THE MEDIATED CITY – Two Multidisciplinary Conferences [April & October 2014]

THE MEDIATED CITY – two multidisciplinary conferences examining “the city”…… a virtual, filmic, social, political and physical construct.

CONFERENCE  1.
Place: London
Dates: 01-03 April 2014
Host: Ravensbourne (University)

CONFERENCE  2.
Place: Los Angeles
Dates: October 2014 (TBC)
Host: Woodbury University

Outline:

The nature of the city is a contested concept. For architects it is generally a question of bricks and mortar – a physical entity. For human geographers it is a place of human interaction and engagement. For filmmakers it is a site for action and futuristic nightmare. For animators and computer programmers it becomes a virtual world – a second life, a SIMulated city. For sociologists, it is a defining aspect of cultural identity. For political activists and theorists, it is a place to ‘occupy’ and the site of the polis.

THE MEDIATED CITY conference offers a platform for multiple and diverse examinations of the city. It aims to bring people together from diverse backgrounds and fragment, multiply and reconfigure our readings of the city; to offer multiple and conflicting discipline perspectives. The intention is to share views of the city as physical entity, online community, film set, photographic backdrop, geographical map, sociological case study, political metaphor, digital or video game etc…. – to examine it as a mediated and shared phenomenon.

Key dates – Conference 1 – London

15 September 2013. Deadline for abstracts / initial proposals

15 January 2014. Deadline for full papers / detailed proposals

01 April 2014. Conference –1

For full details visit: http://architecturemps.com

the artist was inspired by Ebenezer Howard…

Architecture Social Club

This series of hand drawings by Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Ned Scott presents a science-fiction world in which London grows a jungle of crops for fuel and food next to Buckingham Palace.

Above: The Mall

 

The War Rooms, St. James’s Park imagines a future in which the UK’s energy supply has been cut following a war over energy resources in 2050.

Above: The Mall – detail

 

Scott presents a closed-loop agricultural system where London provides energy and food for itself without relying on imports.

Above: Smart Grid

 

An anaerobic digester would stand on the outskirts of St. James’s Park, filled with vertiginous crops.

Above: MP’s House

A sky-scraping ‘energy tower’ nearby would have plants growing on every floor, and a smart grid would be installed for efficient energy use.

Above: MP’s House – detail

 

Scott was inspired by Ebenezer Howard, the late 20th century…

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Angela McRobbie Feb. 2012 Lecture

Angela McRobbie starts this city-centered lecture with a bang, discussing what are in my mind two interconnected problems 1) how researchers have been relatively unconcerned with the thing/object and 2) how in researching her 1998 book on fashion those interviewed were relatively uninterested in the fact that creative producers are also workers…. Still watching…