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title

brief description

concept

progress

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

ANALYSIS OF A PRESS RELEASEKATHLEEN SULLIVAN & SHANE PAAVOLA

contents/layout of exhibit

design element to highlight concept

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the EXHIBIT

ANALYSIS of PRESS RELEASE

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The eight-page press release is organized into one page of text, 1 page of drawings and the remaining 6 pages dedicated to photographs of the exhibit (with minimal captions). It is inter-esting to note that this press release contains no cover page. The title is instead introduced in a header on the first page with a brief description of the project below. It is from this that we learn the press release is announcing the Austrian Pavilion at the Exhibition of Architecture at La Biennale di Venezia 2010.

The subsequent text gives a very brief and vague description of the concept of the exhibit. The first paragraph stresses the role architecture has in progress on a global level; while the second states Austria’s importance in this global progress by highlighting Austria as both an “importer and exporter” of innovative architecture. That is to say that Austria both produces innovative architects and has international architects building in Austria. Below this is a break-down of how the exhibit is set up. We can gather a lot about the exhibit from this description. It mentions Austrian Architects building internationally, International Architects building in Austria, Austrian Architects (and their students) teaching outside of Austria and International Architects (and their students) teaching in Austria. This highlights the point they made above regarding Austria and its influence around the globe.

One major design element that is employed in both the press release and the press kit is the formatting of the title. The title “Under Construction” is typed so that the words “out” and “in” stand out. This design detail relates to the idea of International Architects in Austria and Aus-trian Architects out of Austria.

With some outside research we were able to find another press release for this exhibit. This document (from here on out to be referred to as “press kit”) was able to fill in the blanks that were left from the original press release we researched. The press kit provided us with; dates of the exhibition, contact info, a website, the name of the commissioner of the project [Eric Owen Moss] and a comprehensive list of the projects on display at the exhibit. These useful details were all left out of the other press release. The press kit, however, did not include pho-tographs of the exhibit. Instead, it only showed drawings or renderings of the project. From this one could infer that the press kit was distributed before the pavilion was built to announce the concept and design of the pavilion, while the press release was distributed once the pavilion was built so as to include photographs of the final exhibit. It seems that they thought that by adding details such as the list of projects and the contact info to the press release would be repetitive because they were already included in the earlier, press kit. The result is a streamlined summary of concept and description of layout. The bulk of the text is written largely in an italicized gray, below the bold red white and black logo it seems to fade away. The choice to use this text seems to itself convey that this information is not complete, but a summary.

The benefit of sending out the second document including photographs is that the press team responsible for the Austrian Pavilion will have some control over the way the project is perceived journalists and bloggers if they provide them with easy access to the official photo-graphs of the exhibit to use in their articles. This draws one to the conclusion that this press release was intended for the architectural media to provide them with the information they need to announce or critique the exhibit in their articles.

ANALYSIS of PRESS RELEASE

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Eric Owen Moss born in 1943 is known for his reinventing of larger spaces and creating new life in older buildings. He was one of 4 architects that got picked to redo the Austrian pavilion built in 1934 by Josef Hofmann. Moss received his Bachelor of Arts in 1965 from the University of California at Los Angeles. He continued to get M.Arch degree from California at Berkley in 1968 and went back for his 2nd Masters of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1972. Right after that, he built his own firm that has been recognized with more then 50 national and international awards to this day.

The press release was somewhat short with only one page of text that

included nine pictures and one page with the building layout. The title is called

“UNDER CONSTRUCTION” with the letters “out” floating above as well as “in”

floating below the title. Under Construction is the name for the International

Exhibition of Architecture at the Austrian Pavilion (fig 3). The pictures help a

lot as they make more sense out of the text and title. The reason that the title

is altered this way is to represent the pavilion in discussion. The press release

is designed to show change in the art of architecture around the world. It is

straight forward at the beginning when it says “A new built world for the inhabit-

ants of a new world” and with this notion of evolution encourages change into

life.

“Austria exports. Austria imports. New architecture” “Under Construc-

tion” is kind of saying that different concepts around the world are going to be

used to design new buildings. The last two parts of the press release say, “The

design work of Austrian Architects [and their students] teaching outside Austria is

“seated” in the “Audience of Objects” outside” and “The design work of Interna-

tional Architects [and their students] teaching in Austria is “seated” in the “Audi-

ence of Objects” outside.” Sentences like this are somewhat unclear at first.

Without the pictures once again someone who read this would be confused.

The whole idea of this building is to represent new visions and design

to show that the world is always changing and evolving. It is also a way of

displaying Austria’s architects and the designs that have been constructed by

them. This exhibition is also trying to create new visions and ideas by showing

new concepts from all over the world expanding the ideas of what architecture

is. This is a unique way of showing off how architecture is considered art.

