Join BMW Guggenheim Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of Rotterdam-based architecture firm ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] as they discuss the Lab as a platform to explore what they call “segrification” and its relationship to urban politics. They will outline their approach to these topics by addressing “the local agenda” and “the global agenda,” and speak about their general goals, ambitions, and programs at the Lab.

Neo-Globalism: An Introduction to Week 3 at the Lab by ZUS

Photo: by and courtesy Deltree

Led by the creative consulting and design collaborative spurse, Live Feeds is a two-part program of Feedback sessions and FeedForward fieldwork that offers the public an opportunity to examine and expand on the Lab’s in-progress questions. Are you interested in the transformation of your shared environment? Join us as spurse introduces Live Feeds and learn how you can participate—for one event or over all 11 weeks of fieldwork and sessions.

Feedback Session 1: Finding the Local

The local is all around you, but just how do we know where “local” begins and ends in a globally connected city? In a world where everything circulates, it’s getting harder to identify what or who “local” really is—and, more strikingly, why local still matters. Spurse kicks off its first Feedback session with this essential topic, launching participants into an investigation of how we find and rethink the local.

Photo: courtesy spurse

Beginning in the mid-1970s, scores of young artists and musicians in the East Village and Lower East Side responded to the city’s dire circumstances by creating a new underground art scene that rejected popular notions of entertainment. Taking their cues from punk rock, these mavericks produced energetic and confrontational work that challenged ideas of art making. This short-lived but highly influential movement is explored in Celine Danhier’s Blank City, which weaves together an oral history through compelling interviews with luminaries such as Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, Beth B, and Amos Poe.

Followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Bette Gordon and James Nares.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Photo: by and courtesy Marcia Resnick, from Blank City

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Momoyo Kaijima, a principal of Atelier Bow-Wow, architects of the first BMW Guggenheim Lab structure, joins in conversation with Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman, principals of the Rotterdam-based architecture studio ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]. Followed by a Q&A session.

Image: courtesy ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim
Lab Traveling to: Lower East Side
Mode of transportation: walking

Plenty has been said about “acting locally,” but just how do you go about it when what’s “local” is constantly changing? In our first FeedForward fieldwork session, participants will travel with creative consulting and design collaborative spurse through the Lower East Side in search of a local element to see how the local is made and remade by our collective actions.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License fromCarl MiKoy.

Join us for a two-hour pressure-cooker encounter with FreedomLab Future Studies as visionary Michiel Schwarz and facilitator Vincent Rump explore what the emerging culture of “sustainism” means for the local. In a co-creation session that will take a truly integral approach to urban life and the future—in which sustainability, localism, social connectivity, and globalization meet—participants will help formulate new principles for the sustainist era. As the new ethos of our time, sustainism will shape everything from design, food, and our environment to consumption, community, and our sense of place.

3 pm talk
3:30 pm debate

Photo: courtesy Michiel Schwarz

 

Elizabeth Diller, founding principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, presents her thoughts on comfort in our cities. How do new technologies, surroundings, and expectations regarding privacy and time relate to comforts and discomforts in our urban landscape? Followed by a Q&A session.

Find and collect sounds around the city, then learn how to remix them into audio tracks that will be played in the BMW Guggenheim Lab.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from tacoekkel

 

Join East Village Radio (EVR) as they kick off a series of live streams from the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Located in the heart of New York City’s East Village, where they host original programming from a storefront studio, EVR will bring Lab events to the world on eastvillageradio.com.

A razor, a shiny knife is a culinary performance group that creates educational, social, and theatrical experiences around the world. Join them at the Lab for a conversation about a luxury the developed world takes for granted—water. Learn about modern culinary techniques and ingredients that work through the manipulation of water. These ingredients will be used to create metaphorical examples of water scarcity and potability around the world, comparing countries, cities, and even districts across the same city.

Photo: courtesy Kathryn Mahoney, 2010

Last Address (2010, USA, 9 min.)
Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Norman René, Peter Hujar, Ethyl Eichelberer, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Cookie Mueller, Klaus Nomi … the list of New York artists who died of AIDS over the last 30 years is countless and the loss immeasurable. In Last Address, filmmaker Ira Sachs (The Delta, Married Life, and the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize–winning Forty Shades of Blue) uses images of the exteriors of the houses, apartment buildings, and lofts where these artists were living at the time of their deaths to mark the disappearance of a generation. The elegiac work is both a remembrance of that loss, as well as an evocation of the continued presence of their work in our lives and culture.

