Autumn Open Jury 2021

As AA students and staff return to Bedford Square and Hooke Park for face to face teaching after over a year of working remotely, we will reflect on the best projects from the last academic year and the ways in which time-based media was employed to design and communicate their projects in unique and surprising ways.

The term ‘time-based media’ includes video, film, animation, audio, mixed reality, game design or various other technologies as well as performance, performative models and so on – any works that have duration as a dimension and unfold for the audience over time.

Over the course of the day a cross-section of students from across the school (First Year to 5^th Year, Taught Postgraduate and PhD as well as Core Studies and our Research Labs) will present projects showcasing a unique approach to using time-based media that enabled further exploration of their unit / programme brief whilst working remotely and how this enhanced their architectural understanding and provide us with an opportunity to see how the ever-expanding range of projects being produced as part of AA portfolios is exploring how to communicate architecture. Chaired by Head of Teaching and Learning, Mark Morris.

Schedule:

10.00 – Introduction

Jurors: Yoni Bentovim, Mark Breeze, Nigel Coates, Elyssa Sykes-Smith, Sebastian Tiew, chaired by Mark Morris

10.30 – Boji Hu - Urban Sedimentology (Diploma 1)
11.00 – Camila Arretche - (Ground Lab)
11.30 – Anna Dwyer - Sustainably Regenerating Levittown: A Retrofit of the Prototypical American Suburb (Sustainable Environmental Design)
12.00 – Sindi Dojaka (Communication & Media Studies)
12.30 – Michal Chudner, Jaxon Kelly, Sasha Trouiller - Ellipse H: An Architectural Distortion of Time (First Year)

Break

13.30 – Introduction

Jurors: Kathy Battista, Paul Bavister, Jumanah Bawazir, Lawrence Lek, chaired by Mark Morris

14.00 – Jasmine Abu Hamdan - The Hakawati Forum: Reconstructing Aleppo through Performed Narratives (Diploma 12)
14.30 – Xiaoya He - Moscow Synthesiser (Experimental 9 2020/21)
15.00 – Amal Taryam, George Jr. Merheb, Clinton Glen Mendonca, Eleftherios Kourkopoulos - Cyber-Physical Prolepsis - Inclusive Strategies in The Era of Digitalization (Emergent Technologies and Design)
15.30 – Hiroaki Yamane - When Islands Breath (Experimental 5)
16.00 – Roya Edde - Alternative Nodes for Beirut (Diploma 10)
16.30 – Concluding Remarks

Critics include:

Kathy Battista is a writer, educator, and a curator of exhibitions in museums, galleries, and non-profits. Her research is primarily focused on cross generational feminist art, in particular performance and body-oriented practice. Most recently she has curated Everything Has Its Place at Sevil Dolmaci Gallery in Istanbul; She is co-editor (with Bryan Faller) of Creative Legacies: Critical Issues in Artist Estates, for Lund Humphries (2020).

Paul Bavister is currently a Project Director at Flanagan Lawrence responsible for leading the practice’s research and development, specialising on projects which include acoustic and performance spaces. Paul is currently leading the Design team on a project for the BBCs new Eastbank Studios, which will deliver state-of-the-art performance and recording facilities on a new Olympic Park Site. Paul was also project architect of the Soundforms designed Rady Shell in San Diego as well as the award-winning Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. Paul is also a Senior Lecturer at the Bartlett School of architecture, and is a PhD candidate focusing on technology, sound and space.

Jumanah Bawazir is a multidisciplinary designer, poet, and researcher, who studied at the Architectural Association. Her research focused on providing tools for exiled communities to narrate their own stories. She weaves together storytelling, film, and poetry, as forms of collaboration and communication to confront the spatial politics of exile. Currently she is working at Forensic Architecture.

Yoni Bentovim is a London based filmmaker whose credits include award-winning shorts, feature documentary and feature fiction films. His accolades include official selection and awards at internationally acclaimed film festivals including Tribeca, Montreal, Docaviv, Alchemy, Aspen shorts, Winterthur, CameraImage, Raindance, East End, Split, Munich, Jerusalem, São Paulo, Los Angeles, and his work has been presented at world renowned museums such as the Barbican, Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His work has secured television broadcast and wider distribution including France 3, Channel 4 UK, RTP, Channel 8 IL and Amazon Prime.

Dr Mark E Breeze AIA is a licensed architect and an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker combining interdisciplinary practice (Principal, Spatial Realities), research (Founding Chair, University of Cambridge Sustainable Shelter Group), and teaching (AA). Recent work includes the award-winning documentary 'Shelter Without Shelter' (2020), and 'Forms of the Cinematic: Architecture, Science, and the Arts’ (Bloomsbury, 2021).

Nigel Coates is an English architect, author, and prolific designer of interiors, exhibitions, products, and lighting. He grew up in the town of Malvern, Worcestershire and was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School before studying at the University of Nottingham (1968–71) and the Architectural Association (1972-4). He formed Branson Coates Architecture with Doug Branson in 1985-2006. He established his own studio of architecture and design in 2006.

Lawrence Lek is an artist, filmmaker, and musician working in virtual reality and simulation. He is known for his film trilogy Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD), Geomancer, and AIDOL, and the open-world games 2065, Nøtel, and Bonus Levels. Recent solo exhibitions include Haus der Elektronische Kunste, Basel; Sadie Coles HQ, London; and K11, Hong Kong.

Elyssa Sykes-Smith is an interprofessional artist working at the intersection of public art, architecture, performance, health and climate psychology research, and education. She holds MFA (Distinction) from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (2021), and BFA (Hons) in Sculpture at The National Art School Sydney (2013). Professional highlights include Next Big Thing TV series on London Live (2021); Sculpture by the Sea inc. (2012-18), Creative Development Fellowship, Create NSW (2019); and public art and corporate commissions including Saatchi & Saatchi, Deloitte, MIRVAC and various Council’s in Australia. In creating art for public space and designing participatory projects Sykes-Smith seeks to distil complex, psychological states into multi-sensory experiences to advocate for human rights and environmental sustainability. The sculpted figure in relation to architecture has been used as a form of communication throughout history and Sykes-Smith’s artwork is a contemporary development of this lineage. Playing on the divide between abstract and representational, physical and digital, her designs allow space for the imagination and recollection.

Sebastian Tiew is a designer and image-maker based in London. He co-founded Cream Projects, a digital arts studio working within film and entertainment as well as the arts.