The pavilion has scaffolding on both the inside and outside are covered with

large sheets of building images and concepts on them. Inside there is a large

steel coil (fig 2.) that depicts buildings that were designed by international archi-

tects in Austria. The main designer of the building, Eric Owen Moss (fig 1.) said

“The architecture and urbanism are advancing culture, sociology, and reforming,

investigate the technological possibilities.” He explains how different aspects

such as poetry, sociology, and culture shape and form these pieces of architec-

ture which in turn help to shape our society.

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the EXHIBITfig 1.

fig 2.

fig 3.

Most articles seemed to take directly from the press release for their post. They neither added thoughts of their own nor were they critical of it. Articles simply summarized the press release fur-ther and often included the gallery of photos provided in the press release. In this way, the media acted as a way to get the information from the press release to the public with minimal changes along the way. This goes back to the point we made in the original analysis that by providing the pictures of the exhibit the official press team for the exhibit has some control over how the project is perceived by the public even when the information is not coming directly from them. A few articles choose to use some outside information while others also wrote about attend-ing the official press conference. Most of these articles focused on the appointment of Eric Owen Moss as the curator of the exhibit. Many brought up the fact that this is the first time Austria has chosen a foreign commissioner for the exhibit. Austrian Ministry of Culture, Claudia Shmied, stated that they choose Moss with the intention of “having an independent and impartial look at the scene of the architectural country.” It is interesting to note that Moss is not Austrian as this most likely had a great influence on the concept. The exhibit is set up to display both Austrian Architects interna-tionally as well as International Architects working in Austria. The connection between this global concept and Moss’ international status is undeniable.It is surprising that more journalists and blogs did not pick up on this and explore it in their articles. To better understand the choice of Moss, we watched an interview conducted by ArchDaily that; while unrelated to the press release, provided tremendous insight into the concept of the project. In the interview Moss called for architecture “not to sign on and support what exists but to suggest other ways of thinking, working, seeing, understanding.” He argues that the world will “get different -not necessarily better- but different. Architects should have a role in this and should not think of the world as unchanging, rather think of it as a possibility for innovation.” One of the goals of this press release and relating exhibit was to think of culture as always “under construction;” encouraging people to re-think, re-assess and re-imagine it. This point had potential to inspire an important debate of how we see the future, but there was hardly any discussion at all. This is dis-sapointing because the exhibit was meant to be a call for internatonal communication and global progress but it seems that this has been lost on the journalists and bloggers. With the at your fin-gertip power of the internet and the connections made possible with social media, one would think this project would have had a greater presence on the internet. Unfortunately, to date, it has yet to have much of an impact. This could all be a result of the lack of information found on the press relase.

SOURCES

RESULTS of PRESS RELEASE

“AD Interviews: Eric Owen Moss on Vimeo.” Vimeo, Video Sharing For You. Web. 27 Sept.2010. <http://vimeo.com/5386253>.

“AUSTRIA UNDER CONSTRUCTION.” PORTALE ARCHITETTURA. Web. 27 Sept.2010. <http://www.archiportale.com/news/2010/09/architet-

tura/austria-under-construction_20018_3.html>.

“Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale | ArchDaily.” ArchDaily | Broadcasting Architecture Worldwide. Web. 27 Sept. 2010.<http://www.archdaily.

com/78453/austrian-pavilion-at-the-venice-biennale/>.

“Eric Owen Moss Appointed as Curator of Austrian Exhibition for the Biennale Di Venezia 2010 | ArchDaily.” ArchDaily | Broadcasting Architecture

Worldwide. Web. 27 Sept. 2010. <http://www.archdaily.com/43705/eric-owen-moss-appointed-as-curator-for-biennale-architecture/>.

Eric Owen Moss Architects. Web. 27 Sept. 2010. <http://www.ericowenmoss.com/>.

“News&eventi.” SPEDstudio Architettura, Urbanistica E Paesaggio. Web. 27 Sept. 2010.<http://www.spedstudio.com/web/news.

php?valo=i_8>.

“Oe1.ORF.at Kultur.” Oe1.ORF.at. Web. 27 Sept. 2010. <http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/245708>.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION AUSTRIA UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Web. 27 Sept. 2010.<http://www.labiennale.at/2010/>.

“Venice Architecture Biennale 2010 Preview: Austrian Pavilion.” Designboom. Web. 27 Sept.2010. <http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/

view/11212/venice-architecture-biennale-2010-preview-austrian-pavilion.html>.