Professor Neil Spiller and Dr Rachel Armstrong invite all staff and students to a presentation of some of the work and aspirations of AVATAR

• 6pm, Monday 25 October
• M055 Norbert Singer Lecture Theatre.

The Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research Laboratory was founded in September 2004 at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London by Professor Neil Spiller it is now based here in School of Architecture and Construction at the University of Greenwich.

AVATAR is conceived as a cross unit research group and has an agenda that explores all manner of digital and visceral terrain, its augmentation and symbiosis. AVATAR also has dedicated Design Masters/PhD Programme students, currently at the Bartlett. Over recent years AVATAR has grown into an international research collaborative centre including associates at MIT, Cornell, Rensaalar, Ann Arbor, Berkley in the USA, Waterloo in Canada and scientists in Odense, Denmark. It attracts students from around the world and a critical mix of cultural, aesthetic and social agendas are encouraged.

AVATAR is fundamentally interested in research concerning the impact of advanced technology on architectural design, however it also contributes to discussion on issues such as aesthetics, philosophy and cybernetics.

Technologically, AVATAR concerns itself with virtuality (exploring fully immersed, mixed and augmented environments); Time based new media (film, video and film theory), Nano and bio technology (micro landscapes and architecture, ethics, sustainability and ecology) including reflexive environments and cybernetic systems. It is also developing synthetic biological architecture that is capable of sustainable construction.

Its components are:

Architecture and Digital Fabrication
Architecture and Synthetic Biology
Architecture and Interaction
Architecture and Cyborgian Geography
Architecture and Digital Surrealism
Architecture, Film and Animation

AVATAR considers itself uniquely skilled and positioned to posit new aesthetic systems and codes of representation for architecture, interior design, multi media design and graphic design.  Generally, it is at the forefront of international architectural discourse and is constantly working to uncover the new architecture of the Twenty – First Century.