Situated Technologies: Beneath and Beyond Big Data
A symposium with Philip Beesley, David Benjamin, Laura Forlano, Usman Haque, Natalie Jeremijenko, Omar Khan, Laura Kurgan, Helen Nissenbaum, Trebor Scholz, Mark Shepard, and Kazys Varnelis
Saturday, April 28, 2012
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Rose Auditorium, The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square
3 AIA and New York State CEUs
The Architectural League invites you to celebrate the publication of the final pamphlet in the Situated Technologies Pamphlets Series, “Modulated Cities: Networked Spaces, Reconstituted Subjects,” by Helen Nissenbaum and Kazys Varnelis (available April 5, 2012). Bringing together contributors to the Situated Technologies Project throughout its first six years, this half-day event will address current issues surrounding situated technologies and the increasing entanglement of data, technology, and the built environment, and attempt to identify future trajectories for their evolution.
The afternoon will begin with a conversation between pamphlet authors Helen Nissenbaum andKazys Varnelis, moderated by Trebor Scholz, addressing the redefinition of privacy in the age of big data and the networked, geo-spatial environment, and questioning the implications for the construction of contemporary subjectivity. Usman Haque, Natalie Jeremijenko, Laura Kurgan,and Mark Shepard will then present a series of case studies on open data and the process of making data public, focusing on distributed sensing initiatives and contrasting them with centralized programs managed by government agencies. Finally, Philip Beesley, David Benjamin,Laura Forlano, and Omar Khan will identify the challenges of developing data literacy among the next generation of architects, addressing these issues through an expanded architectural curriculum for the 21st century.
Tickets
Tickets are free for League members and students with a current ID; $20 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Non-members may purchase tickets here. Purchased tickets are available for pick-up at the venue check-in desk and are non-refundable.
AIA and New York State Continuing Education Credits will be available.
This event is co-sponsored by Eyebeam Art + Technology Center.
About the Situated Technologies Project
The Situated Technologies Project, co-organized by Omar Khan, Trebor Scholz, and Mark Shepard in partnership with the Architectural League, explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism: How is our experience of the city and the choices we make in it affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics, and other “situated” technologies? How will the ability to design increasingly responsive environments alter the way architects conceive of space? What do architects need to know about urban computing and what do technologists need to know about cities? The project began with a 3-day symposium in fall 2006 and continued with the publication of the Situated Technologies Pamphlets, a nine-part series of conversations between leading practitioners and researchers from architecture, art, technology, sociology, and related fields. In fall 2009, Toward the Sentient City, an exhibition curated by Mark Shepard and organized by the League, presented five newly commissioned installations and projects that explored the evolving relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture, and the city. A book based on the exhibition is available from MIT Press.
Links
Architecture and Situated Technologies Symposium–Podcasts
Situated Technologies Pamphlets
Toward the Sentient City
Sentient City: Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space
For more information, visit www.situatechtechnologies.net.
About the Speakers
Philip Beesley is a professor in the School of Architecture, University of Waterloo and an architect who is developing responsive kinetic architectural environments that approach near-living functions. His work is widely cited as a pioneer in the rapidly expanding technology of responsive architecture. He is co-author, with Omar Khan, of Situated Technologies Pamphlets 4: Responsive Architecture/Performing Instruments.
David Benjamin is an architect and a principal of The Living. He teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation where, with Soo-In Yang, he is co-director of the Living Architecture Lab. The Living received a New York Prize Fellowship from the Van Alen Institute and was a winner of the Architectural League’s Young Architects Forum. The Living’s project with Natalie Jeremijenko, “Amphibious Architecture,” was one of five commissioned projects for the Architectural League exhibition, Toward the Sentient City.
Laura Forlano is an Assistant Professor of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her research is on the role of information technology in supporting open innovation networks in urban environments with a specific emphasis on the use of mobile, wireless and ubiquitous computing technologies to support collaboration. She is co-author, with Dharma Dailey, of “Situated Technologies Pamphlets 3: Community Wireless Networks as Situated Advocacy.” Her project, “Breakout,” was one of five commissioned projects for the Architectural League exhibition, Toward the Sentient City.
Usman Haque is the director of Haque Design + Research Ltd, which specializes in the design and research of interactive architecture systems. He is also founder of Pachube.com and CEO of Connected Environments Ltd. He is co-author, with Matthew Fuller, of Situated Technologies Pamphlets 2: Urban Versioning System 1.0. His project, “Natural Fuse,” was one of five commissioned for the Architectural League exhibition, Toward the Sentient City.
Natalie Jeremijenko directs the xdesign Environmental Health Clinic at New York University. Previously she was on the Visual Arts faculty at UCSD and the Faculty of Engineering at Yale. Her project with The Living, “Amphibious Architecture,” was one of five commissioned for the Architectural League exhibition, Toward the Sentient City.
Omar Khan is an architect and Chair of Architecture at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, where he is also Director of the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies. Khan is a co-organizer of the Situated Technologies Project and co-author, with Philip Beesley, of “Situated Technologies Pamphlet 4: Responsive Architecture/Performing Instruments.”
Laura Kurgan is Associate Professor of Architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, where she is Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab and the Director of Visual Studies. Her recent research includes a multi-year SIDL project on “million-dollar blocks” and the urban costs of the American incarceration experiment, and a collaborative exhibition on global migration and climate change.
Helen Nissenbaum is Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, and Computer Science, at New York University, where she is also Senior Faculty Fellow of the Information Law Institute. Her book Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life accounts for privacy threats posed by IT and digital medial systems in terms of the theory of contextual integrity. She is co-author, with Kazys Varnelis, of Situated Technologies Pamphlet 9: Modulated Cities: Networked Spaces, Reconstituted Subjects.
Trebor Scholz is a scholar, artist, organizer, and chair of the conference series The Politics of Digital Culture at The New School, where he also teaches in the Department of Culture and Media Studies. Scholz is co-organizer of the Situated Technologies Project and is co-author, with Laura Y. Liu, of Situated Technologies Pamphlet 7: From Mobile Playgrounds to Sweatshop City.
Mark Shepard is an artist, architect, and researcher whose post-disciplinary practice addresses new social spaces and signifying structures of contemporary network cultures. Shepard is co-organizer of the Situated Technologies Project and is co-author, with Adam Greenfield, of Situated Technologies Pamphlet 1: Urban Computing and Its Discontents. He was also curator of the exhibition Toward the Sentient City.
Kazys Varnelis is the Director of the Network Architecture Lab at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He is editor of books includingNetworked Publics (MIT Press, 2008), The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles(Actar, 2009), and The Philip Johnson Tapes (The Monacelli Press, 2008). He is co-author, with Helen Nissenbaum, of Situated Technologies Pamphlet 9: Modulated Cities: Networked Spaces, Reconstituted Subjects.