EXPATs Choosing your own world Mangiabarche Gallery - Sardinia Pikes Ibiza Rocks - Ibiza Space Studios - London In todays global world we can create and work from anywhere for everywhere and can construct and find our own home. Affordable air travel, difference in live quality and the constant search for creative networks and opportunities allows for a dispersed lifestyle where the individual constantly creates its own environment and with it new modes of production. A whole generation of creatives live in locations of their choice, creating work independent from single locations and fixed structures undulating around multiple hubs of creativity. The Architectural Association, and with it the Interprofessional Studio, with its international community of students and tutors is such a creative hub. The studio will this year utilise its networks and create a series of productions in relation to three ‘expat’ locations, the remote islands Sardinia and Ibiza and finally the global hub of London, each time using the individual qualities of the location to drive an extravaganza of music, dance and spatial performance forward. We will research how we can become expatriates even in spite of ‘global citizenship’ or virtual networks and ‘unplug’ from these in order to be able to feed back into the same with new, inspired work. In collaboration with Mangiabarche Gallery on Calasetta, Sardinia, Emerging Ibiza and developed full-scale productions starting with a base camp on Sardinia that produced the framework for a broader event and cultural festival on Ibiza and finishes with a performance and forum of discussion in London. SARDINIA -BASE STATION: A scenic event The Sardinia event was the most remote and secluded of the series. The focus of Sardinia should be to produce the atmospheric and scenic elements of the year’s narrative. IBIZA - SPATIAL LAB: An event formed by music The results of the first events formed the basis of a wider integrative event on Ibiza. The main aim here was to raise a level of cultural discussions and interdisciplinary collaborations across the artdisciplines, bound together by music. LONDON - BROADCAST: A choreographed event. The final event will stage all disciplines together in the worlds most global city: A choreographed event, where the choreography reaches into every segment of organisation, workshop, conference and publication of the years development and forms one overall crescendo, way beyond the actual event itself.
“The Conversation” 2014 Barge House –London (UK) Associate Project Re.set –Barcelona (ES) ACUD – Berlin (GER) The Architectural Association InterProfessional Studio is a department in the internationally renowned Architectural Association in London. Professionals from diverse creative disciplines and backgrounds collaborate in the design processes of exclusive inter-related projects. The premiere program of this kind, the unique studio is at the forefront of uniting art, architecture and performance. It aims to expose a hidden Worknet between multiple professions and their products. It combines creative languages to fashion concrete projects reflective of various fields of research. In May 2014 an exciting new collaboration of international talents at the studio created a compelling events series for London, Barcelona and Berlin - The Conversation, a Film Set without a Film. The project was launched with a performative installation at Bargehouse at the OxoTower Wharf, continued in the Re-Set Barcelona festival (June 2014) and concluded in ACUD Berlin where the AAIS, New Movement Collective - a dance group, and the music Ensemble Apes Grapes, merged architecture, dance, music, art and fashion. The Conversation, a Film Set Without a Film is a performative playground of characters placed in one of Berlin‘s courtyard buildings. The characters fulfill repetitive roles defined as hybrid creatures: first, taking the shape of film set elements; while second, regenerating the urban pattern of the surroundings. Elements of the set come alive. The stage becomes the staging. The narrative is the film set. The film set is the actor. Together the characters perform in relation to each other, the synergy of urban and natural patterns, creating the performance itself. The performance is designed for different spaces in the venue, the courtyard and the rooms around it, as scenes from a full production: a composed performative structure that each spectator will perceive differently. The audience moves through the set: sit, eat and drink within it. Audience members create their own story, initiated into a conversation, and a net of relations between planned and unplanned entities. The artificial enhances the reality of its surroundings and in turn, frames it.
