June 17. Making Unsharp? An encounter with Studio Pararaum

Sunday, June 17, 13:00-15:00
Talk at 14:00, informal discussion to follow
Making Unsharp? An encounter with Studio Pararaum

Through an installation, talk and discussion, Studio Pararaum (Meng Li and Linda Zhang) speculate on 10 years of Making Unsharp. Their encounter at TIER.space focuses on the connection between two seemingly divergent technics: image making and casting. Revisiting the premodern technic of camera obscura, they explore the relevance of iterative image casting against today’s technologically mediated world and its potential in architectural perception.

Li and Zhang write, ‘We make architecture by Making Unsharp. To make unsharp is to question the distance between the viewer and what is perceived—without this distance, perception cannot exist. We experiment from within this distance to reveal the impossibility of appearance: of any precise beginning of end, in time or space. We think through making—with material and technology—to precisely make unsharp.’

Meng Li and Linda Zhang are doppelgängers. They both received their M.Arch I AP with distinction from Harvard University GSD as recipients of the James Templeton Kelley Thesis Prize and the AIA Henry Adams Medal and Certificate. Linda was a Harvard Dean’s Merit Scholar while Meng was a Frank Knox Fellow. They completed their B.Sc.Arch with honours McGill University SOA where Meng was recipient of the Clifford C.F. Wong and the Favretto Scholarships while Linda was a recipient of the Philip J Turner Prize and the McGill Alumnae 75th Anniversary Scholarship. Previously, they worked together for Studio Olafur Eliasson / Studio Other Spaces (Berlin). Prior to Pararaum, Meng worked for Diener & Diener (Basel), Hans Kollhoff (Berlin), and Valerio Olgiati (Flims) while Linda worked for Barkow Leibinger (Berlin), Christian Kerez (Zürich), and WOJR (Boston). Meng Li received the Lyceum Traveling Fellowship while Linda Zhang received the Harry der Boghosian Faculty Fellowship as well as a Fellowship at the ZK/U (Center for Art and Urbanistics). They have been published and exhibited internationally in Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.

Meng Li, Assistentin bei Christ&Gantenbein DArch ETH, Zürich
Linda Zhang, Assistant Professor, Ryerson University RSID, Toronto

Photos by Benjamin Busch