Project title: Space Matters Symposium. Exploring Spatial Theory and Practice Today; Concept and development: Lukas Feireiss; Host: Elsa Prochazka; Graphic Design: Floyd Schulz W//:THM; Venue: space&designstrategies, University of Arts and Design Linz, Austria; Date: 09.-11.05.2012
Space represents a prominent aspect of humanity’s existential nature – as the primordial basis of architecture and a basic prerequisite for our exploration of our world. Our entire lives are literally embedded in space. We are constantly surrounded, affected and shaped by it – whether consciously perceived or unconsciously experienced. Our spaces both reflect the values and power relationships in our societies and have the potential to alter them; spatial planning can be a powerful political actor.
With this potential in mind, the two-and-a-half-day interdisciplinary symposium Space Matters: Exploring Spatial Theory and Practice Today at the University of Arts Linz, Austria explores contemporary languages of space in theory and practice, re-evaluating spatial production modes beyond disciplinary boundaries and protocol. It takes a critical cross-examination approach to the study and analysis of key subjects concerning today's global realities, and challenges their implications for space and the built environment.
The symposium thereby attempts to acknowledge the possibility to comprehend and create spaces of knowledge that present us with a pre-requisite for identifying the broader reaches of social and political reality. By presenting a variety of approaches to space from vantage points across disciplines, the symposium both seeks out the common areas between differing practices and highlights the multitude of ways to approach seemingly-familiar problems in radically new ways.
The symposium offers a critical yet playful dialogue between experimental positions from a wide range of disciplinary and cultural contexts, which highlight an inspiring extension of the standard definitions of space and spatial practice. The numerous internationally-renowned participating speakers from different generations are, despite their different approaches, all characterized by an inborn desire to experiment, to dispute the norm and to break original and untouched ground.
