[Detecting] the Darchive

[]pre:fab conference 2023 will explore the concept of the Darchive—the dark matter* of architectural practice: the undeclared, undiscussed, unacknowledged, uninspected, or otherwise hidden people, objects, spaces, events, and ideas that have had an enduring effect on our individual or collective imagination, and through that, our creative practices and built environment. The things that make alternative practice alternative.

The conference will be free, open to anyone, and attempt to reveal the Darchive through a combination of quickfire presentations, participatory workshops, and shared conversation over a potluck lunch. 

We also call for contributions to the Darchive. These will be exhibited on the day, documented, and later published in an anthology. We invite anyone interested to share a physical representation [a darkefact] and written description of their own ‘architectural dark matter’ [no larger than A3 cubed + 300 words]. Examples of individual contributions to the Darchive could include:

• Objects, spaces, events, stories, relationships, or responsibilities etc. that have had a profound influence on your worldview and how you approach architecture; secret, deeply personal, or otherwise unseen.
• Your own undisclosed recipes, rituals, processes, or techniques that support your creative practices and how you understand and/or theorise them.
• Someone else’s existing practice that has an ongoing effect on your understanding of architecture in Aotearoa now.
• An experience or insight gained from someone else’s practice in the past that has had an enduring effect on your own practice and/or architecture/the built environment in Aotearoa generally.
• Something else…

We call for sincere, idiosyncratic, subjective, and diverse darkefacts, and encourage contributors to focus on expressing the effect their chosen dark matter has had on them with others. Please register your interest here. Commitment of your submission is required by the 4th of November.

Please register here to join us for the conference on the 18th of November, between 9:30am and 4:30pm, at Brightside AUT, 31-33 Symonds Street, to help build our collective Darchive. Bring a plate.†

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* Architectural Dark Matter: that parallel universe of unofficial, off-narrative, ineffable, banal, idiosyncratic, subjective, irrational, nonsensical and/or otherwise private, personal, secret, hidden, concealed, unacceptable, inglorious etc. material that ultimately determines the qualities, discourse, outcomes, qualia, and aggregate effects of individual and collective creative practice—our actions and interactions—yet somehow remains outside of it… Unobserved, Undiscussed, Undocumented, Underneath, AND all around us…

† pre:fab is all about sharing - knowledge, resources, ideas, love and food! We will supply plates, cutlery, tea, coffee and water, and some plant-based basics for lunch. We ask that attendees bring a contribution to this shared meal.

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These events are related to The Night School (TNS), a practice-based doctoral research project at the Auckland University of Technology’s Huri te Ao - School of Future Environments. Because reflections on this event, photographs, and other recording tools used at this event may be included in the research and its outputs, attendees will need to read and sign an information sheet providing their voluntary consent, accessible here: Information for participants - The Night School (TNS). All events will adhere to the AUT ethical guidelines of partnership, protection and participation.