Our special guest

performing present-a(c)tions

A performed lecture by Ana Serrano and Architecture Students.

BorderLINE Architecture / Hungarian Pavilion, 12th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2010. Marcel Ferencz and Andor WesselényiGaray, Photos © tamás bujnovszky and screenshot from documentary. 1ªNinety kilometres of rope, twenty thousand pencils and hundreds of drawings are used in an installation which relates both to the sensation of geographical borderlines and the dissimilarity between various architectural attitudes. The spatial design is based on the physical manifestation of the line and the visual representation of the living, drawn line.

‘Architectural presentations’

In 2010 Japanese architect Kayuzo Shejima (1956), co-founder of the firm SANAA, was named the first female artistic curator of the Architectural Venice biennale.

She named the exhibition ‘People Meet in Architecture’ to highlight the intricacy of relational vision within architectural ideas between architects and the public. Part of her unique curatorial vision was to half the number of participants (from 100 to 50-half of which were considered young architects) and to give each one a whole room to display their work rather than merging them in shared exhibition spaces. This decision enabled an architectural exploration of the ways in which architectural ideas could be communicated. Words, images, models, and drawings were expanded with installations, immersive experiences and sculptural pieces that tested new grounds for spatiality in architecture discourse.

In her interview by Andrew Maerkle ‘Architecture in Exhibition, ’ 2 Sejima stated that her interest laid in establishing the breath and diversity of architectural viewpoints to allow the audience to build their own connections.

For our presentation on Thursday, 10th November we will imaginethat you ALL have been preselected as one of the young emerging architects who might be given the chance to display their ideas in one room at the Architectural Venice Biennale. And that I am the assistant curator to Sejima to select some of you to be part of the exhibition.

I encourage you to use your creativity in all mediums to express your vision. This is an open call to get you to experiment with the ways in which architectural ideas can be conveyed linguistically, visually, and materially. You can use ANYTHING: sound, video projections, movement design, lighting design…etc to emphasise your ideas. Be inventive, be provocative, and above anything HAVE FUN.

I look forward to seeing your work and meeting you all soon. Ana

Format: 5 minutes presentation of one or several of your projects. You can use ANYTHING in the room or bring your own materials: projectors, lights, speakers, props, (models, objects) physical drawings and or digital mediums. The room can be set up however you like, and the “audience” positioned at your will, if it helps an optimized reading of your work. At the end of each presentation you will receive feedback from your peers about what elements have been more successful at conveying your ideas and innovative in the way they were expressed. Students will vote for the more radical proposal/presentations at the end of the class. Be there or be square ;)

1 ªhttps://vernissage.tv/2010/09/03/borderline-architecture-hungarian-pavilion-architecture-biennale-venice-2010-interview-with-curator-andor-wesseleny-garay/ 2 https://www.art-it.asia/en/u/admin_ed_feature_e/wdj3mx7ae4rvf1j5symh

Elevator pitchoral presentation for Ana by Paloma

Good morning, everyone!

Today, I am so glad to introduce you to, one of my very best ex-students. ANA.

I met Ana in two thousand and two, as you are now, in one of my classrooms, here in the school of architecture. During the time I was her English teacher I could feel that she had something special such as her sparkling eyes always looking for more knowledge, her positive attitude whatever the task or challenge that she was required to do.

Thanks to my previous class presentation... By now, you should know that as an architect: Ana worked as a theatre consultant in international projects for Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Dixon Jones, she was a partner at Make architects, and worked for Richard Rogers on the Stirling price-winning Madrid Barajas T4 Airport, amongst others. Her work has toured in exhibitions, and her performances have been featured in various events and venues such as Tate Britain in London, Beirut Design Week, the Embassy of Spain in Tokyo and AIA New York.

As a teacher of architecture. Ana was an active member of DO.CO.MO. (UK), a part time teaching fellow at Bath University, co-director of the master’s in architecture program (Design Studio 11) at Westminster University in London and a lecturer in History & Theory in Design at UTAS. She lectures internationally and has been a visiting critic at many universities such as Cambridge (UK), The Barlett (UCL), Columbia (NYC), Kogakuin (Tokyo), Architectural Association Visiting School (AUB) and Monash in Melbourne.

ANA’s research interest lies in the interfaces between architecture, art and performance and she is currently building CHOREOARCHITECTURE. With her, I understood how architecture and language can blend together and an example of that is when we went to Japan to show and perform a CHOREO language presentation in the field of ARCHITECTURE to engineers.

Ana is an example of an outstanding architect in terms of professionality as well as a great person and I see her as a solid ex-student-teacher friend.

Thank you so muuuuch, ANA, for joining us today!

Ana´s class actitivities

Present-a(c)tion

Today in English class we had a guest Ana Serrano Mazo. Ana gave

witnessed. It wasn’t just about explaining the concept of a project; the best presentation I ever

it was about understanding it

emotional level. on an

The concept was a Panopticon (By Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism)

The panopticon is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells. From the tower, a guard can see every cell and inmate but the inmates can ’t see into the tower. Prisoners will never know whether or not they are being watched.

Ana suggested we sit in a circle and started walking around us, while reading the thoughts of a person

standing in the middle of a Panopticon. The tower in the space was demolished. This girl was standing

alone in the middle of

17/11/22, 18:04 All those eyes, human the room, where the tower once stood. Now she was the one feeling observed.

or non-human

Milena Second Brain – Random thoughts/research at unithat are or were there, going in her direction. Now that the

inmates were gone, their absence made them more present then ever.

Eventually, Ana played a video where the same thoughts

Panopticum. Simultaneously, we were hearing a second, were recited with a different voice inside the

reverberating voice. Finally the Ana started

reading again, being yet another, third voice building

https://milenarakocevic.wordpress.com/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog up a disorienting and powerful musical canon.

This moment was incredible. When you realize what´ s happening, you start to see

project is going in. You hear the actual acoustics of the space in the video (original the direction the

and reverberating)

while

None you experience the same acoustics with one of the voices present in the classroom (Ana’s voice).

of this would have been as effective if we weren’t sitting in a circle. Ana managed to recreate the

acoustics we would hear if it was us standing in that space.

1/40

17/11/22, 18:04 Milena Second Brain – Random thoughts/research at unihttps://milenarakocevic.wordpress.com/

Then the video stopped and Ana sat in the middle of our circle. She chose to sit instead of stand,

therefore also choosing the relationship she wanted to establish with us and our circle. Then all of a

sudden, we realized that our bodies were building our own Panopticon and ours eyes

observing

17/11/22, 18:04 her. And so the two rooms merged in time and space.

Milena Second Brain – Random thoughts/research at uni were the ones

This present-a(c)tion was incredible on its own, and at the same time the best way to present what Ana

was trying to teach us. It’s more important how you say something than what it is that you ´ re telling. In

the end, everything depends on language.

https://milenarakocevic.wordpress.com/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog Some ethics on the topic, 21st century panopticon:

https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-panopticon-what-is-the-panopticoneffect/#:~:text=The%20panopticon%20is%20a%20disciplinary,not%20they%20are%20being%20w atched.

mico0r November 10, 2022 Uncategorized Leave a comment

3/40