ktravula – a travelogue!

Call for Projects in the Visual Arts

Dear friends,

We would like to let you know of the Urban Transcripts 2011 call for projects in the visual arts, theory and research, architecture and urban design. Registrations of interest to participate with project work in the Urban Transcripts 2011 exhibition and conference close on 30.09.2011.

We would be much grateful if you could forward this information to anyone you think it might be of interest.

Best Regards,

the Urban Transcripts 2011 organising team,

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“Urban Transcripts 2011, Rome, the accidental city” is an Urban Transcripts initiative in partnership with:  Provincia di Roma  /  Facoltà di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi Roma Tre  /  Dipartimento di Studi Urbani dell’Università degli Studi Roma Tre  /  ESC Atelier

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ENGLISH

call for projects in the visual arts, theory and research, architecture and urban design.

deadline for registrations of interest: 30.09.2011

deadline for project submissions (preview material): 07.10.2011

deadline for the submission of finalised projects: 05.12.2011

Urban Transcripts 2011, Rome, the accidental city

We invite you to explore the accident(al) in the city of Rome: the accident(al) which happens over time and transforms the ‘essence’ of the city that would otherwise remain unchanged, the accident(al) which adds surprise and complexity to our reality and challenges our understanding of the city, the accident(al) which generates the energy to recreate and reshape the city.

Interested participants are invited to register by 30.09.2011 and submit their project’s preview material by 07.10.2011. The Project Review Committee will select projects based on the preview material submitted. Selected participants have until the beginning of December to finalise their projects.

registration form:

http://www.urbantranscripts.org/documents/UT2011_02_registration_form.pdf

for more information:

http://www.urbantranscripts.org

info@urbantranscripts.org

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ITALIANO

Avviso per la presentazione di paper e progetti  inerenti l’architettura,  il progetto urbano e  visual art.

scadenza per la manifestazione di interesse: 30 settembre 2011

scadenza per la presentazione dei progetti (anteprima dei materiali): 7 ottobre 2011

scadenza per la consegna dei materiali definitivi: 5 dicembre 2011

Urban Transcripts 2011, Rome, the accidental city

Vi invitiamo all’esplorazione dell’accidentale che Roma nasconde: l’accidentale che ha luogo in ogni tempo e che trasforma l’”essenza” della città, senza la quale essa rimarrebbe sempre uguale a sé stessa; l’accidentale che regala imprevedibilità e complessità alla nostra realtà, sfidando la nostra capacità di comprensione dell’urbano; l’accidentale da cui sprigiona l’energia per ri-creare e ri-configurare la città.

Gli interessati sono invitati a registrarsi entro il 30 settembre e ad inoltrare una anteprima del proprio progetto entro il 7 ottobre 2011. Un Comitato di Valutazione selezionerà i progetti sulla base dei materiali provvisori inviati. I partecipanti selezionati avranno tempo sino agli inizi di dicembre per ultimare i propri progetti.

registration form:

http://www.urbantranscripts.org/documents/UT2011_02_registration_form.pdf

per informazione:

http://www.urbantranscripts.org

info@urbantranscripts.org

Call for Projects in the Visual Arts was published on September 22nd, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Art, News category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Will the World End this Week?

There are a flurry of diplomatic activities in Washington this week in an attempt to prevent the Palestinian authorities from seeking recognition at the United Nations later in the week, or to deal with the fall-out that must surely come therefrom. It is one of the major issues on television and the internet these days. However, as Greg Gutfeld said on last week on The Five, if you turned on the television today and you didn’t know what year it is, you would still not feel any sense of disorientation. The issue of the middle eastern conflict seems to follow us wherever we turn. Has been so for centuries. Will remain so till the end of time. Or so Greg says.

I’m mostly worried about how the United States managed to get itself into a position where it would have to veto the genuine aspiration to statehood of a victimized people. Under Nobel Peace Laureate Obama’s leadership, no less.

Will the World End this Week? was published on September 19th, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Facing Mississippi

Under the banner of the Gateway Arch, the tallest monument in the country, his body perfectly aligned as a human compass, he ponders.

