounding air. Air conditioning is the ultimate form of domestication, the domestication of climate. The construction of interior weather is the cosmological project of a planetary greenhouse. It is a process of territorialisation to control and predict the behavior and growth of bodies.

 

 

Dust

The Henneguya salminicola is an animal that doesn’t have to breathe. It has lost the genes to do it. In order to survive, it evolved backwards. Can humans live somewhere with no air?

–

Living in the air always meant being immersed in the world. But air is no longer natural matter. It is a matter of concern. We all experience this feeling of chronic distress. A sense of powerlessness or lack of control. A new abnormality.

–

Dust is in the air. Mineral particles floating and settling. Sometimes you can see it, sometimes you can’t. We have technologies for it, with sensors made of silicon providing data visualized on screens that are, in turn, made out of sand.

Mineral prosthetics.

–

“Mineral is something of our bodies. We breathe minerals, we breathe dust, we breathe sand.” (Giuseppe Penone)

Architecture is mineral too. It’s inorganic matter that affects organic life. Sand and particles and oil – combined together to form a shell.

–

What if architecture were alive? What would it tell us?

Would steel beams recount the lives of workers breathing in non-filtered emissions?

Would concrete tell us something of the sand’s illegal and terrifying ocean crossing from India to Europe?

Would plastic tubes tell us about their hundred-million-year-long transformation from biological corpses to oil? Would they tell us of their journey through thousand-kilometer long piping to the final extrusion?

 

Cookie Policy of www.studioconcreto.net

Cookies and other Identifiers consist of portions of code placed on the User’s device that assist the Owner in providing the Service according to the purposes described.

Some of the purposes for which Identifiers are used may also require the User’s consent. Whenever consent is given, it can be freely withdrawn at any time following the instructions provided in this document.

Activities strictly necessary for the operation of this Application and delivery of the Service

This Application uses Cookies or other Identifiers to carry out activities that are strictly necessary for the operation or delivery of the Service and, therefore, do not require Users to consent. Users can disable such Identifiers by modifying their browser or device settings as described in more detail within this document, but this may affect core operational functions or result in the unavailability of the Service.

Other activities

This Application uses Cookies or other Identifiers to provide a personalized user experience by improving the quality of preference management options, and by enabling interaction with external networks and platforms.

Displaying content from external platforms

This type of service allows you to view content hosted on external platforms directly from the pages of this Application and interact with them.
This type of service might still collect web traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when Users do not use it.

Interaction with external social networks and platforms

This type of service allows interaction with social networks or other external platforms directly from the pages of this Application.
The interaction and information obtained through this Application are always subject to the User’s privacy settings for each social network.
This type of service might still collect traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when Users do not use it.
It is recommended to log out from the respective services in order to make sure that the processed data on this Application isn’t being connected back to the User’s profile.

How to provide or withdraw consent

Users can provide or withdraw consent to the use of Cookies and other Identifiers by setting their preferences within the cookie notice or by updating such preferences via the relevant consent-preferences widget accordingly, if available.

Additionally, Users can manage preferences regarding Identifiers directly from within their own device settings and prevent – for example – the storing of third-party Identifiers. It is also possible, via relevant browser or device features, to delete previously stored Identifiers, including those used to remember the User’s initial consent. Users can, for example, find information about how to manage Identifiers in the most commonly used browsers at the following addresses: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

With regard to any Identifiers stored by third parties, Users can manage their preferences and withdraw their consent by clicking the related opt-out link (where provided), by using the means indicated in the third party’s privacy policy, or by contacting the third party.

Notwithstanding the above, Users are hereby informed that they may follow the instructions provided by YourOnlineChoices (EU), the Network Advertising Initiative (US) and the Digital Advertising Alliance (US), DAAC(Canada), DDAI (Japan) or other similar services. Such initiatives allow Users to select their tracking preferences for most of the advertising tools. The Owner thus recommends that Users make use of these resources in addition to the information provided in this document.

Owner and Data Controller

Zero Al Cubo Aps
Via Umberto Congedo, 2 

73100 Lecce 

cf: 93101150758

Owner contact email: info@studioconcreto.net

Since the storing of third-party Cookies and other Identifiers through the services used within this Application cannot be technically controlled by the Owner, any specific references to Identifiers stored by third parties are to be considered indicative. In order to obtain complete information, the User is kindly requested to consult the privacy policies of the respective third-party services listed in this document.

Given the objective complexity surrounding technologies related to Cookies and other Identifiers, Users are encouraged to contact the Owner should they wish to receive any further information on the use of such Identifiers by this Application.

Privacy Policy of www.studioconcreto.net

Owner and Data Controller

Zero Al Cubo Aps
Via Umberto Congedo, 2 

73100 Lecce 

cf: 93101150758

Owner contact email: info@studioconcreto.net

Types of Data collected

Among the types of Personal Data that this Application collects, by itself or through third parties, there are: Cookies; Usage Data; first name; last name; email address; country.

