Currently in Museum Boijmans Rotterdam; an intriguing exhibition of the drawings by the American artist Richard Serra; famous for his large steel pieces but now illustrating the value of drawing. What matters for Serra is “what emerges from the process in producing it (..) and evade the sculptural or architectural reference.”. Maybe so, but their image is spatial all the same…..
wonderful talks at the New Institute Rotterdam by Mark Wigley and Beatriz Colomina who presented their little book; ‘Are we Human?’; a kind of summary of the 3rd. Istanbul Design Biennale 2016. Especially the link made by Wigley to Constant (Wigley wrote his great book: ’the Hyper-Architecture of Desire’ about New Babylon, 1998) about the moment Constant could longer envision man in his environments was a fine illustration of the problems we encounter with technology.
Dirk van den Heuvel (TUD), Mark Wigley, Beatriz Colomina.
the video-recordings of the 6th. IoT & Built Environment MeetUp on Art and Imagination at the WW-IoT-day in V2 Rotterdam are now online ! Look and listen back to a series of most interesting talks, comment and discuss further to ensure this important topic remains an issue. Listen to e.g. Rob van Kranenburg, Yvonne Droge Wendel, Michela Magas, Ben van Lier, Usman Haque, Frans Vogelaar.
#1_Welcome_Leon van Geest from 4D-FilmVisions on Vimeo.
a lecture by invitation of BNI on April 13th. 2017 at Intersteel Rhenen about the impact of IoT on interior-architecture and design; resulting in a fine discussion about the role/position of the architect and the consequences of technology within the home-environment.
a consortium of six European researchpartners has created the FloraRobotica project; which “objective is to develop and investigate closely linked symbiotic relationships between robots and natural plants and to explore the potentials of a plant-robot society able to produce architectural artifacts and living spaces.”
‘braid columns’
The program for the 6th. IoT-MeetUp at V2 Rotterdam is now online; together with an increasing number of meetings worldwide once again we pay tribute to an important development that needs to be discussed together with accompanying human – as well as artistic – values. Come, listen and above all discuss with a fine group of speakers, moderated by Leon van Geest.
On Dec. last year EC-FET’s Walter van der Velde gave a TED-talk in Louvain on future projects and research, the need to think ahead and recognize the value of ‘utopian’ thought.Â
Preparing for the 6th. annual IoT & Built Environment MeetUp, this year on Art & Imagination. Once again on April 9 (WW-IoT.day) in V2, the Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam; speakers confirmed so far: Yvonne Droge Wendel (Rietveld Acad.), Ben van Lier (Centric), Usman Haque (Thingful) , Florian Hellwig (Urland) , Frans Vogelaar & Elizabeth Sikiaridi (hybridspacelab Berlin)  Delfina Fantini van Ditmar (RCA) . Introduction Rob van Kranenburg, moderator Leon van Geest.
More info on program and other speakers soon to come….
January 31st.; the FET-Observe workshop in Brussels, organized and guided by Philine Warnke and Elna Schirrmeister from Fraunhofer Institute. Some 20 researchers from e.g. computing, art, media, design discussed a series of possible/wishful future technologies within a wide range of topics, including ‘Future Living Spaces’, with the aim to frame topics that  need further focused research and funding. Wonderful to experience a critical but constructive discussion from a variety of disciplines as well as a somewhat out-of-line thinking against many current developments.
Yesterday, January 17th., the Humans Issue, the 5th. late afternoon session of Club Imagine in the Theatre Rotterdam. With a focus on humanity and a close link to the arts and imagination  we address the relation between art and science, public and collective. Part of the art-images will be presented on the media-wall soon. Next session on March 14th. about utopian futures.
