[Launch] MAKAN #3 Synthetic Agencies

Join us for the launch of MAKAN #3 / Synthetic Agencies. The journal, published by Think Tanger, explores themes of control, resistance and the architectures of the unseen. We will be joined by MAKAN's editor-in-chief Ali T. As’ad and publication director Hicham Bouzid alongside Fehras Publishing Practices and Saba Innab and Nuha Innab from OPPA Research Architecture. The event was made possible through the collaboration of Tashattot Collective.

Schedule

14:00 - 15:00 Readings and presentations by Ali T. As’ad, Hicham Bouzid, Saba Innab, Nuha Innab and Fehras Publishing Practices. 

About the publication

Building on the foundations of the first two issues, MAKAN #3 / Synthetic Agencies invites a rethinking [and unthinking] of the assumptions, polarities, and discontents surrounding the notion of agency. Traditionally defined in Western thought as the capacity to act and effect change, agency is inseparable from questions of power and the often invisible structures through which power operates. The various contributions interrogate how agency is produced, constrained, or distributed through the systems of knowledge, design, and governance that shape our built environments, technologies, media, and cultures. They were invited to right (as much as write on) agency, reflecting on how it operates across different scales and contexts, and imagining alternative worlds or configurations. Ultimately, Synthetic Agencies understands agency not as a fixed attribute but as a contested lens through which we might read, reshape, or resist the conditions of the present.

Contributors to Synthetic Agencies include: Amine Houari, Driss Ksikes, Fehras Publishing Practices, Hamed Sinno, Helga Tawil-Souri, Lada Hršak, Mayada Madbouly, Myriam Ababsa, Nzinga Biegueng Mboup, Ola Hassanain, Omer Shah, OPPA, Salma Barmani, Samia Henni, Tarek El-Ariss, Zaidoun Hajjar.

MAKAN: Journal of Culture & Space is a trilingual print journal that critically engages with contemporary architecture, urban conditions, and cultural scholarship from and about the SWANA region. Edited and published by Think Tanger, a non-profit arts organization based in Tangier, Morocco, MAKAN brings together diverse authorial approaches, visual practices, and geo-cultural perspectives. With contributions in English, Arabic, and French, the journal seeks to foster dialogue across languages, disciplines, and territories.

You can find more information about MAKAN at https://makanjournal.com/