Lang hosts discussion of the real vs.
the virtual at European art festival

A panel's exploration of the real and virtual environment's effects on humanity was moderated by Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture at Texas A&M, during an Oct. 12-17 audiovisual arts festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The discussion, "What is Real/Virtual," examined technology's deep penetration of people's conscious perception in everyday life. The event was staged Oct. 15 as part of Impakt Festival 2010 Matrix City. The four-day Matrix City conference was organized by Impakt, a year-round showcase that focuses on presenting and stimulating innovative audiovisual arts in an interdisciplinary context.

"We don't have to think about what is real and what is virtual, we have already gone well beyond these simplistic limits. We live the network, we work the global, we dream the electric," states a description of the Lang-led discussion on the Impakt website.

The panelists eyed the difficulties such hybridized, real-virtual environments present to the human experience, asking, “where does it begin and end, have we become the binary elements that switch on and off, and what point is there to distinguishing authentic from artificial?"

Lang’s panelists included critics, curators and a member of Superstudio, the legendary group of radical Italian designers who produced experimental architecture beginning in the late 1960s.

The Impakt website also hosts a video of Lang discussing the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2010, "AILATI.Reflections from the Future."

The exhibit offers a lucid and unusual overview that captures the complexity and the density of the phenomena under way in Italy.

"Italy sees itself constantly as a sideline character, and not so much of a principal player in the architectural arena," said Lang in the video.

Part of this, he continued, is because Italy is renowned for its history, archaeology and food, and not its contemporary art and architecture efforts.

To see Lang's video about the Aliatl exhibit, visit www.impakt.nl.

- Posted: Nov. 30, 2010 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.