Complete details on each type of Personal Data collected are provided in the dedicated sections of this privacy policy or by specific explanation texts displayed prior to the Data collection.
Personal Data may be freely provided by the User, or, in case of Usage Data, collected automatically when using this Application.
Unless specified otherwise, all Data requested by this Application is mandatory and failure to provide this Data may make it impossible for this Application to provide its services. In cases where this Application specifically states that some Data is not mandatory, Users are free not to communicate this Data without consequences to the availability or the functioning of the Service.
Users who are uncertain about which Personal Data is mandatory are welcome to contact the Owner.
Any use of Cookies – or of other tracking tools – by this Application or by the owners of third-party services used by this Application serves the purpose of providing the Service required by the User, in addition to any other purposes described in the present document and in the Cookie Policy, if available.

Users are responsible for any third-party Personal Data obtained, published or shared through this Application and confirm that they have the third party’s consent to provide the Data to the Owner.

Mode and place of processing the Data

Methods of processing

The Owner takes appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or unauthorized destruction of the Data.
The Data processing is carried out using computers and/or IT enabled tools, following organizational procedures and modes strictly related to the purposes indicated. In addition to the Owner, in some cases, the Data may be accessible to certain types of persons in charge, involved with the operation of this Application (administration, sales, marketing, legal, system administration) or external parties (such as third-party technical service providers, mail carriers, hosting providers, IT companies, communications agencies) appointed, if necessary, as Data Processors by the Owner. The updated list of these parties may be requested from the Owner at any time.

Legal basis of processing

The Owner may process Personal Data relating to Users if one of the following applies:

– Users have given their consent for one or more specific purposes. Note: Under some legislations the Owner may be allowed to process Personal Data until the User objects to such processing (“opt-out”), without having to rely on consent or any other of the following legal bases. This, however, does not apply, whenever the processing of Personal Data is subject to European data protection law;

– provision of Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with the User and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof;

– processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Owner is subject;

– processing is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Owner;

– processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner or by a third party.

In any case, the Owner will gladly help to clarify the specific legal basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.

Place

The Data is processed at the Owner’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located.

Depending on the User’s location, data transfers may involve transferring the User’s Data to a country other than their own. To find out more about the place of processing of such transferred Data, Users can check the section containing details about the processing of Personal Data.

Users are also entitled to learn about the legal basis of Data transfers to a country outside the European Union or to any international organization governed by public international law or set up by two or more countries, such as the UN, and about the security measures taken by the Owner to safeguard their Data.

If any such transfer takes place, Users can find out more by checking the relevant sections of this document or inquire with the Owner using the information provided in the contact section.

Retention time

Personal Data shall be processed and stored for as long as required by the purpose they have been collected for.

Therefore:

– Personal Data collected for purposes related to the performance of a contract between the Owner and the User shall be retained until such contract has been fully performed.

– Personal Data collected for the purposes of the Owner’s legitimate interests shall be retained as long as needed to fulfill such purposes. Users may find specific information regarding the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner within the relevant sections of this document or by contacting the Owner.

The Owner may be allowed to retain Personal Data for a longer period whenever the User has given consent to such processing, as long as such consent is not withdrawn. Furthermore, the Owner may be obliged to retain Personal Data for a longer period whenever required to do so for the performance of a legal obligation or upon order of an authority.

Once the retention period expires, Personal Data shall be deleted. Therefore, the right to access, the right to erasure, the right to rectification and the right to data portability cannot be enforced after expiration of the retention period.

The purposes of processing

The Data concerning the User is collected to allow the Owner to provide its Service, comply with its legal obligations, respond to enforcement requests, protect its rights and interests (or those of its Users or third parties), detect any malicious or fraudulent activity, as well as the following: Displaying content from external platforms, Interaction with external social networks and platforms and Registration and authentication.

For specific information about the Personal Data used for each purpose, the User may refer to the section “Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data”.

Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data

Personal Data is collected for the following purposes and using the following services:

Displaying content from external platforms 

This type of service allows you to view content hosted on external platforms directly from the pages of this Application and interact with them.
This type of service might still collect web traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when Users do not use it.

Registration and authentication 

By registering or authenticating, Users allow this Application to identify them and give them access to dedicated services.
Depending on what is described below, third parties may provide registration and authentication services. In this case, this Application will be able to access some Data, stored by these third party services, for registration or identification purposes.

Direct registration (this Application)

The User registers by filling out the registration form and providing the Personal Data directly to this Application.

Personal Data processed: country; email address; first name; last name.

Interaction with external social networks and platforms 

This type of service allows interaction with social networks or other external platforms directly from the pages of this Application.
The interaction and information obtained through this Application are always subject to the User’s privacy settings for each social network.
This type of service might still collect traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when Users do not use it.
It is recommended to log out from the respective services in order to make sure that the processed data on this Application isn’t being connected back to the User’s profile.

The rights of Users

Users may exercise certain rights regarding their Data processed by the Owner.

In particular, Users have the right to do the following:

Withdraw their consent at any time. Users have the right to withdraw consent where they have previously given their consent to the processing of their Personal Data.

