Open Lectures

Dreams and Reality: Open Lecture by Archigram founder Sir Peter Cook

The next lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this spring will be British architect, professor, and writer Sir Peter Cook, who has been a pivotal figure within the global architectural world for over half a century. Cook will be stepping on the stage of the main auditorium of the new EKA building on the 25th of April at 6 pm.

Professor Sir Peter Cook RA is a founder of Archigram, a former Director at the Institute for Contemporary Art, London (the ICA) and Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London. His ongoing contribution to architectural innovation was recognised via the conferral of an honorary doctorate in April 2010 by the Lund University, Sweden. Cook’s achievements with radical experimentalist group Archigram have been the subject of numerous publications and public exhibitions and were recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2002, when members of the group were awarded the RIBA’s highest award, the Royal Gold Medal.

In 2007, Peter was knighted by the Queen for his services to architecture. He is also a Royal Academician and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres of the French Republic. Peter is currently a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London. His professorships include those of the Royal Academy, University College London and the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Staedelschule) in Frankfurt-Main, Germany.

Peter has from the very beginning made waves in architectural circles, however, it is since the construction of his Art Museum in Graz, Austria (The Kunsthaus Graz) that his work has been brought to a wider public, a process continuing with the completion of the Vienna Business and Economics University’s Departments of Law and Central Administration Buildings and Bond University in Australia’s Abedian School of Architecture. Peter has also built in Osaka, Nagoya, Berlin, Frankfurt and Madrid. More info about the projects from Crab-Studio’s (co-founded with Gavin Robotham) website: http://www.crab-studio.com.

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
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/

Erinn M. Cox artist talk at her solo show “loneliness is the slowest death : a requiem for longing”

Join the artist for a conversation about the works from her new series titled Longing, including a personal tour of the exhibition at EKA Gallery. The artist talk is in English.

For more about the artist, visit www.erinnmcox.com

The exhibition is open until April 27.
Supported by Põhjala Brewery.

The lecture takes place in EKA Main Hall (Põhja puiestee 7) on Tuesday, 16 April 18:00 and is open to everyone.

We experience so many innovations daily that we tend to forget that before their acceptance, many of these innovations have been met by resistance among the public, or by people whose livelihoods are threatened by them.

By looking into past innovation case studies we begin to understand the underlying reasons for resistance of innovations and become better equipped to propose innovative designs for our uncertain future to ultimately become the designers of tomorrow.

In the third open seminar for IxD.ma, and the second for IxDA Tallinn, we invite Haig Armen, Head of Interaction Design at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, to talk about designers’ role in creating the future.

As one of Canada’s most respected and innovative digital designers, Haig has been designing brands, advertising, and interactive projects for two decades. He has received a variety of awards throughout his career, including three The Webby Awards, two Prix Italia for Web Arts and Drama and a Gold Medal from the Art Director’s Club of New York to name only a few.

For the past six years, Haig holds a position as the Head of Interaction Design at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. His research explores the intersection of design and programming, focusing on data visualization, gestural interfaces and music technology.

Interaction design (IxD) is a theme that has emerged to address the ongoing advancements in technology and the way it relates to people. At IxD.ma we keep a broad view on the field and cover more areas than what is related to digital technology.

Tuesday, 9th of April at 18.00 Finnish artist Tuukka Kaila will hold a public presentation of his work in room A202 at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Tuukka Kaila (b. 1975) is a Helsinki-based artist working at the intersection of visual art, research and publishing. Since the late 90’s, Kaila has been actively involved in independent publishing, artist-run spaces and the cultivation of other forms of self-organized cultural production taking place outside of and occasionally overlapping with the institutional. Through various initiatives such as Numero Zine (1998-2004), Värinä darkroom co-op (2002-), Myymälä2 gallery (2003-), Bookies publishing event (2012-), Vallilan risopaja micro press (2017-) and Rooftop imprint (2017-), Kaila’s practice has consistently gravitated towards enabling a shared learning experience through participation and placing the means of artistic production and distribution at the hands of artists.