“Flow Fields”
2013 Roca Gallery – London (UK) Matadero - Madrid (ES) Associate Project Architecture Triennale Lisbon (PT)
The Architectural Association’s Inter-professional studio performs vivid flows between body and space through themes of water. The multi-sensory installation Flow Field is focused on journeys of water and our relationship to them through movement, sound and cultural activities. From the first iteration on Flow Field at the Zaha Hadid designed Roca Gallery in London, the studio expands the project to the Matadero and continues its collaboration such as Distract Fold Ensemble, New Movement Collective and the Fundacio Enric Miralles. The Architectural Association’s Interprofessional studio installation continued to permeate the Matardero before it continued to the Lisbon Architecture Triennale in September 2013. Through the AAIS Flow Fields programme, interactive installations, music and dance combine to address atmosphere changes within the Sinel de Cordes Palace by inciting the senses. Through manipulations of water and light, forms in flux, live soundscape compositions and interactive navigation, visitors will experience heightened atmospheric awareness as they explore throughout the palace courtyard. As a continuous flow of events running from the 12th - 15th of September, the visitors become an integral part of the activities. Hear the Cloud Hear the Cloud is a performative object, seemingly formed like a floating cloud on the wall of the courtyard. As time passes, it gradu¬ally expands its structure and plays the sound translation of invisible vapour particles. Expan¬sion and contraction of the cloud represents the humidity changes corresponding to the sound gradually effected by moist. This work explores the invisible realm surrounding us and makes it tangible. Touch The Sound! Visitors experience memory of the Palace or childhood through soundscapes activated by magnets. The sound sources generate interac¬tion amongst the visitors, who then become part of the performance in the courtyard. As pre-recorded sounds highlight the old memory of the courtyard, new memories of the Palace are recreated through reiterations and transla¬tions. Hear The Shadow! With light, projection, sound and shadow, the domes creates a flowing lively atmosphere in the courtyard and indicate the concept of dilut¬ing architecture. The elements of sound, light and projections create illusory scenes mixed with real circumstances to blur the boundary of illusion and reality. Hear the Light! Performed throughout the Sinel de Cordes Palace, Hear the Light! unites dance, music, water and sunlight. Two tuning experiments -one with sound and one with movement -- are performed concurrently side by side; dancers and musicians operate independently of each other, and synchronicity is left to chance. Dur¬ing the performance costumes and objects are used to manipulate light and water, addressing the senses and transforming the palace into a stage in flux. Flow Fields culminates its finale performance with the voices of a choir singing nostalgia-tone translations. It leads visitors into a collective performance of live sounds and dance by New Collective Movement and Distractfold Ensemble heightening the senses towards the surrounding elements throughout the whole palace courtyard. This is the culmina¬tion of every element present within the courtyard that brings the visitors into a harmonious experience of sound, light, movement and interactive navigation as they explore different parts of the courtyard.
“Angles of Incident” 2012 Kunstverein - Cologne (GER) Matadero -Madrid (ES) White Building – London (UK) For every reflection there is both an angle of reflection and an angle of incidence - incidence being the occasion of happening. In our daily lives we are surrounded by reflections that augment reality, distort perception, mediate information, link circumstance, and generate spontaneous reactions between object, space, and event. The incidences of our day-to-day can allow for uniqueness, if we can find a way to view them from particular focused angles. Within the framework of a 24 hour cinematic choreography between architecture, dance, design, fashion, film, photography, and music, Angles of Incidence will compose notations of reflection of light, sound, time and cuisine uniqueness of incidences in the dynamic overlaps of these elements to create focal points through unprecedented events of spatial performance. Angles of Incidence occured in a series across Europe in 2012 with performances scheduled in Köln [50°. 6°], Madrid [40°. 3°], and London [51°. 