Welcome to the fourth episode of this series of A Line Traced, which focuses on Female Pioneers in the History of Virtual Reality. The series is hosted by Paula Strunden, a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture who taught on the AA’s Media Studies programme. In this episode, Paula interviews Char Davies, best known for her groundbreaking virtual reality artwork Osmose, which combines immersive environments, with embodied interactions, and a profound connection to nature.

This series of A Line Traced uncovers the untold stories of female pioneers in the early history of VR. Many of the prevailing narratives within this history focus on technological advancements, the development of devices and figures dubbed the 'grandfather', 'father' and 'godfather' of VR. Yet when we investigate the experiences created during the first peak of the VR industry in the 1990s, many of the most significant contributions were made by women. Artists and theorists like Char Davies, Brenda Laurel, Monika Fleischman and Thamiko Thiel, to name a few, transcended the boundaries of binary thinking in the realm of human-computer interaction, interweaving the actual and the virtual, and the body and the mind. By tracing the lines connecting these women, along with the contemporary voice of Krista Kim, this series aims to reshape our understanding of VR's past and reframe the ongoing debates around the role of VR in architecture and in contemporary society.

Host Bio:

Paula Strunden is a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture. She has studied in Vienna, Paris and London, and worked at Raumlabor in Berlin and Herzog and de Meuron in Basel. Paula is currently pursuing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, as part of the project ‘Communities of Tacit Knowledge (TACK): Architecture and its Ways of Knowing’, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860413. She is the founder of XR Atlas, an interdisciplinary online platform, and is a passionate advocate for the development of alternative historiographies of virtual technologies.

About A Line Traced:

As our society continues to unveil fractures within its social and political systems, A Line Traced aims to examine topics that are immediate, prescient and impact the build environment in ways that require urgent architectural responses. An AirAA podcast recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. Visit air.aaschool.ac.uk to find out more.

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Join us On the Steps of 36: a question-and-answer conversation that crosses thresholds into our guests’ histories, lives, influences and stories, shedding light on the person behind the work. In this episode, Manijeh Verghese is joined by architect, urbanist and cofounder of Urban Symbiotics, Stephanie Edwards, who contributed to the AA’s New Models lecture series in 2021. You can watch her lecture here.

AirAA podcasts are conceived, recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. To view the show notes and find more episodes, visit air.aaschool.ac.uk.

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Welcome to the third episode of this series of A Line Traced, which will focus on Female Pioneers in the History of Virtual Reality. The series is hosted by Paula Strunden, a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture who taught on the AA’s Media Studies programme. In this episode, Paula interviews Tamiko Thiel, a pioneer in augmented reality art and the visionary behind the design of the Connection Machine, the first commercial AI supercomputer.

About this Series:

This series of A Line Traced uncovers the untold stories of female pioneers in the early history of VR. Many of the prevailing narratives within this history focus on technological advancements, the development of devices and figures dubbed the 'grandfather', 'father' and 'godfather' of VR. Yet when we investigate the experiences created during the first peak of the VR industry in the 1990s, many of the most significant contributions were made by women. Artists and theorists like Char Davies, Brenda Laurel, Monika Fleischman and Thamiko Thiel, to name a few, transcended the boundaries of binary thinking in the realm of human-computer interaction, interweaving the actual and the virtual, and the body and the mind. By tracing the lines connecting these women, along with the contemporary voice of Krista Kim, this series aims to reshape our understanding of VR's past and reframe the ongoing debates around the role of VR in architecture and in contemporary society.

Host Bio:

Paula Strunden is a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture. She has studied in Vienna, Paris and London, and worked at Raumlabor in Berlin and Herzog and de Meuron in Basel. Paula is currently pursuing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, as part of the project ‘Communities of Tacit Knowledge (TACK): Architecture and its Ways of Knowing’, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860413. She is the founder of XR Atlas, an interdisciplinary online platform, and is a passionate advocate for the development of alternative historiographies of virtual technologies.

About A Line Traced:

As our society continues to unveil fractures within its social and political systems, A Line Traced aims to examine topics that are immediate, prescient and impact the built environment in ways that require urgent architectural responses. An AirAA podcast recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. Visit air.aaschool.ac.uk to find out more.

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Files on Air is a podcast series in which contributors from AA Files read their work. In this episode, you will hear Madeleine Kessler and Manijeh Verghese – curators of the British Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale – read their text ‘Powers of Public Space', in which they examine some of the ideas that informed their Biennale display, including case studies on rewilded greens, playstreets and public libraries. You can read the piece in AA Files 78.

AA Files is the Architectural Association’s journal of record, which promotes original and engaging writing on architecture and its related fields.

AirAA podcasts are recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. To view the show notes and find more episodes, visit air.aaschool.ac.uk

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Welcome to the second episode of this series of A Line Traced, which focuses on Female Pioneers in the History of Virtual Reality. The series is hosted by Paula Strunden, a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture who taught on the AA’s Media Studies programme. In this episode, Paula interviews Brenda Laurel, a pioneer in human-computer interaction in the field of virtual reality, immersive theatre, and gender inclusivity in technology and game design. Their discussion addresses Brenda's project PLACEHOLDER: Landscape and Narrative in a Virtual Environment (1993), which she created with Rachel Strickland; project documentation for PLACEHOLDER can be explored here. Read more about Brenda's book Computers as Theatre, first published in 1991, on GoodReads. 

