Breaking Glass - Narratives in Boundless Space

The one-day conference, Breaking Glass II - The Virtual Image, is the second in a series of three that the Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC) hosts to address Virtual Reality in relation to architecture and the arts. 

As contemporary image consumption penetrates every nook and corner of our culture, Virtual Reality re-emerges as a powerful medium in which realities are constructed and experienced. The medium raises a host of questions with regards to pictorial representation, spatial immersion, subjective experience, as much as creative opportunities for architects and artists. Virtual Reality is a perfect laboratory for spatial inquiries in relation to the construction of image-driven narratives and processes of subjectification. The machinic realm posits the human body in virtual environments whereby cognitive processes become connected to contemporary systems of production and consumption that continuously engender us as social and cultural subjects.

The conference sees experts from the fields of neurophysiology, philosophy, architecture and the arts address the status of the image in Virtual Reality and its contribution to the processes through which we individually and collectively construct concepts of reality and form personal identity.

Breaking Glass II - The Virtual Image presents:

Martine Beugnet, professor of Visual Studies, Université Paris Diderot;
Marco Brambilla, artist, New York;
Louisa Clement, artist, Berlin;
Sanford Kwinter, professor of Theory & Criticism, Pratt Institute;
Isabella Pasqualini, architect, PhD/architecture & cognitive neuroscience, EPFL;
Edward Vessel, research scientist, The Max Planck Institut for Empirical Aesthetics,
Liam Young, architect & filmmaker, Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today/Unknown Fields/Fiction & Entertainment, SCI-Arc.
The conference is moderated by professor Daniel Birnbaum, Städelschule and artistic director at Acute Art, London, and professor Johan Bettum, Städelschule.

The conference is accompanied by Narratives in Boundless Space, an exhibition comprising of two shows: Cartographies of Venice and Spatial Fabulations And Other Tales of Representation in Virtual Reality. The exhibition opens on May 1 at 6pm and runs daily 3-8pm through May 5. 

In Mousonturm’s Studio 1, Cartographies of Venice comprises of a series of dramatic reflections in Virtual Reality on Venice in the age of digital hyper-consumption of images. The exhibition counts nine projects, which are presented on physical islands under hovering clouds—both digitally abstracted from the urban fabric of Venice, and problematises pictorial representations and the history of the city.

Cartographies of Venice was part of Goethe Institute’s programme, Performing Architecture during the 2018 Architecture Biennial, and was developed in collaboration with the arts and cultural centre S.a.L.E. Docks. 

Spatial Fabulations and Other Tales of Representation in Virtual Reality comprises of eleven projects that explore various architectural themes spanning from urban narratives to interactive participation in architectural design in Virtual Reality. The projects engage with real time surveillance, personal and poetic narratives from foreign cities, explore the work of select architects or machine-driven and robotic processes as part of architectural design. The visitors are invited on journeys into the deep interiority of buildings and cities. Subjective experience and creative participation are fused with computerised processes that underlie the contemporary production of architectural forms and our spatial experience. The eleven projects are presented in a scenography of sculpted objects that are strewn across the floor of Mousonturm’s Studio 2. The objects make up a strange garden and anchor the portals to virtual worlds.

On May 3 from 6pm Sarah Heuberger and Hannah Katalin Grimmer, students of the Curatorial Studies Programme at the Goethe University and Städelschule, host a series of public talks in which they engage the exhibiting architects in conversation about their works. For more detailed information on the events, please visit: 

Künsterhaus Mousonturm

Breaking Glass - Narratives in Boundless Space is a project of Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC) – Architecture and Aesthetic Practice in cooperation with Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.
Exhibiting architects: Prateek Bajpai, Soubhi Baraghit, Mijail Alexei Franulic Sippa, Haewook Jeong, Suyoung Ko, Soonam Lee, Panagis Marketos, Yeon Joo Oh, Jun Eui Song, Chawapol Watcharasukarn, André Zakhya.
Exhibition concept and design: professor Johan Bettum; tutor Stefan Wieland; research fellow and tutor Yara Feghali.
Curator: tutor Stefan Wieland.
Graphic design Studio 2: Jacqueline Jurt.
Unity consultancy: Marcel Schwittlick.
Project management: Sylvia Fadenhecht.

Generously supported by Dr. Marschner Stiftung, Städelschule Portikus e.V. and Grover.

Postgraduate Master of Arts in Architecture Programme 
Open for applications
Deadline: May 15