Audc Information

AUDC was founded by Robert Sumrell and Kazys Varnelis in 2001 as an experimental architecture collaborative. AUDC's mission is to use the tools of the discipline to research the role of the individual and the community in the contemporary urban environment. Inspired by the conceptual work of radical architecture groups such as Archizoom, UFO, and Haus Rucker Co, AUDC constructs realities, not objects. AUDC's methods of multimedia experimentation encompass drawings, models, new media, film, sound, installations, and text to create total experiences immersing viewers in the subject matter. Working with existing conditions, instead of imposing new ones allows AUDC to reveal reality without masking it. Underscoring AUDC's work is a belief in finding ways of bringing people together. AUDC defines their practice by adhering to a system of core values that instill their work with integrity and meaning. AUDC has exhibited widely in venues including the Wind Tunnel at the Art Center College of Design and Andrea Zittel's High Desert Test Sites and published in journals such as Cabinet, Perspecta, Textfield, Verb and 306090. In 2003, AUDC received a group fellowship at the Annenberg Center for Communication to investigate the development of Quartzsite, Arizona, a town with a normal population of 5,000 that swells to over 1.5 million every winter as retirees in driving recreational vehicles congregate in the area.