Van Alen Institute's Spring '14 events explore the city's impact on well-being, starting May 9
By Bustler Editors|
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
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There's no doubt our surroundings affect us in everyday life, even in the most subtle and intricate ways. The Van Alen Institute in New York continues this exploration with the Spring 2014 Events that will focus on the relationship between the urban cityscape and the well-being of its dwellers.
As part of the Institute's Elsewhere multi-year initiative, the series will include a variety of workshops, films, tours, performances, conversations, and tech demonstrations. The series kicks off this Friday, May 9 and ends on a festive note with the May 21st Spring Party to celebrate the Institute's 120-year legacy.
Check out the schedule of events below.
"Featuring acclaimed artists, musicians, and design practitioners along with experts in sociology, psychology, and technology, the roster includes an evening performance featuring designer Vito Acconci and artist Martha Rosler; a hands-on construction workshop on emerging public spaces; and a mobile electroencephalography (EEG) walk exploring the brain’s response to the built environment, among other participatory events.
Van Alen Spring 2014 Events continue the Institute’s multi-year initiative Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape, a series of competitions, public programs, and research that investigates how and why we escape from urban life. Examining both physical and psychological themes, the Institute’s spring season asks questions about how we experience and perceive the city, considering how escape can contribute to urban well-being."
SPRING 2014 EVENT SCHEDULE
The Imprint of the City
Van Alen Spring 2014 Events Launch
When: Friday, May 9 7:30 - 9 p.m., doors open 7 p.m.
Where: ISSUE Project Room, 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn
Tickets: $7
"How does the physical and sensory richness of the city shape who we are—for worse or for better? To launch Van Alen Institute’s Spring 2014 Events, the Institute and ISSUE Project Room present a fast- paced medley of music, poetry, personal reflections, conversations, and performances by designers, artists, musicians, writers, social scientists, and others exploring the meaning of well-being, and the effects of the city on our minds and bodies. The celebration continues with drinks following the program."
Click here for more info.
Emerging Public Spaces
Construction Workshop and Conversation
When: Saturday, May 10 Workshop 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Conversation 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: Albee Square, Corner of Fulton Street and Bond Street, Brooklyn
Admission: Free
"As neglected, underutilized urban sites are reactivated as spaces for public use, how can we retain the playful, experimental, unscripted, and the open-ended? Van Alen and Public Workshop, an organization that creates engaging opportunities for youth and their communities to shape the design of their cities, invite the public to an outdoor, hands-on construction workshop in Albee Square in Downtown Brooklyn, to collaborate on building a pop-up pavilion in the pedestrian plaza. Following the workshop, visitors will convene in the collaboratively constructed space to discuss how as city-dwellers we use—and define the use of—public space."
Click here for more info.
How Does the Brain Respond to the City?
Tech Demo and Conversation
When: Tuesday, May 13 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Where: ISSUE Project Room, 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn
Tickets: $7
"What grabs our attention in the congested city? The latest research in neuroscience is revealing fascinating things about human perception and the relationship between what we see and what we experience. And with inexpensive but high-powered tools such as electroencephalography-based (EEG) brain-computer interfaces (BCI) now increasingly accessible, it’s getting easier to tap into the signals underlying attention, stress, and our processing of the world."
Click here for more info.
What Is Well-Being, Really?
Roundtable Discussion
When: Wednesday, May 14 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Where: ISSUE Project Room, 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn
Tickets: $7
"The discussion of well-being is growing stronger across fields such as design, policy, business, and the sciences, but are we all talking about the same thing? With competing definitions, rubrics, and objective and subjective markers to measure well-being, how can we build a shared conversation about what it means to enhance the quality of urban life?"
Click here for more info.
Urban Mindfulness
Walking Tour
When: Saturday, May 17 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. and 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Where: Meet at Van Alen Institute, 30 West 22nd Street
Tickets: $7
"The technique of “mindfulness” is on the rise via an industry self-help manuals, mobile apps, and private classes—but is it substance or fluff? Originally rooted in eastern religion, mindfulness has been popularized as a remedy for everything from anxiety and stress to overstimulation and lack of focus. Could “urban mindfulness” be a meaningful tool for harried city-dwellers?"
Click here for more info.
Embodied Architecture
Yoga Session
When: Sunday, May 18 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Where: ISSUE Project Room, 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn
Tickets: $7
"You may be familiar with practices such as yoga and meditation, but have you thought about their potential to expand our thinking about how we design and inhabit space? This guided session led by Richard Allon, yoga and meditation instructor and principal of Richard Allon Architect & Associates, will work with the body, mind, breath, and space to cultivate awareness of both the internal landscape of the body and the shared urban environment. Dress comfortably and bring your yoga mat!'
Click here for more info.
Outside In
Film Screening and Discussion
When: Monday, May 19 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Where: The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street
Admission: Free
"What qualities of a place shape us, consciously and unconsciously? This film screening, presented with Times Square Arts, draws on a range of cinematic approaches to examine the links between environment, sensory experience, and well-being. The selected films take us on a journey through varied urban landscapes..."
Films:
- 45 7 Broadway (Tomonari Nishikawa, 2013, 5 min)
- A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco (Andy Black and Sam Green, 2013, 13 min)
- Lettres du Voyant (Louis Henderson, 2013, 40 min)
- The Human Scale (Andreas Dalsgaard, 2012, 56 min)
Click here for more info.
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