Architectural Design V-IX: Object Subject Context (a.o.Prof. J.De Vylder)

Abstract

These strange times. For weeks we stayed at home and could really experience what it is like to be at home, experiencing it differently over time. Objects we knew very well turned out not to be known enough. Habits could be deciphered. Discovering unexplored movements.This studio wants to start from those daily experiences.

Objective

Re-practice and prac-teach underlines the idea of ‘teach-ing’ and ‘re-search’ from out of a practice based perspective. A perspective which is about making and meaning. About realising and reflecting. About meandering between the making and the meaning. But also between worlds—finding other universes—and ideas—ongoing and revolving—and cultures—the journey in between.

Content

Home. To sleep, to cook, to eat, to take a bath, to live to, to wash, to read. Bed, stove, table, bathtub, to live, to dry, coach. Dark, warm, light, garden, laught, closet, lamp. These strange times. For weeks we stayed at home. For weeks we could really experience what it is like to be at home. Even, experiencing it differently over time. Objects we knew very well turned out not to be known enough. Habits could be deciphered. Discovering unexplored movements. All that was daily, and actually never got more attention as it always has been daily, became particular now. Particularly close. Particularly confidential. At the same time particularly desiring. It maybe became different. Maybe even new. This studio wants to start from those daily experiences. How did we experience cooking and eating? How did we experience sleeping, but maybe even making love? Did we take a shower for the daily refreshment or did the bath also become a mental refreshment? How did we plan our daily or weekly agenda of washing and cleaning and didn't ironing also become a form of relaxation in the end? In the meantime, did we read a book in a different place and which lamp accompanied it? Not just these questions. But also endless other questions. Of that nature. The studio focuses on the own living environment. In a first movement of the exercise we observe the daily objects around us. A chair. A table. A window in the corner of the room. And a bed or a bath. We observe our very own everyday world. Probably different. In a second movement of the exercise, we weigh those objects against other objects. References. Which we collect. We bring our daily objects and these references in relation to each other. We understand our own everyday world from the perspective of a broader culture. In the third and final movement we design a new environment. Starting from the observations of our own environment and the insights of the broader perspective, we dare to arrange everything in a different way and develop a new context. *** The exercise is realised in close cooperation with ETH/gta the chair of Tom Avermaete and ETH/gta-exhibitions with Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen. *** The exercise aims not only at the debate but also at the mode of imagination. Rather the mode of imagination than mere representation. Drawing by hand but also making scale models are key. *** The exercise runs in 14 weeks. The first exercise 3 weeks. The second also 3 weeks. The last movement 8 weeks *** Presentations and debates will be held alternately, at table or at the wall. It is recommended to follow all debates at any time. Each end of a movement is seen as a moment of evaluation. *** Given the circumstances, the studio aims to take place one week a month in the atelier. This will always be the third week of the month. The other weeks the studio will be held digitally. The exact working method of this will be further elaborated.

Resources