CFP: GAM – Spatial Expeditions (due 18 May 2016)

GAM.13: Spatial Expeditions
The next edition of GAM is devoted to the gaze focused on built space, ready to be explored through the method of expedition. Since we
experience space directly with all of our senses, engaging our entire percipient apparatus, spatio-phenomenological considerations become an
essential part of any architectural design decision. Although in the visual arts there has clearly been a continual exploration of direct
spatial experience in terms of spatial production (e.g., in works by Rachel Whiteread or Cristina Iglesias), the discipline of architecture
has not seen continued discourse on the topic of spatial perception.
Discourse on the physically experienceable attributes of space and its atmospheric qualities among architects apparently tapered off with the
retreat of the Situationists in the mid-twentieth century. Peter Zumthor´s paradigmatic writings Thinking Architecture and Atmospheres,
which emphasize a spatio-phenomenological concept of architecture, count among the few exceptions. Current scholarly work is instead
strongly focused on the voices of non-design-related disciplines, with architectural discourse on spatial experience and atmosphere generally
remaining reserved to the virtual realm, where the places of experience are always fictitious. Yet this concentration of simulated space
inevitably raises the question as to the meaning of real spaces and their discovery in an already mapped world.
This assessment occasions us to move elementary parameters of spatial perception back into the focus of the architectural gaze, which harbors
conclusions about actual spatial design. The expedition as method facilitates an experimental approach and offers an opportunity to gain
new knowledge about and perspectives on built space and practices related to its exploration.
Inscribed in expeditions is an orientation toward random events, which, directly experienced, goes hand in hand with changes in direction and
entails unexpected and unsought possibilities. The results are dependent on the type of approach and its progression. Arising here are
discrepancies between map and path, idea and reality, which substantiate or shift spatial perception and production. With each
expedition, new data is collected, and knowledge is generated or corrected.
GAM.13 calls for an exploration of the unresearched aspects of built space. Here, we are looking for the motives behind spatial expeditions, but also, equally importantly, tools and materials, exterior and interior conditions, and results or reports documenting spatial expeditions. The manner in which space is perceived plays a decisive role in this context. Pertinent here are not only perceptual positions,
but also concrete techniques and modi of perception that can sharpen the view of built space from the vantage point of one’s own discipline and also related disciplines.
GAM invites you to submit an abstract (max. 500 words) on the topic “Spatial Expeditions” along with a short biography by May 18, 2016, to
gam@tugraz.at. We look forward to receiving proposals from fields related to architecture, art, and spatial contexts. Submissions may
take the form of text, image series, project analyses, or case studies and should phenomenologically conceive, investigate, test, represent,
reflect on, or interpret built space. The submission deadline for the finalized contributions selected by the editorial office is August 22,
2016.
http://gam.tugraz.at