Perhaps you have encountered the intriguing work done in the field of contemporary performative and interactive media art by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer via one of his numerous significant single work presentations across the world, such as Levels of Nothingness at the Guggenheim museum in New York (2009). You might also have connected via one of the large and popular stagings of his oeuvre -- at the Venice Biennale (2007), in Recorders (2008-2012) in Oldenburg, Sydney, and Manchester, or at the Trackers (2011) exhibition in Paris. However, it is most likely that you have come across Lozano- Hemmer's projects via his series of 'relational architectures,' [1] which began to appear in tandem with other early projects, such as Surface Tension (1993), and gathered momentum after his breakthrough with Vectorial Elevation (2000). [2] It remains an unresolved question as to how it is that Lozano-Hemmer's work has seen such a rise in popularity as well as a remarkable artistic intensification during the first two decades of the 2000s. Surely some of this is due to the considerable scope of his projects, from the smaller 'subsculptures' through 'shadow boxes' to the later and differentiated 'pulse works' that have appeared in small, medium, and large scale versions. But if it is correct that the relational architectures remain at the heart of this media artist's projects, the explanation must primarily be sought via an encounter with these. Displaced Emperors appeared in 1997, Articulated Intersect as late as 2011, and the series comprises no less than nineteen projects to date (2012). A consideration of just two significant projects from the middle of the series sheds light on the coupling of popularity and artistic ingenuity in the larger part of Lozano-Hemmer's oeuvre. Encountering and reflecting on Body Movies (2001) and Under Scan (2005) yields the insight that Lozano- Hemmer's success hinges on his current designs of 'anti-monuments' as inviting relatively hospitable disturbances to how we conceive of relations between bodies, identities and built spaces at a time of ubiquitous computing culture. [3] Both installations mildly disturb our sense of the situation at stake: the architectural design of public squares. They disturb the event taking place: citizens in everyday passage, encounters, or meetings. In addition, they disturb our current individual and social modes of lived experience in this kind of context, not least of which is self-identification via confirmation of existing body images. Relational architectures such as Body Movies and Under Scan are especially adept at presenting bundles of alien relationships: they present disturbances by the otherness immanent to our notions of spatial and architectural context, our event-specific temporalization, and our sensate lived experience of interacting and moving in an everyday life world. However, they manage to do this in the middle register. They operate in a midway fashion so as to move towards alteration -- but without necessarily introducing an altogether overt threat of disorientation, break, or radical existential change. Such relational architectures propose and afford relatively low-key modifications. They alter the environments and spaces in which we live, but primarily via modificatory overlays and mixes of existing architectures and new inventions. They afford none too dramatic happenings in the timing of our everyday culture. Not least, they permit unfolding interactional designs whose genetic and structural relational potentials lead to surprises as well as sensorial and perceptual enjoyment for individuals and groups alike. Relational architectures such as Body Movies and Under Scan constitute temporary large-scale interventions in urban THEORY BEYOND THE CODES Of the Untouchability of Embodiment I: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Relational Architectures Ulrik Ekman Ekman, Ulrik, “Theory Beyond the Codes. Of the Untouchability of Embodiment I: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Relational Architectures”, CTheory.net, Jun 19