Experiments in Motion – a cutting-edge new research project conducted in partnership between Audi of America and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) – kicked off on Monday, November 7 with a curated "dinner in motion" at the New Museum in New York City.

Conceived as a series of experiments to identify new paradigms of motion, mobility and design, Experiments in Motion is led by Mark Wigley, Dean of Columbia’s GSAPP, and will draw from global thought leaders from around the university, architecture and design professionals, and an expanded network of urban mobility experts from New York City and Audi.

Experiments in Motion is part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative, as part of which technologies of urbanization are examined as an academic research project: The Mobility Complex.

Under the patronage of Wigley, Monday night’s dinner discussed new theories and new images of motion. A custom-made table by C-Lab and Studio-X served as centerpiece, designed specifically to foster conversation and mobility between participants. In preparation, Wigley conducted an internal workshop with the experimental research units of both Audi and Columbia GSAPP – including the Audi Urban Future Insight Team and Columbia’s C-LAB and Studio-X – to look at how an interrogation of the concept of motion can destabilize conventional thinking in both architecture and the mobility industry.

By opening up the dialogue to a carefully curated group of experts, from historians of science, to filmmakers, artists and curators, the output of the discussion at the New Museum will serve to sharpen the project as it evolves. Experiments in Motion will continue in various phases through 2012.

“As a project that is directly concerned with innovations – new paradigms of motion, new methods of teaching, new forms of participation – it is crucial to have two partner institutions willing to work together in new ways,” said Chris Barley and Troy Conrad Therrien of design practice The–ey, responsible for the curatorial concept of Experiments in Motion. “Although the project is still fresh, Audi and Columbia have already begun to pose novel questions through their openness to this idea.”