Call for Papers: Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts

Presence.
Submission deadline 12 October 2018

Buildings, cities, landscapes, sculptures, paintings, and music, even, are already physically present and persisting in a present. Why theorise their presence, and what relevance could such a notion have for arts rooted in space?

The contemporary emphasis on the physical, material, performative and atmospheric – rather than on meaning – is a reaction against the overly discursive and semiotic strains of ‘80s post-modernism, when the identification and attribution of meaning became a core practice of architectural thought. Afterwards, materiality and its effects assumed what Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht terms a “non-hermeneutic” presence (2004: 1-20), coinciding with the much vaunted ‘post-theory’ in architecture and its rejection of criticality. Today, we no longer believe that theory has been surpassed, nor, by the same token, that a complex of meanings can be kept separate from its mediality, that is, from material. Neither is pure

Healthy Cities 2019

Conference Themes: URBANISATION, INFRASTRUCTURES AND EVERYDAY LIFE IN EAST ASIA

1-3 May 2019, Manchester

Countries in East Asia are currently undergoing significant urban transformations linked with shifts in various infrastructural systems. For instance, China is modernising its sanitation infrastructure in tandem with the construction of millions of housing units in line with its New-type Urbanisation Plan (2014-2020). Japan, the most highly developed country in the region, recently vowed to update its sanitation infrastructure in view of the Tokyo Olympics 2020. In Mongolia, where some 35 per cent of the country’s urban residents have no access to sanitation, calls for a nation-wide initiative to address severe sanitation challenges are mounting. 

However, there are explicit tensions between the apparent need to develop national infrastructures and the possible implications that this may carry for human health, social

Special Issue of Design and Culture: Design & Neoliberalism

Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2018

This special issue of Design and Culture examines the ways in which neoliberalism has both expanded and constricted the purview of design across multiple disciplines, including (but not limited to) product design, interaction design, graphic design, advertising, branding, fashion, digital media, experience design, web design, architecture, furniture, and other adjacent areas of inquiry and practice. This call for papers seeks submissions that engage global perspectives on the intersections between design and neoliberalism across this wide variety of design and design-related fields. Of particular interest are submissions engaging historical perspectives, the context of the Global South, and questions of labor.

Neoliberalism has emerged over the past decade or so as a totalizing conceptual apparatus for understanding a wide array of contemporary phenomena. Whether understood politically

Peter Corrigan collection

In late 2017, the library received Peter Corrigan's library from his estate. Recently, several hundred items from the collection have been catalogued and are available to view in the library's special collection, which can be browsed online.

Items of note in the collection include:

• Daniel Libeskind collection / collated by Peter Corrigan - Large collection of news clippings, exhibition catalogues, ephemera & correspondence related to Daniel Libeskind. Compiled by Peter Corrigan. Corrigan collected a huge amount of material on Libeskind. There are also many other monographs & serials dedicated to Libeskind. 

• Correspondence between Dorothy Liebes and Frank Lloyd Wright. Selection of correspondence between Dorothy Liebes and Frank Lloyd Wright, 1946-1952. Corrigan collected a great deal of material of FLW as well, and these letters are among the numerous signed items he has of FLW. Liebes was a textile designer who worked on numerous commissions with FLW.  She was known as "the mother of modern weaving".

• Learning from Las Vegas / By R. Venturi, D. S. Brown and S. Izenour.  First edition, signed to Peter Corrigan.

• Studio LLV : Learning from Las Vegas, or Form analysis as design research : third year studio / R. Venturi, D. Scott Brown, S. Izenour. Extensive course outline, bibliography and other related material from Venturi's Studio LLV held at Yale in 1968. Extremely rare item. From Yale Library. 

• Coste, Pascal. Monuments Modernes De La Perse. Paris: A. Morel, 1867. Lavishly illustrated book on Persian architecture.

• The Regular Architect; or, the General Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture. Eds. Michelangelo, Buonarroti and John translator Leeke. London: Printed for William Sherwin, 1669. Very early English language book on Architecture. 

Appointments can be made to view the collection with the Swanston library or by contacting Tristan.

Database on trial - Gnomon Workshop

On trial until: 28 August 2018

Gnomon Workshop provides access to over 300 lectures and over 1000 hours of professional training in areas for visual effects artists, concept designers, sculptors, comic book illustrators, etc.

