The Critique of the New aims to formulate an interactive channel engaging doctoral research conducted at the AA and the diverse experimental practices within the wider school community, while also providing a platform for responses from invited representatives in the field and beyond. Many trajectories of investigation within the field of architecture are predicated on the assumption that the emergence of new techniques of representation and production bring with them fresh possibilities of creative output. The purpose of this symposium is to address this presumption of an essential link between newness and technological innovation. For example, does the performance of digitally based techniques of design - those that have replaced apparently redundant analogue methods - actually produce objects, concepts or strategies that are truly novel? The broader issues of how the new is claimed and legitimised, and equally how the old is established and examined, are called forth for discussion.Mark Wigley - Keynote Lecture