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (2008, USA, 71 min.)
Wild Combination is director Matt Wolf’s visually absorbing portrait of the seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Before his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, Russell prolifically created music that spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art. Now, over 15 years since his passing, Russell’s work is finally finding its audience. Wolf incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from Russell's family, friends, and closest collaborators—including Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg—to tell this poignant and important story.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: courtesty Matt Wolf/Wild Combination

Despite a general awareness of inequality, it seems that current urban policies, planning instruments, and spatial production are still increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. If we look, for instance, at housing in Manhattan, we see that despite rent control the borough is slowly becoming unaffordable to many and locals are being pushed out. What are the main factors contributing to this unsustainable development? How can we reconcile global initiatives with local interests? Join Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] as they discuss “segrification” and “glocalization”—the focus of the Lab’s research, workshops, talks, and tours in the week ahead as we develop new models for equal glocalization.

Neo-Globalism: An Introduction to Week 3 at the Lab by ZUS

Image: courtesy ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]

 

Has gentrification prevailed as New York’s model of economic development? Our scales of transaction are moving us farther away from a space we used to call “the commons,” to the point that we can hardly recognize cycles of possibility right under our noses. Join creative consulting and design collaborative spurse to unpack the logic of the commons as a starting point for moving toward social and economic diversity.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from Masahiro Ihara

As regional character disappears and corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it is increasingly hard to tell where you are. Malls, theme parks, hotels, and corporate centers worldwide have joined into one “superlandscape,” which in this film shapes the lives of two women caught within it. One works for a corporation; the other is a young drifter. Shot over six years, Jem Cohen’s visually striking work weaves together documentation and fiction, and the mundane and the mysterious, into a meditation on the spaces we inhabit.

Filmmaker Q&A will follow  screening

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: courtesy Gravity Hill Films

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Join us for a live taping of a conversation between New York University’s Poiesis Fellows and BMW Guggenheim Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of the Rotterdam-based architecture studio ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] as they discuss how urban life is connected to the infrastructures that support it—from sewers and roads to Internet search engines and passports. Panelists include New York–based filmmaker Cassim Shepard, Chinese architect Haiyan Huang, and editor in chief of Time Out India Naresh Fernandes. Be part of our studio audience, participate in a Q&A, and debate the panelists.

Photo: used under Creative Commons from shaferlens

 

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Traveling to: Hunts Point
Mode of transportation: subway/walking

What if our cities shape us just as much as we shape them? We think that we hold dominion over our urban environments, but what if they have been co-opting us all along? Explore these questions while cataloguing our companion species and testing alternatives with members of a much broader community as creative consulting and design collaborative spurse leads a “city’s-eye view” tour through and around Hunts Point, the largest wholesale food market in the world, located in the Bronx.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from Masahiro Ihara.

 

Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, questions notions of comfort and "cityness" in the global city of New York.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Saskia Sassen

In My Brooklyn, director Kelly Anderson documents her personal journey as a Brooklyn gentrifier who tries to understand the forces behind the rapid reshaping of her neighborhood along lines of race and class. Anderson watches as an explosion of luxury housing and chain store development spurs bitter conflict over who has a right to live where and to determine the neighborhood’s future. While to some gentrification is about revitalizing the city, to others it is about erasing the eclectic urban fabric, economic and racial diversity, creative alternative culture, and unique local economies that drew them to Brooklyn in the first place. See excerpts from this work-in-progress, on view at the BMW Guggenheim Lab throughout the afternoon.

Image: courtesy Kelly Anderson and Fivel Rothberg

The NY Leftover Bailout is a weekend-long program looking at how vibrant, diverse communities are created and maintained despite gentrification processes. Between 1998-1999 and 2005-2006, social artist Jeanne van Heeswijk worked with media activist Martin Lucas in the East Village where she became captivated by the way small enterprises fruitfully intertwined with the cultural milieu—a situation that has changed drastically. In this kick-off event for the NY Leftover Bailout, van Heeswijk and Lucas, along with urban designer Marcel van der Meijs, invite you to look at the micro-scale of the area as the basis for cultural, economic, and social change, and address the need for diverse, locally-based entrepreneurship.

