04 Dec 2010

Institute for Art and Design / TU Vienna: Call for Contribution

Call for Contribution: www.urban-matters.org

www.urban-matters.org invites (public)art projects, programs and organisations of diverse cultural and geo-political backgrounds worldwide to contribute to this new platform for locating and connecting urgent urban issues and discussing critical and innovative approaches.
In particular, urban-matters.org investigates the potential of 'unplanning' as a possible new strategy for dealing with today's urban challenges.
'Planning' seems no more an adequate response to today's challenges of a multilayered society permanently on the move. Yet, critical projects developed during the last decade by architects, urbanists and artists continue to be a parallel production to the conventional planning methods which are predominantly investor-orientated. How can we develop new visions for urban and regional matters – counteracting the dominant pragmatics of neoliberal economy?
www.urban-matters.org is seeking for a new positioning of artistic practices, exploring the diverse and often conflictual interests as potential for a new role: the urban practitioner.

What is urban-matters.org?

www.urban-matters.org is an ongoing project conceived as an open-ended process:
As a first step www.urban-matters.org is collecting information and data of public art organizations, institutions, biennials, as well as projects or initiatives by individuals, dealing with urban issues, in order to create a complex and comprehensive overview from the perspective of various or combined professional backgrounds like artists, architects, urban designers, sociologists, theoreticians.

We are especially looking for projects/ initiatives exploring critical strategies reconsidering and counteracting the principles of decision-making currently dictated by hegemonic political acting (see Chantal Mouffe) and neoliberal economic interests.

Special features on www.urban-matters.org:

The projects/initiatives/organizations will be indicated on a map and linked through search aspects making the specific local context and issues visible, creating references to similar situations internationally and their current urban practices and approaches.

In addition, each month one project initiated by a non-institutional background with a strong political interest in questioning existing structures will be featured into depth as an example for putting forward concrete approaches for reconsidering existing systems of values and for change.

www.urban-matters.org will also serve as information platform for current topics and events between research, theory and practice, transferring the specific local context to issues concerning the realm of urban space and society to a worldwide perspective. There will also be sections for texts/theory as well as for education and links to magazines (like dérive: www.dérive.at, www.anarchitektur.com, art&the public sphere journal: ixia-info.com/art-the-public-sphere-journal, open: classic.skor.nl/set-635-en.html).

How to contribute?

Deadline for submission: Dec 22, 2010
You can download the Submission Form on www.urban-matters.org
Each project/ program/ organisation will be presented with a short introduction/ overview with key information, including a link leading to your website.

www.urban-matters.org is part of PLANNING UNPLANNED, a research project conducted by Barbara Holub at the Institute for Art and Design/ Prof.Christine Hohenbüchler, Faculty of Architecture/ Vienna University of Technology.