Making Voices Visible at ArchEX 2011

After making two presentations on visual practice at last year's conference of architects in North Carolina, the Virginia conference accepted my proposal to make a similar presentation as one of their many offerings this year. The Prezi file can be viewed below although it will be difficult to follow without the narrative.

An outline of the content:

• A bit about my role with visual practice in a medical school;
• A sampling of the work of others in the field;
• The roots of the practice;
• The various forms that visual practice takes and the functions it serves;
• Some of my own observations and findings (presented as "my humble but correct opinion");
• What this could mean for practicing architects;
• What it has enabled me to do.

I made the case that these are skills and insights that architects are uniquely poised to take advantage of. In particular I stressed the differences they could make outside their field, while also improving their own professional practice environment. They were shown shots of Brandy Agerbeck working on with a green economy, told the story of Dan Roam going to the White House and shown shots from a 250-person World Cafe; after each I said "This could be you."

They also "tasted" the work. After the first third of the session they went through a 4-word graphic jam, and later they used Leadership Metaphor Explorer to interview each other one on one. Rather than immediately taking questions at the end I told them I would be the one asking the questions, and I walked them through a POINt conversation about what they had just seen and heard. They were a really good group - and on a Friday afternoon at that!

ArchEx 2011 on Prezi