12 pm
Introduction to the NY Leftover Bailout: Keeping Spaces for Unplanned Small Initiatives by Fivel Rothberg (filmmaker).

Screening: Some Place like Home by Kelly Anderson and Allison Lirish Dean

1 pm
Discussion on the Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene development as reflected in Some Place like Home, followed by a presentation by Maisha Morales, FUREE (Families United for Racial and Economic Equality) Board Member.

Short introductions and shared experiences on gentrification by vendors: Aziza Browne (Aziza Jewelry), Sergio Deynes, Linda Cav (A Tee Grows), and others.

1:30 pm
Lisa Willis (Co-Producer, Counsel, My Brooklyn) speaks on the changes in Fort Greene and introduces the documentary, My Brooklyn.

Screening of clips from My Brooklyn by Kelly Anderson and Allison Lirish Dean (Documentary in development)

Interviews and Kickstarter clips include:

Discussion of rezoning issues by
-Tom Angotti, Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College of the City of New York, on rezoning

-Purnima Kapur, Director of the Department of City Planning of New York City, on rezoning and development in Downtown Brooklyn

Discussion of gentrification by
-Craig Wilder, Professor of History at MIT, on gentrification and small businesses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Discussion of public subsidies for private developments versus affordable housing by
-Alyssa Katz, Pratt Center for Community Development, on tax breaks for luxury high-rise development and ownership

-Michelle de la Uz, Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, on lack of affordable housing, its replacement with luxury high-rises, and its impacts on the neighborhood

Discussion of the culture of Brooklyn with a focus on the shifting landscape of Downtown Brooklyn racially, economically, and culturally
 -Jamel Shabazz, Photographer, on the culture and transformation of Fulton Mall

Notes by Dan Steinberg (Spokesperson for Good Jobs New York) on Albee Square Mall

2:45 pm

Meredith TenHoor (architectural historian), co-author of Street Value: Shopping, Planning and Politics at Fulton Mall, speaks on Downtown Brooklyn.

3:30 pm

A LES Perspective with Susan Fleminger (Henry Street Settlement's Arts-in-Education Director) and Joel Feingold (community organizer, GOLES, Good Old Lower East Side - advocacy group).

Jeanne van Heeswijk and Marcel van der Meijs create art and cultural projects with a focus on the social aspects of public space. In projects around the world, they have catalyzed cultural production and created new public (meeting) spaces or remodeled existing ones in collaboration with local residents. Here, in the second part of the NY Leftover Bailout, they lead a group conversation on how to strengthen community assets in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification. Together with Fivel Rothberg (filmmaker), Martyn Lucas (artist and activist), Sebastián Gutierrez (documentary filmmaker), Tobias Amborst (Interboro Partners), Damon Rich (architect), Joel Feingold (community organizer) and others, they address the power of autonomous spaces, social centers, and green spaces.

Image: courtesy Tomorrow's Market, Freehouse

Above:  Footage of the 1990's LES history

Against the backdrop of Loisaida, a set of three short documentaries by Sebastián Gutierrez about the Lower East Side squatting movement to be screened throughout the day, the NY Leftover Bailout weekend continues by addressing the need for affordable housing and the presence of diverse social groups within cities. Join Jeanne van Heeswijk, Marcel van der Meijs, and activists from the Lower East Side for a sit-in to share squatting stories, strategies, and analysis of spaces for formal and informal social interaction.

Among others, join Sebastián Gutierrez (filmmaker), Frank Morales (squatter, priest and housing activist), Hector Quintana (director, squatter), Paul Garin (art and media consultant), Marta Rosario and O4O (Organizing for Occupation) for this day-long event where rice and beans will be served in the afternoon by Adela's restaurant.