This series of A Line Traced uncovers the untold stories of female pioneers in the early history of VR. Many of the prevailing narratives within this history focus on technological advancements, the development of devices and figures dubbed the 'grandfather', 'father' and 'godfather' of VR. Yet when we investigate the experiences created during the first peak of the VR industry in the 1990s, many of the most significant contributions were made by women. Artists and theorists like Char Davies, Brenda Laurel, Monika Fleischman and Thamiko Thiel, to name a few, transcended the boundaries of binary thinking in the realm of human-computer interaction, interweaving the actual and the virtual, and the body and the mind. By tracing the lines connecting these women, along with the contemporary voice of Krista Kim, this series aims to reshape our understanding of VR's past and reframe the ongoing debates around the role of VR in architecture and in contemporary society.

Host Bio:

Paula Strunden is a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture. She has studied in Vienna, Paris and London, and worked at Raumlabor in Berlin and Herzog and de Meuron in Basel. Paula is currently pursuing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, as part of the project ‘Communities of Tacit Knowledge (TACK): Architecture and its Ways of Knowing’, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860413. She is the founder of XR Atlas, an interdisciplinary online platform, and is a passionate advocate for the development of alternative historiographies of virtual technologies.

About A Line Traced:

As our society continues to unveil fractures within its social and political systems, A Line Traced aims to examine topics that are immediate, prescient and impact the build environment in ways that require urgent architectural responses. An AirAA podcast recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. Visit air.aaschool.ac.uk to find out more.

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Join us On the Steps of 36: a question-and-answer conversation that crosses thresholds into our guests’ histories, lives, influences and stories, shedding light on the person behind the work. In this episode, Ryan Dillon is joined by multidisciplinary artist, photographer and architectural historian Esther Choi. Esther was part of the AA New Models lecture series in 2022 – watch her lecture here.

AirAA podcasts are conceived, recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. To view the show notes and find more episodes, visit air.aaschool.ac.uk

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Files on Air is a podcast series in which contributors from AA Files read their work. In this episode, David Burns – a writer and academic who leads the Media Studies programme at the Royal Collage of Art – travels to Maralinga in South Australia, where the British conducted secret nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s. The text, and the photo essay that accompanies it, can be found in AA Files 78. AA Files is the Architectural Association’s journal of record, which promotes original and engaging writing on architecture and its related fields.

AirAA podcasts are recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. To view the show notes and find more episodes, visit air.aaschool.ac.uk

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Join us On the Steps of 36: a question-and-answer conversation that crosses thresholds into our guests’ histories, lives, influences and stories, shedding light on the person behind the work.  In this episode, Manijeh Verghese is joined by architect and writer Shahed Saleem, who contributed to the AA’s New Models lecture series in 2022. You can watch his lecture here.

AirAA podcasts are conceived, recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. To view the show notes and find more episodes, visit air.aaschool.ac.uk.

The opinions expressed in AirAA podcasts are solely those of the participants and do not represent the opinions of the Architectural Association as a whole.

Welcome to the first episode of this series of A Line Traced, which will focus on Female Pioneers in the History of Virtual Reality. The series is hosted by Paula Strunden, a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture who taught on the AA’s Media Studies programme. In this episode, Paula interviews Krista Kim, a pioneer in blockchain-based art and the visionary behind the Mars House, the first-ever NFT house. Read more about the Mars House on Krista's website.

This series of A Line Traced will uncover the untold stories of female pioneers in the early history of VR. Many of the prevailing narratives within this history focus on technological advancements, the development of devices and figures dubbed the 'grandfather', 'father' and 'godfather' of VR. Yet when we investigate the experiences created during the first peak of the VR industry in the 1990s, many of the most significant contributions were made by women. Artists and theorists like Char Davies, Brenda Laurel, Monika Fleischman and Tamiko Thiel, to name a few, transcended the boundaries of binary thinking in the realm of human-computer interaction, interweaving the actual and the virtual, and the body and the mind. By tracing the lines connecting these women, along with the contemporary voice of Krista Kim, this series aims to reshape our understanding of VR's past and reframe the ongoing debates around the role of VR in architecture and in contemporary society.

Host Bio:

Paula Strunden is a transdisciplinary VR artist with a background in architecture. She has studied in Vienna, Paris and London, and worked at Raumlabor in Berlin and Herzog and de Meuron in Basel. Paula is currently pursuing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, as part of the project ‘Communities of Tacit Knowledge (TACK): Architecture and its Ways of Knowing’, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860413. She is the founder of XR Atlas, an interdisciplinary online platform, and is a passionate advocate for the development of alternative historiographies of virtual technologies.

About A Line Traced:

As our society continues to unveil fractures within its social and political systems, A Line Traced aims to examine topics that are immediate, prescient and impact the build environment in ways that require urgent architectural responses. An AirAA podcast recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. Visit air.aaschool.ac.uk to find out more.