The relevance and use of theory when approaching the discipline of architecture has been slowly fading away in light of new design techniques and the excitement associated with digital emergence. Theory has long stood in architectural education as the foundation of conceptual architecture and a way to analyze our built environment. Yet, when approaching theory texts, many students are unable to form a connection to the material, due to its complex and sometimes convoluted language that is incomprehensible and has to be further translated.

In this conference, the speaker panel consists of academic scholars, writers, and thinkers who have discussed the implications of language on readers and how that can affect the way things are interpreted. Several of the panelists have written about how text or art can be misconstrued based on how it is presented.

In Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation, she discusses the implications of interpretation on art, and how it can unintentionally take meaning and feeling away from it. In Sedgwick’s Paranoid Reading, she similarly discusses how the interpretation of a text can be seen as positive or negative based on if the reader uses repetitive vs. paranoid reading, which can shape the meaning of the work.

In Wallace’s Authority and American Usage, and Davis’ Fuck Nuance, they focus on the way text is actually linguistically structured, and how this can affect the meaning of the work for the better or worse. The title of the conference loosely comes from Murray S. Davis’ essay, That's Interesting, which discusses the importance of engaging readers through interesting writing. Making theory exciting, approachable, and appealing to students could be a potential solution to bringing architectural theory back from the dead, and could potentially begin to engage with non architectural professions.

The moderators of this panel are Bruno Latour and Joan Ockman, two architectural theorists who have examined the lack of emphasis on theory in current academic education, and have critiques the way higher education is changing. These moderators were chosen to respond and question the panel, inciting conversation about how theory writing can be transformed into an inclusive and intriguing subject for students goes here.