Cultural Strategies & Production

This seminar focuses on the future of culture. As cultural production expands and innovates with new applications often with the aid of technology, how will architects absorb and incorporate these current attitudes of hybridity and immersion into their design language? No matter the framing device, be it buildings or headsets, we are increasingly becoming obsessed with an experience that immerses us, trading passivity for agency. As we shift from observer to active participant, there will be new platforms in theater, music and visual arts. Alternative physical spaces for cinema, exhibition, education, and home entertainment will materialize. More than ever, architects require fluency in future-leaning formats and the vehicles that amplify and distribute emergent culture. We investigate the following questions: How are these immersive technologies transforming our understanding of the relationship between space and content? What new typologies surface from these trending forms of mediated experience? What role can architects play in this rapidly evolving interdisciplinary milieu? We discuss topics such as “Speculative Architecture” or “Immersive Spaces” or “ Digital Experiences in Physical Space” and share case studies, explore spatial strategies, and interrogate thought leaders who are confirmed include: David Byrne (artist, musician, Talking Heads), Paola Prestini (National Sawdust Director and Composer ) Ben Vickers (curator and technologist, Serpentine Galleries) and Anne Porter (Sci-fi film set designer/Star Trek).