Architectural theory eyed
through ‘talk-show’ lens

An hour-long panel discussion ranging from pop culture to architectural phenomenology, from the Jonas Brothers to German philosopher Martin Heidegger, with numerous poignant and esoteric points in between filled the first episode of “talk-show,” a live webcast that aired Oct. 6 from the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Wright Gallery.

The happening, orchestrated in front of a live audience by “talk-show” host Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture, provided a roomful of College of Architecture students and faculty with a familiar pop alternative to traditional scholarly debate formats.

The show’s first installment featured a distinguished panel of Texas A&M artists, architects and philosophers in a wide-ranging “interrogation into the question of otherness, the unknown and the uncanny” under the topic, “ugly/form.”

Joining Lang on the talk-show set — a random collection of designer chairs with a 54-inch plasma screen in the background streaming horrific outtakes from the three “Alien” movies  — were Joshua Bienko, artist and assistant professor of visualization, Gabriel Esquivel, architect and assistant professor of architecture, and Theodore George, an associate professor of philosophy and expert in post-Kantian continental philosophy.

The first Oct. 6 “talk-show” webcast can be viewed online at:
https://mediamatrix.tamu.edu:

“This was the first in a season’s series of talk shows that will attempt to expand on the hottest topics of the day,” said Lang. “To do so our formula is very simple. We will invite some of the most thoughtful and provocative people to gather for an open-ended discussion.”

The idea, he said, is to engage guests from a mix of disciplines — art, film, visualization, communications, philosophy, architecture, etc. — in critical discussions probing the positive and negative aspects of each topic.

In the next installment of “talk-show,” scheduled for noon Oct. 29, guests will examine the topic “Awful/Beauty” — beauty and the sublime — asking if we can do with one and not the other. Joining Lang in the limelight will be guests Sarah DeJong and Gabriela Campagnol, assistant professors of architecture at Texas A&M, and other guests to be announced.

The live audience will again gather in the Wright Gallery on the second floor of the Langford Architecture Center’s building A on the Texas A&M campus. The video broadcast can be viewed through TTVN, The Texas A&M University System’s wide area data and interactive communications network, which can be accessed online at http://ttvn2.tamu.edu/home

Though broadcast dates are pending, future episodes on the “talk-show” agenda include:

• Human/Nature — ecosystems to evidence based systems versus systems failure; what gets precedence?
• Tinker/Toy — game theory, A.I., robotics, virtual worlds and software versus hackers; what next?
• Outer/Space — spatial politics, gated communities, fortified border zones, enclaves and barriers versus open cities, cosmopolitanism and hospitality; how close are we to being excluded?
• State/Craft — empires, nation-states and multi-nationals versus home grown, grass roots and local; free resources? Zero-mile economy? How close are we to surviving?

Additional details, including dates and times for upcoming installments of “talk-show,” will be published in the College of Architecture’s archone. newsletter http://archone.tamu.edu/college and tweeted to the college’s Twitter subscribers http://twitter.com/ArchCollegeTAMU

- Posted Oct. 7, 2009 -