Please note: You will need to register before using the resource. An administrator will review your registration and you will receive an email if approved.

YOU WILL NEED TO REGISTER BEFORE USING THE RESOURCE

ACCESS GNOMON WORKSHOP TRIAL DATABASE

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Should we buy this database?

If you think this database could become a valuable resource for you and your students, don’t forget to tell us about it.

SEND YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS DATABASE (GOOGLE FORM)

Biennale Architettura 2018

See below for a selection of exhibition catalogues form the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. At the time of this post most are listed as "on order", but you can sign in to place a hold and the books will be set aside for you when they are available.

The library also has previous Architecture Biennale catalogues, for those who may be interested.

If you would like to request items for the library please contact Tristan.

Repair: Australian pavilion, 16th international architecture exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia...2018

"Repair aims to expand the point of view from the object of architecture, to the way it operates in its context, advocating a role for architecture that catalyses or actively engages with the environmental, social and cultural repair of the places it is a part of.

Repair as an approach to architectural thinking is set to become a critical strategy of architectural culture. It is particularly relevant to Australian architects who work in one of the most diverse and ecologically sensitive landscapes in the world. Uniquely, our cities are interspersed and bordered by remnant vegetation and often connected to large natural systems as well as built over the traditional cultural landscapes of our First Nations peoples. They are also scenes of developing ecosystems at which humans are at the centre of." 

Weak Monument: Architectures beyond the plinth.

Monuments represent power: explicitly and simply, but not universally. In Estonia, the classical notion of a monument is a strange appearance. Its presence is marginal, its tradition non-existent and its form tormented by an apparent cultural displacement. The statue on a square never claimed the central position so common in Western Europe. This semantic void directs attention to other, less exceptional pieces of architecture. Sometimes a stairway marks a politically charged location, or a pavement becomes symbolic. Instead of explicit meanings inscribed in marble and bronze, an implicit charge is revealed that might be weaker yet more relevant, for it cannot be openly questioned what is only implicit. 'Weak Monument' explores the blurred line between a monument’s explicitly political form and the architecture of everyday. It juxtaposes classical monuments with seemingly insignificant architectural objects and public space in a collection of images and drawings, archival as well as newly commissioned ones, alongside essays and brief texts. Exhibition: Estonian Pavilion.

Vardiya: 16. 16th international architecture exhibition la Biennale de Venezia pavilion of Turkey

"Vardiya / the Shift commits a program full of public events to turn Pavilion of Turkey into an open space for temporary accommodation, production and encountering..The organization of the program puts students of architecture into frontline by an international open call. Among five hundred applicants responding to the questions "Why does biennial exist? What does the biennial do? For whom does the biennial exist?", shortlisted participants invite visitors and guests to think on the purpose and role of the biennials through their video installations. Along with the outcomes of this open call, students are encouraged to be active producers of the evolving exhibition content in the pavilion through workshops with a variety of contributing actors."

Dimensions of citizenship

"Dimensions of Citizenship documents contributions from the seven firms selected to represent the United States in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. This paperback volume profiles and illustrates each of the US Pavilion contributions and contextualizes them in terms of scale. 
Drawing inspiration from the Eames’ Power of Ten, Dimensions of Citizenship will provide a view of belonging across seven stages starting with the individual (Citizen), then the collective (Civic, Region, Nation), and expanding to include all phases of contemporary society, real and projected (Globe, Network, Cosmos). Additional essays—by Ingrid Burrington, Ana María León, and Nicholas de Monchaux, among others—will offer essential and enquiring responses to these themes." 

Library makerspace

The RMIT University Library Makerspace has been created to enable anyone in the RMIT community to explore and realise creative ideas through exploration and collaboration ....and probably a whole lot of trial and error.

We provide access to a growing range tools and equipment to help you experiment, investigate and problem solve. While we provide some support, the idea is for you to learn by doing. We recognise the immense body of knowledge and the vast range of skills stored in the people at RMIT and hope the Makerspace can be a place for this community to come together, share skills and knowledge and learn from each other.

We encourage walk up use, group activities and special events. Group activities and events can be organised via our booking page. You can see what has been happening in the space at our showcase page.

To get you started we offer regular induction sessions for the space and certain tools and technology. Check out what's on and find an induction time that suits you.

See the Makerspace website for more information.