SCI-Arc’s Spring 2017 Public Events and Lectures Schedule Announced
Starting in the spring semester of 2017, SCI-Arc will host a series of free public events and lectures that will introduce speakers from a broad cross-section of today’s most exciting architects, artists, philosophers and theorists including José Oubrerie, Slavoj Žižek and Sylvia Lavin, among others.
The lecture series is complemented by several exhibitions including, The Duck and the Document, which features a series of fragments, from handrails to façade panels, salvaged from canonic buildings of the late 20th century and curated by Sylvia Lavin. Drawing Conclusions, curated by Jeffrey Kipnis and designed by Andrew Zago, illustrates that the constellation of hand architectural drawings reached the apex of conceptual and technical development around 1990, just as computational technological instruments—such as wireframe drawings, renderings, page definition illustrations, and 3D models—began to supplant hand drawing entirely as the primary method of communication.
January 25: Lecture with Didier Fiuza Faustino
Didier Faustino is an architect and artist whose work is characterized by relationships between body and space that exist independently of social codes. He divides his time between practicing architecture in Spain, Mexico City, and Portugal; making art for exhibitions in Paris, London, and Rome; teaching at AA School and Diploma Unit 2; and editing French architecture and design magazine, CREE.
February 1: Lecture with Matt Olson Lecture
Matt Olson established Office Of Interior Establishing Exterior, (OOIEE) to tackle projects related to contemporary art, design and culture. From 2003 to 2015, Olson was cofounder and creative director of RO/LU. His work has been shown internationally and resides in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center, as well as many esteemed private collections. He's based in St Paul, MN, where he teaches "Towards A Cross Disciplinary, Open Practice" in the School of Architecture at the U of M. In 2016, OOIEE completed projects at the Aspen Art Museum, Etage Projects in Copenhagen, and was a visiting artist and lecturer at Cranbrook.
February 3: Exhibition Opening with José Oubrerie, Chapel of the Mosquitos Library Gallery
February 6: José Oubrerie + Todd Gannon: Duel + Duet
José Oubrerie is Professor Emeritus at the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University, where he was Chair from 1991 to 1997. Oubrerie studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1958, he joined Atelier Le Corbusier, where he was involved in projects including the Strasbourg Convention Center, the Venice Hospital, and the church of St. Pierre de Firminy-Vert. After nearly 15 years of practicing in Paris, Oubrerie relocated to the United States in the early 1980s and formed his current practice, Atelier Wylde-Oubrerie, in 1989. His many acclaimed projects include the French Cultural Center in Damascus, the Miller House in Lexington, Kentucky, and the completion of the Firminy Church in 2006. He has taught at the Cooper Union, Columbia University, the University of Kentucky, where he was Dean from 1987 to 1991, and Ohio State. He is currently visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His work has been published or exhibited worldwide and recognized with awards from institutions including the French Academy of Architecture, the AIA, the French Ministry of Construction, and the French Ministry of Culture, which promoted him to the rank of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2009.
Todd Gannon is an architect and writer based in Los Angeles and he teaches history, theory, and design studio at SCI-Arc. His published books include The Light Construction Reader (2002), Et in Suburbia Ego: José Oubrerie's Miller House (2013) and monographs on the work of Morphosis, Bernard Tschumi, UN Studio, Steven Holl, Mack Scogin/Merrill Elam, Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman and Eric Owen Moss. His essays have appeared in The Routledge Companion for Architecture Design and Practice (2015), The SAGE Handbook for Architectural Theory (2012), and in periodicals including Log, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Offramp. In collaboration with Ewan Branda and Andrew Zago, he curated the 2013 SCI-Arc Gallery exhibition A Confederacy of Heretics. His work has been recognized and supported by the Getty Foundation, the Graham Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Institute of Architects, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, The Ohio State University, and UCLA.
March 1: Graham Harman + Slavoj Žižek: Duel + Duet
Graham Harmon is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SCI-Arc. He was born in 1968 in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and earned his B.A. from St. John's College (Maryland), his M.A. from Penn State University, and his Ph.D. from DePaul University. He is the author of fifteen books, most recently Immaterialism: Objects and Social Theory (2016) and Dante's Broken Hammer: The Ethics, Esthetics, and Metaphysics of Love (2016). Graham is the 2009 winner of the AUC Excellence in Research Award. In 2015, he was named by ArtReview as the 75th most powerful influence in the international art world, and in 2016 was named by The Best Schools to their alphabetical list of the 50 most influential living philosophers.
Slavoj Žižek is a researcher in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana; researcher at the Birkbeck School of Law, London University; and a visiting professor at Kyuing-Hee University, Seoul. His work focuses on the philosophical implications of psychoanalytic theory, with a special focus on how a Lacanian reading of Hegel enables audiences to overcome the opposition between realism and transcendentalism. His latest publications include Disparities (2016), Antigone (2016), and Against the Double Blackmail (2015).
