Attend a lecture by architect Mark Lee of Johnston Marklee; discuss how architecture can contribute to housing equity; see some of Otis College alumni and friends’ favorite things; celebrate 100 years of the LA Philharmonic; and explore public and private space in Echo Park by foot. And meet the graphic designer who is wild about Concorde.
1) Lectures: Mark Lee at USC/Bruce Sterling at SCI-Arc
Mark Lee
Mark Lee is a founding partner of the international architecture firm Johnston Marklee, along with his wife Sharon Johnston. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is also a Professor in Practice. In addition to being a respected academic with a deep historical understanding (he and Johnston co-curated 2017/18’s Chicago Architectural Biennial, themed “Make New History”), the firm has built provocative houses, interiors and cultural buildings in the US and overseas.
When: Wednesday, Sept 26, 6 – 8 pm
Where: USC School of Architecture, Watt Hall, Suite 204, 850 Bloom Walk, Los Angeles, California 90089
Tickets: Free. More information here.
Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling, famed sci-fi writer, editor and critic holds forth on the topic of “Speculative Architecture.” The “native architecture of the mid 21st century” is, he says, “post-digital, post-Internet, and post-human.” Find out more Wednesday night at SCI-Arc when he’ll give a public talk.
When: Wednesday, Sept 26, 7 pm
Where: SCI-Arc, W.M. Keck Lecture Hall, 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Tickets: Free. More information here.
2) In the Gutter | Housing as Intervention
Examples of affordable housing projects like Adams Terrace, The Six and several other recent projects show us that affordable housing can be well-designed and provide multi-family housing that elevates the community it serves. This discussion explores housing and social (in)equity and how architects can make a meaningful difference in the worldwide disparities in how we live. Urbanist and author Karen Kubey joins other panelists in a conversation moderated by DnA host Frances Anderton. You can read more about the event here. You can read more on the high cost of building affordable housing from our series This is Home in L.A. here.
When: Thursday, Sept 27, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Where: Sean O’Connor Lighting, 12995 W. Washington Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90066
Tickets: Free. RSVP here.
3) Some of Our Favorite Things
Otis College of Art and Design is celebrating its centennial this year, and they’re doing so with a massive community-driven exhibition. Artists, curators, writers, collectors and cultural influencers from the Otis community were invited to contribute art-related objects, ranging from artwork to studio tools to cherished books. For example, the show includes longtime ceramics department chair Ralph Bacerra’s Japanese calligraphy brushes, drying rack, and brush rest, inherited by Joan Takayama-Ogawa (a current professor of ceramics at Otis). Each object in the show includes an explanation of its significance, offering in total a mosaic of Otis’s network of friends and alumni, and of Los Angeles’ arts community as a whole.
When: Opens Sunday, September 30. Through December 9, 2018
Where: Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, 9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Tickets: Free. More information here.
4) Celebrate LA/ The Los Angeles Philharmonic Presents WDCH DREAMS, 3-D Projection Art
WDCH Dreams
In 1940, Walt Disney and his animators interpreted classical music into images for the silver screen masterpiece, Fantasia. This week, in celebration of the LA Philharmonic’s centennial season, the steel exterior of the Walt Disney Concert Hall becomes the silver screen for award winning media artist Refik Anadol to project his interpretation of 100 years of the Philharmonic’s music. In WDCH Dreams (Walt Disney Concert Hall Dreams), Anadol worked with the Artists and Machine Intelligence program at Google Arts and Culture to apply machine intelligence to the orchestra’s digital archives of over 16,000 performances, converting them to millions of data points, or memories. The resulting patterns, or “data sculptures” formed by the machine’s interpretation of the archives is a radical visualization of the organization’s first century, projected onto the sails of the iconic concert hall, to a soundtrack created from the LA Phil’s archival recordings. Read more about it here. Starting on Sept. 28, you can listen to the soundtrack here.
When: Opens Friday, Sept 28, every half hour, with the first performance at 7:30 and the last at 11:30. Exhibition runs through Oct 6.
Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, exterior, 111 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tickets: Free
Celebrate LA
For more L.A. Phil fun, you can help kick off the symphony’s 100th season by participating in a car-free, music-filled fest that stretches from Downtown’s Walt Disney Concert Hall to the orchestra’s summer home at the Hollywood Bowl. Bike, skate or walk between Downtown L.A. and Hollywood as more than 1,800 musicians, artists and dancers perform at six pedestrian hubs across the eight-mile route. [Unfortunately the free show that night at the Bowl is sold out.] You can find more information and the parade route here. This is a co-production of CicLAvia and Community Arts Resources (CARS).
5) Materials & Applications “ Untitled: A Procession on the borders of something that has already shifted”
Choreographed by Gwyneth Shanks and Sarah Lewis-Cappellari, Untitled: A Procession on the borders of something that has already shifted is a walking procession through private and public spaces in Echo Park that uses fences to explore questions around privacy, private property, privilege, displacement, and belonging.
Guest presenters, including a landscape architect, experts on residential zoning laws and a Chicanx artist who has drawn portraits of Los Angeles’ residential landscape, add context and insight. Following will be the premiere of passing through the bars and over, a dance film that Shanks devised and directed. This event is a project of Privacies and Infrastructures, a public program by Materials & Applications.
When: Saturday, Sept 29, 5 – 7 pm
Where: Northeast corner of Echo Park Lake
Tickets: Free. More information here.
And, let’s go back to the future, when flight went supersonic. . .
It’s been over 40 years since Concorde first entered service, and no commercial plane has ever flown faster. LA-based graphic designer Lawrence Azerrad built a huge collection of Concorde memorabilia and has turned it into a book, Supersonic: The Design and Lifestyle of Concorde. He will sign copies of Supersonic: The Design and Lifestyle of Concorde, this Thursday, September 27 at 7:30pm, at Il Caffè at Acne Studios DTLA, Eastern Columbia Building, 855 Broadway, at 9th St. Listen to DnA’s interview with Azerrad Tuesday, September 25.