12 pm
Frank Morales (squatter, priest and housing activist)
The Spirit of Occupation/Foundations to Squat

1 pm   
Marlis Momber (photographer) Viva Loisaida, A Portrait
With live music

Free Lunch from ADELA’S
(Rice and Beans + Empanadas)

2 pm   
Paul Garin (Organizing for Occupation)
Cyber Planning O4O’s Eviction Watch Network

3 pm   
Hector Quintana (squatter)
Alphabet City Squatting Time 1990’s Footage

4 pm   
Sebastian Gutierrez (filmmaker)
Documenting the other Lower East Side – Loisaidatv

Image: courtesy Alphabet City Squatting Time by Hector Quintana

Charlie Ahearn, director of the now-classic hip-hop film Wild Style (1982) and documentary portrait Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer (2011), will present a selection of musical shorts created over the past five years. These works include collaborations with hip-hop pioneers such as Grandmaster Caz and young groups like Nine 11 Thesaurus and take the viewer on a musical ride to Berlin, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and across New York.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: courtesy Jane Dickson

 

Global institutions are increasingly interested in engaging with the urban reality. Aware of the challenges that accompany rapid urbanization, they have the power and reach to develop solutions to them. But how does a global entity become involved in local practices to address public problems? To what extent are global actors capable of dealing with specific issues? Join Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] as they introduce the focus for this week’s activities at the Lab: “neo-globalism.” This week we will decode the forces and possibilities of global initiatives for urban causes.

Neo-Globalism: An Introduction to Week 3 at the Lab by ZUS

Image: courtesy ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]

 

Ever wonder how changes at the scale of the city register at another scale? Scientists call this the “butterfly effect,” a phenomenon that is nearly impossible to observe, but one that we strive to simulate in order to shape our human behaviors into best practices. But are simulation models the only way we can recognize multiple scales at work, and would sensing by other means change how we behave in the city? Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse brings these questions to the forum in search of new tools and language that moves beyond the global/local duality.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from IvanWalsh.com.

The City Dark chronicles the disappearance of darkness. The film follows filmmaker (and amateur astronomer) Ian Cheney, who moves to New York City from Maine and discovers urban skies almost completely devoid of stars. Posing a deceptively simple question, “What do we lose when we lose the night?,” the film leads viewers on a quest to understand how light pollution is affecting people and the planet. In six chapters weaving together cutting-edge science with personal, meditative sequences reflecting on the human relationship to the sky, The City Dark shines a new light on the meaning of the dark.

Filmmaker Q&A will follow screening

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text and image: courtesy Wicked Delicate Films

 

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Teju Cole, author of Open City, speaks on the novel’s theme: the city as palimpsest (in ancient Rome, a wax-coated writing tablet whose surface did not always obliterate previous writings). He will explore how, in New York, particularly Lower Manhattan, the past coexists quite literally with the present. What do the earlier pasts of Manhattan mean for us today as we think about recent erasures like that of 9/11 and of rewritings like the new construction at Ground Zero? Does writing over what has been written on before entail an ethical responsibility? Can historical knowledge help us heal from collective trauma?

Image: courtesy Teju Cole

Could one continuous walk down First Avenue to the East River give us clues to all the many differing possibilities of our global reality? Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse plans to find this out with tour participants—humans and nonhumans alike. As we traverse the city to the East River, we will not only cut across neighborhoods, ecosystems, and histories, we will speculate on how we are also cutting across a range of scales that elasticize with every step.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from jonathanpercy.

 

Join us for a two-hour pressure-cooker session with philosopher and social entrepreneur Thieu Besselink of FreedomLab, a research lab and think tank investigating social change. Besselink will facilitate an active open-space session on how the global can be embedded in the local, and whether this will lead to multiple modernities. Have you been struggling with urban complexities, authority, embedded technology, shifting values, and new design agendas for new social ecologies … or not? Join us as we discuss new “teleologenic” learning models and how to develop an integral change approach that combines personal, social, and global systems.

Photo: courtesy Resilience Alliance website, “Key Concepts”

Michael Sorkin and Sharon Zukin, two of New York’s most well-known urban critics, discuss how globalization, consumption, and gentrification are having a constant effect on the smallest details of the urban fabric around us. Join them in conversation and learn how the city might find a comfortable balance between large-scale pressure and small-scale pleasure.

Related Multimedia:

Sharon Zukin: On Comfort

Image: courtesy Michael Sorkin and Richard Rosen

 

Join I Meditate NY in this live meditation and talk about cultivating social connectedness in an urban setting and pragmatic ways to increase belongingness in this age of heightened technology.

