2021-09-14, Reymond, Claire, Käser, Susanne

The Form of Images and Their Discursive Effects The colloquium explores the form of images with regard to their effects on the discursive situations they open and reshape. A first contribution focuses on teaching. We explore how images trigger the reflection of design students, either to involve in the discourse of image theory or to activate a process of image-making that challenges the habitual design practice and engages in practice-led iconic research. The second article deals with a historically documented design exercise. Design aims at communicating in visual signs but must consider the changeability of image meaning. In order to observe how the meaning of images changes in relation to others, students generate various pairs of images. A third contribution deals with enabling participations, in the training of language skills after illnesses or in the inclusion of different viewpoints in participatory urban planning processes. The central question of our research is how different forms of images can foster rehabilitation or participation. A fourth contribution inquires how we negotiate the supposed truth in images in two cases: 1. pictures resulting from gesture processes and their personal signature; 2. photography and its accurate representation of reality – a claim that will be explored in respect to the materiality and space of architecture. A final paper focuses on the act of form finding: The designer negotiates not only with the image in the making, but also with the icons, control panels and functions of the software. This contribution will inquire this setting of the design process and the internalized act of negotiation.