Yesterday, Jan.19th, the New York Times; the next article in a long row about our homes becoming ‘smart’. What usually is forgotten in all of these wishful-thinking business-oriented thoughts is that a home is more than the sum of bricks, mortar and technology. Our house is not a home because we can automate the lights and the refrigerator, but because we live in a sphere we call our own. Technology in our homes should focus less on practicalities and more on adaptability, experience, imagination.
tiny appartment
Yesterday, Thursday 28th. in Rotterdam; the presentation of a series of studies/projects called Tiny Appartments by TU-Delft’s Hyperbodylab, run by Prof. Kas Oosterhuis, in collaboration with real estate company Blauwhoed. Working prototypes on a 1:1 scale show a variety of options and solutions to deal with functionalities in a limited space.
KIKK
Last Nov. 7, 8 and 9th. in Namur /Belgium, the KIKK-festival was held, subtitled the Next Utopia. On the 7th. lectures/presentations by e.g. Paolo Cirio, Evan Roth, Usman Haque. Some others to my taste a bit off course regarding the theme; nevertheless again fine examples of ‘what will be the dreams of tomorrow?’
the New interior
On Sunday, Nov. 24th,, Matthew Stadler gives the Benno Premsela-lecture in Amsterdam’s Portugese Synagoge on ‘What is the interior’. Technological and political change – particularly the reach of digital technologies and state and market involvement in them – has made conventional notions of “the interior” obsolete. Stadler proposes a broader concept – the interior as the space of composition – and argues for the urgency of design work and research into this broader concept.
See: the New Institute, Rotterdam.
hand and ear
Friday 25th.October, the New Institute Rotterdam; a 3-hour seminar by artist Stelarc and philosopher Henk Oosterling as part of the exhibition Biodesign. Despite several attemps by Oosterling to try to get past the issues of art as such the whole afternoon remained somewhat one-sided. Connecting technological developments to art while some of them have possibilities in society is declaring art as individual statement – no problem there – while disregarding its enhancive options in society. But fascinating it was: growing an ear on one’s arm.
imagination
To me, one of the most impressive works on the Biennale Venice 2013 is/was the short film by Neil Beloufa; Kempinski. A 14-minute film shot in Mali in which the imagination plays an important role. “the buildings are in light form, there are no settled doors in it. So, we enter where we want. we go out when we want and how we want“. (As far as I know this film is not distributed yet.)
Onlife
Tuesday, July 9th.2013; after the first presentation on Feb. 8th. 2013 a one-day conference chaired by Prof. Luciano Floridi on the EC’s Onlife Initiative Manifesto in Brussels to proceed, gather critical expertise to discuss matters further and draw policy ideas. One day of inspiring discussions on “what does it mean to be human in a hyperconnected era”; largely based on the work of Hannah Arendt. The urge/need to add architecture – as in build environment – to the core of the Manifesto was acknowledged; being human implies the need for private space, hence some kind of architecture. See for further content the Futurium website.
spheres
Saturday, May 18th. at Korzo Theatre the Hague: two ‘disturbing’ fine lectures by Warren Neidich and Joe Davis, both moderated by filmmaker/visual artist/witer Frank Theys. Both focused on the hybrid forms between art, technology and science, providing disruptive examples of the boundary between the known and the uncharted, Organisation: Artscience
Salter & senses
Chris Salter referring to Arakawa&Gins Reversible Destiny-project during a discussion on Displace 2.0:
“the general concept was that as we get older, we tend to lose sensory acuity – we lose our sense of smell, of taste, of tactile feeling. By designing architecture that would literally confuse the body, distort the same perceptual habits that you get used to day after day, one might prevent death – not literally, but metaphorically in the sense that death is really about falling into the blandness and lifelessness of routine.”
His project was presented at Todaysart Festival in 2012, theme this year was “the search and the loving for the undiscovered”. Let’s proceed………………..
Habraken
Next Sunday; January 13th. a new film is shown in NAI’s Auditorium on the works of John Habraken: de Drager‘. John Habraken introduced a totally new vision for residential construction by separating the ‘support’ – the base building – and the ‘infill’, its fitting-out. The architect’s only responsibility was the design of the support, of ‘open buildings’ that users could then fit out for themselves. Sonja Lüthi and Marc Schwarz have made a film about Habraken’s body of thought.