Events
Governing City Futures Conference :: UWS, Sydney
16 – 17 August 2012 :: Registrations now open
This conference asks: What is the future of the low density city? What are its prospects in a context in which ecological and population pressures make the infrastructure that under-grid such cities no longer sustainably, if it ever was? In the wake of these intersecting pressures, how are alternate futures for this urban form to be imagined and governed? How are its populations to be managed? Individual lives conducted? Resources circulated? How do these questions impact of relations of gender, ethnicity, and class and those between City and Bush? In addressing these questions this conference will bring together international and Australian academics, politicians and other expert speakers and commentators in the fields of cultural studies, urban sociology, urban infrastructure and population to discuss the future of the low density city in an era in which climate change and the prospect of population increase operates as a major challenge to established forms of urban life.
http://www.uws.edu.au/ics/events/governing_city_futures_conference
Language of Life – Biomimicry in Architecture, Art, Design and Science
What is the song a hummingbird sings? What do graffiti artists and street cats have in common? What formations are shared between a microcosm and the universe? Can buildings be interactive?
Biomimicry seeks to solve human problems using ideas from our biological world. Deeply embedded in nature are formulas that aid in finding solutions in our everyday lives. The exhibition ‘Language of Life’ showcases a shared interest between architects, visual artists, fashion designers and scientists in a collection of works that not only transcribe nature into their own fields, but identify and interpret what is useful to them, opening a conversation between these different fields.
Lucian Gormley and Hugo Raggett challenge the notion of architecture as static with their adaptive constructions of interactive hexagonal cells. Guy Morgan interprets the night sky in his vast paintings and video works that play with the psychology of vision, drawing out the colour that is there, but invisible to us at low light. Nicola Coady, combining two forms of culture, explores microbe colonies as living decorative devices by coating lampshades in yoghurt and allowing nature to take its course.
In contemporary design, architecture and the visual arts, we are increasingly working with material phenomena, interactive behaviour and complex, interdependent, structural relationships that are deeply embedded in nature. These works interrogate the familiar fabric of our existences that deem us human. Between nature and nurture, between artifice and art, they challenge our notion of the human/nature binarism.
Language enables conversation, by initiating communication, and this is what the exhibition aspires to do, opening a platform for interdisciplinary communication. ‘Language of Life’ explores artistic, technological, computational and philosophical trajectories through observations of natural expressions and biomimetic processes. The exhibition collates installations, paintings, animations, experiments and devices developed in different disciplines of the University of Sydney: Sydney College of the Arts; The Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning; Medical Science, and the School of Engineering. Curated by Dr Dagmar Reinhardt, Lecturer of Digital Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, and Greg Shapley, Verge Gallery.
WHAT: Language of Life: Biomimicry in Architecture, Art, Design and Science (art exhibition)
WHO: Artists include: Caitlin Abbott, Eduardo Barata, Iain Blampied, Nicola Coady, Michiru Cohen, Armando Chant, Kate Dunn, Lisa Fathalla, Lucian Gormley, Tyrone Jandey, Flora Mavrommati, Guy Morgan, Luke O’Donnell, Hugo Raggett, Donna Sgro, Ian Stewart, Alexandra Smith, Will Swan, Sara Sweet and Elmar Trefz. Curated by Dagmar Reinhardt and Greg Shapley
WHEN: Opening March 29, 6pm. March 30-April 6 (Monday-Friday 10am-5pm)
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
CONTACT: Greg Shapley on (02) 9562-6218 or email g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au
EVA London 2012 :: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts
10 – 12 July 2012 :: Call for Proposals closes 22 January 2012
The EVA London annual conference tracks and presents the development and application of electronic visualisation technologies in art, music, dance, theatre, the sciences and other fields Conference themes will particularly include new and emerging technologies and applications, including but not limited to: visualising ideas and concepts, imaging and images in museums and galleries, digital performance, music, sound, film, animation, medical humanities, reconstructive archaeology and architecture, digital and computational art and photographyand technologies of digitisation. EVA London invites proposals for papers, demonstrations, short performances, workshops or panel discussions, especially look for presentations on topical subjects, and the newest and cutting edge technologies and applications.
http://anat.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=09202d672e6c4a5aa81916e2c&id=48e7061062&e=b877c16989
If Melbourne were a work of art, what would it be? A graffiti-covered wall, or video installation? Or maybe a free-form saxophone solo? To capture the textures, sounds and shapes that make up Melbourne, SIGNAL is hosting the Urban Mesh Workhouse, bringing together artists and young urbanites to mesh their creativity. Actors, architects, animators – the workhouse will feature leading artists from different fields in six three-day sessions running from April to September as part of a collaborative project with the Melbourne [Jazz Festival] and [ Experimenta]. Young people are invited to drop in for a single session, or come back for all six, to make your mark on the final work, to be exhibited as the Urban Mesh Manifestation. Check out [SIGNAL] for details on all workhouse sessions and a list of artists participating inthe 6 sessions including Experimenta Utopia Now artist Rowan McNaught and Experimenta Commissioned artists Isobel Knowles and Jesse Stevens.
All Workhouse sessions run Friday 6 – 9pm, Saturday & Sunday 11am – 4pm
Check out the websites for more details!
Buckminster Fuller
Fuller published more than 30 books, inventing and popularizing terms such as “Spaceship Earth”, ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres. Fuller developed many ideas, designs and inventions, particularly regarding practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. He documented his life, philosophy and ideas scrupulously by a daily diary (later called the Dymaxion Chronofile), and by twenty-eight publications. Fuller financed some of his experiments with inherited funds, sometimes augmented by funds invested by his collaborators, one example being the Dymaxion car project.