I Meditate NY is a meditation movement empowering New Yorkers to do more of the things they love by recharging through meditation: a practical way to refresh every day.

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab currently sits within First Park, a New York City Parks property on Houston at 2nd Avenue, where it will live until October 16. But what is to become of this previously rodent-inhabited site once the Lab continues its travels to Berlin and Mumbai? Will it become a park? Home to a condo? A prison or a supermarket? Join Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] in part 1 of this idea extravaganza, co-organized with Alejandro de Castro from Columbia University’s Latin Lab, to discuss, speculate, and provoke ideas about what’s next for First Park. Parts 2 and 3 of What’s Next? will follow in September and October.

Cities exist to bring people together, but cities can also keep people apart. From “no loitering” signs to racial steering to beach badges, our cities are full of devices meant to disperse and divide citizens along race, class, and age lines.

Join Interboro Partners and friends Damon Rich, Andrew Kahrl, Kaja Kuhl, Amy Lavine, Berryl Sattyr, Meredith Tenhoor, and others for a discussion about how architecture can be used to include and exclude.

Photo used by permission under Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) License from JessyeAnne.

 

Lab Team members Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] wrap up the two and a half weeks of programs they have brought to the Lab—workshops, debates, screenings, dialogues, and tours—with an animated talk pointing out the problems, paradoxes, and challenges faced when confronting comfort. They will reflect on the goals of the Lab and the outcomes so far in order to pass the programming stick to the next Lab Team member, Olatunbosun Obayomi. Their conclusion will be a visual manifesto that will be situated in the Lab for further development.

Neo-Globalism: An Introduction to Week 3 at the Lab by ZUS

Image: courtesy ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]

Lower East Side resident and artist, Clayton Patterson has created a series of five Sunday salons for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. This week, join Troy Harris and Donte Harris, producers of the documentary No Place Like Home: The History of Hip Hop in the Lower East Side, as they talk about the legacy of hip-hop in the neighborhood. The brothers have worked on a number of projects dealing with African American history on the Lower East Side. Donte Harris also documents Lower East Side minority history and produces Holla Back TV.

See an excerpt of Hollar Back TV at the following link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgrUIDdC-zE

Then, view work by Lower East Side artist Jerry Pagane, who is respected not only for his art and his sign painting, but also for his life struggle, which started with his birth on Christmas Eve 1948, when he was abandoned by his mother.

http://www.jpaganesigns.com/aboutjerrypagane.html

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab

Traveling to: Clayton Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum, 161 Essex Street, New York

Mode of transportation: Walking

More Dates

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Sunday, October 16, 2011

In 1959, a decade prior to Manhattan's Stonewall riots, across the bridge in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the Starlite Lounge was founded as a non-discriminating bar for gay people of color. In 2009, the community was shocked when the Starlite Lounge, now the oldest, Black-owned bar was given notice to vacate. Starlite was filmed during this critical moment at the intersection of race, sexuality and gentrification.

The Starlite Project is a feature length documentary and on/offline network strategy, currently in production. Please join the filmmakers to view scenes from the rough cut and to engage in a discussion with them and their special guests.

Guests include George Chauncey, author of Gay New York.

Followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Kate Kunath and Sasha Wortzel.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text and image: courtesy Kate Kunath and Sasha Wortzel

 

Above: 28mm, Women are Heroes, train in Kibera, Kenya

Because women are often the first victims in times of war and left to their fate in times of peace, artist and filmmaker JR honors women who, despite all the pitfalls of life, keep smiling with the strength to fight and carry hope of a better life. From the favelas of Rio to the slums of Kenya, through the streets of India and Cambodia, this movie highlights the struggles and expectations of individual women living in difficult circumstances around the world. Displaying their pictures as huge pastings on the walls of their neighborhoods and towns, JR highlights these strong and moving personalities and relates the uncommon destinies of members of a population too often overlooked.

Followed by a conversation with JR.

8:30 pm open seating
8:45 pm screening

Image: courtesy JR

 

Keeping the city clean is an enormous challenge. BMW Guggenheim Lab Team member Olatunbosun Obayomi, a microbiologist, inventor, and TED Fellow, will introduce his innovative work in the field of wastewater management in Nigeria and compare the sewer systems of Lagos and New York, both today and as they may look in the future.

