Bahar Beslioglu

The "Programmatic Experimentation": in the Work of Gordon Matta-clark Bahar Beslioglu

This study is a critical inquiry into the changes in conceptualisation of the term ?program? in architectural discourse after the 1960s and early 1970s. The aim is to benefit from the difficulty in defining "program" in architecture as a fruitful, pragmatic and intellectual source. This study introduces the idea of "programmatic experimentation" by exploring and re-reading the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, in which "experimentation" led to the evaluation of "program" as "concept". "Program" is re- conceptualised under two theoretical statements: "Concept" and "Experimentation". The implementation of the constructed togetherness of two terms is traced through the work of Matta-Clark as a radical criticism of the established conventions in architectural discourse.