March 8: Lecture with Peter Cook
Professor Sir Peter Cook, RA, founder of Archigram, former Director the Institute for Contemporary Art, (ICA), London, and Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London, has been a pivotal figure within the global architectural world for over half a century. His ongoing contributions to architectural innovation were most recently recognized with an honorary doctorate in April 2010 by the University of Lund, Sweden. Cook’s achievements with experimental group Archigram have been the subject of numerous publications and public exhibitions, and were recognized by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2004 with the Royal Gold Medal. In 2007, Cook was knighted by the Queen of England for his services to architecture. He is also a Royal Academician and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres of the French Republic. Cook is currently a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London. His professorships include those of the Royal Academy, University College in London, and the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste (Staedelschule) in Frankfurt-Main, Germany.
March 13: Lecture with Vishaan Chakrabarti
Vishan Chakrabarti is a registered architect, the founder of PAU, and an Associate Professor of Practice at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). His book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (2013) argues that a more urban United States would result in a more prosperous, sustainable, joyous, and socially mobile nation. Chakrabarti holds a Master of Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley; a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and dual bachelor’s degrees in Art History and Engineering from Cornell University.
March 15: Lecture with Neil M. Denari
Neil M. Denari, FAIA, is principal of NMDA, Neil M. Denari Architects Inc., and Professor of Architecture and Interim Chair of the AUD at UCLA. He received his Bachelors in Architecture from the University of Houston in 1980 and a Master of Architecture from Harvard in 1982. He is the recipient of the 2011 Los Angeles AIA Gold Medal. His work has been included in many exhibitions, including the solo show The Artless Drawing in 2010 at Ace Gallery LA and the 2013 group show New Sculpturalism at MOCA Los Angeles, and is permanently held by eight major museums around the world. Denari lectures worldwide and has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and UC Berkeley, and was the Director of SCI-Arc from 1997 to 2002. He is the author of Interrupted Projections (1996), Gyroscopic Horizons (1999), and Mass X, forthcoming in 2017.
March 20: Lecture with Jeffrey Schnapp
Jeffrey Schnapp is a cultural theorist, media historian, designer, and experimentalist. He teaches at Harvard University; the founder and faculty director of metaLAB (at) Harvard; faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society; and CEO of Piaggio Fast Forward. Among his recent books are The Electric Information Age Book (2012), Modernitalia (2012), The Library Beyond the Book (2014), Blueprint for Counter Education — Expanded Reprint (2016; a reprint edition of Maurice Stein and Larry Miller’s 1970 work of radical pedagogy), and the bolted book Future Piaggio: Six Italian Lessons on Mobility and Modern Life (2017).
March 24-25: Drawing Conclusions Symposium + Exhibition Closing Reception
March 29: Lecture with Sylvia Lavin
Sylvia Lavin is an internationally renowned critic, historian, and curator whose work explores the limits of architecture across a wide spectrum of historical periods. She is Professor, Director of PhD Programs, and former Chair of the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, and has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia, among other schools. She is a frequent contributor to journals such as Artforum, Perspecta, and Log; and her books titles include Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture, Kissing Architecture, and Flash in the Pan. Her recent exhibitions include Everything Loose Will Land: Art and Architecture in Los Angeles in the 1970s, The New Creativity, and The Artless Drawing. Lavin’s most recent grants and awards come from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Getty Research Institute, and the Graham Foundation.
April 3: Jake Matatyaou + Amalia Ulman: Duel + Duet
Jake Matatyaou is a designer and educator based in Los Angeles, California whose work addresses material and immaterial modes of cultural production and reception. Matatyaou received a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from UCLA in 2001, a Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University and an M.Arch from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He has worked in the offices of Leong Leong Architects, Bernard Tschumi Architects, and is a founding partner of the design practice JuneJuly. He is the liberal arts coordinator and design faculty at SCI-Arc.
The work of artist Amalia Ulman considers commerce, leisure, and popular culture, exposing the commodification of everyday life. The personas, artifacts, and environments Ulman creates challenge perceptions of reality and invite her audiences to take a closer look at the promiscuous power of images as they acquire the capacity to circulate on their own.
April 5: Lecture with Giancarlo Mazzanti
Giancarlo Mazzanti is a Columbian architect who holds postgraduate degrees in Architectural History and Theory, and Industrial Design from the University of Florence, Italy. He has taught at Princeton University, Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Pennsylvania, and several Colombian universities, and has lectured at Pratt, Yale, Berkeley, University of Valencia, Catolica del Peru, MIT, and Tulane. His body of work, including the South American Games Coliseum in Medellin, Colombia; the Tercer Milenio Park; Biblioteca Espana; and the Pies Descalzos School in Cartagena, has earned him the Best Architectonic Work in 2008, the Panamerican Architecture Biennial in the category of Architectonic Design, and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.
April 14: The Duck and the Document SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition, Opening Reception
April 29: Spring Show Exhibition Opening Reception
June 16: Maxi Spina Thick SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition Opening Reception
Lectures take place in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall and are broadcast live. Gallery opening receptions are held in the SCI-Arc Gallery & Kappe Library Gallery spaces.