March 2011 on –empyre soft-skinned space moderated by Ana Valdes (UR) with Brian Holmes (US), Alicia Migdal, (UR) Ethel Baraona Pohl (SP), Pablo de Soto (SP), Carlos Urzola (US), Sabela de Tezanos (UR), Diego Hernández Nilson (UR), Leandro Delgado (UR), Eduardo Navas (US), Ricardo Dominguez (US), and Teddy Cruz (US)
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ <http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/> "Urban resilience" , to try to understand the new ways and methods of activism and resilience performed in the urban environment. We live in a world where the populations tend to desert the rural areas and gather in megacities. The urban tissue is made of gests, rituals, memes going viral and reproducing themselves. We are going to gather in this discussion Spanish architects and urbanists working in Fukushima and mapping the resistance against the nuclear, Uruguayan writers and philosophers working at museums and universities, thinking about time and space in a time of change of paradigms. Where is the axis where urbanists, architects, activists, writers and philosophers converge and interact? Since Guy Debord wrote about the city and the situationists saw in the city the canvas of actions and art have we been fascinated with the movements and actions generated by the city in itself. Week 1: Ethel Baraona and Pablo de Soto. Week 2: Alicia Migdal and Sabela de Tezanos Week 3: Brian Holmes, Teddy Cruz and Eduardo Navas Week 4: Diego Hernandez, Carlos Urzola and Ricardo Dominguez Ana Valdes is an Uruguayan writer and anthropologist, working in cross disciplinary research, visual arts, cyberculture and activism. She has lived in Sweden for the most of her life, now she is in Uruguay and want to start a magazine about urbanistic issues. She has been involved in the Palestine struggle and has been human shield in the region several times. www.this.is/jenin Brian Holmes is an art and cultural critic with interests in economics, sociology and politics, as well as street activism and self-organized education. His most recent collaborative project is called "Three Crises: 30s-70s-Today" (http://messhall.org/?page_id=771). Text archive at http://brianholmes.wordpress.com <http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/> Alicia Migdal is an Uruguayan writer and literary critic. She is specialized in popular culture and cinema. As a writer she is considered one of the strongest voices of her generation and she has been awarded with several prestigious prizes. She has been the chair of the Uruguayan Penclub. *Ethel Baraona Pohl. Architect [although she prefers to call herself: Professional Amateur]. Her work is a real hub linking several publications and actors on architecture and theory. Contributing editor for different blogs and magazines such as Domus <http://www.domusweb.it/>, Quaderns<http://quaderns.coac.net/en>, La Ciudad Viva, and MAS Context< http://www.mascontext.com/tag/dpr-barcelona/>, among others. She is co-founder of the independent publishing house dpr-barcelona < http://www.dpr-barcelona.com/> Pablo de Soto is an architect and cofounder of www.hackitectura.net. Editor of the books *Fadaiat: libertad de movimiento, libertad de conocimiento* <http://fadaiat.net/>, *Situation Room: diseñando un prototipo ciudadano de la sala de situación*< http://issuu.com/pablodesoto/docs/situation_room> y de los mapas del 15M< http://tomalapalabra.periodismohumano.com/2011/10/15/los-mapas-del-15m-al-15o/ > . In the last months he has been participating in the Tokyo camp, Ocuppy Kasumigaseki< http://www.scoop.it/t/cartas-desde-fukushima?tag=05_%20Occupy%20Kasumigaseki >and working with antinuclear movement in Japan, he is investigating the social and cultural answer to the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima en *Cartas desde Fukushima* <http://www.scoop.it/t/cartas-desde-fukushima>. Carlos Urzola is born in Cartagena, Colombia, Urzola has 20+ years of domestic and international experience in the field of architecture and construction. He is very passionate about architecture, sustainability and technology. Sabela de Tezanos is a writer an philosopher, working in the field of cultural management. She is a professor at the Montevideo's University and works as a curator at the Museum of Precolombine Art. Diego Hernández Nilson is an Anthropologist, master in Sociology and International Studies. He is a University teacher and research in the fields of ethnobothanic, theory of hegemony and in international issues. He has a dog called Zumbi :) Leandro Delgado is a writer and a comunicator, a cultural journalist, working within the fields of urbanism and literature. Eduardo Navas researches the crossover of art and media in culture. His production includes art & media projects, critical texts, and curatorial projects. He has presented and lectured about his work and research internationally. Ricardo Dominguez is a co-founder of The Electronic Disturbance Theater and a professor at UC San Diego in the Visual Arts Department, where he runs the b.a.n.g. lab, a space for artivist practices. He has pioneered developments in virtual sit-ins and electronic civil disobedience. In 2010, he became under legal investigation, in which his tenure was threatened, for a virtual sit-in led against the UC Office of the President and his current project, The Transborder Immigrant Tool. Teddy Cruz was born in Guatemala City. He obtained a Master in Design Studies at Harvard University in 1997 and established his research- based architecture practice in San Diego, California in 2000. He has been recognized internationally for his urban research of the Tijuana- San Diego border, and in collaboration with community-based nonprofit organizations such as Casa Familiar, for his work on affordable housing in relationship to an urban policy more inclusive of social and cultural programs for the city. In 2008 he was selected to represent the US in the Venice Architecture Biennial and he is currently an associate professor in public culture and urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at University of California, San Diego. -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15859 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/ http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/ http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/ http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/ mobil/cell +4670-3213370 "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci
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