[spectre] School of Missing Studies - Manhattan Shadow Project

[Inke Arns]

Von: stevan vukovic <stevanvukovic at yahoo.com> 
Datum: Wed, 12 May 2004 14:42:29 -0700 (PDT) 
Betreff: School of Missing Studies - Manhattan Shadow Project 
 
Thursday May 13, 2004, at 6.30 pm – the SMS Manhattan Shadow Project 
will be presented at Van Alen Institute in New York: 
http://www.vanalen.org/

Manhattan Shadow Project is a workshop of the School of Missing 
Studies [SMS], held at Van Alen Institute in New York City from May 
10-14, 2004, to investigate the shadow in the metropolis, as it takes 
on an array of physical, digital and metaphorical appearances and 
meanings. A presentation will be held at Van Alen Institute Thursday 
May 13, 2004, at 6.30 pm with a reception following

SMS is a collaborative initiative of Liesbeth Bik (artist, 
Rotterdam), Katherine Carl (writer/curator, New York), Ana Dzokic 
(architect, Rotterdam), Srdjan Jovanovic Vajs (architect, New York), 
Ivan Kucina (architect, Belgrade), Marc Neelen (architect, 
Rotterdam), Milica Topalovic (architect, Rotterdam), Jos Van der Pol 
(artist, Rotterdam), Sabine von Fischer (architect, Zurich) and 
Stevan Vukovic (writer/curator, Belgrade).

School of Missing Studies (SMS)  provides a flexible educational 
platform and a network for international study and exchange on 
cultural issues related to the urban environment in cities marked by 
or currently undergoing political, social, and cultural transition. 
SMS will provide productive research and project opportunities for 
young professionals in architecture and art who are dealing with what 
is “missing” in their studies with regard to processes of local urban 
change. Participants in SMS will explore the smooth area among 
established disciplines such as architecture, art, sociology and 
cultural studies to bring to light the missing phenomena of urban 
transition in Belgrade, Munich, New York, Rotterdam and Zurich. 

Manhattan Shadow Project is a workshop whose investigation is sparked 
by the current crisis of architectural and artistic forms as a 
physical mass or symbol that can identify and redefine the 
metropolis. Can a metropolis be captured by its negative? Can it be 
reshaped through its shadow? The zoning laws of the 1930s developed 
by Hugh Ferris, dubbed the master of darkness, will jump-start the 
workshop’s research on the urban importance of the physical, visible 
shadow. The city casts many metaphorical shadows concerning 
individuals’ sense of belonging, the metropolis’ projection of its 
identity on a scale which surpasses its physical confines, or 
neighborhoods becoming shadows of their former selves in light of 
tourism. The digital shadow of the cosmopolis is the disconnection 
from electronic and information networks despite the metropolis’ 
promise for ultimate connectivity.

The workshop participants were students of architecture from Belgrade 
(Dubravka Sekulic, Dejan Mrdja, Andreja Miric and Jelena Mitrovic) 
and New York, under the critique and direction by SMS [Srdjan 
Jovanovic Vajs, Ivan Kucina,  Katherine Carl  and Stevan Vukovic ], 
Van Alen [Jonathan Cohen-Litant], Maria Lind, Sina Najafi, Dan 
Sherer, Katie Salen, Zoe Ryan, Nebojsa Seric-Shoba, Jenny PerlinChris 
Sharples, Anna Dyson, Miodrag Mitrasinovic and Valerie Tevere.

School of Missing Studies is supported by the Trust for Mutual 
Understanding, New York; Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Berlin and the US 
Embassy in Serbia and Montenegro.