Open Lectures

Open Lecture by:
Rolf Hughes, Professor of Artistic Research, Estonian Academy of the Arts/Experimental Architecture Group, Newcastle University

&

Rachel Armstrong, Professor of Experimental Architecture, Experimental Architecture Group, Newcastle University

This lecture describes the framework and strategies for engaging an age of uncertainty through artistic and design-led research. The presentation will ask how we will be inhabiting and making spaces at times of radical change. Hughes and Armstrong will provide examples from architectural research, address the value of creating transdisciplinary networks, the role of the architectural thinker within such networks, and the need to protect the artistic integrity of goal-based research projects.

Rolf Hughes has been at the forefront of developments in artistic research in Scandinavia and Northern Europe from its inception. He is currently Director of Artistic Research for the Experimental Architecture Group at Newcastle University (UK), Visiting Professor for the Estonian Academy of the Arts and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme. He has supervised and examined PhD dissertations across architecture, art, craft, design, photography and the performing arts since 2000, including for the Bartlett, University of Westminster, Middlesex University, KU Leuven, Royal Institute of Technology, Oslo School of Architecture, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm University of the Arts, and elsewhere. He has published widely, and is in demand internationally as an expert on artistic research.

Rachel Armstrong is Professor of Experimental Architecture at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University (UK). Her work explores how our buildings can incorporate some of the properties of living systems to become ‘living architectures’. She was coordinator for the FET Open Living Architecture project (April 2016-June 2019) and coordinates the EU Innovation Fund ALICE project. She is a Rising Waters II Fellow with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (April-May 2016) and a 2010 Senior TED Fellow. She is also a Member of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment at Newcastle University and Director and founder of the Experimental Architecture Group (EAG) whose work has been published and exhibited internationally.

On this Wednesday, 16th October at 4 PM in room A501 takes place the 7th Open Seminar of the Faculty of Fine Arts. This time we are visited by Canadian multimedia artist Tyler Tekatch. The seminar will be held in English.

Hamilton-based artist Tyler Tekatch creates work in film, video and installation that explores perception and the religious imagination. Influenced by Canadian filmmaker/artists such as Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, Jack Chambers and Bruce Elder, Tekatch takes an experimental approach to media. He has expanded his practice to combine film and video with emerging technologies, such as projection mapping and interactivity. He has held two solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Ottawa Art Gallery, and has screened films at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Canadian National Film Board, and internationally.

https://tytekatch.com

October 9, at 16.00, room A101

Open Lecture by Jan van Boeckel
Art and Sustainability Education in an Age of Uncertainty and Climate Fear

Jan van Boeckel will give a presentation on fostering attention through arts-based open-ended approaches in an age of ecological emergency and radical uncertainty. If we are to respond adequately to the rapid and deep changes taking place in the world in our current times, we may need to envisage a very different type of education. Not one that is predominantly based on knowledge transfer, but a kind of teaching and learning that foregrounds engaging with radical uncertainty. In more open-ended modalities of education, learners tend not to know on forehand what the outcomes and expected deliverables will be. Such approaches may cause a sense of unease because of a presumed lack of control, of missing framing guidelines and clear target objectives. It is exactly in this space of vulnerability that it is essential that learners feel that their educational experience is safely contained and held by teachers and facilitators. A way of achieving this may be through employing arts-based approaches. Through such practices of artful exploring (for example together with a group of students) a sense of excitement, of curiosity and wonder may be prompted.

One of Van Boeckel’s key areas of interest is in educational activity as primarily and fundamentally an open-ended process. The outcome is not given, though the participants follow certain sequential steps which frame the process. Through teaching and hands-on doing, it aims to promote understanding of interconnected systems – both biological and cultural. Van Boeckel contextualizes this form of arts-based environmental education by valuing it as a form of ‘poor pedagogy’, as articulated by Jan Masschelein. Such practice is expressive of a view on education that is not about the transmission of knowledge but rather is a way of attending to things (Tim Ingold). It is also ‘weak pedagogy’, in which is foregrounded what Gert Biesta regards as ‘the educational imperative’: to arouse in another human being the desire to exist as subject, in dialogue with the world. For him this means being ‘in the world without occupying the centre of the world’, trying to exist in dialogue with what and who is other.

Exactly because artistic activities and research, as part of this kind of education, aren’t prima facie linked to urgent themes such as climate change – that they may lend possibilities, affordances, to take up such subjects in new ways. For, on a meta-level, they can also be seen as exercises in facing complexity, uncertainty, not-knowing, and of discovering and forging new relationships between phenomena and processes, in ways that are often far from obvious. Van Boeckel suggests that it is precisely this element of sustainable education (Stephen Sterling) we need, if we are aiming to equip new generations with skills to live in ‘postnormal times.’

Jan van Boeckel is an artist and art educator who has worked for many years on the intersections of art, education and ecology. He was professor in art pedagogy at EKA from 2015 until 2018. Before he was a teacher at the Iceland University of the Arts and other places. In academic year 2018-2019 Jan worked as senior lecturer in art education at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and as visiting lecturer and teacher on the themes of art, sustainability and climate leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS) in Uppsala, also in Sweden.
More info: www.janvanboeckel.wordpress.com

The lecture is in English, attendance free.

