Philosphy

Challenging the frontiers of working in between art, architecture and performance, the AAIS aims to expose a hidden ‘worknet’ between multiple professions and their products. The studio – operating as an interdisciplinary creative office where knowledge exchange is one of the core points of focus – reaches professions and stimulates students to develop a language with which to communicate across creative disciplines.

In today’s creative professions many individuals define their work and interest as being at home in more than one discipline. The Studio gives these individuals an opportunity to step away from their existing professional or academic activities and develop new creative skills and techniques as well as enjoy the intellectual stimulation of the multidisciplinary overlap of the professions.

It acts as an invitation to build a network of professionals and experts from creative backgrounds as diverse and complementary as performance, design, music, film, photography, fashion, communication and curation through workshops and symposia, combining each creative language to work and study within the AA on concrete projects reflective of the various fields of research. Students are expected to have independence of creativity whilst having no option but to integrate into the collective practise of the ensemble. Contrary to typical interdisciplinary design approaches, where individual professions remain in their respective fields of expertise, the AAIS seeks to place students outside their comfort zone, acquiring knowledge from other disciplines that will ultimately influence, extend and adjust their own creative processes and practise.

The AAIS has many established connections throughout the creative disciplines both in academia and practice. These various connections are utilised during lectures, seminars and talks. The AAIS‘s real applied projects within the creative fields serve as a generator for the year‘s work and guarantee a high level of focus, outcome and public participation. The Architectural Association has produced some of the most influential and creative artist and creative beyond the discipline of Architecture; for example the world-renowned stage designer Mark Fisher, the industrial designer Ron Arad and even in its early days the renowned writer Thomas Hardy.

Today the tradition of a broad approach to creative and innovative work is visible throughout the school and also within the public programme with a wide range of lectures, exhibitions and events and performances throughout the creative disciplines and arts.

Within this unique tradition the AAIS set out in 2008 to extend and innovate the field of trans-disciplinary work through applied projects. Over the years the AAIS has had participants from a diverse field of professions besides architecture such as fine arts, music, fashion and styling, jewellery, graphic design, scenography, interior design, fine arts, curation, performance design, interface and interaction design, dance, film, photography and manufacturing as well as philosophy and psychology. In addition the expertise of the studio’s tutors span a diverse and constantly expanding field of knowledge from architecture, urban design to music production, composition, fine arts, media design, light design, dramaturgy, art history, choreography, performance, fashion, writing, film/ theatre production and directing.

As a result the projects are never based in one genre alone and vary quite succinctly in scale, kind and duration. Since its first year of initiation the AAIS has produced 21 individual events and productions that included large scale constructions and scenography, dance performances, participatory and interactive workshops, exhibitions and installations, culinary experiences, markets, film projects, music concerts, discussion fora, fashion shoots and culture-political discussions and symposia with up to a thousand individual visitors per event
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