As part of a broader reflection or exploration on the theme of language – of how one communicates through words – and its internal and operational mechanisms in relation to teaching, Stoà 8 investigates a specific theme: that of lexicon.
Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote: «The limits of my language are the limits of my world». This statement seems to be particularly emblematic at present, given that one of the dominant features of our time is the impoverishment of the lexical landscape, both due to the continuous process of technicalisation of the professional world, which grows increasingly distant from a humanis-
tic approach, and due to the establishment of new forms of communication wherein the image – rather than the verb – has risen to take on the protagonist role.
And yet, as Wittgenstein suggests, it is precisely through words (their mean- ing and the cultural references associated with them) that one is able to demarcate a conceptual horizon. In architecture, this usually occurs on two levels – on the one hand, from an operative point of view in the making and constructing architectural arguments and on the other in the development and transmission of the tools through which architectural projects are con- structed. In this sense, whenever a term ceases to exist in our linguistic repertoire, so too do the images associated with it cease to exist in our minds. In the context of architectural pedaogogy, this void can represent a major obstacle.
Indeed, the absence of a word makes it impossible to access the forms of knowledge associated with it, to grasp its conceptual dimensions in the development of the discipline and, why not, to recognize its relevance for think- ing and conceptualizing the contemporary world. It is in this sense that the precise choice of the use words, even if dialectically and through contrasts, is able to determine the character or the conceptual and cultural bearing of a design course, while at the same time providing the necessary resources for the redefinition of the limits within which a given conceptualization of knowledge occurs. Faced with this double possibility of language, the aim of Stoà 8 is to carry out a critical reflection on the words used in the teaching of architectural design today, in order to identify a conceptual vocabulary necessary to encompass (and possibly reinvent) the various subject areas of the discipline.
In the light of the above observations, two possible subject areas are pro-
posed:
1. Lexicon and pedagogy
2. Lexicon and contemporaneity
Abstracts in English or Italian (max. 2500 characters, with one keyword before the title) and three images should be submitted (in .doc file) to: redazione@stoajournal.com following the abstract guidelines available on the journal website.
Abstracts are due by 17 April 2023.
More information can be found in the full call for papers can be found here.