Spatial methods in visual/interpretive research: Architecture and design exhibitions as critical practice

The course seeks to provide the theoretical background and the practical framework for a critical examination of how knowledge is created in the making of design and architecture exhibitions, while exposing the multitude of devices and tools that are encapsulated in the practice of curation and exhibition design. The course offers an examination of the relationship between the curation of exhibitions and their spatial design to expose how research-based exhibitions can raise complex questions about political, economic, and cultural conditions in society. We will ask how exhibitions produce knowledge, and how the process of research, curation, and presentation shape strands in architectural discourse. From these questions, we will seek to understand the relationship between planning theories and the sociology of architectural knowledge. The students will be asked to choose a topic for an exhibition in their field of work, and to conduct the research (locating and collecting archival materials, performing interviews, etc.) to prepare a textual and visual 'brief' for the exhibition.