0°]. The project is the result of Architectural Association’s Interprofessional Studio, which aims to expose a hidden ‘worknet’ between multiple professions and their products. The studio – operating as an interdisciplinary creative office where knowledge exchange is one of the core points of focus – relies on the overlapping innovation in the various expertise of its members to develop a communication language across creative disciplines. This platform congregates the movers and makers of culture in a dynamic environment that activates the potential of the creative network across borders and genres. Incidences unfold in series of transforming moments, where professionals and the public interact in an original performance. In this way, AoI initiates a lasting network of exchange. Evolving from the intimate setting of a dinner through to a public market, the performance comes together in five entangled acts: Supper, Concert, Lounge, Market, and Show – between the interior space of Nave 16 through to the Plaza Matadero. Act I – The Supper The supper will delight the palate and rouse conversation with a fusion of salon talks and bite-sized courses set within a networked rope environment. The Supper is curated in collaboration with Ariadna Cantis, where members of the audience are invited to contribute to this special culinary and conversational exchange. Act II – The Concert The concert is a series of cyclical performances throughout the evening where the audience, performer, and environment are interchanged. This performance brings together timing in sound and space, featuring the AoI music collective from Köln, a special DJ set from Andy Dean and others. Act III – The Lounge The lounge offers the opportunity to spend the night cocooned in specially designed pods suspended from the rope environment. Following the supper and concert, guests can experience the full 24 hours of AoI. The Lounge will revitalise the senses. Act IV – The Market The market offers gourmet local food, where local farmers, restaurateurs, and visitors collaborate to create tasty new dishes. The market also houses workshops together with New Movement dance collective and others. Act V – The Show The show is the final performance of AoI 40°, 3° a collaboration with dance collective New Movement, AoI music collective Köln and Andy Dean. Where architectural installations transform into performance, then into art, then into sound, then into stage, and back again, unraveling and unknotting the very structure through which they have been formed.
“Exquisite Corpse” 2011 Matadero – Madrid (ES) Design Quarter Ehrenfeld-Cologne (GER) Architectural Association - London (UK) Exquisite Corpse at is a dialogue between architecture, dance, music, design, film, photography, fashion and art in London’s most experimental and renowned architectural institution. It will stage a performance that challenges the architect’s static structure and the dancer’s body in movement. The programme eschews rehearsal in its traditional sense in favour of establishing networks between interconnected creative activities that come together in thrilling tension. ‘Exquisite Corpses’ uses a series of events as the means to develope creativity and innovation within Spatial Performance and Design. Through the overlap of the various disciplines these events are by default experimental, often unprecedented and this way a task to make the impossible possible. Three applied events that form the framework of the creative process. For these events to take place in a professional and deliverable way each performance builds up and extents on the experience of the previous. The ‘Exquisite Corpses’ series explores the possibilities of how a interdisciplinary collaboration between the performing arts and design can create a genre defying cultural environment. In April 2011 events commenced with the performative installation at the Matadero, Madrid. In collaboration with the artist group ‘New Movement’ and music producers ‘Boilerhouse Boys’ the projects merges fashion, dance, music and architecture to form one continuously changing environment. In a second phase these performative spaces were tested through installations and constructions in the urban setting of Cologne. The overall project is placed within the specific sociopolitical environment of the ‘Design Quartier Ehrenfeld’. How can performances and ephemeral structures act as ‘Urban Generators’. Here a stage set and a collection of interactive structures becomes the setting for the extended dance performance of ‚New Movement‘ that incorporates the events of Madrid to make it one transformed assembly. The series concluded in a week long event in London The Architectural Association building itself played host to the event – an unlikely ‘stage’ of multiple rooftop terraces, strange vistas through the nooks and crannies of a Georgian terrace block, vast projection screens and performers in amongst the audience, blurring the lines between active participant and passive viewer. Building on the Architectural Association’s reputation as a font of pioneering creative endeavour this event is a result of the collective work of the AA Interprofessional studio, run by Theo Lorenz and Tanja Siems in collaboration with dance professionals ‘New Movement Collective’ and music producers ‘The Boilerhouse Boys’ and ‘Hochschule fur Musik Cologne’. Exquisite Corpse is the third and final event in a series of worksin-progress, generated and performed by the AA Interprofessional Studio.
