The School in Real Time

On November 11, the event The School in Real Time will take place.

The School in Real Time will be a 24-hour mixed reality event series. With the range of invited speakers, student sessions, film screenings, we intend to challenge the idea of architecture as a primarily material discipline, moving from brick to pixels. The program will explore how emergent tools, practices, and spaces of the immaterial realm are becoming a crucial form of architectural engagement.

The event is organized by Maria Alvarez Garcia, Antonio Bernacchi, Georgios Eftaxiopoulos, Alicia Lazzaroni, Matiss Groskaufmanis​, and they are explaining the choice of format for the event like this:

“Organizing a condensed 24-hour event series that mixes physical and virtual presence seemed very relevant to the current moment we live in. Social media has altered the way knowledge is consumed, as attention spans are becoming fragmented. At the same time, we have access to increasingly rich experiences of digital connectivity. In this context, architecture benefits greatly from plugging in to the broader circulation of ideas, so finding new ways of engaging with different parts of the world becomes crucial in forming a progressive architectural agenda”.

To unpack this over the 24 hour period, we will engage with both established voices, such as architecture historian Beatriz Colomina, practices MVRDV and Space Popular, as well as young, emergent voices, such as all-female architecture collective Xcessive Aesthetics, internet community and media theorists Caroline Busta and Lil Internet, and multidisciplinary creator Russell Royer.

“The event is important in multiple ways—first of all as a contribution to the public and intellectual life of the school. When we were formulating the curriculum, we aimed to open up new questions, but also to complement the tradition of research in materiality and fabrication at the school with the themes of immateriality, virtuality, and digital tools.

Secondly, The School in Real-Time is an attempt to experiment with the medium of digital pedagogy. Especially after our shared experience of 2020, there is a much broader cultural acceptance of substituting physical presence with virtual one. Yet there is also a sense of fatigue—both for students and educators—of constantly staring at video feeds on the screen. We want to see what happens when the traditional forms of classroom are dissolved into a mixed-reality space, and what new formats of learning this can offer.

Last but not least, through its curriculum, the event probes into the ongoing dematerialization of spatial experience. Not only the mass adoption of video conferencing, real time rendering engines, social media feeds, or the blockchain-based technologies, but things, such as public space, are becoming increasingly virtualized, and this poses questions in regard to architecture’s ongoing self-identification as a primarily material discipline,” states the team behind the event.

The event will take place in Didakteket on November 11, starting from 10.00. Students and colleagues are welcome to join at every moment of the day. Working tables, soft surfaces, wifi, beverages and light refreshments will be provided. Programme available on aarch.world