architecture and computer games
Panel discussion in the context of the exhibition:
Visions and Utopias

organised by: DAM_Deutsches Architektur Museum
at: the Kunsthalle Schirm, Frankfurt
17.06.2003

panel with:
Lucien King / Game On, Rockstar Games (London)
Tom Barker / box consultants(London)
Manuel Abendroth / LAb[au] (Brussels)

Moderation:
Ingeborg Flagge, Director of DAM
Peter Cachola Schmal, Curator DAM

LAb[au] presenting its projects:
GameVillage
space navigable music

about:
The most highly developed virtual visualizations of space are to be found in the world of computer games. Supposedly this business has even surpassed both film and music industries in terms of revenue. Computer games are now considered as an independent art form. That is the theme of first the exhibition of this type: „Game On". The relevance of this technology for architecture and the use of it in the realm of research between animation and built architecture, installation and urban planning will be the issue to be addressed.

Lucien King, born 1971 in Nairobi Kenya, Development Manager at Rockstar Games London and organizer of the exhibition: " Game On. The Culture and History of Videogames". The exhibition started at the Barbican Gallery in London in summer 2002, at the end of 2002 it went to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and will soon be shown at the Dutch Faxx Tilburg, from 28 May until 24 August 2003. The show will then move to Helsinki in autumn 2003.

Tom Barker, born 1965 in London, studied hat Engineering an Cambridge University, Imperial College London und Edinburgh University, was responsible at Arup for structures such as the Kansai Airport (Renzo Piano), teaches at the Architectural Association London Design Research Lab, founder of the multidisciplinary agency box consultants in London, that works in the field of research, design and application of new materials and developed the materials for the pavilions inside the Millennium Dome. In 2002 they won the Innovation Company of the Year Award. His company Curvatex Ltd is on the market selling hybrid materials.

Manuel Abendroth, born 1969 in Wels Austria, studied Architecture and Urbanism at the ISACF- La Cambre in Brussels, 1996 co-founder of LAb[au], a trans-disciplinary agency of architects, musicians and programmers, that work not only in the field of theoretical research, but also in the development of new interfaces between architecture, information technology, software programming and space. The group took part in multiple music and dance performances, lectures, conferences and exhibitions all over the realm of new media art.

This program is realized with the support of the museum cooperation pool of the City of Frankfurt am Main.