The Polytechnic

University of Westminster, Architecture Exhibition, 2009 – extended opening

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 8 months ago.

By popular demand, the University of Westminster, Architecture Department’s annual exhibition will now remain open until the 10th July 2009.
Architecture Studios, 35 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5LS
10am to 9pm everyday
http://openstudiowestminster.org/

Will McLean and Pete Silver - Introduction to Architectural Technology

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 10 months ago.

The forthcoming RAE and general publishing phenomenon known as Will McLean and Pete Silver are releasing yet another book, this one is an ‘Introduction to Architectural Technology.’
Check out the fantastic photo of their living model of the Forth Rail Bridge featuring Yonca Ersen.

RADICAL PHILOSOPHY 160, March/April 2010 OUT NOW

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 5 days ago.

I have a review of Adrian Parr’s Hijacking Sustainability in the new issue of Radical Philosophy. Unfortunately I forgot that the journal does not use footnotes, and I submitted my text very late!! They inserted the footnotes into the text, which makes the beginning of the article slightly strange reading - sorry!
RADICAL PHILOSOPHY 160, March/April 2010 OUT NOW
Mandy Merck, The Question of Caster Semenya
Etienne Balibar, Marxism and War
Peter Osborne, Marx, Nietzsche and the Politics of Crisis
Howard Caygill, Levinas’s Prison Notebooks
Babette Babich,...

TAKE BACK EDUCATION: A TEACH-IN TO BUILD THE RESISTANCE

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 12 days ago.

TAKE BACK EDUCATION: A TEACH-IN TO BUILD THE RESISTANCE:
THIS SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY 11AM-4PM, KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
http://educationactionlondon.blogspot.com/
There is an unprecedented attack on tertiary education with cuts estimated as high as £2.5bn - or 1/3 of total HE funding. Upwards of 14,000 jobs could be in the firing line and many institutions could close altogether. We need a united campaign, not just to save jobs but also to defend education.
The No Cuts @ King’s campaign and King’s UCU are hosting a mass teach-in this Saturday. The event is aimed at both...

Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transition, by David Harvey

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 2 months ago.

David Harvey has recent posted the paper ‘Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transition’ on his webssite. It is one of the most interesting of recent attempts by a left wing academic today to think through the implications of the financial and ecological crises, and the potential (and need) for transforming neoliberal capitalism into something less environmentally catastrophic and more socially progressive. Harvey’s work has been consistently insightful in emphasising that the necessity of compound growth for a working capitalism is incompatible not only with a healthy relation to the re...

PUBLIC LECTURE: Professor Allan Stoekl (Penn State University), ‘The Drift: Surrealism, Situationism and Postsustainable Strategies of Gleaning’

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 3 months ago.

Professor Allan Stoekl (Penn State University), ‘The Drift: Surrealism, Situationism and Postsustainable Strategies of Gleaning’
Friday 27 November, 17.30-19.00, followed by reception
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R
Free Admission
ALL WELCOME!
Organised in association with the conference Surrealism, Post-War Theory and the Avant-Garde
Saturday 28 November 2009, 10.00 – 18.30 (registration from 9.30)
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Tickets: £10 <...

Organic Food Production

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 3 months ago.

Food production has rightly become a big area of design research in architecture schools in recent years. A new report by the Soil Association confirms many others regarding the benefits of organic food production. Whilst non organic food is currently cheaper to buy in our shops, that is in no small part because it privatises profit and socialises risk and externalises environmental costs. A widescale shift to organic methods, whilst challenging, might be a modern systems solution to the food question. The report summary states that:
New research from the Soil Association reveals t...

An ‘Invisible University’ Lecture Series!

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 3 months ago.

Although I am always getting my students to watch this stuff, I have realised that I have never posted this essential educational collection here. This is pretty much what you need to know today, in order to start thinking about the environmental question:
Money as Debt: Although this is not a full blown Marxian analysis, this excellent cartoon documentary by Paul Grignon communicates very clearly describes the particular form of money that modern capitalism is based upon, and makes clear why the environmental and fiscal crises are intricately interconnected. Since making this film...

Spanish Wind Farms and Peak Oil

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 4 months ago.

There are two interesting stories in today’s Guardian in relation to the occasional interest in energy issues in this blog. The first notes that this weekend Spain produced over half of its electricity from wind farms (which happens to be equivalent to 11 nuclear power stations!) The second story notes the growing recognition that Peak Oil is upon us… Indeed it is no doubt this fact that has supported the governments recent announcement of a new nuclear programme… However, whilst as the social anarchist philosopher Murray Bookchin noted, a wind farm owned by a multinational power corpora...

THE FUTURE

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 4 months ago.

The Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture at University of Westminster, in association with the David Roberts Art Foundation, presents:
THE FUTURE
Thursday 5 November 6:30
Location: The David Roberts Art Foundation Fitzrovia, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY
Presenting images of the future with:
Tom Corby is an artist and writer whose research is concerned with relocating digital imaging processes within wider aesthetic and social frameworks. He is the deputy Director of CREAM at Westminster and coordinates the digital art research cluster...

Theory Forum 09 Ecology

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 5 months ago.

Theory Forum 09 Ecology
University of Sheffield
This should be an interesting event, and is organised by the Sheffield students. I am giving a paper (abstract below) on the Saturday. The provisional programme is below:

Ning social network http://studentledtheoryforum09‐shefuni.ning.com/
tf09 ECOLOGY website http://architecture.dept.shef.ac.uk/theoryforum
Email tf09 ECOLOGY studentledtheoryforum09@sheffield.ac.uk
Provisional Programme [1 of 2] Friday 13th November 2009
09:10 Introduction by theory forum team and Agency
Talks
09:30 Ir...

Fourth Door Review

Post by The Polytechnic originally posted 9 months ago.

This commentary on the journal Fourth Door Review will be published sometime in some form in the magazine Green Building.
Review of Fourth Door Review
The Fourth Door Review is a very curious publication. It engages
thoughtfully with content that ranges from technology and new media to
holistic ecological theory, yet whilst it focuses in particular on
architecture and design, art and music - each issue typically include
a few random entries as well - there is a recipe for carrot soup in
this issue, for example. There is however, a pattern...