The Image Object is a publication and larger research project that considers examples from performance, scenography, photography, and architecture where spatial concepts like circulation, inhabitation, ritual, temporality, and material transformation are performed and questioned. Working across multiple disciplines and examining the interaction between architectural models, image projection, and image recording, it aims to raise questions regarding the status of the architectural model within curatorial practice and to propose alternative strategies for exhibiting architecture. The research is a provocation and discussion around the role of the model in exhibition practices and informs the commissioning and curatorial strategy for the inaugural Sharjah Architecture Triennial. The Royal College of Art London has already pledged support for the collection and development of material for the publication.

Beth Hughes has worked on projects of all scales around the world. Educated in Australia, she graduated with first class honors from the University of Technology Sydney where she later taught. She has worked for several design practices in Australia managing a variety of projects including the City of Sydney Public Library. In 2004 Hughes joined the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, (OMA — Rem Koolhaas) in Rotterdam, where as an associate she was responsible for all projects in London, Latvia, and the Middle East. In 2009, after twelve years of professional experience, Hughes joined as a partner at Point Supreme Architects in Athens, Greece. In 2011 Hughes established her own practice now based in London. Her work has been extensively published and awarded in several international competitions. Alongside her practice Hughes is active in academia and research teaching at the Bartlett UCL, Royal College of Art, the University of Syracuse and the University of Cambridge. Hughes is currently the head of architecture at the Royal College of Art and trustee for the V&A East and curator for the thematic exhibition of the Seoul Architecture and Urbanism Biennale 2019.

Adrian Lahoud is dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art London. Prior to this, he was director of the MA at the Centre for Research Architecture Goldsmiths, a research fellow in the Forensic Architecture ERC project, and studio master in the Projective Cities MPhil in Architecture. His dissertation, “The Problem of Scale: The City, the Territory, the Planetary,” sets out a theory of scale drawn from architectural practice in the context of emancipatory struggles. He is the curator of the inaugural edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial on the theme of Rights for Future Generations. Recent exhibits include Climate Crimes at The Future Starts Here, V&A Museum, London; The Shape of the Eclipse at Let’s Talk about the Weather: Art and Ecology in a Time of Crisis, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, and Sursock Museum Beirut.