SCI-Arc EDGE, Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture is holding its annual public symposium on August 31 and September 1 to review the work of its graduating students. Each of the programs will present the year in review and will host an open discussion to examine the topics currently being explored in the SCI-Arc EDGE postgraduate programs.
EDGE Symposium II
W.M. Keck Hall
August 31, 2018 at 2:00pm
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September 01, 2018 at 10:00pm
Friday, August 31, 2pm-6pm: Architectural Technologies
Friday, August 31, 7pm-10pm: Fiction and Entertainment
Saturday, September 1, 3pm-6pm: Design of Cities
Saturday, September 1, 7pm-10pm: Design Theory and Pedagogy
Architectural Technologies
Program Coordinator: Marcelo Spina
Panel Discussion: Friday, August 31, 2pm-6pm
Watch the livestream
Panelists: Hernan Diaz Alonso, Johan Bettum, Joe Day, David Erdman, Marcelyn Gow, Lars Jan, Ferda Kolatan, Richard Koshalek, Noemi Polo, David Ruy, Jose Sanchez, Megan Steinman, Sam Teller, Marrikka Trotter, Michael Young, Mimi Zeiger
The Architectural Technologies program connects contemporary interests within the architectural discipline with the most advanced technological developments reshaping society and culture at large. With the aim of producing culturally significant architectural objects and artifacts, the program continued this year in its study of technologies of automation and the role that new forms of artificial intelligence may play in redesigning our world. Using AI convolutional neural networks (CNN) and other forms of automated assembly, Architectural Technologies students developed proposals ranging in scope, size, and aesthetics, substantially altering existing buildings and their spatial experience, while also raising questions about authorship, authenticity, style, physicality and material assembly.
Fiction and Entertainment
Program Coordinator: Liam Young
Film Screenings and Discussion: Friday, August 31, 7pm-10pm
Watch the livestream
Panelists: Keely Colcleugh, Ane Crabtree, Claire Evans, Alex Macdowell, Brain Merchant, Patti Podesta, Jamin Warren, Ben West, Timothy Williams
How we perceive the cultures and spaces around us is largely determined by mediums of fiction and entertainment. SCI-Arc’s Fiction and Entertainment program engages the techniques of film, animation and gaming to imagine and visualize alternative worlds and tell new kinds of stories about the emerging conditions of the twenty-first century. Join our graduating students for the premiere screening and exhibition of their work and a panel discussion featuring luminaries from LA’s entertainment industry discussing principles of worldbuilding and visual storytelling. Panelists include Ane Crabtree, costume designer for Hulu’s groundbreaking series Handmaid’s Tale, Alex Macdowell, worldbuilder and production designer for films such as Fight Club and Minority Report, Claire Evans artist and lead singer of the band Yacht, Jamin Warren, cofounder of videogame arts and culture company Kill Screen, Brian Merchant, author and editor at Motherboard, VICE's science and technology outlet, Patti Podesta, production designer for the recent series American Gods, Keely Colcleugh director of creative visual agency Kilograpgh, Ben West, creative director at Framestore LA, Timothy Williams, designer and animator for games, films, and music videos, and many more.
Design of Cities
Program Coordinator: Peter Trummer
Panel Discussion: Saturday, September 1, 3pm-6pm
Watch the livestream
Panelists: Frances Anderton, Johan Bettum, Joe Day, John Enright, David Erdman, Erik Ghenoiu, Marcelyn Gow, Ferda Kolatan, David Ruy, Matthew Soules, Marrikka Trotter, Michael Young
What is the role of finance in the design of cities today? Cities have traditionally represented cultural values and symbolized hierarchies of power. But what can the city represent and symbolize today when finance is the driving force? We may have entered into a time where we’re not really understanding urban life if we are not understanding the life of capital. Despite obvious dangers, are there opportunities nonetheless within the constraints of an asset-based urbanism to maintain the vitality of cities? Projects this year focused on developing speculative scenarios where financial instruments were hybridized, collaged, misappropriated, or even simply intensified in order to open up new urban potentials.
Design Theory and Pedagogy
Program Coordinator: David Ruy
Dinner Symposium: Saturday, September 1, 7pm-10pm
Guests: Hernan Diaz Alonso, Kristy Balliet, Johan Bettum, John Enright, David Erdman, Erik Ghenoiu, Marcelyn Gow, Ferda Kolatan, Anthony Morey, Michael Osman, Marrikka Trotter, Tom Wiscombe, Michael Young, Andrew Zago
What constitutes an academic architectural career? How should we define it? Historically, architectural historians ruled the academy (the recursive irony indicates the conceptual trap perhaps). During the course of Modernism, practitioners have more or less taken over the academy, setting forth as a value, the importance of practical experience among studio instructors. Does this remain an important value? The architectural academic today has the option to wear many hats. They can be a professional, researcher, scholar, advocate, curator, administrator, and of course, a historian. They can be all of them at once. Can we attempt to map the possibilities in more detail than usual relative to current contexts, both conceptually and economically? We invited a number of people with academic architectural careers that we respect to come talk about this with us. The format is a dinner in the back of the library.