Back in Summer 2104, I was invited by architect, agent provocateur and writer Austin Williams of mantownhuman, to be a panellist in a debate on “Whatever happened to the avant garde?”. My answer to the question was expressed as a performance poem entitled “Whither the Avant Garde?”.

I first came across Austin being interviewed on Newsnight, back in 2008, about the need for a radical new manifesto for architecture. His passion for modernism resonated with me, as I had just launched Neo Futurist Collective with its own manifesto on the celebration of urban noise. We met soon after and have been in contact ever since…

The panel took place on Monday 14th July at Arup Associates in London for a group of architectural students selected from around the world. The panellists were:

Michael Daley, director, ArtWatch UK; artist, journalist, ex-chief illustrator, FT
Catharine Rossi, co-editor “The Italian Avant Garde: 1968-1976”
Kim Quazi, director, Arup Associates
Joseph Young, founder, Neo Futurist Collective; artist
Chair: Alastair Donald, project director for the British Pavilion, Venice Biennale

Watch from 8’23″…