Dip Unit 14 Yr 4: Thomas Evans, David Gouldstone, Kieran Hawkins, Henry Parr, Matthew Seaber, Nick Westby, Rion Willard. Yr 5: Paul Burres, Wei Shan Chia, Ruairi Glynn, Fred Guttfield, Harriet Lee, Joe Moorhouse, Ellen Page, Elliot Payne, Vasilis Polydorou, Richard Roberts.
The Theatre of Mistakes It is clear that an aesthetically potent environment should have the following attributes: a) It must offer sufficient variety to provide the potentially controllable novelty required by a man (however, it must not swamp him with variety – if it did, the environment would merely be unintelligible). b) It must contain forms that a man can interpret or learn to interpret at various levels of abstraction c) It must provide cues or tacitly state instructions to guide the learning and abstractive process. d) It may, in addition, respond to a man, engage him in conversation and adapt its characteristics to the prevailing mode of discourse. Gordon Pask, 1968, A comment, a case history and a plan Unit 14 is the Interactive Architecture Workshop. In 2005/06 we explored the relationships between the environment, architecture, transformation and time through metaphors taken from the craft of magic and the science of perception. In 2006/07 we looked at these relationships in the context of performance. Many of our critical understandings are derived from second order cybernetics, especially the work of Heinz Von Foerster, Gregory Bateson and Gordon Pask. Gordon Pask was also a writer, producer and director of theatrical events. The unit went to New York’s Eyebeam Gallery in February 2007 where this year’s graduating Yr 5 students presented their work in progress at an international colloquium.
Stephen Gage, Phil Ayres and James O’Leary
Top and middle: Henry Parr, Matthew Seaber and Rion Willard, The project shows how a mime school can be integrated with a vertical performance space where both observer and observed from part of a wider spectacle.