Photo: © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

When you use the toilet, where does the self begin and where does it end? Infrastructural systems have a tricky way of removing us from ourselves, and usually for good reason. But what remains is more than an added convenience. We have come to believe that we are separate from these processes, dislocating the self from the system. Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will explore this separation more closely—how it shapes our city and, by extension, how it shapes us.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from CWPatterson11.

 

Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is home to the 60,000 Zaballeen (Arabic for “garbage people”). Far ahead of any modern green initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. When the area is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: courtesy Barry Iverson
Text: courtesy Iskander Films

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

For those craving the true roots of rap, Wild Style captures the hard-core South Bronx scene at its birth and stars the pantheon of hip-hop’s pioneers, including DJ Grandmaster Flash and the Rock Steady Crew. The film stars the legendary subway artist Lee Quinones and the queen of the graffiti scene, Sandra “Pink” Fabara. It follows the outlaw artists through train yards to rap/breakdance clubs and climaxes at a massive outdoor jam, the most famous hip-hop party in history.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text and image: courtesy Charlie Ahearn

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Traveling to: New Jersey Meadowlands
Mode of transportation: van/boat

What if nature and culture were no longer considered two separate systems? What sort of city might you really see? Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will lead a voyage by boat to the heart of New York City’s most astonishing postnatural landscapes. On the Hackensack River, where comfort meets waste, we’ll navigate through our future ecosystem: a remediated swamp, a wastewater treatment plant, a mall, a housing development, a capped landfill, and a Superfund site.

Photo: courtesy Johanna Vandemoortele

Urbanist Hans Venhuizen introduces New York to The Making Of—a large group game through which Venhuizen has collected the full range of opinions, wishes, initiatives, and interventions for various complex planning questions around the world. Regardless of whether you are a tourist, a neighborhood activist, a city official, or just a passerby, join us for The Making Of to envision the future of the East Village.

Photo: courtesy Gert Jan van Rooij

Parquette: by Hans Venhuizen

 

An evening with Gabrielle Hamilton, chef/owner of PRUNE restaurant in New York’s Lower East Side and author of the New York Times best seller Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef.

Event Video

Due to adverse weather conditions the Lab will be closed on this day. We are working to reschedule this event so please check back in the upcoming weeks for an update.

Have you ever wondered why you choke up in front of a group of ten—let alone one thousand? Why your heart pounds, your palms sweat, and you have trouble remembering a well-rehearsed speech? Join I Meditate NY in this live meditation as we explore gaining true freedom from within: the ability to be natural and fully comfortable with yourself from the inside, regardless of external environmental pressures.

Meditate NY is a meditation movement empowering New Yorkers to do more of the things they love by recharging through meditation: a practical way to refresh every day.

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

 

Due to adverse weather conditions the Lab will be closed on this day. We are working to reschedule this event so please check back in the upcoming weeks for an update.

Since 1979 Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music, and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge, he’s recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos, and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.

Text: courtesy Remy Chevalier

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

Due to adverse weather conditions the Lab will be closed on this day. We are working to reschedule this event so please check back in the upcoming weeks for an update.

Signified is a documentary project featuring and highlighting the work of queer-identified individuals who are fostering enriching and sustaining vibrant and diverse communities. The project is comprised of an ongoing web series of short video profiles, an online platform for educational-resource exchange, and a salon forum featuring the work of a diverse range of queer people and organizations. Join us as we discuss the vision behind the project, screen highlights from season 1 of the video series, and hear from two of Signified’s featured subjects, MM Serra and Darnell Moore. Live drumming and refreshments to follow.

Image: created by and courtesy Anna Barsan and Jessie Levandov

Due to adverse weather conditions the Lab will be closed on this day. We are working to reschedule this event so please check back in the upcoming weeks for an update.

Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling freshwater supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and the human scale. The film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water arms race, and highlights the people and institutions addressing the problem. All the while, it begs the question “Can anyone really own water?”

