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“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
(A. Einstein)

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & ART ACT NOW!

Against All Odds is a mechanism that produces thoughts, ideas and actions, abbreviated to AAO project. The AAO project is organized by Life Strategies, a proactive design organization committed to strategically designing actions for life.

Specifically, AAO is:
first, a ‘think-tank’: it promotes debate on occurring issues which need to be addressed within the framework of Architecture (in its wider understanding as spatial practice) regarding society, ecology and culture.
second, a ‘disseminator of ideas’: it raises public awareness on the value of Architecture (as spatial practice) in resolving significant current issues, as well as in offering a podium for the promotion of projects that address its main philosophy.
third, a ‘do-tank’: it sets targets for the fulfillment of which it creates partnership models with organizations, educational institutions and designers, becoming their strategic partner.

AAO’s scope of activities:

Above all, Against All Odds aims to detect and investigate the issue through which a solution to contemporary social, ecological and cultural problems is derived; a solution which is related to Architecture either in the existing framework of the discipline or through a necessary transformation within it. This is the object of research and, therefore, the subject matter of Against All Odds.

At the same time, AAO project aims to inform and raise public awareness as to the function and positive effect of Architecture for the benefit of society as a whole. But also as to the art of Architecture to act as a mediator of social tensions and be considered as a resource, one of the instruments which contribute to the balance of society.

AAO basic principles:
• Multidisciplinary approach – it employs a combination of related creative fields such as Architecture, Art and Design, for the creation of a multilateral creative practice acting in the benefit of society in its whole.
• Global issue perception.
• Local perception application.
 
AAO restructures its form and suggests a different answer depending on the issue it has chosen to address.

For this year, Against All Odds has scheduled a series of actions and events under the title Ethics / Aesthetics.
Curator at large of Ethics / Aesthetics is architect Lina Stergiou.

ΑΑΟ: Ethics / Aesthetics

Objective of AAO: Ethics / Aesthetics:

The objective of the AAO project: Ethics / Aesthetics is to explore the moral values related to territorial practices and to communicate the conclusions to the public. 

In particular, Ethics / Aesthetics aims to promote the current social dimension of Architecture through the expansive analogies with Design and Art; and by enhancing the field of Architecture, to suggest solutions on social and ecological issues – both in relation to public realm and the improvement of daily life.

How does  Ethics / Aesthetics act?

The interaction between ethics and aesthetics unfolds in series of events reflecting an interdisciplinary approach: exhibitions, two cross-disciplinary conferences, workshops and various other performance-actions. Through diverse cooperative groups consisting of specialists in the fields of architecture, design and art, progressive and innovative works become a medium in order to enhance multiple facets of social employment, ecological sensitivity and of the need for the environment protection. 

AAO: Ethics / Aesthetics – Program:

• Wednesday 19 & Thursday 20 January 2011, at 18:00
Conference I

Athens School of Fine Arts, Amphitheater, 256 Pireos St., Tavros, Athens
The first conference, entitled Ethics / Aesthetics, took place on 19 & 20 January 2011 at the amphitheater of the Athens School of Fine Arts (256 Pireos St., Athens). An interesting debate on the spatial translations of ethics and aesthetics and the critical role of new spatial practices within the current social, political and environmental context became the focal point of the presentations and round-table discussions of the first conference. The ethics-aesthetics relationship examined through the interface of different fields and disciplines, including philosophy, aesthetic theories, sociology and the sociology of professions, curatorial practices and topology.  The conference focused on the following topical issues:
• (an interdisciplinary approach): in what ways and to what extent ethics and aesthetics interact
• (an interdisciplinary approach): in what ways ethics can be expressed through the form of aesthetics
• (an approach from the point of view of architecture): commitments/risks – in what ways ethics can transform the established ideological principles of architecture
• (an approach from the point of view of architecture): the métier of an architect – ethics, sanitizing effects

Participants were internationally acclaimed personalities from the fields of architecture, design, art, sociology and philosophy (USA, Europe, Greece).

• February – May 2011
Academic workshops

The installation-outcome of the workshops will be presented at the Benaki Museum, Pireos Annex, Athens
The workshops are diverse types of collaborations where the AAO project is the strategic partner who addresses specific aspects of the general thematic of Ethics / Aesthetics. Collaborating Universities are the Parsons The New School for Design, New York and the National Technical University of Athens among others. There are two types of workshops: the Research/Curatorial/Design Workshop and the Research/Design Workshop. Goal of the workshops is the reinforcement of environmental and social actions among the young generation.

• March - July 2011
Performance-actions

Benaki Museum, Pireos Annex, Athens, Internet, and at public spaces in Athens
The performance-actions comprise a series of initiatives that take place in public spaces, in the Internet and at the Benaki Museum. They keep the AAO project interrelated with its audience and steadfastly in an interactive association with it during the period of March to July 2011.
 
• 6 June - 31 July 2011
Main exhibition

Benaki Museum, Pireos Annex, Athens
The main exhibition Ethics / Aesthetics features progressive and innovative works which appropriate diverse strategies in order to express voluntary social engagement, ecological awareness, and the need to protect the environment. The exhibition presents the work of twenty (20) internationally celebrated architects, designers and artists from Europe, Asia and the United States focusing on the idea of materializing a better world. The works employ a diversity of strategies with a view to create sustainable environments and support the social structure.

Parallel exhibitions

Benaki Museum, Pireos Annex, Athens
Through high technology and highly interesting graphics the parallel exhibition Here and Now explores social and spatial issues related to the project. Moreover, it creates a platform of opinion and commentary exchange that involves the public. The parallel exhibition Slow Down Rooms, curated by Iris Kritikou, presents site-specific installations of Greek emerging artists who explore various materials through the philosophy of recycling and hand-made process.

• Monday 6 & Tuesday 7 June 2011
Conference II
Benaki Museum Amphitheater, Pireos Annex, Athens
Around twenty (20) internationally acclaimed participants in the AAO project will be in Athens during the conference to illuminate the implemented strategies, the means and specific goals of their projects.

A detailed program of the AAO project will be announced in the near future.

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The AAO Project is organized under the auspices of the United Nations (UNDP), the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climatic Change, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Municipality of Athens/Athens Tourism and Economic Development, the US Embassy in Athens, the Association of Greek Architects (SADAS –PEA) and the Hellenic Institute of Architects.

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AAO project
Concept - Curator at large:
Lina Stergiou

6 Tsimiski Street
11471 Athens Greece
T: +30 210 3600073
F: +30 210 3633496
E: info@aaoproject.org

AAO project is organized by the non-profit organization Life Strategies