Form, Identity and Development

We live in a time of unprecedented technical and creative possibilities. At the same time, architectural design processes have never been more complicated and constrained by a wide range of requirements. The use of CAD and parametric modelling software, through which computers generate themselves design solutions for complex tasks, seems to be a tempting prospect. But what does this mean for the design of our living environment and for our relationship to it? 
Throughout the history of architecture, design has always been an expression of people’s culture and worldview. It conveyed values and formed an important basis for social and individual identification. According to Rudolf Steiner, forms are expressions of thoughts and in turn stimulate thoughts, values and behaviours. In addition, depending on their specific nature, they connect us with spiritual beings and entities.
Can we develop a sense of the meaning and effect of forms? How does working on the computer change design processes as well as our relationship to our own body, which is the basis of our own sense and self-perception? What is the significance of human creativity as a creator of design alongside artificial intelligence, and how can we use AI to create new, meaningful forms in architecture?
We want to explore these topics by means of interdisciplinary contributions from cultural history, human science and media psychology and deepen them through perception and artistic exercises. The conference will be held bilingually, in German and English. All Germanlanguage lectures will be simultaneously translated into English. The working groups will be in either German (DE) or English (EN) as indicated.

For the Visual Arts Sektion

Yaike Dunselman Markus Fischer Pieter van der Ree