fabric | rblg

Note: Paik Replayed: Non-Digital Art Transformed by Hybrid Exhibition Practicies has just been published in the academic and peer-reviewed journal Kunstlicht, a research publication for art, visual culture, and architecture, edited and published by the Arts and Culture department at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Paik Replayed  is a SNSF funded research, led by Patrick Keller, with fabric | ch and the Nam June Paik Art Center (prototype) as field partners, and hosted at ECAL / University of Art and Design, Lausanne (HES-SO).

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By paikreplayed.org (on Instagram)

 

 

 

 

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Note: the new project Atomized/Retroffited Functioning by fabric | ch has been selected for La Biennale di Venezia / 19th International Architecture Exhibition (2025), curated by C. Ratti.

The piece is currently on display in the Corderie (main exhibition space of the Arsenale, Venice) and will stay exhibited until the 23rd of November 2025 (10.05 – 23.11.2025).

The project present a live iteration of the ongoing Atomized (*) series of work, at this occasion within a fictional space that gather dynamic planetary conditions, in the form of environmental data coming from meteo stations across the globe.

This is a series of radical algorithmic experiments that fabric | ch discreetly initiated in 2014 with a publication—Desierto #3, 28°C—, and an experimental project—Reponsive Atmospheric Patios—on “spatial and environmental intelligence”: real-time environmental data feeds into the automated and continuous assembly of previously “atomized” elements of architectural functions (as well as a diverse set of “atoms” of use/misuse/non-use of space). The results help us to study renewed and evolving assemblies for our changing planet.

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The whole project, its genealogy, and the current live feed are presented on https://www.fabric.ch/Atomized/

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By fabric | ch

The "Pulsar Map" (Peirce quincuncial projection), or live environmental data coming from the selected planetary and historical setllements locations: Venice (IT), Athens (GR), Uruk (IR), Tokyo (JP), Vancouver (CA), Chicago (US), Manchester (EN), Brasilia (BR), North Pole (-). These live data help us build a fictional and planetary live space, to be investigated by Atomized/Retrofitted Functioning. 

Atomized/Retrofitted Functioning

Loosely inspired by particle physics experiments, where collisions reveal fundamental forces, the project explores new spatial paradigms by rethinking past functional assemblies. It parallels retrofitting, adapting spatial configurations to evolving climates and digital realities rather than following fixed models.

Drawing at the same time on vernacular architecture, which historically responded to local climates through material intelligence (notably the work of Professors F. Aubry at EPFL, and B. Rodofsky at Cooper Union, as well as Philippe Rahm’s contemporary interpretation), the project extends this logic into computational realms. It examines the patterns and phasing effects of contemporary space between material and non-material milieux.

The project takes form as an abstract and speculative habitable volume, where environmental data from key locations in human habitation evolution generate shifting conditions—day and night, hot and cold, urban and desert—coexisting in one space. This approach enables simulations of future climatic conditions, while using real-time data from 2025 during the Venice Biennale.

Presented as a video screencast of an application running live on a server in fabric | ch's studio, driven by machine learning, the project autonomously generates spatial scenarios that stabilize twice a day. These can be downloaded in parallel as an immersive, walkable AR/VR experience.

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Then, tendencies can be drawn: what is the average presence of a certain type of content (functional, non-functional) over 3 or 6 months (from May to November 2025), for instance, or also only during Venetian nights? During Spring or Summer, etc.? Incoming climate behaviour could also be extrapolated from scientific forecasts: what will the climate be like in 2050? And in 2100? Or conversely, what was it like in 1972, for instance (the year The Limits to Growth was published, which was a clear first warning—even if imperfect—of what was to come if “growth” remained unchecked)?

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And then, from a haze of potential space use, and non-use, opened and closed volumes can be drawn. None of them being entirely suitable, frozen shapes framing freely evolving conditions. 

Images from the project Responsive Atmospheric Patios – extended experiments (fabric | ch, 2016).

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Atomized/Retrofitted Functioning is presented in a standardized way by the curatorial team, with the screencast video of the application running on the servers of fabric | ch. It is installed in the Artificiale section of the Biennale, next to the iconic–and somehow problematic–Seek project (1969–1070), by Nicolas Negroponte and Leon Groisser at the MIT Architecture Machine Group. Next to Architecture as a Living System, by John and Julia Frazer—as part of Cedric Price's Generator project (1976–79), but also of more contemporary (post-)critical takes on "computing" and "cybernetics" through the work of Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler (Calculating Empires, 2022), and others.

Atomized/Retrofitted Functioning in the Corderie building, at Biennale Architettura 2025.19th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice 10.05 – 23.11.2025.

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The project can also be "followed" during the Biennale, at this address: https://www.fabric.ch/Atomized/ , in live streaming during Biennale opening hours.

The whole genealogy of the research and its previous iterations are also accessible at the same location.

Note: fabric | ch is participating in the Paik Replayed research project, a Swiss National Science Foundation funded research, which focuses on digital/hybrid exhibitions of non digital-native artworks. 

Patrick Keller and Christian Babski, both members of fabric | ch, are particularly involved as researchers and field partners, along with fellow researchers. fabric | ch having undertaken numerous digital exhibitions in the past.

We recently took part to the ISEA conference in Seoul (South Korea), to present the early outcomes of the research and take part in a panel. These endeavours are now published in the proceedings of the conference.

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By paikreplayed.org

The two papers, discussing hybrid exhibitions and the influence of early works from the Korean artists Nam June Paik on such tasks, are now accessible on the website of the research,

They can be accessed here: https://www.paikreplayed.org/2025/08/15/isea-2025-proceedings-two-papers-by-paik-replayed/

Note: Patrick Keller was part of the trip to Seoul (for both fabric | ch and ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne) to present the early results of the SNSF funded research Paik Replayed during the international conference ISEA 2025.

This was a week of talks, debates, panels, sounds, exhibitions, Nam June Paik and many more. 

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By paikreplayed.org (on Instagram)

 

 

 

 

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Note: fabric | ch is part of the exhibition Summoning the Ghosts of Modernity at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin (MAMM), in Colombia.

The show constitutes a continuation of Beyond Matter that took place at the ZKM in 2022/23, and is curated by Lívia Nolasco-Rószás and Esteban Guttiérez Jiménez. 

The exhibition will be open between the 13th of March and 15th of June 2025.

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By fabric | ch

Atomized (re-)Staging (2022), by fabric | ch. Exhibited during Summing the Ghosts of Modernity at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin (MAMM). March 13 to June 15 2025.

More pictures of the exhibtion on Pixelfed.