The book/magazine edited by Pedro Gadanho (architect, curator and writer based in Lisbon) is a collection of shortstories/fictions that open up a field for reflection on issues such as: urban conflict, social interaction, ecological resources, the evolution of cities, technology and techniques. Beyond arrives at a time in which 'architects and urbanists tackle fascinating issues, offering a fresh take on urban scenarios and speculations of a near future'.
The publication gathers an array of 'young and upcoming European architectural writers' such as Bruce Sterling, Lara Schriver, Shumon Basar, Wes Jones, Kobas Laksa, Superstudio, Aaron Betsky, Gilles Delalex, Michele Provoost, Knut Birkholz, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss', Boris Jensen, Silvia banchini and Luis Falcón and Antonio Scarponi, that in one way or another, joined us yesterday at the AA, where myself, Colin Fournier, Liam Young, Sam Jacob, Pedro Gadanho, Ines Dantas and the audience discussed the premises, the aims, and the relevance of this new publication.
Pedro was one of the first to arrive, directly from the United States, where he had just launched the publication in Harvard.
Beyond architecture, the focus of the fictions present in the publication is the city, the urban scenarios and its speculations.
Returning to fiction, the discussion was kicked off by Liam Young and from then on to Sam and to Pedro, returning to Colin who at a certain point dennounced a certain dystopic emphasis in the major part of the texts compiled. Pedro Gadanho, although admitting that part of the texts describe dystopic scenarios or speculations of a near future, pointed out that even the most dystopic point of view has in itself a latent positive approach or outcome, has fiction here is being used to criticize a sitution.
Discussing the reader and the potentiality and limits of the use of fiction in architectural/academic writing, Pedro pointed out that the reader is the one deciding the scope of implication of the actual fiction: one reader can read it as a text and not take anything out of the story being told, but in fiction there is this potential for the reader to read beyond the fiction, recognize a situation that is understated or disguised and in this way, become crucial in the critique of reality, even if this is depicted in a fictional format.
At a certain point, Sam Jacob picked on this critique of reality, and in very plain terms emphasized the somehow fictional approach in the relation between architects and clients, stating that architects always present the positive side of the project and the 'fictional' world-changing capacity of the project itself. Stating that he would never try the dystopic approach with a client, Colin rightly referred that he could be on to something there. Architects always use the positive approach, mainly in the photomontages and renderings produced, but what would it happens if the imagery created depicted a more real, and maybe more dystopic near future.
Questioned about the presence of only a couple of image-based contributions in the publication (the graphic novel 'Re:Doing Dubai' by Wes Jones and the photomontages 'The after Life of Cities' by Kobas Laksa) Pedro referred that more than trying to bring the word back to a proeminent place, he was trying to make a balance between written fictions and image-based fictions, broadning up the scope of the publications, not only directed to the academic and/or architectural circle, but directed to a general audience, interested in the urban scenarios that they live in and move through in life.
[ images: top and center, Beyond publication and AA Dinning Room, photo by Emanuel de Sousa; above, from left to right, Pedro Gadanho, Sam Jacob, Laim Young, Colin Fournier, photo by Kirk Wooller ]
The discussion foccused on many issues around fictions and the city, written techniques and visual techniques, utopia and dystopia and moved from one to the other, as in a gripping novel, when events unfold before our eyes and our imagination constructs a world that although not real could become a reality. Beyond, Issue 2, is indeed becoming a reality, and it is leaving behind the speculations, and returning to values and symptoms, still using the fictional techniques to alert us not about a fiction of the near future, but about the reality of today.Labels: architectural association, architecture, Beyond, Book Launch, city, Colin Fournier, Liam Young, Pedro Gadanho, Sam Jacob
Here are some screenshots of my project pages, in the moment when passing from one page to the next, both pages make an appearence while disappearing, colapsing in one single dynamical image, different realities and distinct scales, strange textual and visual formations, generating an array of unthinkable possibilities.
