Saturday 5.15 (continued from here)
Vest Pocket Utopias ||
Tim Waterman
The Steelyard, 4:00 pm
This presentation will consist of a lecture and discussion
with accompanying images presenting ongoing research and design based in a
situationist/ phenomenological/ psychogeographic reading of the mythic city.
We will explore how ‘fictions’ become organizers for everyday
life in an urban environment. Through an understanding of these constructs,
I will show how theory can inform representation from collage to ‘cutting
drawings’, and how new paradigms for the design of urban spaces may
be generated from these methods. A city as a realm of the imagination, a theatre
of dreams, might be fashioned amidst the brick and mortar of what we have
already, allowing citizens to become people of action and invention rather
than drones addicted to leisure and consumption. The great task ahead in urban
design is the acceptance and celebration of the city as it is and the identification
and utilization of those traits that make it so. Included in this goal should
be an understanding of the ways individuals comprehend their urban environment
and how design can incorporate this understanding into the creation of spaces
that further the common good.
*Lecture accompanies a show of drawings and collages opening at Wild Colonial
on May 13th.
Urban Design Institute ||
Elizabeth Greenleaf
The Steelyard, 5:00 pm
The Urban Design Institute is a new interdisciplinary research initiative of the Division of Architecture and Design. The Institute will collaborate with government agencies; for-profit and non-profit corporations; and other higher education institutions to support curricular innovation and scholarly research on the built environment in Providence and surrounding communities.
Beyond New Babylon: Landscapes of Participation ||
Alob Switt
The Steelyard, 6:00 pm
It seems that much of the participatory planning and libertarian
social movements that formed themselves in the late fifties and sixties were
created in response to uncomprimising modernist architectural discourse. Much
of the avant-garde of this period spent a lot of time contemplating the city
as a “socio-architectural organism” that could not be rationalized
and planned every step of the way; there had to be room for movement, mystery,
and myth.
All of these factors led to an emergence of a resistance to the status quo,
both in arhitectural circles and social phenomena as well. Still dedicated
to the modernist dreams of utopia and social harmony, new discourse in the
realms of social and spatial exploration combined with the possibilities for
a nomadic existence all existed in Constant’s New Babylon project.
“We are bored in the city” is the beginning line from one of the
first texts by a member of the Situationist International. This sentence is
fundamental in contemplating an existence based on leisure and play. The intellectuals
and artists from this period are demanding more, the landscape being designed
around them was proclaimed as a failure even before construction was complete.
This presentation will be an examination of these trends and their contemporary
possibilities. It will be argued that Constant’s vision may be just
as relevant today as forty years ago.
Towards Non-Profit Sustainibility ||
Roundtable
The Steelyard, 7-9 pm
This roundtable discussion will bring together various people in the community who are currently working to put together or keep together a self-sustaining non-profit organization. Tips will be exchanged, advice given, and new connections made between groups working toward common goals. Anyone interested in this subject or feel they have advice to offer is especially encouraged to attend.
- services –
Urban Agricultural Unit ||
PIPS
The Steelyard, 1-5 pm
On display throughout the Provflux, this UAU will showcase the transformation of an abandoned trailer into a state-of –the-art and fully functioning mobile greenhouse. On Saturday afternoon, come visit with the builders and learn more about how it works.
The Yellow Bike Project ||
The Neo-Luddite Foundation
The Steelyard, 10 am-6 pm
Biking can be a catalyst for human change. Biking allows a more direct interaction with environment. The smells, the feel of the wind, and the forgotten details of nature are missed in the isolation of driving a car. We love bikes, and we plan to get as many people on them as we can.
