Experiments in Motion – a cutting-edge new research project conducted in partnership between Audi of America and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) – kicked off on Monday, November 7 with a curated "dinner in motion" at the New Museum in New York City. Conceived as a series of experiments to identify new paradigms of motion, mobility and design, Experiments in Motion is led by Mark Wigley, Dean of Columbia’s GSAPP, and will draw from global thought leaders from around the university, architecture and design professionals, and an expanded network of urban mobility experts from New York City and Audi.
Experiments in Motion is part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, a long-term, multi-level program that brings together different visions on how mobility, urban living and the role of the transportation will change in the coming years. The initiative’s academic research also includes Urbanizing Technologies: The Mobility Complex, conducted by another of the world’s leading urban thinkers, Saskia Sassen, the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University.
“Experiments in Motion is the beginning of a new dialogue on mobility and represents a radical new way of collaboration between a corporation and a research institution. We are thrilled to partner with Mark Wigley and GSAPP, one of the most visionary schools of thought globally,” said Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer, Audi of America. “At the same time, the program is designed to foster emerging talent and empower young, bright minds that will both shape the future, and live in it. What better place to choose as testing ground for these experiments than New York City?”
Under the patronage of Wigley, Monday night’s dinner discussed new theories and new images of motion. A custom-made table by C-Lab and Studio-X served as centerpiece, designed specifically to foster conversation and mobility between participants. In preparation, Wigley conducted an internal workshop with the experimental research units of both Audi and Columbia GSAPP – including the Audi Urban Future Insight Team and Columbia’s C-LAB and Studio-X – to look at how an interrogation of the concept of motion can destabilize conventional thinking in both architecture and the mobility industry.
“This is an exciting research project that galvanizes the very latest thinking to energize a whole new conversation about the future of our cities,” said Wigley. “The most innovative minds are being brought together to inspire a new level of engaged creativity in the university, the design community and industry.”
By opening up the dialogue to a carefully curated group of experts, from historians of science, to filmmakers, artists and curators, the output of the discussion at the New Museum will serve to sharpen the project as it evolves. Experiments in Motion will continue in phases through 2012. In the spring of 2012, the insights of the think tank will be used to structure a new set of student architecture design studios at Columbia GSAPP focused on New York City that will connect to the school’s global network of urban research laboratories. The third phase of the experiment in summer 2012 will open the project up in a new form of public participation.
“As a project about newness – new paradigms of motion, new methods of teaching, new forms of participation – its crucial to have two partner institutions willing to work together in new ways,” said Chris Barley and Troy Conrad Therrien of design practice Th–ey, responsible for the curatorial concept of Experiments in Motion. “Although still fresh, Audi and Columbia have already begun to pose novel questions through their openness to this idea.”
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