An Aquarium of Exotic Architectural Creatures”. The Digital Turn as Seen at the 9th Venice International Architecture Exhibition (2004)

The essay focuses on the impact of digital design technologies on architecture culture through Metamorph, the 9th International Architecture Exhibition (2004). In doing so, it occupies the space where the studies on architecture exhibitions and those on the ‘archaeology’ of the digital meet. It further places Kurt W. Forster’s curatorial work, and indirectly the 2004 Biennale, within the constellation of contemporary events dedicated to critically understanding and historically framing the transformations that led to the emergence of digital culture in the design field over the course of several decades. Combining different types of historical documents, among which those kept at the Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee (ASAC) in Porto Marghera, Venice, this essay also draws on contemporary press coverage. In doing so, it traces the complex debate that accompanied the event staged in Venice, identifying hopes and fears related to the so-called digital turn. Finally, looking outside the exhibition, the aim of the essay is to establish Metamorph as one of the milestones in the process that over a few decades has ferried both the discipline and the Architecture Biennale from postmodernism and deconstructivism towards the more profitable ‘folds’ typical of the early 2000s.