Kaila’s practice often materializes as photographs, texts and public events. Kaila’s recent works find their point of departure in questions concerning the production of knowledge. The works evolve organically through the use of a wide variety of artistic forms and epistemic strategies from dialogue to practice-based research to darkroom experimentation and printed matter.

Tukka Kaila was invited to Tallinn on behalf of the Department of Photography of Estonian Academy of Arts. During April 8–12, he is giving a workshop on analogue colour photography printing.

Unusual landscapes inspiring architecture: Open Lecture by Austris Mailītis

The next lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this spring will be Latvia architect Austris Mailītis, one of the most original thinkers of the new generation from the Baltics. Mailītis will be stepping on the stage of the main auditorium of the new EKA building on the 11th of April at 6 pm to talk about unusual landscapes and cultural context that has inspired his own work, introducing among others, the Shaolin Flying Monks Temple as well as the Latvian National Open-air Stage project.

Mailītis’ portfolio includes several unique art and architecture projects, including the Latvian pavilion at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai and the Latvian National Open-air Stage – the biggest open air stage in the world. During recent years, Mailītis designed the Latvian national pavilions at the 55th and 56th Venice Art Biennale and worked on a unique building for levitation – Shaolin Flying Monks Temple in China. In 2011, he was awarded Latvian national architecture award for his contribution to the development of Latvian architecture. In 2014, his work was nominated for EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture, Mies van der Rohe Award 2015 for the temporary pavilion designed for Esplanade park in Riga to mark the city’s year as the European Capital of Culture in 2014.

His architecture studio Mailitis Architects is based in Riga. In 2017, Mailitis Architects received the the Latvian Architecture Award for Shaolin Flying Monks Temple in China. At the moment, Mailitis Architects’ focus is on the reconstruction of the Open-air Stage in Mežaparks.

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
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/

All design enthusiasts are welcome to an open lecture by Dr. Jonathan Ventura on Tuesday, April 16, at 4 pm at Estonian Academy of Arts room A301. The guest researcher at the Royal College of Art, Helen Hamlyn Center for Design Center, focuses mainly on social and medical design, design theories and methodology, spatial and urban design, visual and material culture, and applied anthropology. In the open design lecture at EKA, he gives an introductory overview of contemporary design theory.

Design is rapidly becoming much more than an amalgam of history, practice and theory, yet as a defined sub-discipline, design theory is yet to reach its full potential. Furthermore, the schism between design theoreticians, historians and practitioners should be overcome to offer a more holistic approach. In this lecture/workshop, I wish to elaborate on the potential of teaching and practicing design as a social and material language. Moving forward from classic semiotic theories, using hermeneutics as a platform to shape design differently will help in the integration of history, practice and theory.

In this innovative outline, I see the designer not as a problem-solver, nor a “mere” translator or mediator, but rather as an active interpreter and maker of vehicles of meanings that, for example, denote and signify marital or social status,  manifest ideas, refer to previous styles of design, and symbolize their zeitgeist Accordingly, this lecture or workshop will present the semantic, referential, or expressive qualities of design objects, and of design objects that interpret their surroundings or lend themselves to interpretations within hermeneutic circles, thus generating visual-material languages.

Though design is a ubiquitous ontological and aesthetic phenomenon, and a flourishing practical discipline that is broadly taught in the academia, and while design history has developed into a respected discipline—the philosophy of design is still in its early stages. Design methodologies have been outlined and discussed. However, the long-lasting segregation between the various sub-disciplines of design, coupled with an inherent division between the philosophy of design and its practice and history cripple the overall reach of design research. Additionally, design has been sometimes considered to be a tool for devising aesthetic packaging meant for the enhancement of consumerism. In the light of global anti-consumerism, economic crises and socio-cultural changes, the designer’s role in society is starting to change.

