Facoltà di Architettura

 

 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | School of Architecture

Sapienza Università di Roma | Facoltà di Architettura

 

Elena Perez Guembe - RPI School of Architecture, Troy, New York

Federico De Matteis - Facoltà di Architettura, Sapienza Università di Roma

 

“In his time the King of France came to Milan, and Leonardo was entreated to create one of those strange marvels for his reception, upon which he constructed a lion, which advanced some steps and then opened his breast and showed it full of lilies.”

Vasari, “The life of the artists”

 

Architecture mediates our body with the environment. It also describes the way we understand our position in the world and how we perform within it. Our notion of space is intrinsically attached to the idea of “air” made visible trough light. In this sense architecture becomes the container of a fluctuating material whose capacity of expression are conditioned by the qualities and capacities of that container. The question here is not only to understand that container as something external to us which conditions the perception of the space surrounding our body; but to question those modes of understanding space by shifting the focus of attention from one that overpowers the visual over any other senses, towards the body itself. In this sense, the container, that membrane of different qualities and capacities, becomes an extension of our body itself. It is not only me looking onto something outside myself, but another me looking from that new boundary -the skin of my extended body-, the affections that produces over me. Then, how is that skin able to transform the perception I have of my own body? How does this extension affect the perception other bodies might have of my own body? This means, how this new skin is apperceived from the outside? Is it activated, connected, invaded or shared by other bodies? How far or close is it from my own body? What are the mechanisms of this extension, augmentation, affects and effects?

 

This workshop looks for escaping classifications and fixed forms of perception. It intends to develop a work in between borders, fluctuating between imagination, the body and the senses. A moment of jump where a more provocative and interesting work can occur. It is a hub for a collaborative work in between different forms of cultural thinking in which the final product will be the invention of a device, able to question, augment or transform our bodily perception of space through our senses. A search of the unexpected.

 

Students will work in mixed groups under the guidance of the instructors, and are expected to physically produce the devices.

 

The workshop will take place in Valle Giulia from 29/09/2014 to 10/10/2014, Monday to Friday 15:00 to 19:00. The final presentation will be held in the Rome Study Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Palazzo Taverna.

 

Students wishing to participate have to send their application including CV and list of sustained exams by Thursday, September 25th to federico.dematteis@uniroma1.it. A maximum of 18 students are admitted to the workshop. Participating students will be awarded 3 ECTS for workshop activities. A good knowledge of English is required.