TAB 2019, The two-day Symposium: Beauty matters, just like love, it’s real

12th-13th September 2019

@ the Creative Hub, Tallinn; Kultuurikatel aka Tallinn

The symposium’s introduction given by Yael Reisner. Photo by Evert Palmets

Architect, Dr Yael Reisner, TAB 2019’s head curator, was the two-day symposium’s convener, curator and main moderator.

The long term taboo and the first buds of new interest in beauty

Many architects still associate the use of the word beauty with shallowness, old world, or non-progressive values, a cultural bias that is expressed in architecture and also in politics, psychology, poetry and music. Paradoxically, the first measure of good architecture continues to be its capacity to create a great aesthetic experience.

The pursuit of beauty ceased to be a lead generator of architectural design in the early 1940s, when objective considerations were promoted as rational and pragmatic and subjective decision making seen as irrelevant.

Advances in disciplines such as neurobiology suggest that civilisation could not exist in the absence of pleasure, including the experience beauty. Beauty is part of the neurobiological structure that makes us not only happier, but healthier.

In parallel I dived into the world of Mathematics and its ongoing trust in beauty, and since 2018, I was drawn to the contemporary triple O movement in philosophy, (the Objects Oriented Ontology), particularly to Graham Harman – its founder – and to his numerous books and articles.

The first buds of a new interest in aesthetics are emerging in architectural discourse too. This cultural shift returns us to the individual’s role in generating new knowledge but increasingly in collaboration with technology and the logic of machine ‘thinking’, forming a new partnership for our post-digital era. Its influence on human intuition and decision making is coming to the fore in many disciplines, breathing new life into the status of aesthetics and beauty.

An Interdisciplinary Symposium

Listening to the symposium is an opportunity to catch up with the now in a number of disciplines including: architecture, neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, poetry, mathematics, artificial intelligence and digital technologies related to these fields. Symposium participants include both distinguished scholars and leading architects and designers.

The experience of beauty is similar in architecture, poetry, mathematics, music, and in the visual and performing arts, being characterised by qualities such as elegance, profundity, originality, clarity, seriousness, significance, ambiguity. The list goes on, because no one can define beauty in simple terms.It is quite striking when one considers the significance of visual thinking to intuition and good design, how subjectivity and intuition lead the way in creative activity, and how beauty is related to all of that.

Mies.TV’s Documentary Film : Why Does Beauty Matter?

The Film was taken during TAB 2019’s opening week . It’s a 27 min. document built up through the basic questions asked by its makers, featuring in-depth interviews with the head curator Yael Reisner, some of the participating architects: Space Popular,Sou Fujimoto, March Studio,KTA, Fologram, as well as Nick Luscombe (DJ), Graham Harman (philosopher), Ron Aharoni (mathematician) and Enoch Taylor (neuroscientist).

To Watch the Film Click On this Link: https://youtu.be/JjZbmJddlzI

Yael Reisner’s Introductory Lecture, opening the TAB 2019’s 2-day Symposium

Yael Reisner giving the introductory lecture, opening the symposium.

The four extra symposium’s moderators

Dr Fleur Watson, (curator, author and editor, Melbourne), Kaja Pae, (architect, physicist, and Maja magazine’s editor in chief, Tartu/Tallinn), and Prof. Martyn Hook, (Dean of Melbourne School of Architecture & Urban Design at RMIT University, Melbourne) and Barnaby Gunning(Architect, London).

Fleur Watson (Melbourne). Photo by Evert Palmets.

Kaja Pae (Tartu/Tallinn), Photo by Evert Palmets.

Martyn Hook (Melbourne), Photo by Evert Palmets.

Barnaby Gunning(London), Photo by Evert Palmets.

All the symposium’s sessions took place in panels of duos.

Two people, or, two groups, one moderator, and a discussion after presentations. Each one was invited to present for 10 minutes, and after the two presentations each duo was asked to have a discussion for 10 minutes, thus, each session took 30 minutes, more or less.