[ images: website screenshots of AA Projects Review 2009/PhD/Emanuel Jose Rocha Ferreira de Sousa ]
Labels: architectural association, london, projects review 2009
PROJECTS REVIEW EXHIBITION 2009 ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION
1 Comments Thursday, July 02, 2009 | 11:14 pm.
[ images: PhD Projects Review 2009 exhibition area, AA Reception. Photos by Emanuel de Sousa. Please find more photos here ]
Labels: AA PhD Dialogues, architectural association, london, projects review 2009
THRLLING WONDER STORIES SPECULATIONS PETER COOK STRIPTEASE
0 Comments Sunday, May 31, 2009 | 1:59 am.Jumping between the real and the imagined, stories from fields like gaming, film, comics, animation, literature and art, not to mention architecture, were gathered in an array of presentations, pseudo interviews and short Q&A sessions with speakers such as Geoff Manaugh, Viktor Antonov, François Roche and Stéphanie Lavaux, Warren Ellis, Archigram (Peter Cook), Ian Macleod, Squint Opera and Jim Rossignol among others.
Although being only present in the morning, we can surely state that we saw a truly thrilling wonder story, whose main character, qua superhero, Peter Cook, transforming himself, undressed the architect figure and became the radical superhero of the 'weird-shit architecture', defending the pertinence and value, and innovation capacity of the underground stream of radical architecture/art research projects accross the world.
Here are some photos of the strip-tease running lecture.
Reminding all of us that architecture is about pushing edges, Peter Cook, the Archigram hero, 'has arrived' and dwels in the ordinary world as we do. When questioned about if there would be any science-fiction precedent in ancient history (a notorious fixation stated by the chair of the event, Geoff Manaugh, from the first instance) he just replied that he was not 'a very good historian'.
Neverthless, Peter Cook left us an outline for a Thrilling Wonder Story in an image of a recent painting/project, that seemed to depart from the premise that when a log is cut and thrown into the river, you can foresee the movement, but you will never be sure that it will get and how it will get to the finishing point. The wonder is in the trip!
Labels: archigram, architectural association, françois roche, geoff manaugh, peter cook, strip-tease, symposium, viktor Antonov, warren ellis, weird-shit architecture
Labels: AA Manifesto, AA PhD Photostream, architectural association, beer
Are you disgruntled with the current state of architecture?
Do you have a better vision for its immediate future?
Can you formulate this vision into a 1-minute manifesto?
Will you seize this opportunity to shout it from the rooftops?'
Labels: AA Manifesto, AA PhD Dialogues, architectural association, architecture, beer, ideology, london, manifesto, visionaires
After six months since the last post, here am I! Again!
And writing in English! And with new ideas to make this blog alive again, (besides the comprehensive resource of cool websites of creatives that I know people, specially friends, use to avoid googling for some architect or designer)
From now on the website will shift between english and portuguese, depending where the action is placed, as since 2008 (old news, I know) I have been based most of my time in London (some people say, I am doing my PhD, and so I should believe so... everyday)
Well this (pseudo) return has been in my mind for some time now, but it got always postponed, and then a series of events, just made me think about it again.
First it was a visit (well, a comment that was left here in one of the posts) which made me think that it was still alive (although almost dying and threaten with extinction in the blogsphere) and secondly, this friday, in a lecture at AA, a blogger (Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG), said that nowadays, if your blog has not 400 visits per day or per post in each day (oh my god, I had 26 visits this month... what a disgrace) , it is like the end of the world (you are like in the dead zone of blogsphere).
Well, I am alive and kicking, as they say.
I am not aiming at having 16.000 people every month visiting the blog, but who ever is interested in architecture and theatre, then they will have posts on that every other day.
Well, I should stop writing! Till the next post (which will be right now, I will do some retroactive posts to put everything up-to-date, so this week, will be peculiar, with a bunch of posts all uploaded instantly... we'll see)
Labels: architectural association, architecture, bldgblog, design, dream, geoff manaugh, london, theatre
