Los Angeles
2019 Travelling Studio Los Angeles
Studio Leaders: Loren Adams, Donald Bates, Anthony Carfello, with Alan Pert
Introduction
In this summer intensive travelling studio, you will plan a heist in the City of Los Angeles, California — a site of contention, contradiction, and possibility. Through a rigorous examination of material, cultural, and economic flows through the urban fabric, you will be asked to consider how a transgressive event — like those in classic L.A. heist films — might become a formal generator of architecture. Think Bernard Tschumi meets Heat; Die Hard with a formal agenda; Archi Grand Tour meets Grand Theft Auto.
Drawing on the rich cinematic and techno-progressive histories of Los Angeles, we will use multi-axis industrial robots and custom-fabricated robotic filming instruments to investigate the possibilities of cinema as a medium for speculative storytelling. We will instrumentalise the coordinated movement of artefacts, property, ideas, and power from one space to another. Clearly defined possessions and spatial understandings will be radically revisioned: walls will cease to be barriers; topography will become a tool. It is an opportunity to examine the ways in which architecture and urban design are complicit in the commodification of public space and the infrastructure of our cities.
This studio is a challenging summer intensive, and successful applicants are expected to commit full-time hours during January and February, 2019. Assessment tasks will require significant engagement with advanced digital modelling, robotic filming, and fabrication technologies — both in Melbourne and abroad. Students will be strongly encouraged to make use of the equipment and expertise within the MSD Robotics Lab, Workshop, and FabLab.
During a 12-day visit to Los Angeles at the end of January, we will work closely with the MAK Center for Art & Architecture to undertake a series of structured city tours by foot, bicycle, train, and automobile. There will be opportunities to work with overseas institutions (SCI-Arc, UCLA), design practices, community organisations, and colourful characters. Students with accessibility concerns are advised to contact the Studio Leader to discuss suitability.
All enrolled students must also be available to attend a full-day introductory seminar and OHS briefing on Monday, 17-Dec-2018.
Information Session
Dates:
Applications close: 02 December 2018
Teaching Start Date: 17 December 2018
Subject census date: 4 January 2019
Overseas travel dates: 21 January - 1 February 2019
Teaching End Date: 25 February 2019
Final submission/presentation: 28 February 2019
OH&S information session: 17 December 2018
To Apply:
Applicants will be assessed and selected based on academic merit and a 500 word expression of interest.
To apply, go to the EDSC Travelling Studios page at http://edsc.unimelb.edu.au/graduate/subject-options/travelling-studios and click the ‘Travelling Studio Application Form’. Complete all mandatory fields and submit by 25 November 2018.
You may provisionally enrol in ABPL90296 Travelling Studio (Los Angeles) via your Student portal on opening of re-enrolment.
You will be informed of the application outcome via your University of Melbourne email account.