belated posting about art event in Treignac, France

My apologies to Sam for not posting this when I said I would.

 

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Low Density Objects
Call for participation in five day workgroup, France, Treignac Projet  23rd – 27th JULY 2013

Low Density Objects will attempt to take account of the large scale infrastructural and productive objects that are uniquely visible to us in areas of low urban density or what we have formally called rural or remote areas. It proposes a week-long research and theory exchange to excavate the speculative opportunities available to us to reconfigure the field of architecture from the perspective of an area “more volatile than the most accelerated city”.

Nearly twenty years ago in his article Bigness, Rem Koolhaas reiterated the extent to which architecture is no longer thinkable in terms of objectives, programs and design, and must be understood as an object capable of its own unplanned generative creativity. He equally undermined the figure of the architect as a lone, heroic guarantor of the building’s meaning and authenticity, and ushered in after-architecture.

Now the question of architecture in the anthropocene brings these questions into new light as we grapple with the emergent meaningless power of Large-Scale, and the impotency with which we attempt to maintain a stable relationship with it in which “urbanism generates potential and architecture exploits it.” In his text, Koolhass states that Bigness is “incapable of establishing relationships”, it is ultimately withdrawn and unavailable to its constitutive parts.

This quality of architecture to refuse the humanist, anthropocentric conception we have of it now offers a different field of possibility for thinking the environment and our participation or annihilation in its unpredictable evolution. Low Density Objects, is the first stage towards applying the speculative philosophies that have uncoupled modern thinking from the inevitably of being locked into the purview of a limited, human perspective. The ability for thought to think beyond the limits of human experience and break the “correlationist circle” means that while eschewing the dichotomies of urban – rural, and nature – culture, it becomes possible to see the landscape of vast entities that contribute to our current ecological situation.

Approach
The workgroup will be steered by the research interest of participants starting from initial discussions and reading on three main subjects clusters around emergence, exhibiting architecture and low density agency. The work group will be an opportunity to start thinking about developing new modes of architectural practice and to examine the generation and motivation of the Brief in architectural workflows.  

Logistics
Dates: 23rd – 27th JULY (please plan to arrive and depart at least one day either side of these dates)
Location: LDO will be hosted by Treignac Projet, a gallery and residency platform founded in 2007.

2 rue Ignace Dumergue
Treignac 19260
France

Transport: By air, Limoges and Brive airports both run budget airlines to many destinations, by train the nearest station is UZERCHE. Please contact us to organise your trip and to arrange being picked up and dropped in Treignac

Accommodation will be provided on site at Treignac.

Costs: LDO is a participatory programme so there are no fees. However you are responsible for your transport and living costs. Food and drink will be purchased through a group kitty. Estimate 7€ per day for meals and drinks.

To apply or for more information contact Sam Basu at sam@treignacprojet.org and check website at http://www.lowdensityobjects.org

The event is organised by Kelwin Palmer, Cenk Dereli and Sam Basu and hosted by Treignac Projet

another good tweet

Hassan Massoud ‏@Hassan_Massoud 16m

unless you were randomly hanging out at 7aras el gomhori at 4 am, your views are entirely based on preconceived opinions not facts. shut up.

one Egyptian friend says my posts are premature

This comes from D.:

“there are also eyewitnesses who said they shot at the soldiers.. one is killed.. 40 wounded… it’s best to wait and see”

Yes, let’s see. The worry I have is that the Islamists have been demonized in recent days (in many cases by their own actions). We need to make very sure that truth isn’t the first casualty here.

Gigi gets it right too

Gigi Ibrahim ‏@Gsquare86 1m

I cant take people cheering for deaths..army vs armed civilians is very bad for our revolution, this means we are next #Egypt

agreed with this tweet

Khalid Abdalla ‏@khalidabdalla 1h

I’m shocked how inhumane my timeline has become. When 35 people are killed you don’t make fucking excuses. You simply condemn the killers.

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This was always the risk of cheering the Army and telling the world that it wasn’t really a coup. In many ways, it wasn’t really a coup. But the problem is that it was still the Army, and it’s not like we haven’t seem them do this sort of thing before.

Just last night, the Islamists were still looking like the bad guys, but the Army has now taken over that role.

We’re starting to pile up competing massacre narratives, and that’s usually what happens just before countries become totally unglued for 8 or 10 years. Who can put the brakes on this now? Can anyone?

bad start this morning in Cairo

Many people are reporting a massacre of pro-Morsi protestors during dawn prayers (at Republican Guard Headquarters where Morsi is apparently being detained). Others are saying the Brotherhood fired first, but the vast majority of reports are saying otherwise.

@Alastair_Beach on Twitter (from the UK Independent) is giving the most detailed tweets I can find so far.

The last figure I saw was 20 dead and over 300 injured.

12-year-old Egyptian boy with a shrewd political analysis

today’s shock Alexandria video: teens on roof brutalized by gang carrying al-Qaeda flag

[ADDENDUM: An Egyptian tells me the bearded guy with the al-Qaeda flag has now been captured.]

Egypt Explained video

Despite the comical tone, this guy basically gets it right.

statement on Egypt from the U.S. Congress

Egyptian public sentiment at the moment is strongly against Obama, who is viewed as having been too cozy with the Brotherhood. But a (bipartisan) statement from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee is right up the alley of supporters of military intervention. HERE. Indeed, this statement sounds like something they could have written themselves.