Minimaforms in conversation with Ariane Koek
Minimaforms in conversation with Ariane Koek
31 May 2023
Time
1.00 PM
Location
AA Lecture Hall, 36 Bedford Square
The concluding event of The Order of Time exhibition brings together brothers Stephen and Theodore Spyropoulos with Ariane Koek to discuss the intersection of physics, art, architecture and technology. The conversation examines the space between disciplinary distinctions. Motivated by a desire to speak to the relationality and complexities of engaging our world. The conversation will build on the exhibition and its discursive engagements within quantum physics, early computing and mediation through the ordering of space and our constructed relationships through direct experiential discovery.
ARIANE KOEK is internationally renowned for her work in art, science and technology. In 2009 she initiated the Arts at CERN programme at the world's largest particle physics laboratory outside Geneva - designing and directing its 3 strands, Collide, Accelerate and Guest Artists until 2015. During that time, she worked with over 78 different artists including Goshka Macuga, Iris Van Herpen, Anselm Kiefer and Ryoji Ikeda. Entangle: Physics and the Artistic Imagination - an exhibition and book published by Hatje Cantz - laid out her approach and special love of physics and its interaction with the arts. Since 2015, she has worked independently in the arts/science and technology field as a consultant, producer/curator and writer for international foundations, philanthropists, museums, galleries, universities, and government institutions around the world. [Recent work includes for example The European Commission, Wellcome Foundation, Endowment Fund of the International Red Cross Committee, Pro Helvetia (The Swiss Arts Council) Science Gallery International, and Cavendish Laboratories at the University of Cambridge.
STEPHEN SPYROPOULOS is an artist, educator, and design leader with over twenty years of experience building and scaling world-class teams, creating culture, design innovation, and solving complex human-centred problems. Stephen has built and led design teams at hyper-growth technology companies such as Compass, Gilt Groupe, HBC, and Heavy. He has directed projects for clients such as Samsung, Matador Records, The Beggars Group, and XL Records. Stephen was named Creative Review’s One to Watch and has exhibited and lectured about his work internationally. He has taught Design Thesis at Mason Gross School of the Arts; Rutgers University and currently is a resident artist at Somerset House. Stephen received an MA in Communication and Interaction Design at Central St. Martins School of Art and Design in London and his BFA with honours from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.
THEODORE SPYROPOULOS is an architect and educator. He is the Director of the Architectural Association’s world-renowned Design Research Lab (AADRL) in London and a resident artist at Somerset House. Theodore has previously chaired the AA Graduate School, was Professor of Architecture at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt and co-founded the AA’s New Media and Information Research Cluster. He has been a visiting Research Fellow at M.I.T.’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies and taught in the graduate school of UPENN, RCA Innovation Design Engineering Department and the University of Innsbruck. Theodore has previously worked for the offices of Peter Eisenman and Zaha Hadid. In 2013, the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture awarded him the ACADIA award of excellence for his educational work directing the AADRL. Theodore received his BArch with honours from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, his MArch from the Architectural Association and his PhD from UCL Bartlett School of Architecture.
MINIMAFORMS was founded by brothers Stephen and Theodore Spyropoulos as an experimental practice that straddles art, design, science and technology fostering frameworks that foreground human and emotive experiences. Their work has been acquired by international art and architecture collections that include the FRAC Centre, the Signum Foundation and M+ / Archigram Archive in Hong Kong. They have been exhibited internationally including the MOMA (NYC), Barbican Centre, FRAC Centre Orleans, Onassis Cultural Centre, Somerset House, Detroit Institute of Arts, Leonardo Da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology, National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, Guangdong Science Centre and the ICA.