unreal central perspective starts January 22th 1 PM at the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm. The Office SLurl."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."
Architecture's Second Life: article by Heather Ring for Archinect
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 tools bundled into an pervasive on-line platform called Second Life we will formulate limitations and possibilities for the production of architecture. The representation of objects as we see them and their measured description, two tasks that are conventionally distinguished in architectural drawing, will be shown to have been unwittingly, in many respects, mutually determined and transformed. The course will have a practical and a theoretical part.
There will be a series of seminars where specific architectural problems will be illuminated and related to theoretical discourses in art, literature and film. Basic architectural categories such as representation and construction will be discussed in relation to modern media theory, semiotics and psycho analysis. Another theme is architecture as aesthetic paradigm within philosophy and other artistic fields. A running theme is the ambition to try to connect theory to the everyday. The practical part will consist of endless on-line time, studio time, computer lab work + weekly pin-ups.
Traditionally, projects at school usually mimic the way work are being done in architectural offices. What is being judged is how we imagine the finished result: Is the spatial organization interesting? Will the construction work? And so on. In this course we will try and push the projects to include the whole procedure of architectural production, from concept all the way to realisation, both on- and offline. This might sound like a minor questions but it actually proposes new modes of production.
We have a 16 acre (65 000 m²) virtual island located in the on-line platform Second Life. The island is called The Office. Here we will set-up a temporary virtual architectural practise. We will do assignments for ourselves but also interact with communities in Second Life (2.4 million residents Jan. 5:th 2007), other educational institutions around the world and different organizations from gaming, art and the piracy movement to fulfill dreams and desires, ours as well as others.
Even though the tools we use in this project are somewhat different, it is still important to reflect on procedures and methods of work. Develop a clear conceptual frame for your project and constantly negotiate if it is valid in respect of the development of your project. Think in terms of economy and effect, am I getting as much out of my proposal as I can? If not what can change? Second Life is a very social environment built up of many different communities and interest groups. If you like you are free to collaborate on projects.
Production of Architecture - Unreal Central Perspective - a course by Tor Lindstrand and Palle Torsson
