We are very excited to welcome Dr Kulper, Edinburgh University visiting Geddes Fellow, to ECA on Thursday the 5th of February for a seminar discussion and Exhibition.

Seminar 5pm, 5th February, at the Hunter Lecture Theatre, Lauriston Place:

‘Estranged Fluctuations’

‘Estranged Fluctuations’ will wade into the waters of spatial speculations, visualized things, both student and some of my own, exposing provisional thoughts framed through lenses of the generative use of language, tailored visualization techniques,diverse design methods and tactics of familiar estrangement. Wandering through work withvarious degrees, or grains of ‘finish’, or resolution I will advocate for increased dexterity and versatility in the development of spatial practices -in teaching, as authorial positioning and in the means of producing, in practicing practices- practices that attempt to identify the scope, efficacy and cultural durability of work, while working through half-truths, hunches and flat out shots in the dark, real off-leash stuff, estranged fluctuations… who knows, maybe even snooping around the pleasurable corners of chasing fascinations.

Exhibition:
05 – 12 February, 2015
Opening 05 February, 18.00
The Tent Gallery. Evolution House. 78 West Port Street EH1 2LE.

‘Speculative Species’

‘Speculative Species’ offers a retrospective of the work of renowned architect and academic Perry Kulper, University of Michigan. Including works selected by the author himself, the exhibition presents a wide range of prints, from intricate handcrafted collage drawings to speculative digital renderings. Perry Kulper’s work explores design tactics, by proposing questions of authorship and agency within the drawing. In Kulper’s drawings latency and contingency become acknowledged generative factors in a perpetual interplay between ‘the languages of architecture and representation’.

The exhibition is presented by ESALA, in conjunction with Perry Kulper’s lecture ‘Estranged Fluctuations’, part of the Prokalo, Postgraduate Lecture Series.

Bio: Dr Perry Kulper is an architect and associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. Prior to his arrival at the University of Michigan he was a SCI-Arc faculty member for 16 years as well as in visiting positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Arizona State University. Subsequent to his studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (BS Arch) and Columbia University (M Arch) he worked in the offices of Eisenman/ Robertson, Robert A.M. Stern and Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown before moving to Los Angeles. His interests include the roles of representation and methodologies in the production of architecture and in broadening the conceptual range by which architecture contributes to our cultural imagination.

Do not miss this!

Wine and nibbles too, as always!

see you there,

Prokalo Team

On Tuesday the 20th of January we welcome Dr Aikaterini Antonopoulou, Teaching Fellow – School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University…

5pm – Common Room – Minto House

Bring colleagues and friends for this wonderful guest and a wee glass of wine! Happy New Year!

Homelessness in the Digital Age through the example of the Banoptikon Videogame Project

Video game link see: http://banoptikon.mignetproject.eu

 Abstract

The transition from the organic body to the enhanced and extended body – either physically or mentally through connectivity – has turned anyone who participates into the digital age into some sort of a contemporary “monster” that may not necessarily appear physically deformed and modified as those of the past, however it gathers “the many” within itself, and therefore connects in new ways to others and to its environment.If the human body of the present concentrates the multiplicity within the unity in an increasingly complex world, it also raises the question as to what is to feel at “home” today. The aim of this presentation is to bring together the symbolic homelessness introduced by the digital culture and the actual homelessness of an immigrant, by looking into the “Banoptikon” videogame project, a virtual reality game that puts the “player” into the [avatar] body of a migrant who has to traverse cities and countries and to confront locals, authorities, and migration politics. Here, the player detaches from his own reality of mobility and connectivity (and multiplicity) and is placed in this condition of absolute homelessness, in the body of a wo/man of no home and no place struggling to define their own way of being in the world.  Through the lens of the Banoptikon, the immigrant stands as both a metaphor for the digital age and as a literal body of homelessness. Therefore breaking up the ties with home and constructing new connections and relationships is seen as an opportunity to negotiate one’s identity and to re-build one’s places, grounds, and homes.