“Seed to Scene”
Drydon St. Govent Garden- London
Two weeks of unprecedented and unexpected collaborations within the creative industries events include dance performances by New Movement; a debate organised by New Deal of the Mind (NDotM) and a “Pecha Kucha” style event for young creatives to pitch their ideas to a range of experts. The Architectural Association’s Interprofessional Studio (AAIS) took over a derelict building in the heart of Covent Garden for a highly unusual two-week long programme of genre-defying events, talks, and performances. Part architecture, part performance, part social and political debate, Seed to Scene (S2S) took place from 18 – 31 May, and is inspired by the scalability of creative processes, from a seed of an idea which germinates to form ground-breaking and experimental collaborations. The aim of the project is to create new ways of bringing people together to form new and unexpected ideas and outcomes. S2S will showcase live and active practice of an emerging professional terrain operating between disciplines. Now more than ever the creative industries need support and encouragement to ensure they continue to flourish and survive in difficult economic times. The creative industries are worth in excess of £50 billion a year to the UK economy and within four years are expected to employ more people than financial services. S2S will play a key role in providing networks, advice and most importantly, inspiration to the next generation of young creative talent from all disciplines, not just architecture. Among the highlights of S2S was a discussion of the importance of risk in creative innovation; a debate hosted by NDotM (www.newdealofthemind.com) relating to their recent report Creative Survival in Hard Times; a dance performance from New Movement, a collective of choreographers with a long history of unusual collaborations and a careers surgery enabling young creative individuals and businesses to seek advice from established professionals. To produce S2S, the AAIS collaborated with many professional individuals and companies including renowned film producer Rosa Bosch; Ben Wolff & Andy Dean, Grammy award- winning music producers (Music Technology Ltd); NDotM which is a coalition of artists, entrepreneurs and policy makers which seeks to create new possibilities of work and employment for the creative industries and c/o pop, the organisers of Europe’s biggest conference for the creative industries in Cologne. The AA Interprofessional Studio (AAIS), which was launched in January 2009, is creating a new field of activity for the AA. Working on the margins of art, architecture and performance, the AAIS can reach professions, create partnerships and stimulate students that would not usually have the possibility of working with, or within, the AA. AAIS welcomes students from a very broad range of backgrounds and disciplines including artists, filmmakers, scenographers, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, engineers, product designers and graphic designers as well as managers, teachers and communicators. S2S is part of AAIS’s commitment to creating interdisciplinary projects which involve professionals from all kinds of backgrounds, and which support creative industries.
“Bauhauslab 2009” Theaterhaus – Jena (GER) Bauhaus- Dessau (GER) AA London (UK) Working in between art, architecture and performance, the bauhauslab 09 can reach professions, create partnerships and stimulate students that otherwise might not have worked with one another. The bauhauslab 09 invite professionals from creative disciplines as diverse as product design, the fine arts and curating to work and study on actual projects of various kinds and scales. The bauhauslab London operates as an interdisciplinary project office. The deliverable nature of the studio’s applied projects acts as a generator for the participants’ work and collaborations. It is through the intensity of the design process, which results from the work’s actual delivery, that a high standard of outcome, and with it a high level of publicity, has been guaranteed. We, in collaboration with the Theaterhaus Jena and the school’s Emtech programme, constructed in a very short time (January to May), and with an incredibly small budget, one of the largest projects ever built by students at the AA: a fully functional 20m x 20m x 8m public lobby and performance space for the Theatre of Jena, as well as a series of events, installations, performances and projections related to the festival and the building. The structure was brought back to the UK to Hook Park in September to conclude the studio’s first year with a performance. Interdisciplinary knowledge exchange is one of the studio’s core points of focus. To highlight this we hosted a month-long exhibition and ‘salon’ in the AA Front Members’ Room, reinstating it as the place of conversation and discussion. In a series of talks and symposia, artists, designers, film-makers, scientists and publishers, critics and writers came together to discuss their collaborations. The exhibition itself highlighted the studio’s own collaborations, both internal and with its various project partners including the Theaterhaus Jena and Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau. The remarkably intense and richly successful collaborations have yielded unexpected and exciting results. It is unlikely that any of the participants, working alone in their respective disciplines, could ever have achieved the same kind of results, and we are looking forward to the next phase of collective experimentation.