The following lecture presents an intervention into how we imagine repairing and accessing historic works of art and architecture. I examine a body of work (by the author and others) that positions seemingly negative attributes such as impairment, disfigurement, and weakness as aesthetic interpretive qualities.  These qualities can be recovered from the history of artifacts and beholders -- becoming an aspect of their future historic restoration. This “restoration of disability” potentially transforms the physical and aesthetic experience of historical culture. It suggests an ethics of cultural interpretation for all and beyond the contemporary idea of “accessibility”.

David Gissen is the author of books, essays, exhibitions and experimental projects about  buildings, cities, and landscapes from our time and the historical past. David is a Professor at the California College of the Arts and University Professor (2019-20) at The Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria. He is former Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the PhD. program in the History, Theory, & Criticism of Architecture and Art at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He authored the books Subnature: Architecture's Other Environments, and Manhattan Atmospheres: Architecture, the Interior Environment, and Urban Crisis. His historical reconstructions and restorations have been exhibited at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, The Venice Biennale, and numerous additional galleries and museums internationally.