[spectre] Discussion on Architecture and Situated Technologies

[trebor at thing.net]

Dear Spectrists,

A three-month long discussion will prepare the Architecture and Situated
Technologies symposium in October 2006.

Contribute or observe the discussion that just started at:
<http://mailman.thing.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/idc>

This symposium is a coproduction between the Center for Virtual Architecture at
the University at Buffalo, The Institute for Distributed Creativity, and the
Architectural League of New York.

>Introduction: Architecture and Situated Technologies

This symposium, organized around the notion of an "encounter," will articulate
new research vectors, sites of practice, and working methods for the confluence
of architecture, art, and situated technologies.

What opportunities and dilemmas does a world of networked objects and spaces
pose for architecture, art, and computing? How might this evolving relation
between people and "things" alter the way we occupy, navigate, and inhabit the
built environment? What is the status of the material object and the embodied
human relationships in a world privileging networked relations between
"things"? How do distinctions between space and place change within networked
media ecologies? What post-optimal design strategies and tactics might we
propose for an age of responsive environments, smart materials, embodied
interaction, and participatory networks?

While there is an explosive growth of mobile devices, the social uses of
technologies are not sufficiently studied in terms of architecture. What
distinguishes the emerging urban sociality enabled by the Wireless Internet? How
do these dynamics, including (non-)affective giving destabilize rationalized
'use case scenarios'?

These are just a few urgent questions that the symposium will raise.

Through a combination of public and closed segments (workshops, presentations,
and panel discussions), the symposium will stage a set of encounters between
invited participants, an audience encouraged to participate, and the City of
New York.

<http://cva.ap.buffalo.edu>
<http://distributedcreativity.org>
<http://www.archleague.org>

> List facilitators:

July: Trebor Scholz
Topics: Networked Public Sphere, Autonomous Uses of Situated Sociable Media

August: Omar Khan
Topics: Performance Paradigms, Responsive Architecture and Artificial Ecologies

September: Mark Shepard
Topics: Locative Media, Tactical Urbanism, Situated Aesthetics