InDeSem '11

About InDeSem '11

Have you already used the ‘Like’ button today? Do you still send letters by post? Where do you interact more with your friends – on Skype or at a café? In recent years our means of interacting with one another have changed dramatically thanks to emerging virtual realities, globalization and mass customization. Historically, built space has been a platform for social interaction; how can architecture ensure a relevant public role in this emerging media driven society, which seems to operate entirely separate from traditional collective spaces?In the face of this phenomenon, it could be said that architecture as we know it is losing ground to new cultural forms. The possibilities of instantly expressing and sharing our myriad individual thoughts and beliefs, increasingly at anytime and anyplace, are creating fundamental changes in society and consequently our spatio-temporal practices.

Where, as designers, do we now take our cues: The liquid phenomenology of the screen? The emergent qualities of advanced algorithms? Endless iterations of ‘related links’? The grassroots democracy of the ‘Like’ button? Architecture sees itself in a moment in which existing paradigms have to be redefined and new values have to be critically evaluated and tested so as to be able to properly form an active approach to the challenges posed by an increasing divide between old and new social realities.

Designers must find ways to operate in this new context. Is architecture able to provide new models for the intersection between the media-driven society and physical environment, and can this be balanced with traditional social interaction and engagement? In recent years we have seen various suggestions; liquid, interactive architecture, ever mutating according to the needs of the user, ‘blurring’ architecture, based on spatial qualities suggested the computer screen; open-source urbanism, employing the participatory dynamics of games; light, nomadic urban forms made possible by infrastructural and communications networks, and so on. Conversely, is it still possible to argue that there is no pressing need for change, that we should instead reinforce historical types and stable, tried-and-tested notions of social space?

INDESEM 2011 will investigate these questions with appropriate philosophical and practical tools. It will do so in a one-week workshop for 80 international students, comprising lectures, excursions, exhibitions, debates, documentaries and more.

Participate!

Do you want to take part in the InDeSem’11 workshop? If so, due to the limited amount of participants we can receive, we’ve cooked up a small assignment to prove your skill. Read below for more details.

Background

Historically, built space has been a platform for social interaction. Nowadays, thanks to new means of communication such as Facebook, Second-life, Skype, etc. it’s possible to easily encounter with spatially distant people. It’s hard to deny that changes take place in our social behavior and the way we connect to other people.
But what’s the impact of new media on the traditional public space?
How can you as an architect anticipate on the above-mentioned with physical or spatial tools? And how can architecture provide new ways of social interaction? Technology already brought us possibilities to contact each other virtually. Now it’s time to integrate these modern technologies in physical objects which will (re)connect our physical and virtual environment.


Assignment

Create a physical, architectonic intervention that connects the physical and virtual world. This addition to the public space has to create or contribute to social interaction. Advanced technology can help to provide social interaction, but creating new technological features is emphatically not the main goal ofthis assignment. Use a specific public space in your own city to illustrate your generic architectural design that links the physical and virtual world. Describe your solutions in words and images.

For more information on InDeSem '11, the competition registration and submission requirements, please visit http://www.indesem.nl