Object to processing of their Data. Users have the right to object to the processing of their Data if the processing is carried out on a legal basis other than consent. Further details are provided in the dedicated section below.

Access their Data. Users have the right to learn if Data is being processed by the Owner, obtain disclosure regarding certain aspects of the processing and obtain a copy of the Data undergoing processing.

Verify and seek rectification. Users have the right to verify the accuracy of their Data and ask for it to be updated or corrected.

Restrict the processing of their Data. Users have the right, under certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of their Data. In this case, the Owner will not process their Data for any purpose other than storing it.

Have their Personal Data deleted or otherwise removed. Users have the right, under certain circumstances, to obtain the erasure of their Data from the Owner.

Receive their Data and have it transferred to another controller. Users have the right to receive their Data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and, if technically feasible, to have it transmitted to another controller without any hindrance. This provision is applicable provided that the Data is processed by automated means and that the processing is based on the User’s consent, on a contract which the User is part of or on pre-contractual obligations thereof.

Lodge a complaint. Users have the right to bring a claim before their competent data protection authority.

Details about the right to object to processing

Where Personal Data is processed for a public interest, in the exercise of an official authority vested in the Owner or for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner, Users may object to such processing by providing a ground related to their particular situation to justify the objection.

Users must know that, however, should their Personal Data be processed for direct marketing purposes, they can object to that processing at any time without providing any justification. To learn, whether the Owner is processing Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, Users may refer to the relevant sections of this document.

How to exercise these rights

Any requests to exercise User rights can be directed to the Owner through the contact details provided in this document. These requests can be exercised free of charge and will be addressed by the Owner as early as possible and always within one month.

Cookie Policy

This Application uses Cookies and other Identifiers. To learn more, the User may consult the Cookie Policy.

Additional information about Data collection and processing

Legal action

The User’s Personal Data may be used for legal purposes by the Owner in Court or in the stages leading to possible legal action arising from improper use of this Application or the related Services.
The User declares to be aware that the Owner may be required to reveal personal data upon request of public authorities.

Additional information about User’s Personal Data

In addition to the information contained in this privacy policy, this Application may provide the User with additional and contextual information concerning particular Services or the collection and processing of Personal Data upon request.

System logs and maintenance

For operation and maintenance purposes, this Application and any third-party services may collect files that record interaction with this Application (System logs) use other Personal Data (such as the IP Address) for this purpose.

Information not contained in this policy

More details concerning the collection or processing of Personal Data may be requested from the Owner at any time. Please see the contact information at the beginning of this document.

How “Do Not Track” requests are handled

This Application does not support “Do Not Track” requests.
To determine whether any of the third-party services it uses honor the “Do Not Track” requests, please read their privacy policies.

Changes to this privacy policy

The Owner reserves the right to make changes to this privacy policy at any time by notifying its Users on this page and possibly within this Application and/or – as far as technically and legally feasible – sending a notice to Users via any contact information available to the Owner. It is strongly recommended to check this page often, referring to the date of the last modification listed at the bottom.

Should the changes affect processing activities performed on the basis of the User’s consent, the Owner shall collect new consent from the User, where required.

Definitions and legal references

Personal Data (or Data)

Any information that directly, indirectly, or in connection with other information — including a personal identification number — allows for the identification or identifiability of a natural person.

Usage Data

Information collected automatically through this Application (or third-party services employed in this Application), which can include: the IP addresses or domain names of the computers utilized by the Users who use this Application, the URI addresses (Uniform Resource Identifier), the time of the request, the method utilized to submit the request to the server, the size of the file received in response, the numerical code indicating the status of the server’s answer (successful outcome, error, etc.), the country of origin, the features of the browser and the operating system utilized by the User, the various time details per visit (e.g., the time spent on each page within the Application) and the details about the path followed within the Application with special reference to the sequence of pages visited, and other parameters about the device operating system and/or the User’s IT environment.

User

The individual using this Application who, unless otherwise specified, coincides with the Data Subject.

Data Subject

The natural person to whom the Personal Data refers.

Data Processor (or Data Supervisor)

The natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes Personal Data on behalf of the Controller, as described in this privacy policy.

Data Controller (or Owner)

The natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data, including the security measures concerning the operation and use of this Application. The Data Controller, unless otherwise specified, is the Owner of this Application.

This Application

The means by which the Personal Data of the User is collected and processed.

Service

The service provided by this Application as described in the relative terms (if available) and on this site/application.

European Union (or EU)

Unless otherwise specified, all references made within this document to the European Union include all current member states to the European Union and the European Economic Area.

Cookies

Small piece of data stored in the User’s device.

Identifier

Any technology – including Cookies – that allows for the storing of information, or the accessing of already-stored information, on the User’s device.

Legal information

This privacy statement has been prepared based on provisions of multiple legislations, including Art. 13/14 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation).

This privacy policy relates solely to this Application, if not stated otherwise within this document.

Latest update: May 12, 2020