During spring 2005 a group of students at the School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm have been involved in a course that explore the relation between computer gaming and architecture. Between tool and production.

Talking about the new is just so last Friday. On the other hand, by saying the same we always create something new. In this work we are using all kinds of different strategies and different materials, connecting and re-connecting things and contexts. Instead of thinking that changing something means doing the opposite, which means simply reversing the image in the mirror and continuing doing the same, this work is all about changing the way things change.

Or as Nike put it in a recent ad: “On our way to innovation we passed something beautiful.”

This course examines the history, theory and practice of representation and the production of architecture. We will see that projective systems have affected our understanding of space through the evolution of media such as painting, photography, film and computer generated imagery. With the aid of 3D applications bundled to computer games like Half-Life, Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament we will formulate limitations and possibilities for the production of architecture.

Games are not only made to be controlled by the user but also to control her or make her believe in stereotypes. The industry behind the games wants us to believe in specific stereotypes of architecture, sex or race. This is something we should be critical about, but at the same time these stereotypes play an inevitable part in the illusion and immersion of games. The fact that computer games involve contemporary issues like violence and relations to consumer society makes it an interesting artistic tool. It connects the illusion to the real.

Tor Lindstrand Palle Torsson 2005