| words@bld50 monthly talks |
Date: Thursday 1 August, 2013
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Victorian College of the Arts (Southbank campus), 234 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
The complexity and volatility of spatial relations in the Middle East have been brought into sharp relief in recent times. Delineation of space in these highly contested territories – whether physical or systemic – has been known to play a key part in manifestations of injustice, where authorities have sought to limit freedoms, control movement and enact human rights abuses. Yet, conversely, spatial practices can be used to challenge these same mechanisms of oppression.
The 2011 protests in Syria, part of the wider Arab Spring movement, initially contributed to a renewed faith in the power civic protest in the public realm to enact positive, long term political change. Widely perceived as heralding a new age of citizen-led liberation and empowerment, such demonstrations of resistance have captivated the Western world and inspired similar actions elsewhere. Sadly though, the initial post-revolt euphoria has given way to months of seemingly intractable warfare and displacement of citizens. Nearby, the ongoing annexation of Palestinian territories and corresponding infringement of human rights at the hands of Israeli authorities continues in a more covert manner, receiving relatively little media attention. Both regions face dramatically different conditions and challenges, yet share a common history of acts of resistance, in defiance of human rights abuses.
Join us for a critical look at creative resistance across disciplinary and territorial borders, with Palestinian artist Sary Zananiri; journalist/activist Firas Massouh; architecture student Nora Massouh and Rachel Busbridge, Research Fellow at the Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University.
Refreshments provided/gold coin donations welcome!
Image: “Il giardino occupato”, by Palestinian artist Basjir Makhoul. Installation in the Palestinian pavilion, Venice Biennale, July 2013
in:
art,
community,
public space,
social justice,
war
(Update! The talk is now available online to view in bite size instalments - see below!)
We're back! Our talk series kicks off for 2011 with a timely discussion of politics and public space.
What is the role of public space in the struggle for democracy?
Dovey will share his insights on this theme, and reflect on recent events in the Middle East - where the role of the public square as a place of dissent has been brought into sharp focus.
While practices of public debate are largely confined to the institutions of governance and the mass media, significant struggles for democratic change have long been identified with the spectacle of protest and violence in key squares and streets. These include Tiananmen in Beijing, Ratchadamnoen and Ratchaprasong in Bangkok, Tahrir Square in Cairo and Pearl Square, Bahrain. This lecture will explore the appropriation of such places in terms of naming, history, surrounding institutions, urban design, spatial structure, access, traffic, communications and global media. Such appropriations are multiplicitous, rhizomic, dynamic and complex. They affirm Lefebre’s principle of the citizen’s ‘right to the city’ and the much older Socratic principle that urban space only becomes genuinely public through the contestation of different views.
Kim Dovey is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Melbourne. He has published widely on social issues in architecture, urban design and planning. Books include 'Framing Places' (Routledge, 2008), 'Fluid City' (UNSW Press 2005) and ‘Becoming Places’ (Routledge 2010). He currently leads a series of research projects on place identity, urban intensification, informal settlements and creative cities.
Same place - RMIT bldg 50, Orr St (off Victoria St), Carlton.
The talk will be followed by light refreshments. Hope you can join us!
Update! The talk is now available online to view in bite size instalments - see below!
Other event dates...
At RMIT bldg 50, Orr St (off Victoria St), Carlton
Silvia Acosta, architect and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA, is a visiting academic at Monash University's Department of Art + Design in August. She finds opportunities for student engagement in practice-based projects, and values a “hands-on” approach as a way of doing. Investigation topics are often developed in relation to issues of community and the public realm. Silvia has undertaken community-based design-build projects in Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan and the USA.
Silvia says:
"Collaborative efforts often outweigh work conceived from a singular or individual point of view; working jointly on a project is one way of forming “community.” In making community, everyone involved leaves marks without being concerned about whose handprints are in the work. Collective decisions are made through different points of view, yet these diverse outlooks share a common ambition to make something contributing to the greater good.
Architectural practice is often collaborative—involving many minds and hands, an ongoing exchange of ideas and crafts. While a kind of art form, architecture is not an isolated art; it is bound to a multitude of intersecting circumstances. Part of one large human art, it tries to understand the physical world, shape it and make room for living in it.
Our quest as artists and architects is to discover and articulate what we value. We seek out situations where a contribution might be made in an attempt to improve the lives of individuals, or the qualities of a place in some way. The work we make as architects comes from us, mirrors our reflections and longings, and yet, it is never ours; when finished, it is given away to others. So, how can we propose guidelines for a work of architecture that induces active exchange among its makers—a sense of community among the people it serves?"
Entry by gold coin donation, refreshments provided.
(Images from Silvia's community-based work in Mexico, Japan and the USA)
At RMIT bldg 50, Orr St, Carlton
(off Victoria St, between Lygon and Cardigan)
Renewal and revitalisation are buzzwords around town. Drawing on preliminary findings from current research in Dandenong and Footscray, both presently subject to R & R processes, Maree Pardy considers a range of questions related to the promises of and visions for the renewal of these suburbs. Qualitative research in both suburbs has so far involved interviews, observations and conversations with policy and planning personnel, visitors, local residents and retailers. Both suburbs share rich yet diverse histories of class, socio-economics and immigrant and refugee settlement. Both also share a distinctive element of cultural diversity, which has been central to much discussion about their branding and futures. Yet, while cultural diversity is discussed, multiculturalism seems to have disappeared from many agendas.
Focusing on the difference between cultural diversity and multiculturalism, Maree will present some of the differing relations to ‘place’ among urban designers, social and urban planners and the many and diverse individuals and groups who inhabit these suburban spaces. The difference between cultural diversity and multiculturalism is outlined and deployed to suggest the possibility of an interesting discursive split arising here, as these suburbs are differentially imagined as spaces of display and/or spaces of dwelling. Maree will explore some prospects and risks that emerge from and within this split.
Dr Maree Pardy is an anthropologist who researches in the areas of multiculturalism, gender, and immigrant communities in urban Melbourne. She teaches in the Gender Studies program in the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry at the University of Melbourne. Maree has presented a number of papers dealing with areas including identity, nationalism, multiculturalism and globalisation and authored the article "Kant comes to Footscray Mall—thinking about local cosmopolitanism" in the 2005 publication Sub Urban Fantasies. Her current research project ‘Urban revitalisation, public space and intercultural encounters’ is being undertaken with Professor Ruth Fincher, Professor Ghassan Hage and Ms Cathy Henenberg.
Download the PDF flyer for this event here
Entry by gold coin donation...refreshments provided
in:
city,
public space,
urban
This year the senate passed wide-ranging changes to Whitlam’s NT land
rights laws, with one day for discussion. Hear what happened, what it could
mean, and what built environment professionals can do about it.
in:
public space,
urban
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