Open lecture „becoming [in]determinate: from specificity to responsiveness, from site to situation” by JAMES CAREY, artist and lecturer in Interior Design, School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University on Monday, 9 September 4 pm (A300). 

James Carey’s creative research practice explores process-based interventions within decommissioned buildings and gallery spaces. This presentation will discuss James’ practice and how it shifted during his PhD candidature; from one that was defined by himself and others as site-specific and spatial practice, to one that explores and manifests the concept of duration through a practice that is temporal, material and spatial. Furthermore, James will also discuss his ongoing creative research practice, particularly in the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck, USA and his project as part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019.

Biography:

James Carey is an artist and a Lecturer in Interior Design, School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University. James is also an artistic director at BLINDSIDE gallery, and he lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. 

James has an inherent curiosity to notions of process, time and duration. His practice is one of mark making, marking time, making time, and time making; foregrounding duration and marking an occurrence. His technique is one of working responsively, allowing particular temporal conditions to surface within specific situations. His marks materialise immateriality and allow the residue of particular processes to be assembled as collections of materialised and spatialised time. 

Recent projects and exhibitions include interruptions Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton 2018, future interior with staff and PhD candidates Interior Design, School of Architecture & Urban Design, RMIT as part of Melbourne Design Week 2019, and ! 金! curated by Dr Kent Wilson and La Trobe Art Institute, as part of the Castlemaine State Festival, Australia 2019. In June and July 2019, James returned to Detroit, USA for continuing research, and he will also participate in the Oslo Architecture Triennale, whose provocation explores the concept of degrowth within contemporary cities and cultures.

In cities everywhere in the world, new complex and high density large-scale urban transformation projects are initiated and implemented, like La Defense in Paris, HafenCity in Hamburg, West-Kowloon in Hongkong or Marina Bay in Singapore. These enormous undertakings represent today an established form of practicing urbanism aiming to reconfigure or extend major urban centralities.

These projects, however, tend to behave quite unpredictably. Their long realisation periods often induce changing programmes or building ensembles, political and economic constraints influence their successful completion and, very importantly, their far-reaching impact on the local and global context is mostly not effectively assessed. Therefore, these urban transformations asks for a strategic approach, where phasing, adaptability and adjustment to the context are constantly monitored in order to inform their proper operation.

This is what professor Kees Christiaanse will be discussing during his open lecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, as part of the Unfinished City research programme. The lecture will take place on Thursday, 6 June 6 pm in auditorium A101.

Kees Christiaanse studied architecture and urban planning at TU Delft. In 1980 he joined the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and was appointed partner in 1983. In 1989 he founded his own company, now KCAP Architects&Planners, in Rotterdam. In 1990 he co-founded ASTOC Architects and Planners in Cologne and was partner until 2002.

Kees focuses in his work on urban assignments in complex situations and on guiding of urban processes. He is an expert in the development of university campuses and in the revitalisation of former industrial, railway and harbour areas and is a supervisor of several international urban developments. Throughout his career Kees has always combined teaching and research with his professional work within KCAP, which has generated fruitful cross-fertilisations.

***
Unfinished City is a three-year large-scale research project conducted by the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture in cooperation with the City of Tallinn. The research project asks what could be a good and livable city in the 21st century and how this could be reflected in the urban development of Tallinn. The project focuses on exploring Tallinn’s urban design visions and spatial future scenarios. The research will be carried out thanks to the support from the real estate company Kapitel, which contributes almost half a million euros to the project over three years.

This Thursday, June 6 at 6pm you are kindly invited to take part in a series of lectures by the German conceptual artist Mischa Kuball, Danish artist and experimental designer Charles Michalsen and Spanish born, Brussels and Berlin based artist-filmmaker Alex Reynolds.

Location: Estonian Academy of Arts 5th floor, room A501.

Approximate schedule:
18:00–18:45 Charles Michalsen „Every good idea consists of good material“
18:45–19:30 Alex Reynolds
19:30–20:15 Mischa Kuball „What do we expect when we go public?“

For more info:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19mRR2A_sr804dY-9MyXmZI4LwVJsf8x_?usp=sharing

Charles Michalsen https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/157215/157216
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/475017/475018

Alex Reynolds
http://www.alexreynolds.net/

Mischa Kuball
http://www.mischakuball.com/
http://www.public-preposition.net/

Public lectures are a part of the event Portfolio Café held at the Estonian Academy of Arts Library from June 6 to 7. All the presenting artists belong to this year’s group of experts who have been invited to, within these two days, give feedback to the graduates at the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Fine Arts and Design.

Portfolio Café is supported by the European Union European Regional Development Fund, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Goethe-Institut Estland and Erasmus +.

This Thursday, June 6 at 6pm you are kindly invited to take part in a series of lectures by the German conceptual artist Mischa Kuball, Danish artist and designmaker Charles Michalsen and Spanish born, Brussels and Berlin based artist-filmmaker Alex Reynolds.