Shifting our definition of the practice of design from semiotics to interpretation, or more broadly and accurately to design hermeneutics hold great potential to both research and pedagogy. For example, through redefining the act of prosthetic design transforms the designer to a physical interpreter, redefining the patient’s body. Thus, integrating practice and theory will help us create better-suited lessons to our complex reality.

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https://hadassah.academia.edu/JonathanVentura

Dr. Jonathan Ventura is currently researching the multilayered world of the industrial designer, focusing on medical and social design vis-à-vis applied anthropology. He is a visiting research fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art in London. He has completed a post-doctorate at the RCA and presented his PhD dealing with anthropological dimensions of industrial design, in a joint program of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (the Department of Sociology and Anthropology) and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem (the Department of Industrial Design). He teaches at the Department of Inclusive Design at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem and at the Design Graduate Program at Shenkar College in Ramat Gan. Jonathan focuses mainly on social and medical design, design theories and methodologies, theories of space and urbanity, visual and material culture and applied anthropology.

You are welcome to the Open Lecture of glass artists Krista Israel and Jacky Geurts on Thursday, 21th March at 5PM in room B604.

“The use of multiple techniques to come to complex works is based on the complexity of society. I try to capture its ambiguity in layered, ambiguous works that touch both personal and universal feelings. My work reflects how I see the world around me. References, experiences, memories, questions. I am deeply interested in the impact of our hyper-complex world on each of us as a modern person.” Krista Israel.

Krista looks for answers to those questions with her objects; especially personal answers that the viewer can think for thought. No ready-made solutions, but moments of reflection.

“Getting outside is nurture for the soul. On my daily walks I wonder about the beauty around me, the little things. But I also notice how humans interfere with nature. How we fail to protect the source we all need as a species to survive”. Jacky Geurts

Inspired by nature, human life and interaction, observing in all its details, Jacky Geurts searches for understanding of the world around myself, both on a small and larger scale.

More info about the artists:
http://www.krista-israel.com/

The next lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this spring will be Mark Wigley – New Zealand-born architect, author, and from 2004 to 2014 Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture. He will be stepping on the stage of the main auditorium of the new EKA building on the 28th of March at 6 pm to talk about his latest book that discusses the works of Gordon Matta-Clark.

Mark Wigley is a Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. He is a historian, theorist and curator who explores the intersection of architecture, art, philosophy, culture, and technology. His books include: Derrida’s Haunt: The Architecture of Deconstruction; White Walls, Designer Dresses: The Fashioning of Modern Architecture; Constant’s New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire; Buckminster Fuller Inc. – Architecture in the Age of Radio; and Are We Human? – Notes on an Archaeology of Design (written with Beatriz Colomina when they co-curated the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial). He has also curated exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, The Drawing Center and Columbia University in New York, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, and the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal. His most recent exhibition was The Human Insect: Antenna Architectures 1997-2017 at Het Nieuwe Instituut (2018).

Wigley will give a lecture entitled “Cutting Matta-Clark: The Anarchitecture Investigation” on the occasion of the publication of his new book with the same title. This major book, based on a wealth of previously unpublished images and documents, completely rethinks the transgressive building cuts by Gordon Matta-Clark, the legendary cult figure in both the art and architecture worlds.

The work of Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978) fundamentally changed our understanding of the role of architecture in everyday life. Matta-Clark is best known for site-specific installations in abandoned houses scheduled to be demolished in New York, Paris, Antwerp and elsewhere. He revealed the chaos behind the seeming orderliness of the urban space and exposed the conflict between living spaces and architectural structures. Matta-Clark belonged to an artistic community that conceptualised the idea of “anarchitecture” (a conflation of the words “anarchy” and “architecture”). “Anarchitecture” referred to the creative practice that paid attention to the shifts, voids and non-places in the urban space.