Filmmaker Q&A will follow  screening

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text: courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

What if we imagined the world without the concept of an outside—would there even be such a thing as waste? “Waste” is not a pregiven term, and yet our sense of comfort is so profoundly defined by it. Can we invent a better way of thinking and acting that unhinges us from perpetual waste? Join creative consulting and design collaborative spurse for a wild, freethinking session to develop pragmatic possibilities for a world in which we no longer throw things away.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from Urban Woodswalker.

David Simon is an author, screenwriter, and producer whose background as a crime beat reporter has provided the basis for his creative examinations of the contemporary American city. Simon is best known as producer and writer of the critically acclaimed television series The Wire (2002–08) and Treme (2010–). These immersive novelistic works are richly populated with compelling characters whose intersections reveal the complex network of forces at play in cities. Whether detailing the plague of corruption in Baltimore or the rebuilding of community in post-Katrina New Orleans, Simon’s works have much to tell us about how we live in cities today, our aspirations, and our challenges.

Event Video

Photo: by and courtesy Paul Schiraldi

A razor, a shiny knife is a culinary performance group that creates educational, social, and theatrical experiences around the world. Join them at the Lab for a conversation about a luxury the developed world takes for granted—water. Learn about modern culinary techniques and ingredients that work through the manipulation of water. These ingredients will be used to create metaphorical examples of water scarcity and potability around the world, comparing countries, cities, and even districts across the same city.

Photo: courtesy Kathryn Mahoney, 2010

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Join Hester Street Collaborative and the Center for Urban Pedagogy for a panel discussion about design and social change. Speakers will present models for collaboration between designers and community-based partners that help to engage local residents around planning issues, demystify complex public policy, and empower people to make real-world change in their communities.

Image: courtesy Hester Street Collaborative

 

Spurse will lead a research voyage by boat to the heart of New York’s most astonishing postnatural landscape. On the Hackensack River, where comfort meets waste, we will look at what happens after heavy rains, as our rivers and bays turn into sewage outlets for human waste, dispensed through a hidden network of combined sewer outflows (CSOs). Is this merely a poorly designed holdover from another era, or a strange reality of water flows meeting human flows? On this journey we will confront how our personal comfort produces systemic (dis)comforts, as we encounter evolving critters, multispecies squatters, and others, all negotiating novel alliances toward our future ecosystems.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Johanna Vandemoortele

Red Bucket Films is a New York–based collective of writers, directors, cinematographers, art directors, and actors interested in capturing the beauty of ordinary life in cities. Their films show us stolen moments and hidden places. They have produced hundreds of short films and two features, The Pleasure of Being Robbed (Cannes, 2008) and Daddy Longlegs (Cannes, 2009). Members of Red Bucket will present a program of short works, including some “Buttons,” which they describe as “found films from the everyday,” as well as their acclaimed new short, John’s Gone (Venice, 2010).

Image: courtesy Red Bucket Films

I Meditate NY has created an urban meditation series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to be held every Saturday at 10 am from August 6 until October 15. This series introduces meditation to empower participants to contemplate what “comfort” means to them. It provides a technique for examining the inner environment to enhance the outer environment. Sessions aim to challenge comfort zones and provide a tool to create sustainable comfort: comfort that comes from within and goes with you. Each session includes an introduction to meditation.

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

Above: Workshop led by Basurama at ICO Museum, Madrid, 2010

What is waste, and what can waste tell us about who we are? Join creative collective Basurama in this presentation and hands-on workshop to analyze trash from New York City and gain better insight into the city’s consumption processes. Participants are invited to bring their own nonorganic waste produced in the previous 24 hours. Bring your paper cups, wrappers, and cans to the Lab and participate in an insightful discussion about the inherent creativity of trash, where waste comes from, and where it ultimately ends up.

It is suggested that participants commit to all three events led by Basurama: Saturday, September 3, 11 am–2 pm and 2–5 pm, and Sunday, September 4, 10 am–4 pm.

More Programs
Saturday, September 3, 2–5 pm
Saturday, September 3, 7–9 pm
Sunday, September 4, 10 am–4 pm

Photo: courtesy Basurama, 2010

Above: Workshop led by Basurama at CCE in Córdoba, Argentina, 2009

Participate in a trash safari in the vicinity of the Lab and learn about domestic and public waste in the area. The safari will be led by Basurama, a creative collective based in Boston and Madrid whose work focuses on the study of waste.

