fabric | rblg

Courtesy of Domus

Moderated by Joseph Grima (Domus), all are invited to the free Critical Futures event starting at 6:30pm on January 13th, which will focus on a debate on the future of architecture criticism followed by complimentary drinks and further discussion after the talk. Participants include Charles Holland (author, Fantastic Journal), Peter Kelly (Blueprint), Kieran Long (architecture critic, Evening Standard), Geoff Manaugh (author, BLDGBLOG), and Beatrice Galilee (writer, curator, DomusWeb, The Gopher Hole). The event is located at The Gopher Hole, 350-354 Old Street, London, EC1V 9NQ. More event description after the break.

Over the past decade, epochal transformations have profoundly reshaped the context within which architecture is conceived and debated. The Internet has made images and information free and instantly ubiquitous; magazines, once the undisputed platforms for the criticism of architecture and design, have been challenged to redefine their purpose and economic model in the light of dwindling readerships; blogs have given a global audience, potentially of millions, to anyone with an Internet connection. In all of this, architecture criticism in the traditional sense appears to have all but vanished – not only from the Internet but from magazines themselves. As Peter Kelly, editor of Blueprint, wrote in a recent editorial, “As traditional publishing media and institutions become less influential, one wonders where architects can go to find informed, intelligent criticism of their work”.

Does, as author of BLDGBLOG Geoff Manaugh proposes, the designer of the videogame Grand Theft Auto have more influence as an architect than David Chipperfield? Is criticism in the traditional sense still relevant or useful? If the role of the print publication in contemporary production irreversibly declines, what is its future role? What forces will shape architectural production in a post-critical environment? Is, as Kelly writes, a more realistic and rigorous approach to architectural criticism online urgently needed?

As the first in a three-part series of debates on the future of architecture criticism organized by Domus in London, Milan and New York to celebrate the launch of its new website, this discussion will bring together writers, editors, bloggers and theorists active in the field today to address these and other questions.

The event will be hosted by The Gopher Hole, an exhibition and events space in Shoreditch, London.

 

Coming up is an exciting sounding workshop on the “urban internet of things — programming the real-time city.” Some more opportunities to get this one right..or at least human.

** As more people move to cities, it becomes increasingly challenging )) the necessarily understated preamble (( to build efficient )) maybe we shouldn’t even hope for efficiency (( infrastructures that support the needs of inhabitants without sacrificing the quality of life. The increasing digital instrumentation of urban areas through various networked sensors provides many opportunities to design smarter cities )) smart? i’d settle for clever and wily (( through a meaningful interpretation and usage of all this real-time data. In today’s world, there are strong incentives to leverage the most recent technologies to create digital infrastructures that foster collaboration between the different disciplines involved in urban design. By considering the IoT as a platform for engaging citizen’s action, a new design space is created where citizens are at the center of its urban environment and empowered to actively shape the city they live in.

The goal of this workshop is to gather original and inspiring contributions from technology experts, researchers in academia and industry, designers, urban planners, and architects that are willing to share their knowledge, experiences, and best practices for building smarter cities. We will explore the design of open and efficient platforms and tools to collect, analyze, store, and share the enormous amount of real-time data digital cities generate through a mix of papers, demos, invited presentations and open discussions for collectively create the city of the future. **

http://www.webofthings.com/urban-iot/2010/
 

Related Dispatches:

1. Microsoft Social Computing Symposium 2010 – Notes Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer var so = new SWFObject("http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf", "PictoBrowser", "500", "500", "8", "#EEEEEE"); so.addVariable("source", "sets"); so.addVariable("names", "SCS2010"); so.addVariable("userName", "julianbleecker"); so.addVariable("userId", "66854529@N00"); so.addVariable("ids", "72157623066738659"); so.addVariable("titles", "on"); so.addVariable("displayNotes",...
2. David Byrne Urbanism Backstage, this plus bicycles, Notingham, England. This is a nice, succinct reflection on the characteristics of cities, and the characteristics personally likable by David Byrne, titled David Byrne’s Perfect...
3. Upcoming essay on the asynchronous city A high altitude imaging system for providing curious asynchronous perspectives of the world for analysis and synthesis. Artist’s interpretation, by Rhys Newman. Via Nicolas — Upcoming piece about the asynchronous...

In just under a month, I am delighted to announce, I will be eagerly exploring the edible geography of Mexico City. The occasion is Postopolis! DF, the third in a series of events organised by Storefront for Art and Architecture. Postopolis! was launched in New York City in 2007, and it happened all over again in L.A. in 2009. I was lucky enough to attend both events as an audience member, and to be invited to participate this time is an honour indeed.

IMAGE: Postopolis! LA

The way Postopolis! works is that a handful of bloggers are invited to co-curate five days of back-to-back presentations and discussions that approach the field of urban and landscape design from as many disciplines and perspectives as possible. The list of participating blogs this year forms an impressive group: Urban Omnibus (Cassim Shepard), Intersections (Daniel Hernandez), DPR Barcelona (Ethel Barona Pohl), Toxico Cultura (Gabriella Gomez-Mont), Tomo (Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa), Mudd Up! (Jace Clayton a.k.a DJ /rupture), We Make Money Not Art (Regine Debatty), Strangeharvest (Sam Jacob), and Wayne & Wax (Wayne Marshall).

