Liminal: an intermediate state, phase, or condition: in-between, transitional
CONTENT / We live suspended between the digital and the physical, in a liminal space. The pioneers of digital landscapes we navigate realms unfettered by physical constraints. A place where stories can construct and reconstruct themselves at will, where time is not just static but can be reversed, where truth can be rewritten and history revised. Orientation increasingly turns to an expanding mirror world, the echo of Borges fiction. A 1:1 remaking of the world, where huge ships may hide within the folds of fake signals, infrastructure is analysed through its digital twin and non-existent islands rise into being leading very real exhibitions to search for them.
This can begin to paint a picture of an increasing retreat from reality into our imaginaries, with all the dystopian and problematic environmental consequences this could bring. Yet it also holds within it the potential to enhance and deepen our embodiment within the physical realm. AI and other technologies offer the opportunity for us to sculpt this liminal realm to enhance our spatial embodiment, extending our understanding and engagement of the physical world and ourselves.
We will explore how the design of our architecture and cities might engage critically with these liminal landscapes, beginning to define our mode of engagement through the spaces we dare to imagine.
AIMS / The aim of our workshop is to begin to explore the implications of our evolving liminal condition as an opportunity for extending embodiment. We aim to begin to construct potential frameworks of engagement; formulating a zoo of proto architectures for the liminal realm.
METHOD / We will be teaching through the medium we are contemplating, the digital realm of Zoom, Teams, Miro. We will therefore begin through a questioning of the space of this connection. For our workshop each of us will automatically and simultaneously enter into multiple spaces in multiple countries through our digital presence. Yet the sound of our voices will echo around solid walls and physical spaces, influencing and impacting that space. Working in small groups of members in disparate locations we will begin attempting to grasp the nature of this liminal space, using drawing as a tool to start to discuss its implications for our inhabitation of space. With the aid of this initial navigation we will begin to focus on how AI might inform our engagement with liminal spaces to extend embodiment. We will workshop opportunities to evolve our zoo of proto architectures.
SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:
Introduction / 30th September
Workshopping / 3rd October including talks: ‘Liminal landscapes’ Sarah Stevens, and ‘AI’ Marcus Winter Opening of the zoo with the Final Crit of the group’s proto architectures / 14th October
EVALUATION / Develop these actions:
– Engaging critically with the digital realm that augments out day to day lives.
– Uncovering cultural implications.
– Finishing with a proposal for a proto architecture which begins to discuss both the physical and digital realms we inhabit.
Bibliography /
Work by artists, architects and computer scientists including:
Liam Young: https://liamyoung.org/projects/seoul-city-machine
Anicka Yi: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/hyundai-commission-anicka-yi
Google AI, Whalesong: https://www.blog.google/technology/ai/tale-whale-song/
Machine Memoirs: Space, Refik Anadol: https://coventry2021.co.uk/explore/the-reel-store/
Pierre Huyghe: https://www.kistefosmuseum.com/news/pierre-huyghe-is-the-artist-of-the-year-2022
https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/pierre-huyghe-uumwelt/ Sarah Tze: https://www.sarahsze.com
Sol Ey, Sonic Storm: https://sol-ey.com/sonic-storm/
MIT senseable city Lab: https://senseable.mit.edu
Sandipan Nath: https://www.behance.net/gallery/107173861/Interference-53N42E-v20
Ocean Bloom: https://v2.nl/archive/works/ocean-bloom
Smart city: https://v2.nl/lab/alternative-imaginaries-for-the-smart-city
Centre for Digital Built Britain: https://www.cdbb.cam.ac.uk/what-we-do/national-digital-twin- programme
BTO Cuckoo Tracking Project: https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/about- project/international-projects
Rif Anadol: https://refikanadol.com/works/machine-memoirs-space/
Richard Vijgen: https://www.richardvijgen.nl/#world
Beyond Human Scale: https://www.archdaily.com/949912/beyond-human-scale-designing-for- ecosystems-migration-and-machines
Situated technologies: http://www.situatedtechnologies.net
Accessing habitats remotely: https://architecturetoday.co.uk/steve-mcintyre-and-ashley-welch/ Watershed: https://www.watershed.co.uk/studio/projects
Ghislaine Boddington: https://ghislaineboddington.com/videos/
University of Brighton (UK) /
Sarah Stevens (s.stevens2@brighton.ac.uk) + Marcus Winter (Marcus.Winter@brighton.ac.uk)