ASLA Oregon

March 11, 2011 Edit

in Announcements, Calendar, Community, Conferences, Education, Newswire, PDH

Illuminated City: A Light with Context Symposium

The Department of Architecture at Portland State University is proud
to announce its second annual symposium, Illuminated City: A Light
with Content Symposium, on Saturday, April 9, at the PSU Shattuck Hall
Annex. Made possible through generous private donations and strategic
partnerships, this year's event will explore new lighting technologies
and strategies that enrich the built environment, and will feature
presenters and artists from around the globe.

"This symposium, the second in a new series of annual events, brings
international perspectives into the local and regional debate about
architectural issues that affect us all," said Clive Knights, Chair of
the Department of Architecture. "As a school fascinated by the
capabilities of material to embody meaning, it seems imperative to
talk about what is perhaps the most pervasive medium of all - light."

This all-day event will showcase the work of national and
international experts, including Leni Schwendinger of Light Projects,
LTD, Ali Momeni of Minneapolis Art on Wheels, Thomas Schielke of
Germany's arclighting, and the founders of Urbanscreen, a light
projection company from Germany. All will present their research in
lighting design and technology, and discuss how practitioners here in
the Pacific Northwest can make use of this emerging element to
architecture. Presenters will also demonstrate some of their more
recent works on-site at Shattuck Hall.

"Attendees will get first-hand information on radically new ideas
about urban lighting and the technologies that make them possible," 
said Jeff Schnabel, Assistant Professor of Architecture and the Chair
of the Symposium Committee. "They will see demonstrations of light
media in the venue and will be able to talk with the designers who
created them."

In conjunction with the symposium, the Department of Architecture will
host a special PechaKucha ("chit-chat" in Japanese) night, open to
attendees and other members of the public. Devised in Tokyo in 2003 as
an event for young designers to meet, network and show their works in
public, PechaKucha hinges upon a 20-image x 20-second presentation
format, which keeps the event concise and rapidly paced.

The second in a series of annual symposia, Illuminated City is
sponsored in-part by InFocus Projections, SpitBall Media, the Regional
Arts & Culture Council and the Portland Development Commission. The
event is open to the public with payment of a $45 registration fee,
and is an AIA-approved continuing education event.

The PSU Department of Architecture's faculty hopes that this event
will bring the strategic use of light and projection to the forefront
of the Portland architecture community's conversation about emerging
media, as well as strengthen Portland's reputation as a leader in
progressive, sustainable architecture.

"Several European countries and Australia are currently the centers of
renewed interest in urban lighting," Schnabel said. "It is moving
slowly into the States, but we have the unique opportunity to make
Portland a leader while simultaneously enriching the place we live. As
designers and planners, we often don't think as much about the
nighttime condition as we should. This symposium is an opportunity to
change that."

For more information on the event, visit www.illuminated-city.com.
Please contact the Department of Architecture at 503.725.8405 or
architecture@pdx.edu with questions.