VIRTUAL: Applying Education

Abstract

In Remix Theory: the Aesthetics of Sampling, Eduardo Navas argues that the creation of a new song can result from the rearranging, recombing, or reinterpreting of an existing recording; forming a “cultural glue”. Navas argues that beyond the creation of a new artifact (the song) the art of remix functions as a form of cultural discourse. Similarly, in Architecture, we can see actions of preservation as a remix; discursive cultural glue accentuating both new and old. In the Contemporary Stamp of Incompleteness, Jorge Otero-Pailos notes that preservation is an act of interpretation that produces history. Based on this understanding he asks how can we “achieve a critical historiographical method on which to base contemporary historic preservation?” To explore such questions, “Scratch”, a cyclical experiment, will test the notion of remix in architecture. The experiment will consist of annual design-build workshops where students will interpret a neglected coastal bunker structure to construct an evolving compositional remix on the site. Over successive years, new sets of students will re-interpret the previous year’s mix. The proposed methodology explores sequential collaboration to shift students’ thinking to perceive buildings as incomplete “recordings” destined to be reinterpreted by multiple authors over time: buildings as a framework for layered and continuous collaboration. This presentation will introduce pedagogical precursors and projects by the author which will inform this methodology; as well as researched principles that will inform the design of the experiment.