92. A look back at 2020 with the Office of (Un)Certainty Research

Original Drawing by Tori Haynes

“We’re even uncertain about how to say (un)certainty...we don’t know what the ‘un’ refers to...it’s not very clear linguistically, visually, aesthetically...what is the ‘u’? Its a question...there’s an uncertainty with the ‘u’ because it could refer to ‘you’ as in the ‘not me’, but its also not ‘you’ either because its in brackets...”

Mark Jarzombek

This week, Architecture Talk sits down with the Office of (Un)Certainty Research to find out who they are, where they are, and where they are going. Find out what it's all about!

Timestamp Outline 

1:00    O(U)R introductions and beginnings

2:40    Architecture in the Time of Coronavirus (AITC episodes)

3:00    “Uncertainty is the nature of certainty, but actually we need to amend that statement and say certainty is the nature of uncertainty...certainty requires uncertainty in a certain way.”    VP

5:25    “We’re not just crazy people, which means maybe we are doing something interesting too…”    VP

7:15    Why is it called the Office of (Un)Certainty Research?   

9:10    L’Avenir: the future that we cannot know

10:00    “We’re even uncertain about how to say (un)certainty...we don’t know what the ‘un’ refers to...it’s not very clear linguistically, visually, aesthetically...what is the ‘u’? Its a question...there’s an uncertainty with the ‘u’ because it could refer to ‘you’ as in the ‘not me’, but its also not ‘you’ either because its in brackets...”    MJ

15:00    Discussion of the O(U)R socio/community and the sociology/not sociology projects

17:30    Stimmen (v: German): to be right; vote; tune; to be correct; attune; pitch; go together

20:30    Discussion of deviousness in architecture

23:30    “we’re not necessarily result-driven in the same way that a more heteronormative architecture firm might be in that we’re asking a lot of questions and exploring a lot of ideas but we’re not necessarily looking for an answer at the end of it.”    MH

25:22    “With the Stimmen, the edges of O(U)R are uncertain”    VP

25:40    What is Stimmen?

28:00    Discussion of Tirtha: An Architectural Opera

42:00    Discussion of Creativity

50:00    How to make a Zine

55:35    Many Houses, Many Worlds