things to do for an exhibition
a.k.a pica design survey, a good idea with interesting outcomes #
the following is a summary of discussions with Jinu and Archis. it’s to be considered as the first draft of notes towards a possible idea.
fundamental similarity to the act of curating, which at its most basic is simply about connecting cultures, bringing their elements into proximity with each other - the task of curating is to make junctions, to allow different elements to touch. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ways of Curating
there isn’t any brief at the moment or to simplify work the brief is not presented here. the broad goal of an initiative at hand is to investigate possibilities of surveying a design community. key questions the task begins with is why conduct this survey?
second, if conducted what is the use of this survey? and
third who else other than the community producing it will find it useful?
the task capitalises on extending aspirations of displaying certain work body of work having a common ideology of making. the survey takes many forms, where an exhibition is one of its methods. following are few ways the exhibition itself can be framed as _
exhibition as an archive,
exhibition as the city,
exhibition as an image,
exhibition as an advertisement,
exhibition as a museum,
exhibition as an interior (of a community), and the
exhibition as a window (to a community) _ Beatriz Colomina: Privacy and Publicity, Modern Architecture as Mass Media
to note at this juncture as an exhibition, there are various lenses of presenting (#curating) a certain kind of information collected about a community. validating the need for the study is an urgency to imagine the institutional survey as a tool for both professional works, while at the same time an academic probe used for training future practitioners. this tool can have several iterations, where the first one is a presentation to the immediate PICA community, second a manual and third dissemination of this product at an extended site of consumption to get feedback about the work. to situate and concentrate on what this PICA (alumni that is) practices could structure are, as the five frames i.e.
- academic practices _ concerned with pedagogy & research
- urban practices _ engaged in urban design + planning
- building practice _ standard architectural engagements
- non-spatial creative practice _ graphic, product & etc.
- speculative practices _ competitions + theoretical design work
practices could well generate the following work type which is professional, academic, independent research, pedagogical work and miscellaneous creative. work and practice are two different spaces and the distinction between these assembles a narrative or here, in this PICA case, an investigatory tool. now, what are the various components of this tool?
there are several ways to map PICA. image above is one of the methods to enter a discussion of creating a community map. other content racks are alphabetical, time-based, location, in continuum/ highest to lowest and in categories. building on the above snippets, what other of material exists to frame ideas requires a certain dedicated exploration.
project in principle revolves around who is doing what? and
- what aspect of their work are they planning to exhibit?
- as a result what kind of practice does one associate a pica alumni as?
- should the work collected (exhibited) be a single image representation of a single project or a gathering of work by certain alumni on a single sheet?
- what are the criteria’s for sending in work?
- should it have a certain kind of status?
- should one entertain any work sent in?
- what matters at large quality or quantity?
- can the exhibition be inclusive? as in have 1277 persons present?
- is everyone still architects or in some creative field? or have they moved on to other things giving them more money? should we look at other things?
- if anyone is allowed to send in anything can the work be edited?
- should a request to send in work be open or selective?
- what kind of data will a sent in project contain such that it can later be tabulated and analysed?
- can scale of the project dictate scale of sheet small - A3, medium - A2, large - A1, and extra large A0?
- should, the pica works survey agenda be a collective exercise or decided by a few interested persons?
all of the above is a gathering of ideas to note. ideas are posed to recommend answers for and lay out the possibility of a project. speculation is encouraged to test resources and interests. is an immediate interested group of individuals really keen to understand a community they are part of and will continue to be?
tl;dr #
project space _ conduct a visual survey of professional and academic PICA work by alumni while as students and as professionals (academic work is at the moment a maybe if there are difficulties in sourcing it)
possibilities _ survey is the first stage of an idea
plan of action _ gather work in three weeks (weeks 1 to 3) from college alumni, create a narrative in one (week 4), and exhibit in two weeks (weeks 5 to 6), in total a six-week exercise. three or four groups are tasked. the first for gathering as per a defined content gathering framework. second, sorting the work as per categories (or any other frame of investigation). third, analysing with an objective to create a narrative. finally fourth exhibit findings in a comprehensive manner.