Beyond Media was an architecture film festival held in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

from 1997 to 2009. The festival aimed at observing the use of audiovisual tools for architecture and more generally at discussing relationships between

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

. Beyond Media was organized by Image, a group of architects, historians and researchers based in

and active in the field of

communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

in architecture. In the course of its nine editions, the festival became one of the main events worldwide devoted to architecture videos. The latest edition, "Beyond Media 2009: Visions", presented 80 videos selected from over 600 submissions from 35 countries.

History

The festival began in the context of the deep changes occurred in the mediasphere during the 1990s. With the large diffusion of new media and

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

driven design tools, videos quickly became an accessible and powerful instrument for

architects An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. They were used by

designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

not only as a more lively form of

representation Representation may refer to: Law and politics *Representation (politics), political activities undertaken by elected representatives, as well as other theories ** Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a ...

but also as a

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...

device for projects. In other words, they made it possible for architects to express their projects in a

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

form and created a brand new and autonomous form of expression for architecture. This is the context in which Beyond Media was born and had its mission, that was to provide an account of all shifts produced by the introduction of new media in architectural design and to promote a venue for discussion about this topic. As Pedro Gadanho, today curator for Contemporary Architecture at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York, wrote: “When I say that this Festival is “haunted by its very initial premises” I do not mean that showing the audiovisual media which are today quintessential to architecture representation should bear any special problem. On the contrary, it is only natural and logical that someone should be doing it. At its 9th edition, the

festival also has in its curriculum to be one of the firsts to do so”. Since its very first edition in 1997, the core of the event was the screening of architecture videos. Besides presenting the early videos produced by famous architects like

Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Architects is a British architecture and design firm founded by Zaha Hadid (1950–2016), with its main office situated in Clerkenwell, London. After the death of " starchitect" Hadid, Patrik Schumacher became head of the firm. At ...

UNStudio UNStudio (formerly Van Berkel en Bos Architectenbureau) is a Dutch architectural practice specializing in architecture, urban development and "infrastructural" projects. The practice was founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel Ben van Berkel (born J ...

, MDRDV,

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theory, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Graduate School of ...

the festival also paid attention to emerging firms. Beyond Media was interested in promoting the debate around the emerging phenomena occurring in the architecture world. The festival adopted an holistic approach bringing on stage experts in many disciplines such as Derrick De Kerckhove,

Beatriz Colomina Beatriz Colomina (born 1952) is a Spanish-American architecture historian, theorist and curator. She is the founding director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University, the Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Archit ...

, Peter Wilson,

Tony Fretton Tony Fretton (born 17 January 1945) is a British architect known for his residential and public gallery buildings, as well as other British and international design work. He graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) and worked for vario ...

, John Frazer and many scholars, journalists and writers. The festival also included a series of exhibitions. Starting from "Beyond Media 2003: Intimacy" the exhibition “Spot on schools” curated by Paola Giaconia put on display the most advanced researches produced by worldwide architecture teaching departments. Among the schools selected for the 2009 edition of the “Spot on Schools” exhibition were: Asia University,

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. The university is composed of seven aca ...

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or Cal Poly) is a public university in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, - Cites the location of the university and shows that the university ...

, Southern California Institute of Technology,

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of T ...

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

, Asia University,

RMIT Architecture The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by F ...

, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, NABA,

Politecnico di Torino The Polytechnic University of Turin (, abbreviated as PoliTO) is the oldest Italian public technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning and Industrial Design, and is consi ...

. Other exhibitions were “Urban Visions” (curated by Michele Bonino) in 2009, “The Storytellers” (curated by Marco Brizzi) in 2005, “About cities” (curated by Elisa Strano) in 2003, “Architecture, media, industrial design for Prada. Prada, OMA/AMO” (curated by Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram) in 2002. Beyond Media also hosted workshops and other activities aimed at promoting an experience of architecture for a non-professional or younger audience. In 2009 Beyond Media brought to Italy ¿Que es arquitectura?, a workshop created by Jorge Raedó and Eva Serrat to let the children investigate visual perception and vision. Beyond Media was supported by many academic and public institutions. Among them: the

Italian Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and maintenance of historical monuments. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (via del Collegio Romano 27, in ...

, through PARC (today PaBAAC), the Region of Tuscany, the Municipality of Florence, the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

. Starting in 2002 Beyond Media took place in two main venues in Florence, the

Ospedale degli Innocenti The (; 'Hospital of the Innocents'), also known in old Tuscan dialect as the , is a historic building in Florence, Italy. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in 1419 from the Arte della Seta. It was originally a ...

and Stazione Leopolda. The videos selected for the various editions of Beyond Media are part of the media archive curated by Image in Florence, Italy. The archive counts today more than 3500 architecture videos which are presented to the public during screenings hosted at museums and other cultural institutions. Since 2015, Image has become the publisher the English-language online platform The Architecture Player. The aim of this project is to make the festival's archive progressively accessible to the public. In addition, The Architecture Player continues the curatorial work initiated by Beyond Media, selecting and presenting new videos and authors. File:Felicity_Scott.jpg, (from left to right) Francisco Sanin, Peter Wilson, Felicit Scott, Pier Vittorio Aureli. Beyond Media 2009: Visions, Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:Derrick De Kerckhove.jpg, Derrick De Kerckhove. Beyond Media 2009: Visions, Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:SOS 2009 SCI-Arc ph Yota Adilenidou.jpg, SCI-Arc installation. Spot on Schools 2009, Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:SOS 2009 Rhode Island ph Tommaso Tanini.jpg, Rhode Island School of Design installation. Spot on Schools 2009, Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:Beyond Media 05 Script1 congress.jpg, The congress. Beyond Media 2005: Script. Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:Storytellers.jpg, An installation at Storytellers exhibition, curated by Marco Brizzi. Beyond Media 2005: Script. Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:Intimacy_poster.jpg, Beyond Media 2003: Intimacy. Florence, Stazione Leopolda. File:BEYOND MEDIA 2003. INTIMACY. Congress2 (3037900749).jpg, The congress. Beyond Media 2003: Intimacy. Florence, Ospedale degli Innocenti. File:BEYOND_MEDIA_2003._INTIMACY._Congress_(3037904247).jpg, The entrance of Ospedale degli Innocenti complex. Florence, Beyond Media 2003: Script.

References

External links

Official website

Excerpts from Beyond Media 2005: Script

Ecxerpts from the exhibition catalogue ''Visions: Beyond Media 09''

RMIT Architecture: Media and internet coverage of Beyond Media 2009: Festival

Beyond Media photo sets. Image Archive on Flickr

Image official website

History

References

External links

Further reading

Festival catalogues

Press review