Together, we’re putting together a list of speakers that ranges from government officials to DJs, academics to urban farmers, and waste disposal experts to documentary filmmakers—via a healthy sprinkling of artists, architects, and designers.

IMAGE: The courtyard at El Eco.

The five-day marathon will take place from 4 p.m. onwards between Tuesday, June 8, and Saturday, June 12, at the Museo Experimental El Eco in the Reforma Avenue neighbourhood of Mexico City. It is completely free and open to the public, the talks will be conducted in either Spanish or English, with simultaneous translations available, and each day will end with an after-party hosted by local music blogs. Rumour has it, the entire event will be streamed live online—I’ll confirm that nearer the time.

IMAGE: Clockwise: street food, the Bordo de Xochiaca dump, chinampas, and Mexican refrigerated trucks waiting to cross into the U.S.

Mexico, and Mexico City itself, offer a huge amount to discuss in terms of edible geography, from the chinampa system and the wheat and maize research of CIMMYT, to a fabulous diversity of street food and the U.S. FDA’s overseas expansion. Although the full speaker list and schedule is yet to be confirmed, Postopolis! DF is shaping up to be a pretty interesting event, and I definitely hope to see some of you there.

International Festival for Sustainable Immobility

http://www.ElectroSmogFestival.net

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=365624342173

http://www.DeBalie.nl/live

March 18 – 20, 2010

Concept

ElectroSmog is a new festival that revolves around the concept Sustainable Immobility. The festival will introduce and explore this concept in theory and practice. With Sustainable Immobility we refer to a critique of current systems of hyper mobility of people and products in travel and transport, and their ecological unsustainability.

The exploration of Sustainable Immobility is a quest for a more sustainable life style, which is less determined by speed and constant mobility. A lifestyle that celebrates stronger links to local cultures, while at the same time deepening our connections to others across any geographical divide, using new communication technologies instead of physical travel .

What we propose may sound a bit like a paradox: The proposition of the festival is that the unfolding crisis of mobility can only be effectively addressed by deepening our connections across geographical divides through new communication technologies. The festival wants to engage the fundamental promise of the information age that communication technologies can replace the need for physical mobility, and thus both contribute to ecological stability as well as a more rewarding both deep-local and translocal life-style. While this promise has existed since the dawn of the information age, it was never realised. New material realties, however, force us to critically re-examine these promises and seriously start to turn them into viable choices.

Nothing is self-evident for us. We will also critically question the underlying premise that reliance on electronic connections and local roots is self-evidently more energy efficient and more ecologically sustainable than current systems of globalised mobility of people and goods.

Is ‘going local’ the only solution?

What are the true energy costs and environmental and health hazards of using even more electronic technologies (increased levels of electrosmog)?

How can remote connections become a truly rewarding experience in and of themselves?

We believe that only by answering such questions a viable alternative to the current unsustainable systems of hyper-mobility can be found.

Bringing together a broad coalition

The ElectroSmog festival brings together a broad coalition of designers, environmentalists, urban and spatial planners, technologists, artists, theorists, and engaged and concerned citizens, to explore and ‘design’ sustainable immobility. The festival stakes its claim for a radical break with the current systems of hyper-mobility not simply by discussing the issue, but by actually implementing it. To achieve this the very concept of an international festival and its traditional conventions need to be rethought and redesigned from the ground up.

Connecting the local off-line local with the international on-line

ElectroSmog is a truly international festival, with everything you might expect of such a festival: international debates and discussions, performances, art projects, exhibits, site specific projects, screenings, design competitions, and much more. However, no presenter will travel beyond their local or regional boundaries to participate in this event.
To achieve this we will work together in a network of accomplished cultural and new media centres, labs, theatres and other public venues to create the local ‘hubs’ that will inter-connect for this unique festival.

A crucial dimension of the festival will be its on-line presence, where audiences from basically anywhere with an internet connection can follow events on-line, join in discussions and debates, and contribute to the program.

Beyond the broadband enclaves

ElectroSmog acknowledges from the start that bandwidth is not equally distributed across and within societies. Therefore remote connection to lower bandwidth spaces, do-it-yourself telematics, and information technologies for the majority world will be one the central concerns the festival wishes to address, again both in theory and in practice.

Thematic discussions, presentations and connected debates

The ElectroSmog festival-program is organised around a series of interlocking thematic programs, connected discussions and debates all transmitted live over the internet. Themes covered by these events include:
• Global views on the crisis of mobility
• Witnessed Presence
• Hyper-mobility and the urban condition
• City & regional branding debate
• e-mobility versus immobility
• Designing for (im-)mobility
• Public media art projects and sustainability
• Energy and information
• ElectroSmog is Good for You!
• Food and global mobility
• Deep local and remote technologies

Around the main program a host of satellite events is organised locally and translocally.

These include:

• Art projects and local interventions, including original works by Bureau des Etudes, Karen Lancel & Hermen Maat, John Cohns, Sean Kerr, Kevin McCourt & Bartolo Luque, and others.

• Special events, screenings, book launches, and more.

• A program of connected and localised workshops

• On-line projects and environments designed specifically for the festival.