Location: Estonian Academy of Arts 5th floor, room A501.

Public lectures are a part of the event Portfolio Café held at the Estonian Academy of Arts Library from June 6 to 7. All the presenting artists belong to this year’s group of experts who have been invited to, within these two days, give feedback to the graduates at the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Fine Arts and Design.

Approximate schedule:
18:00–18:45 Charles Michalsen
18:45–19:30 Alex Reynolds
19:30–20:15 Mischa Kuball

To find out more about the lecturers and topics see the documents attached to the invitation.

Portfolio Café is supported by the European Union European Regional Development Fund, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Goethe-Institut Estland and Erasmus +.

May 20th at 16:00 at EKA room A501 Hélène Day Fraser will give an open lecture “Decoloniality? Locating Inadvertent Parallels”.

The Associate Dean at Emily Carr University of Art and Design will share work done with many others on a project called clothing(s) as Conversation. She will speak to material practice in relation to the social and questions she is currently posing of her own work in relation to decoloniality.

She asks how do we locate ourselves? What does it mean to find new routes forward? What are the tropes that trap us? Is it possible to identify, reroute, delink, move away from mainstream assumptions of design/in design?

Hélène Day Fraser is a first generation Canadian, of Welsh and English descent, born in North-Eastern Quebec. She has been formed by life in a small town on the Canadian Prairies, an island in the Philippines, downtown Toronto, Strasbourg, the outskirts of Paris, France and most recently Vancouver and the North Shore. She is the Associate Dean, Master of Design, Jake Kerr Faculty of Graduate Studies, Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Hélène was the Principle Investigator of a SSHRC Insight funded research initiative: cloTHING(s) as Conversation. ( 2013 – 2018). Recently, she received CFI funding to help support and develop a Textile Adaptation Research Program (TARP) based out of Emily Carr University. She is also a founding member and Co-Director of the ECU Material Matters research center, and an active member of Emily Carr’s DESIS lab (DESIS is an international design research network for sustainability and social innovation). In her role as Emily Carr University’s Academic Co-ordinator for Sustainability (2012 – 2015) she established Creatives with Intent, a group that promoted agency and communication pertaining to sustainability.

Hélène’s textile and garment-based research addresses concerns and developments in the areas of: sustainability, new digital technologies, craft and legacy practices of making and generative systems. Her work explores modes of social engagement, identity construction and clothing consumption habits.

It is informed by a design education, and a past professional career in fashion, design, and manufacturing. Day Fraser holds a Masters of Applied Arts in Design and a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Fashion.

Making in Mixed Reality: Open Lecture by Fologram co-founder Gwyllim Jahn

The last lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this spring will be Australian architect, RMIT lecturer Gwyllim Jahn, who investigates the implications of Mixed-Reality assembly methodologies on architectural design. Jahn will be stepping on the stage of the main auditorium of the new EKA building on the 9th of May at 6 pm.

Gwyllim Jahn is the co-founder and CCO of Fologram, a Melbourne based design research practice and technology startup building a platform for designing and making in mixed reality. Gwyllim holds an academic position as a Lecturer in Architecture at RMIT where he developed design research in the fields of mixed reality environments, autonomous robotic fabrication, behavioural design systems and creative applications of machine learning. His work has been published in leading computational design conferences and journals including IJAC, ACADIA and RobArch and he has given talks, presentations and workshops at international institutions including MIT, Stuttgart ICD, UCL, AA, Sci Arc and Tsinghua University.

Jahn is one of the authors of Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB 2019 Installation Competition winning proposal “Steampunk” – installation will be built in August 2019 in front of the green area facing the Museum of Estonian Architecture.

Fologram practice explores how building directly from mixed reality environments can extend the skills and capabilities of designers and builders by improving spatial understanding of design intent and reducing the risk of human error associated with extrapolating 2D instructions to 3D form. They build tools that dramatically improve the ability of conventional craftsmen and construction teams to fabricate structures with significant variability in parts, form, structure, texture, pattern and so on, and in many cases completely reverse design viability as impossibly expensive and difficult proposals become straightforward, low risk and cheap. Complex designs can now be fabricated on standard building sites, with cheap materials and tools, and without expensive expertise or design documentation.

In his lecture, Jahn will discuss work from Fologram that investigates the implications of Mixed-Reality (MR) assembly methodologies on architectural design. Could making in mixed reality allow us to reconfigure CAD-CAM not as a means of working to high degrees of tolerance and precision but instead as a return to craftsmanship, intuition and reflexive making? How will the medium of MR enable new forms of collaboration between designers and manufactures, or between humans and machines? What new architectural forms might be found in this superposition of the digital and the craftsman?

A brief demonstration of the Fologram toolkit on the HoloLens and mobile devices will follow the presentation.

The architecture and urban design department of the Estonian Academy of Arts has curated the Open Lectures on Architecture series since 2012 – each year, a dozen architects, urbanists, both practicing as well as academics, introduce their work and field of research to the audience in Tallinn. All lectures are in English, free and open to everyone.

The series is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
Curators: Sille Pihlak, Johan Tali

www.avatudloengud.ee
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