Beyond Media is one of the main events worldwide dedicated to the most current visions on contemporary architecture and on the outcomes of the intense relations which exist between architecture and the media.

Curated by Marco Brizzi and organized by Image www.image-web.org, the festival takes place in Florence since 1997. It explores the relations that exist between architecture -the protagonist of the construction of cultural fabric, of new economic scenarios and innovation processes- and the media which, in turn, develop a series of fields of intervention, of skills, of research ambits around architecture.

Mission of the Beyond Media festival is enhancing and qualifying the architectural discourse in all of its expressions. In particular it aims at promoting the emergence of a new agenda for contemporary architecture by means of a more widespread awareness of the role of the media of communication in the professional as well as in the didactic field. Architects, video authors, experts in the field of communication, creatives, scholars, and teachers are offered the opportunity to meet, observe and discuss the most significant paths contemporary architecture is following.

An international selection of architecture videos, talks, meetings and workshops with the protagonists of the international debate as well as architecture exhibitions in theme with the festival's topic compose the festival's program which is enriched every year with new events.

"Visions"
As time moves on, the way we see and our capacity to observe things tend to change. Today we see things that were previously not even thought to exist, while other things, which were once seen very clearly, now often confound the senses and sometimes seem to even disappear altogether.

For over ten years, we have observed how that system of reciprocal exchange, in the relations between contemporary architecture and communications, can offer viewpoints that are useful in the understanding of some of the more recent developments in architecture. Within a world that is rapidly accelerating, architecture itself is attempting to renew its identity, to redefine its function and tools, and to reconfigure the borders of its areas of intervention. And it is in this progression that communications and media increasingly become part of the means with which project designers operate and develop their relations and tools that, as a result, inevitably influence a consistent part of architectural production and its widespread presence.

With Visions, this festival proposes a new reflection on the themes of project figuration and representation, and on the limits of our ability to observe and report that which is not in front of our eyes, in order to move towards a research of more effective visions that are extended in space and time. Visions that allow us to think about and better define the context and framework for the future.

The symposium, that takes place during the Beyond Media festival and is curated by Pietro Valle, explores the theme Visions. It investigates imagination and visionariety in six thematic areas: Architecture, art, literature, the global city, communication and construction techniques. For each of them there is a round table discussion with three or four guests and a moderator. A multidisciplinary approach with international guests will investigate how visions take shape in the contemporary world and if they are stilll able to offer a different view of reality.

The discussions and the speakers are:

09 July 2009, 15:30
Architecture, vision and power
Some large scale architectural projects have the power to envision a possible future or an alternative environment. At the same time, their designers rely on a economic-political power that commissions these structures and make them buildable. What is the degree of freedom that a contemporary designer can afford in carrying forward visions if he/she wants to see them translated into reality? What is the relationship between architectural imagination and consensus strategies imposed by an increasingly aggressive advanced capitalism?

Speakers: Pier Vittorio Aureli, Felicity Scott, Peter Wilson, Francisco Sanin (moderator)

10 July 2009, 15:30
Writing and vision, between reality and fiction
One of narrative historic function has been to describe imaginary worlds, allowing the readers to envision them in their own personal way. In the age of global communication we can access millions of data without checking their source and therefore their truthfulness. Are we on the verge of fundamental changes in the relationship between reality and imagination, truth and fiction, concreteness and theory? In view of this transformation, what could be the role of writing in offering alternative visions of the contemporary world?

Speakers: Piero Frassinelli, Pedro Gadanho, Ruggero Pierantoni, Tommaso Pincio,
Stefano Catucci (moderator)

18:00
Visions of the global city
The model of the third millennium city has left behind the heritage of twentieth century social utopias. How can we conceive, imagine or create a critical space that encompasses all the recent social changes of the global cities? Can we directly intervene in these cities or their design has to overcome existing strategies to project itself in a whole new model, not yet conceived?

Speakers: Marco d'Eramo, Lars Krückeberg, Paul Polak, Peter Lang (moderator)

11 July 2009, 15:30
Art vision and the transformation of signs
Contemporary art can offer visions that modify our perception of everyday reality. What is the space of art between existence and imagination in the contemporary world? If art can envision alternative realities, how could they be interpreted and translated in real, public space? If art has the power to transform existing signs, what role could it have, among other media, in proposing new languages?

Speakers: Tony Fretton, Alberto Garutti, Martin Rein-Cano, Pietro Valle (moderator)

18:00
Vision and communication, new interactive models
Communication seems to be the end and not the means of every recent form of representation, being it artistic, political or social. How is it possible to make its creative function accessible to the larger public? Could communication initiate projects that propose the transformation of the existing world? Could it be critical enough to confront a system that equates every expressive form to consumerist media standards?

Speakers: Beatriz Colomina, Derrick De Kerckhove, Marcos Novak, Antonio Caronia (moderator)

12 July 2009, 15:30
Building vision, beyond standardization
Architecture equals building. The coupling, though, has changed: recent experimentations in engineering employ representation techniques that afford whole new visions, more open than the previous ones and not limited by serial standardization. What are the relationships among architects' imagination, design tools and built structures in the contemporary world? Can technology increased flexibility be extended to a larger set of users and, at the same time, be respectful of the natural environment?

Speakers: Furio Barzon, John Frazer, Frédéric Migayrou, Alvise Simondetti, Mario Carpo (moderator)