Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 08:49:03 +0100
From: Urban Drift Info <info-AT-urbandrift.org>
Subject: URBAN DRIFT - 2002 +++CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS+++ 


+++CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS+++
URBAN DRIFT - 2002
OCTOBER 16th-20th 2002

++symposium +++ nightscapes +++ urbaninterfaces

URBAN DRIFT is a network for the development of trans-cultural urban 
strategies.

Over the past 3 years, URBAN DRIFT has formed part of the berlinbeta 
media festival, as a symposium which offers a platform to cutting-edge 
architects and designers for whom the city is a medium, and architecture 
a communicative tool for new urban strategies.

++The network represented by URBAN DRIFT++
Concentrating on urban voids, gaps and residual, or peripheral zones and 
public spaces, members of URBAN DRIFT act as tacticians for a 
contemporary urban praxis, developing a discourse within Berlin as one 
of the primary cities of flux. Our aim is to communicate architecture 
and urban design to a wider audience, to extend the boundaries of 
architectural discourse, and to maximise the potential of 
interdisciplinary practice. We speculate on the need to point the way to 
contemporary architectural practice and urban design as the steering and 
managing of processes; on the need to move from formalism to flux 
management.

++URBAN DRIFT 2002++
This year urban drift is a 5 day event with a rich mix of talks and 
presentations by day, screenings, thematically based visuals, lectures 
and sound-scapes by night, along with open offices, in which 
architecture and design studios engage with the urban drift themes and 
reveal innovative hybrid spaces and working methods.

++planned location++
The event is set to take place in the Umspannwerk, a 19th century power 
station in Berlin-Kreuzberg, which has recently been renovated as a 
location for large-scale cultural events.

++conference++
Mobile cultures and new urban strategies

The two-day conference will examine the impact of mobile 
telecommunications systems and media on architecture and urban design 
strategies. We will involve artists, architects, designers, theorists 
and activists in mutual discourse.

CONFERENCE THEMES

++ Technical Mobility:  Interaction design; the design of flows++
an examination of the impact of interactive and embedded technologies on 
contemporary design processes in architecture and design in the urban 
sphere.
++ Mental Mobility:  Network urbanism++
an exploration of new coalitions between architects, artists, designers 
and urban planners. How is the role of the architect and designer 
adapting to the demands of network practice, and ^Ñflux management^Ò, and 
what tools are being employed to visualize increasingly complex, 
multi-layered urban processes?
++ Mobility vs. place:  Re-humanizing technology and ^Ñconnective 
urbanism^Ò++
How do architects and designers recreate a sense of place and counteract 
the speed of the media-driven cityscape? On urban voids, the reanimation 
of residual urban spaces, and on re-engaging the public in urban design 
processes.
++ Tactical mobility: effective Strategies for the redevelopment and the 
repoliticisation of public spaces,
^Ñarchitecture is threat management^Ò ^Ö Mark Wigley
a discussion amongst architects and media tacticians with relation to 
urban space. On ^Ñflexible response^Ò, on intervening in and changing 
perceptions of the cityscape. On architecture as a medium.

++call for papers++
We welcome abstracts and short papers for inclusion in the conference 
and accompanying presentations. We also welcome relevant texts and 
essays for inclusion in the planned publication and the web site 
(textzone).

Please send abstracts of about 300 words ^Ö to: info-AT-urbandrift.org 
+++when+++ initial proposals should reach us by April 20th 2002.


++URBAN DRIFT_THE NIGHT SPACE++
The space will provide a temporary, transformational and flexible 
situation for artists, architects and designers to present their 
proposals and investigations within a more informal setting.

Communicating an ^Ñemotional urbanism^Ò and drawing from the situationist 
dérive, Urban Drift^Òs night space will encompass^Åtalks, readings, slide 
projections, screenings and urban soundscapes.

+++themes+++urban futures ^Ö real and virtual, shopping malls and garage 
settlements, the alchemy of urban narrative, urban nomadism and mobile 
technologies that foster a restless, edgy urban perspective, 
psychogeographies, scanning/mapping the city, displacement, and 
peripheral urban zones, in short, the ^Âinexhaustible inventory of the 
streets^Â (Benjamin)

++CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS++
We welcome the following from urbanists ++ video works for 
screening-AT-umspannwerk, slide shows, proposals for readings, 
performances, sound-pieces++
++ posters++ will form a significant part of the night-space^Å we welcome 
polemic, statements and images dealing with the above mentioned themes.

++ Formats++
slides 35mm or larger / vhs / svhs / mini-dv / quicktime files / 
cd-rom / jpeg files /

Initial proposals should reach us by e-mail by April 20th 2002
Please mail proposals for participation to: info-AT-urbandrift.org

Or -  post viewing copies of material/slides/related information to

Attn: Francesca Ferguson
C/o Datenflug
Urban Drift Project Space
Zehdenickerstr 21
10119 Berlin



Francesca Ferguson <franferguson-AT-gmx.net>
Urban Drift





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