Michelle Howard Bücher

Is uselessness a tool? The acquisition of tools is the secret to humankind’s success and what distinguishes us from animals. However, we also use tools to tell stories and produce objects that are perplexingly useless. Uselessness rarely meets our expectations, but can also be fascinating and liberating, because it eludes the logic of the „use = value“ equation. In the Modern Age usefulness became a priority: with reference to space, production or training. Yet futurologists today predict that one product of artificial intelligence will be a „useless“ future. If the future makes us useless, it will be necessary to reconsider our attitude toward uselessness. The texts in this interdisciplinary reader illuminate the potential creativity the future can bring in light of this development.

In 2008, the Department of Art and Architecture at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts developed a new basis for the architecture curriculum. They created five research platforms: Analogue and Digital Production (ADP), Ecology Sustainability Conservation (ESC), History Theory Criticism (HTC), Geography Landscape Cities (GLC) and Construction Material Technology (CMT). The CMT platform is lead by Michelle Howard; who used the platform to explore the Research Observe Make (ROM) teaching studies. The ROM publication documents this program of studies and also forms the basis for future development. It comprises, assembled in one volume, five complementary books, which can also be read individually. After an introduction and an exposé on theory, the „elemental“, „spatial“ and „material“ projects are introduced. The last book documents workshops, lectures and experiments. An inspiring compendium with numerous expert contributions and creative student projects.