Cast Contemporaries: artists respond to the completion of the Cast Collection Project at Edinburgh College of Art

Cast Contemporaries is an exhibition that explores contrasting responses to the fate of plaster cast collections in art schools. Many contemporary artists question the relevance of preserving reproductions of antique sculptures, anatomical figures and architectural details. However a growing number of young and emergent practitioners are rethinking the role of these historic educational resources. Edinburgh College of Art has one of the most important cast collections in the UK and, following a two year project in which this unique legacy has been conserved and researched, Cast Contemporaries considers the casts as catalysts for future visual arts experimentation. The exhibition, which reinterprets Edinburgh’s casts with contemporary artworks, is a collaboration between Chris Dorsett, an artist based at Northumbria University whose exhibitions combine contemporary fine art practices with museum display, and Margaret Stewart, curator of the Collection at the College. Dorsett was appointed Honorary Research Fellow at Edinburgh University to curate this exhibition for the 2012 Edinburgh Festival. The 29 contributing artists included: Christine Borland, Gareth Fisher, Kenny Hunter and Alexander Stoddart. A sixty page illustrated catalogue has been produced with 3 essays: 'Contemporaneity: having been there' by Chris Dorsett 'Athena in "The Boeotia of the North"' by Bill Hare 'The Cast Collection at Edinburgh College of Art' by Margaret Stewart More information is available on the project website: http://castcontemporaries.weebly.com

Urban Space: The Phenomena of Unfinished in the Cities of Montenegro

Throughout the history of civilisation and architecture, the phenomenon of unfinished has been constantly present. Many historical and sociopolitical developments have caused some buildings and urban areas never to be completed. Nevertheless, these “structures”, although “mistakes of the past”, have continued to live spontaneously, being integrated into the urban fabric of the city. They have often become parts of the public space, as “mutants”, and a constant inspiration for architects and artists. There are many such examples in the territory of Montenegro: Ulcinj, Risan, Budva, Pluzine, Niksic, etc. The Revolution Memorial Hall building in Niksic, an unfinished concrete and steel mega-structure – “mega-unfinishedness” (“a similar structure was not built in the former SFRY”), is a good example of it. Today, this unfinished “dead space” continues to “live” by generating new “events in space”, from “kiosk size businesses” to the idea of being simply “buried”, turning thus into a “live monument”

Artist Space Development: Making the Case

Based on case studies, discusses the challenges advocates of artist space development face, the arguments they make to garner support, the strategic approaches they take, and what they achieve in making artist space a priority in community development

Topographical reconstruction of ancient Palermo: a note on its buildings for public spectacles and their relation with the Roman-period civic planning

Topographical studies in the last decades have greatly improved our knowledge of Roman Panormus (modern day Palermo) but many aspects of its urban planning still remain obscure. It is very hard work to clearly understand a city that has been continuously inhabited from at least the Iron Age to the present. This long standing existence implies countless transformations of its urban aspect. In particular the Arab domination, in the Middle Ages, erased even the memory of the ancient place names, so the toponomastic source that is often a fundamental tool for the ancient topographer is almost useless. Using the typical sources of ancient topography and landscape archaeology and its multidisciplinary approach can be exceedingly useful in understanding the ancient aspect of a living city. We found an important lack of information about ancient Palermo: the location of buildings designed for public spectacles. The epigraphic sources prove that in Palermo there was a theatre and an amphitheatre; from a Late-Antique source we can assume that there was also a circus. This paper’s aim is to suggest concrete hypotheses to identify the locations of all three of these buildings, discuss their position and their relation to the civic plan of Panormus. These results are important in understanding this city in a more complete way but also for the protection of its archaeological heritage: these three areas lie outside the ancient walls of Palermo and have hitherto been considered “low-risk areas” for archaeology. manifestations

Image-based three-dimensional modeling of İzmir Çakaloğlu Khan

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Architectural Restoration, Izmir, 2012Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 80-83)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxiii, 92 leavesThree-dimensional (3-D) documentation in historic building conservation is important in terms of demonstrating the size, shape, location within the settlement, architectural elements, spatial and volumetric features of the building. Alterations, decay in materials, structural problems and damages can be monitored and updated in image-based three-dimensional models of historic buildings. The focus of this thesis is on the image-based three-dimensional modeling of Çakaloğlu Khan, one of the urban Ottoman Khans in İzmir dating from the 19th century. Çakaloğlu Khan is located in the historic Kemeraltı commercial district, to the southwest of Kızlarağası Khan close to İzmir harbor. The building distinguishes itself from other urban Ottoman Khans by its location, its middle passage plan type, its mass made up of spaces of various heights and original architectural elements. The model utilized two-dimensional documentation drawings of the building consisting of plan, elevation, sections and digital photos. Primarily, the photos were edited using the softwares Zoner Photo Studio 10, Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 and Inkscape, following which a solid model of the Khan was built and the photos were attached to the model surface. This model was then transferred to Google Earth, and its location on the earth was determined by entering its x, y and z coordinates. This study enabled access and sharing of the three-dimensional image of the building through satellite. The exterior mass and original architectural elements of the building were documented by using low cost digital technology in threedimensions based on images. The prepared model not only enabled to holistically perceive a building hitherto hidden among densly located buildings, but also created data to discuss numerous alternatives for its conservation decisions

The George Gund Foundation 2014 Annual Report

The George Gun Foundation 2014 Annual Report of financial expenditures and activities

Exploring the Use of Aerial Imagery Drone Perspectives for Site Survey and Inventory in Urban Landscape Design

This thesis investigates how the use of aerial drone perspectives can supplement the site survey and inventory stage of urban landscape design. Through a case study, the capabilities of drones in capturing multiple vertical and oblique perspectives of an urban landscape site is demonstrated. The findings reveal both the benefits and limitations of these perspectives for informing and communicating site survey and inventory information

Dance of the bulrushes: building conversations between social creatures

The interactive installation is in vogue. Interaction design and physical installations are accepted fixtures of modern life, and with these technology-driven installations beginning to exert influence on modes of mass communication and general expectations for user experiences, it seems appropriate to explore the variety of interactions that exist. This paper surveys a number of successful projects with a critical eye toward assessing the type of communication and/or conversation generated between interactive installations and human participants. Moreover, this exploration seeks to identify whether specific tactics and/or technologies are particularly suited to engendering layers of dialogue or ‘conversations’ within interactive physical computing installations. It is asserted that thoughtful designs incorporating self-organizational abilities can foster rich dialogues in which participants and the installation collaboratively generate value in the interaction. To test this hypothesis an interactive installation was designed and deployed in locations in and around London. Details of the physical objects and employed technologies are discussed, and results of the installation sessions are shown to corroborate the key tenets of this argument in addition to highlighting other concerns that are specifically relevant to the broad topic of interactive design