The symposium’s participants:

Enoch Taylor (a PhD candidate, and an associate of UCL Laboratory of Neurobiology and the TCNJ Experimental Philosophy Laboratory),Ron Aharoni (Israeli mathematician, Prof. at the Technion, Haifa), Graham Harman (the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Sci Arc, LA), Maria Lee (Poetess, Tallinn),the musicians who wrote the exhibition’s soundscape: Nathan Tulve and Jakob Tulve, and all the exhibitors at the curatorial exhibition in the Estonian Museum of Architecture – the architects: Sou Fujimoto (Tokyo), Kadri Kerge Tallinn/NY), Space Popular (London), Barnaby Gunning (London) & Yael Reisner (London), Atelier Manferdini (LA), Paula Strunden(Amsterdam), March Studio(Melbourne), Kadarik Tüür Architects (Tallinn), and soma architecture (Vienna/Innsbruck – plus, the Steampunk outdoors installation’s architects – Gwyllim Jahn(Melbourne), Cameron Newnham (Fologram, Melbourne), Soomeen Hahm(London), Igor Pantic(London), and Gilles Retsin(London), the outdoors installation’s curator), and Kim Listmann(ABB’s Research Lab Group manager, Zurich).

Please do note:

The first five sessions here are in duos in different combinations between the neuroscientist, philosopher, mathematician, and the poetess. The seven following session are between the participating architects, where they talk about their practice in general. There are five more duo-sessions between the participating architects at the website entry TAB 2019’s Curatorial Exhibition, where the architects talk about their installations at the curatorial exhibition.

1st session: Why Beauty Matters?

Enoch Taylor(Neuroscientist) & Ron Aharoni(Mathematician), moderated by Yael Reisner.

Ron Aharoni, Mathematician, Technion, Haifa, in conversation with Enoch Taylor, Neuroscientist, UCL, London. Moderated by Yael Reisner. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Why Beauty Matters? Enoch Taylor, Neuroscientist, and Ron Aharoni, Mathematician.

2nd session: New reasons for the interest in beauty

Enoch Taylor(neuroscientist) & Graham Harman(philosopher), moderated by Yael Reisner.

New reasons for the interest in beauty. Graham Harman in conversation with Enoch Taylor. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Enoch Taylor presenting. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Graham Harman presenting. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Enoch Taylor (neuroscientist) in conversation with Graham Harman(philosopher), moderated by Yael Reisner. Photo by Evert Palmets.

3rd Session: The interest in beauty through history

Graham Harman(philosopher) & Ron Aharoni(mathematician), moderated by Yael Reisner.

The interest in beauty through history. Graham Harman (philosopher) in conversation with Ron Aharoni(mathematician), moderated by Yael Reisner. Still from the video.

Graham Harman and Ron Aharoni with Yael Reisner moderating. Still from the video.

The interest in beauty through history. Graham Harman in conversation with Ron Aharoni, moderated by Yael Reisner.

The keynote lecture: Why Architecture and Beauty Need Each Other?

The keynote lecture given by Graham Harman, the American Distinguished Professor of Philosophy(Sci Arc, LA).

Graham Harman, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Sci-Arc, Los Angeles. Founder of the Object Oriented Ontology (OOO). Photo by Evert Palmets

A keynote lecture by the Distinguished Philosopher Graham Harman: Why Architecture and Beauty need each other?

4th Session: The Desire for Beauty

Maria Lee(Poetess) in conversation with Ron Aharoni(Mathematician), moderated by Yael Reisner.

Maria Lee, Ron Aharoni and Yael Reisner. Photo by Evert Palmets.

The Desire for beauty. Maria Lee, Poetess, and Ron Aharoni, Mathematician

5th Session: The Subjective Experience of Beauty and its Relevance

Enoch Taylor(neuroscientist)& Maria Lee(poetess), moderated by Yael Reisner.

Enoch Taylor, London, Still from the film.

Enoch Taylor in conversation with Maria Lee. Still from the film.

Maria Lee in conversation with Enoch Taylor, moderated by Yael Reisner.

Please do note that all the participants architects’ sessions at the symposium talking about their exhibited installations, are shown at the website’s Entry/Project: TAB 2019’s Curatorial Exhibition, whereas here you could watch the sessions about their work in general, hence, the given title Retrospective On Architectural Practice.

Retrospective on Architectural Practice – 1st Duo:

Barnaby Gunning and Yael Reisner(London) & soma architecture(Vienna/Innsbruck). Moderated by Fleur Watson.

Barnaby Gunning & Yael Reisner(London) in conversation with soma architecture(Vienna/Innsbruck). Moderated by Fleur Watson. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Barnaby Gunning. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Kristina Shinneger. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Stefan Rutzinger. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Fleur Watson, moderator. Photo by Evert Palmets.

Reflection on Practice: Barnaby Gunning and Yael Reisner in conversation with soma architecture(Stefan Rutzinger & Kristina Shinneger) , moderated by Fleur Watson.