Wigley’s lecture coincides with the joint exhibition of Gordon Matta-Clark and Estonian artist Anu Vahtra in Kumu Art Museum. The exhibition is called Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect. Anu Vahtra: Completion through removal. On Friday, March 29th at 12:00 a joint exhibition visit with Mark Wigley and Anu Vahtra will take place in Kumu.

The architecture and urban planning department of the Estonian Academy of Arts has been curating 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 all interested.

The series is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. Mark Wigley’s lecture and the exhibition visit on Friday is organized in cooperation with Kumu Art Museum.

Curators: Sille Pihlak, Johan Tali

www.avatudloengud.ee
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/
https://kumu.ekm.ee/

The Many Realms of Home and Other Virtual Tales: Open Lecture by Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular

The next lecturers of the Open Lecture Series this spring will be London-based architects Lara Lasmes and Fredrik Hellberg, the founders of Space Popular. Space Popular is a multidisciplinary design and research practice that makes architecture, products, furniture graphics, interfaces and research. They will be stepping on the stage of the main auditorium of the new EKA building on the 14th of March at 6 pm to talk about the role of architectural practice in the virtual.

Lara Lesmes (Spain) and Fredrik Hellberg (Sweden), both graduates from the Architectural Association in London, founded Space Popular in Bangkok in 2013. Based in London since 2016, the practice works at multiple scales: from furniture and interior design to architecture, urbanism, and the design of virtual worlds. The duo have extensive teaching experience at INDA (Bangkok) and the Architectural Association and have lectured and participated as visiting critics internationally. Beyond their academic experience, Space Popular has ongoing and realised built projects and exhibitions in Europe and Asia.

How do we address the digital spaces we inhabit today, and the overlapping realms that will soon be an everyday reality? What is the virtual, as detached from the digital? How have virtual worlds been created, manifested and inhabited historically? What is the role of architecture as a practice in the virtual? What are function and program when there is no shelter to provide, nor problems to solve? How will the three-dimensional virtual realm challenge our notions of privacy and property? These and other issues will be discussed by Space Popular directors through examples of the office’s work. More info: http://www.spacepopular.com/

The architecture and urban design department of the Estonian Academy of Arts has been curating 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 all interested.

The series is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. The lecture of Space Popular is supported by British Council and Estonian Centre for Architecture.

Curators: Sille Pihlak, Johan Tali

www.avatudloengud.ee

https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/

More info:

Pille Epner /  arhitektuur@artun.ee / +372 642 0071

Open lecture by Peter Martin, an American teaching design in Qatar, in Middle East. The lecture will take place on Thursday, March 7 th at 18:00, room A501 of Estonian Academy of Arts (Põhja pst 7, Tallinn). Based on his 20 years of teaching experience in Qatar, at a crossroads of new and ancient, of Western and Middle Eastern cultures, of tense 21 st century global socio-political processes, Peter Martin explores how design works culturally. Unfolding the visible layers of design, he considers and explores its invisible cultural/contextual activities and significance. As Peter’s experience has revealed – nearly everything is negotiable as an imperative and a possibility. As designers, how do we begin to make sense of what imperatives we participate in and what possibilities we pursue? How can we work more holistically to the shared endeavor of living together on this earth.

Peter Martin holds a BS in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University and an MFA in Graphic Design from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He leads the Graphic Design department at VCU’s branch in Qatar on the Arabian Peninsula. He began working there in 1999, being the first teacher of visual communication in a country that had nearly no history of graphic design within its very traditional Bedouin culture. Using different platforms, Peter became a promoter of design and design thinking beyond the university campus. In 2004, he co-founded the biannual Tasmeem Doha international design conference, in 2010, he initiated and co-hosted a radio program, Design Edition. In 2014, he co-led the VCU Qatar strategic planning process. Peter’s research involves theoretical, applied and pedagogic inquiries into structures of contextual analysis and mapping methods. Also, he focuses on processes designed for social and organizational innovation.

Info:
Kristjan Mändmaa
EKA Faculty of Design
kristjan.mandmaa@artun.ee