Duration
17 Sep 2018 - 22 Sep 2018
In modernity, there is no place for architecture without critical reflection, just as modern culture without cultural criticism is no better than the barbarism it has replaced. Critique must be at the core of any activity, be it artistic, political, or scientific. In the 1970s, the „crisis of utopia” led to the concept of “ideological criticism” in architecture. The philosopher Massimo Cacciari maintained that crisis must be produced, thus proclaiming that any intellectual position that does not posit itself as productive in regard to crisis is reactionary. Admittedly, we look back today with a certain nostalgia on a critical theory of architecture as it emerged in the 1960s -- the heyday of critical thought in sociology and philosophy. “The task of criticism has, in fact, changed,” Tafuri wrote as early as 1976, in the introduction to his seminal book Theories and History of Architecture. But even more has changed with the advent of digital technology.
The seminar will address the concept of critique in art and architecture. What are the possibilities of critical practice today in the digital age? Is the shift to digital technology of equal importance as Alberti’s 15th century shift to notation? Influenced by Alberti, architectural practice turned into a critical practice when it separated thinking about architecture from building architecture. The potential of graphic notation transformed architecture into a modern, ambivalent, contradictory, and critical cultural practice equal to literature and philosophy. At times, though, it seems as if today’s media technology hollows out architecture’s critical consciousness and returns it to a simple practice of mere physical and material presence.
Does your programme offer ECTS credits and if yes what are the requirements?
3 ETC will be conferred for regular attendance and presentation of a paper (20/30 min)