An exhibition opening on January 26 in Berlin and traveling to three other cities around the world presents new, media-based approaches to tackling urban research in an increasingly complex world.
Curated by Eve Blau, adjunct professor of the history and theory of urban form and design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Robert Gerard Pietrusko (MArch ’12), assistant professor of landscape architecture and architecture, with installation design by Eric Höweler, associate professor of architecture, “Urban Intermedia: City, Archive, Narrative” brings together various media to create visual narratives of four cities: Berlin, Boston, Istanbul, and Mumbai. Each city acts as a “portal” into a set of themes explored by urban research teams made up of scholars and designers.
Part of the Harvard-Mellon Urban Initiative, a multi-year project investigating interdisciplinary approaches to urban studies, the show argues that collaboration across academic disciplines and professional boundaries is essential to a successful understanding of the the contemporary urban condition.
“Each discipline produces its own forms of knowledge, but also has ‘blind spots’ that can only be approached through other disciplinary frameworks,” write the curators in the exhibition booklet. “We use new media-rich methods to bring those blind spots into focus and to explore sites and topics that are outside the conventional narratives and dominant conceptual frameworks of urban research.”
A number of other GSD faculty and students contributed to the exhibition, including Stephen Gray (MAUD ‘08) and Alex Krieger (MCPUD ’77) (Research Directors, Boston Team); Rahul Mehrotra (MAUD ‘87) (Research Director, Mumbai Team); and Igor Ekstajn (MDes ‘11, PhD candidate) and Max Hirsh (AB ‘01, PhD ‘12) (Research Associates, Berlin Team).
“Urban Intermedia: City, Archive, Narrative” will be on view at the AEDES Architecture Forum, Berlin (27 January – 21 February 2018), SALT GALATA, Istanbul (6 March – 1 April 2018), and CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI MAHARAJ VASTU SANGRAHALAYA (CSMVS), Mumbai (15 April – 9 May 2018).
