EVENT LOCATION
Calgary’s first brick and steel edifice, the Grand Theatre was built in 1912 and housed many of the city’s first artistic companies. The theatre has had many incarnations as a concert hall, Odeon movie theatre, indoor driving range and currently as a contemporary performing arts space and restaurant. In the early 2000s the theatre faced demolition, however Calgary philanthropist Jackie Flanagan donated a significant amount to the renovation and restoration project and Theatre Junction was able to raise the rest of the sum to elevate the building to what it is today.
PANELISTS
Mimi Zeiger, Loudpaper
Alex Link, Alberta College of Art and Design
Tom Babin, Frostbike. Shifter.info
Moderated by Philip Vandermay, Spectacle Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism
(image: Jesus Martin Ruiz)
EVENT SUMMARY
d.talks launched FOLD, an online publication dedicated to creating an open forum for public conversation to expand ideas about the built environment. FOLD aims to generate opportunities for citizens to connect more deeply with their city and to recognize the value and responsibility of design.
Panelists Mimi Zeiger, Alex Link and Tom Babin discussed the role of critical thought in todays media landscape and the importance of personal experience, evidence and argument in formulating constructive dialogue on the built environment.
Mimi Zeiger works at the intersection of architecture and media cultures, she is a Los Angeles based critic, editor and curator. She’s written about art, architecture, urbanism and design for publications including The New York Times, Domus, Architectural Review, Architecture magazine. She is a regular opinion columnist for Dezeen. Her published books include New Museums, Tiny Houses, Micro Green: Tiny Houses in Nature and Tiny houses in the city. She is also founder of loud paper an influential digital publication and zine dedicated to increasing the volume of architectural discourse. She teaches at the Art Center College of Design, and has taught at the School of Visual Art, Art Center, Parsons New School of Design, California College of the Arts and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In advance of the d.talks event, Mimi facilitated a three day critical writing workshop with ten selected participants in the East Village.
Tom Babin is the author of Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling. He is also a journalist, blogger and chief cyclist at Shifter. Tom is the former features editor of the Calgary Herald and former editor of Swerve magazine. He’s written for the Los Angeles Times, National Post and Explore and wrote a popular cycling column in the Calgary Herald for many years. Currently Tom works as Manager of Global Content at Travel Alberta.
Alex Link is the Chair of Critical and Creative Studies at the Alberta College of Art and Design. He’s co-authored several titles for Image Comics. His research practice focuses on the analysis and history of comics and graphic novels. Alex also researches science fiction, gothic and detective fiction with an emphasis on theories of spatiality.
Philip Vandermay (moderator) is an accomplished architect and co-founder of the architecture and urbanism practice: Spectacle with Jesse Andjelic.
(image: Jesus Martin Ruiz)
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION
The panelist book for this event was Oxymoron & Pleonasm: Conversations on American Critical and Projective Theory of Architecture.
Visit Shelf Life Books and the d.talks recommends shelf for the panelist book and to read up on d.talks themes.
Visit our newly launched website FOLD. You can add your definition of “Border” at #dtailswhatis or visit FOLD’s contact page to see how you might subscribe, submit a story idea, or volunteer. We look forward to hearing from you!
The makers of FOLD (image: Jesus Martin Ruiz)
EVENT SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS
The event was produced in association with Theatre Junction Grand .
FOLD was produced with support from the Government of Alberta Culture and Tourism .
The d.talks pilot critical writing workshop with Mimi Zeiger was supported in part by a Calgary Arts Development Small Experiments grant.
Temporary lobby installations skillfully designed by Jennifer Basset and Atelier JCGF . Read a bit more here.
Technical Support provided by AV Evolution.
Printing courtesy of Little Rock Printing.
Food and drink generously provided by Brewsters Brewing Company, and Workshop Kitchen & Culture.
Thank you to our individual members and volunteers, dtalks memberships are available here.
Special thanks to our panelists Tom Babin, Alex Link, Mimi Zeiger and moderator Philip Vandermay.