Today’s Newsdesk

Here at FASLANYC we do a relatively poor job of staying informed and up to the minute.  Nonetheless, it is spring time and that can only mean one thing- it’s time for SYMPOSIA!  In that spirit, we post this report from southern gentleman, bait shop owner, bicycle repairman and landscape architect H. Willis Montcrief on two promising events coming up at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

[Two images from “The Park,” Kohei Yoshiyuki’s photographs of voyeurs watching people having sex at night in Tokyo parks. The series was last exhibited in 1979, image via New York Times]

Queer by Design is hosting a lecture and presentation by Philly-based artist Chad States:

Much has been accomplished by examining the built environment through lenses of marginalization. Race, ethnicity, economic status, and gender are increasingly considered germane, if not fundamental, to approaching design. Sexuality is inextricable from a host of contemporary concerns –erotiphobia, transphobia, homophobia, epidemiology, mental health, policy, and the policing of public spaces, to name a few– and deserves its place at the table.

[chad states at the University of Virginia School of Architecture]

We don’t know States well (though you can read about it in the NY Times here and here) but love the chance to see some work regarding sexuality and hedonism in public spaces and consider it critical to a human and expansive understanding of what public spaces are, can do, and should be.  We assume it will be provocative and thoughtful and for those of you who will be too busy with Landscape Urbanism conferences, we’ll try and report back in a week or so.

From their website, Turning Urban:  Innovation in Megacities “This symposium will pose the question of whether extremely large cities and urban regions are loci of innovation and adaptation, or whether the rapid pace of change overwhelms adaptive processes. Participants will compare examples from cities around the world in an effort to identify spatial armatures, temporal trajectories, and conditions that invite innovation.”

[turning urban?  burning urban?  either way, should be interesting]

The symposium, which one of our correspondents is peripherally involved in, pulls together a cast of characters from across a wide range of disciplines including designers, environmental scientists, policy makers, economists and engineers.  While we aren’t sure what to expect from that group in terms of sexy images and pithy remarks about “inhabitation of synthetic operatives” whatever LU-bs you are after, we are excited by the possibilities inherent in gathering many disparate perspectives from afar and smashing them together OOO-style for three days.  Two of our favorite American megacities will be making an appearance as well.  Drop by if you are so inclined.