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Documenting the Digital in Architecture in China
Theory | Online Workshop | English + Chinese | Asia-Pacific
Description:
Key Words: Digital Design History,Archive,Oral History,Interviews
Required Skills: N/A
Required Software: N/A
Required Hardware: PC or Mac
Maximum number of participating students: 6-10
The workshop is built upon the same intention that has been driving the investigations of technology in China from the Needham Question along the way to Yuk Hui’s contemporary philosophical enquiry. Territorializing the intention in the field of the digital in architecture, it tries to question the neutral/universal assumption about digital design thinking by reviewing how it was particularly emerged, transformed and iterated in association with early developments (early 2000s) of the digital design technology in China.

The workshop is calling and gathering “collaborators” with common interests to form a research group documenting, archiving, diagramming and representing the origin of the digital in China, and further, in a more general perspective, questioning the inherent relationship between digitalization and globalization.

The workshop takes a series of interviews as the form of the investigation. The invited guests will be those who witnessed or were part of the particular moment of the history. On each day, the workshop will give an archeological research on a sub-topic as the pre-interview preparation for the following day. After the interview, it will further expand the research with more clues generated from the conversation. The materials produced through the whole process will become the source of the documentation eventually.

The four topics of the interviews would be: The Early Conception of the Digital, Blogs and BBS--Disseminating the Digital, “NEW” Buildings--the Digital in Practice, Experiments in Universities.
Schedule:
Jun 27 - Jul 2
  • Day 1 / Jun 27

    9:00 - 12:00 (GMT+8:00) Beijing,Shanghai

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    21:00 - 00:00 -1 (EST)

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    03:00 - 06:00 (CET)

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    09:00 - 12:00 (China)

    Introduction to the sub-topics, method and structure of the workshop. Researching the first topic and preparing questions for the interview on the following day.
  • Day 2 / Jun 28

    9:00 - 12:00 (GMT+8:00) Beijing,Shanghai

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    21:00 - 00:00 -1 (EST)

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    03:00 - 06:00 (CET)

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    09:00 - 12:00 (China)

    Sub-topic 01: The Early Conception of the Digital / Guest Speaker Interview / Internal Group Discussion / Preparation for the following day
  • Day 3 / Jun 29

    9:00 - 12:00 (GMT+8:00) Beijing,Shanghai

    |

    21:00 - 00:00 -1 (EST)

    |

    03:00 - 06:00 (CET)

    |

    09:00 - 12:00 (China)

    Sub-topic 02: Blogs and BBS--Disseminating the Digital / Guest Speaker Interview / Internal Group Discussion / Preparation for the following day
  • Day 4 / Jun 30

    9:00 - 12:00 (GMT+8:00) Beijing,Shanghai

    |

    21:00 - 00:00 -1 (EST)

    |

    03:00 - 06:00 (CET)

    |

    09:00 - 12:00 (China)

    Sub-topic 03: “NEW” Buildings--the Digital in Practice / Guest Speaker Interview / Internal Group Discussion / Preparation for the following day
  • Day 5 / Jul 1

    9:00 - 12:00 (GMT+8:00) Beijing,Shanghai

    |

    21:00 - 00:00 +29 (EST)

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    03:00 - 06:00 (CET)

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    09:00 - 12:00 (China)

    Sub-topic 04: Experiments in Universities / Guest Speaker Interview / Internal Group Discussion and Conclusion
  • Day 6 / Jul 2

    9:00 - 12:00 (GMT+8:00) Beijing,Shanghai

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    21:00 - 00:00 -1 (EST)

    |

    03:00 - 06:00 (CET)

    |

    09:00 - 12:00 (China)

    Preparation for the exhibition and publication
Instructors:
  • Chao Yan Tongji University,Assistant Professor
    YAN Chao is an assistant professor at CAUP, Tongji University. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from Harbin Institute of Technology and Master of Architecture from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), and later completed a PhD at Tongji University. Previously he was a visiting lecturer at China Academy of Art from 2014 to 2018, a postdoctoral researcher at Tongji University from 2019 to 2021 (winner of Shanghai "Excellent Postdoctoral Researcher Program"), and a visiting scholar at University of Virginia in 2019. His research focuses on agent-based system and embodied behavioral computation within the context of the digital in architecture. He published more than 30 papers and 6 books; participated in Venice Architecture Biennale, Shenzhen/Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale, Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai Biennale, and many other exhibitions at home and abroad. As a member of the DigitalFUTURES Organizing Committee, he has been organizing workshops, conferences, exhibitions, and publications over the years.