Alessandra Mariani is a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research focuses on the nature and aims of the interdisciplinarity of New York architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Her thesis explores the means developed by DS+R over forty years to widen their field of architectural interventions and alter their role as architects. The dissertation exposes DS+R’s undertakings in developing a cultural agency based on an assessment of the internal dynamics of the architectural discipline, their probing of the cultural conditioning produced by visual culture and mediated experience, and their maieutic centered on the creation of spaces promoting collective and individual subjectivization. Alessandra was awarded scholarships by the Fonds de recherche Société et Culture du Québec, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Faculty of Arts of UQAM and the Laboratoire d’Études pour l’Architecture Potentielle to conduct her research. In 2006, she founded the journal Museologies (www.museologies.org), which mandate is to disseminate and promote interdisciplinary research focused on the plurality of functions and stakes of the contemporary museum’s environment. She has been the editor ever since. The double-blind reviewed articles by a recognized committee have attracted an international distribution of the journal to over two hundred museums and academic institutions and a Force Avenir Award (2009). Alessandra has published articles related to previously mentionned issues and architectural related themes, and gave papers on the progress of her doctoral research. Since 2011, she teaches the theory and history of modern architecture at the UQAM School of Design.
Alessandra Mariani
