pre-summer

agendas in the summer are usually limited to open-air pop bacchanals or scheduled trips to the beach. so, before the sun makes us unbearably lazy and horny, here’s two events to heat up your brains:

may 12-13 : the situational drive : complexities of public sphere engagement @ the cooper union, new york city.

what is at stake today in terms of public domain experiences? how do we know the impact of cultural projects upon the imaginations of citizens? do we believe in the possibility of transforming publics? what is the nature of our situational drive?

“in the network society everyone puts together their own city. naturally this touches on the essence of the concept of public domain…public domain experiences occur at the boundary between friction and freedom” (maarten hajer and arnold reijndorp, in search of new public domain)

organized by the tijuana-sandiego insite transborder art initiave and n.y.-based creative time.

speakers include teddy cruz, mark beasley, shuddhabrata sengupta, michael sorkin, kyong park, markus miessen, saskia sassen, laura kurgan, anton vidokle, krzysztof wodiczko and others.

download the full program here

xxx

may 17 and 18 : architectures of fear. terrorism and the future of urbanism in the west @ cccb, barcelona

new york, 11 september 2001. madrid, 11 march 2004. london, 7 july 2005. the spectre of terrorist attacks has come to dominate the collective unconscious of many cities of the west. planes, trains, underground transport, features of urban infrastructure that were once symbols of cosmopolitan freedom and prosperity, have now become, in the hands of terrorists, lethal weapons that threaten the very life of the city. in the aftermath of the attacks, many urban spaces are being represented as objects of total security within the framework of a recently declared war against global terrorism that has no clear end in temporal terms and no fixed geographic limits. not only terrorism but also counterterrorist responses have begun to influence urbanism in the west and may be striking at the heart of an urban way of life that is founded on inclusion, anonymity and pluralism. the aim of this symposium is to reflect upon the ideology of fear that has characterised the international scene since 9/11 and thus to draw conclusions about the reshaping of the politics of security in the west, its impact on city design and the difficulties this entails for keeping democratic principles alive. directed by stephen graham (university of durham) and hosted by the cccb, the present debate forms part of an ongoing series reflecting on the intersections of power and territory.

speakers include peter marcuse, francesc muñoz, michael sorkin (again), eyal weizman, jordan crandall, et.al.

download the full program here

* javier téllez, one flew over the void (bala perdida), mex-usa border, 2005