Here ahead is east where the sun rises. Washington DC lay ahead, as well as New York, Boston, Connecticut, Rhode Island and all those other early states where settling pilgrims first set foot from across the Atlantic and where Irene caused some damage a few weeks ago. Here where he stands was a frontier. To think that all the country was in space are ended right here by the banks of the river. Then came the Louisiana Purchase that gave the country a new lease of life and a chance for the whole of the body of land for a country. Lewis and Clark stood here with boats and tools as they set forth to discover the source of the river, and what else lay out west.

It is easy to ponder what would have happened if another country began from right here which spoke only French. Even without that, all the language influences remain in the town names all around here: Edwardsville, Maryville, Fayetteville, Collinsville, Louisville, Carlinville, Belleville, Taylorville, Greenville, Catonsville, Merrillville, Vermontville, Danville, Warrenville, Romeoville, Pinckneyville, Nashville, Shelbyville, Jacksonville, Lawrenceville, Naperville, Libertyville, Higginsville, Aullville, Boonville, Wentzville, Noblesville and the very many dozen -villes dotting this area and the Mid-western landscape.

On the last frontier at Arizona, Nevada, Texas and California (which, in this position, would be behind him) was of course the other country whose language was mainly Spanish. What is exceptional, in the end, is the way the circumstances were turned to an advantage, and the luck of being able to forge one country that occupies a distinct geographical space.

Standing here, facing Mississippi, even without the positioning of the sun, the moving waters carrying debris from everywhere, left to right, point to the direction of the south. That’s where Katrina went.

Facing Mississippi was published on September 18th, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Observations, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Here Comes Trouble

Michael Moore’s new autobiography follows the sometimes ordinary, sometimes extraordinary, life of one of America’s most controversial commentators. His movie Fahrenheit 9/11 is the highest grossing documentary of all time. Aptly titled Here Comes Trouble because of the perception of the author and movie maker during the first few years of the George W. Bush administration and his war in Iraq. He describes in great detail and with sufficient personal reflection what it felt like to criticize the administration on live television during his first Oscar win acceptance speech, and the turbulence of his life after he became public enemy number one.

The memoir-writing style of American writers (mostly public figures) has often amazed me in their ordinariness. No attempt at lyricism or any special verbal sophistication. Just facts, told sometimes with a flourish, and with humour. Not much with any real attempt at literary brilliance. This commentary of mine is ironic, of course, because the straight-forwardness of the narrative makes it a fun and light-hearted read. But it ends there. I’ll remember the facts in the book more than the beauty of how the facts were told. In short, it doesn’t challenge me even though the recollection surely delights. I’m sure this makes some sense.

Michael Moore is a controversial figure, and holding his book with me around campus has already got me a few stares. We no longer live in a George Bush America but it is still fascinating the kind of response his name elicits. A few minutes ago, a student saw it on my desk and asks what I thought could be a tricky question: “So you like Michael Moore, eh?” “I like his work,” I replied. It seems like the safest answer to give given the circumstance. As the book shows, he is however a man bold enough to take risks, and who because of those risks – and some other coincidences in life – has lived a truly remarkable life.

Here Comes Trouble was published on September 15th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , under the Observations category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

September 11, 2001 – a poem

Raining debris of a thousand dreams over Manhattan

And tears of pain, a gaping hole in the eye of summer.

The world morphed suddenly into dust and heat

and a flag-draped beginning of a new, frigtening day.

There we were, going our separate ways, waking.

Working, living, arguing – a usual rite of passage,

And there they were,  willing acolytes of a sad resolve,

boarding jetliners with armoury of a cultivated god.

 

Here we are, a decade away, still a bewildered folk.

Just a little step from the true vanity of all our pain.

So we hope, and dream, and watch, accordingly,

and live with the same wondering resolve: any lessons?

The world remains what it is – a weird blubbering ball

hanging in the daunting mystery of its core, warts and all.

 

Dedicated to the memory of victims, first responders, firemen and all other casualties of the 9/11 attacks and the war therefrom.

September 11, 2001 – a poem was published on September 11th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.