Exhibit Columbus - Mapping the Middle: Design Research Conversations

Mapping the Middle: Design Research Conversations Saturday, October 2, 2021 First Christian Church courtyard Free, open to the public Register here

Join us as we celebrate the work of this year's seven 2020-21 University Design Research Fellows. This new event, Mapping the Middle: Design Research Conversations, is a colloquium created in partnership with Ball State University and Indiana University on Saturday, October 2 in Columbus, Indiana. This free, one-day event will be outdoors in the courtyard of First Christian Church and will highlight the University Design Research Fellows as well as nationally recognized special guests. Attendees will hear reflections from each of the Fellows regarding their collaborative building processes while considering the relationship between teaching, research, and their design practice.

The University Design Research Fellowship is a network of institutions and diverse teams, who in each Exhibit Columbus cycle create research-based installations developed around a curatorial theme. For this colloquium the Fellows will consider the many ways their research uses mapping as a tool or process to examine, reveal, and represent the world around us, and further connect to the theme, New Middles, From Main Street to Megalopolis, What is the Future of the Middle City.

Participating as special guests in the colloquium are internationally recognized design leaders Amale Andraos (pictured left), Dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and Shannon Nichol (pictured right), landscape architect and founding partner of Seattle-based Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN). Returning to Columbus to participate in the event are J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients Dream the Combine (Minneapolis, MN and Ithaca, NY), and co-curators Iker Gil (Chicago, IL) and Mimi Zeiger (Los Angeles, CA). The 2020–21 University Design Research Fellows are Derek Hoeferlin, Joyce Hwang, Jei Jeeyea Kim, Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller, Ang Li, Lola Sheppard and Mason White, and Natalie Yates.

On Saturday, October 2, visitors to downtown Columbus can also experience Short Films at Midnight Palace with Future Firm, presented by Buckingham Foundation. A collaboration with YES Cinema, this nighttime screening, or "visual playlist," will display short films and animation works. Additional community events that day include a site-responsive dance performance in concert with several Exhibit Columbus installations by Dance Kaleidoscope, presented by the Columbus Area Arts Council, and Fiesta Latina, an event hosted by Su Casa, the Community Education Coalition, and the City of Columbus to celebrate the rich cultures of Latin America.

Presented in partnership with Ball State University and Indiana University, as part of the 2021 Exhibit Columbus Exhibition

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