It is suggested that participants commit to all three events led by Basurama: Saturday, September 3, 11 am–2 pm and 2–5 pm, and Sunday, September 4, 10 am–4 pm. 

More Dates
Saturday, September 3, 7–9 pm
Sunday, September 4, 10 am–4 pm

Photo: courtesy Basurama, 2009

 

Architect, writer, and urban planner Denise Scott Brown, a principal of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates and an author of the influential book Learning from Las Vegas, engages in a conversation with Basurama’s Juan López-Aranguren and Pablo Rey Mazón. Join them in a discussion about waste, its role in our lives, its place at the roots of our creativity, and its artistic possibilities in architecture and urbanism.

More Dates
Sunday, September 4, 10 am–4 pm

Photo: courtesy Frank Hanswijk

 

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

Above: 6,000 km landscape project, Scrapyard Hermanos López, Parla, Spain, 2006

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Mode of transportation: bus

Join creative collectives Basurama and Trashpatch on a bus journey through the five boroughs to investigate the life of trash in New York City. During this narrated tour, explore the consequences of our consumer actions by tracing the routes that trash takes through our urban landscape and the natural environment.

It is suggested that participants commit to all three events led by Basurama: Saturday, September 3, 11 am–2 pm and 2–5 pm, and Sunday, September 4, 10 am–4 pm.

Photo: courtesy Basurama, 2006

Above: Photo of Doctor Ores in front of his office on 2^nd Street, Lower East Side, New York, NY, 2011.

Clayton Patterson has created a series of five Sunday Salons for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. This week, join Dr. David Ores, general practitioner, as he discusses his work providing general medical care and other community medical services for the poor and people without health insurance on the Lower East Side. He has also organized a coop for restaurant workers and tattoo removal for former prisoners & gang members.

Links
http://www.davidjoresmd.org

Photo by Clayton Patterson, courtesy Clayton Patterson

More Dates
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011

Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling freshwater supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and the human scale. The film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water arms race, and highlights the people and institutions addressing the problem. All the while, it begs the question “Can anyone really own water?”

Filmmaker Q&A will follow  screening

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text: courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

Conventional definitions of comfort as an individual measure are being upended by the unseen risks in the shared systems that our social and personal comfort-ability depends upon. VisionArc director, Landon Brown, will present a talk and open workshop to examine the interface between visual language and the shared systems of day-to-day life in the city. The visual language of formal systems will be used as a stepping off point. From there the workshop will open to discuss ways in which the repurposing of familiar parts of the city's social, infrastructural and commercial landscape might offer a glimpse into future solutions for confronting shared risk at the urban scale.      

Image: courtesy VisionArc

“Environmental justice” imagines that a healthy and equitable environment is an essential right for all humans, but is it also a right for nonhumans? Coming to terms with this difficult question brings us closer to a new model of politics that is as dynamic as our environments. In a good game of sideways thinking, creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will speculate on the urgency of a new paradigm that gets at who we are and, more strikingly, how we are of the environment, not simply in it.

 Photo: courtesy spurse

Located in the heart of South Central Los Angeles, a lush 14-acre community garden (the largest urban farm in the United States) began as a form of healing after the devastating riots in 1992. Led by South Central farmers, it grew into an oasis where an economically depressed community could grow its own food and foster a sense of belonging. But when the owner of the land, a wealthy developer, decides to sell, the mostly Latin American farmers must organize and confront City Hall. Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s Academy Award–nominated documentary exposes the ensuing struggle, revealing the fault lines in American society and raising questions about equality and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

Filmmaker Q&A will follow screening

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: by and courtesy  Don Normark/Black Valley Films
Text: courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories

 

 

Lab Team member Olatunbosun Obayomi concludes his time at the Lab with a dynamic wrap-up talk. Listen in as he gives an analysis on the infrastructural challenges of waste and water in the city when confronting comfort. And join him as he recounts lessons learned from the programs and events that took place during his residency at the Lab as passes the programming stick to the next Lab Team member, Omar Freilla. 

Photo © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Climate change caused by human activity is the sum of billions of individual activities that increase greenhouse gas emissions—which means that each one of us as an individual has a direct impact. Join Columbia University professor Clara Irazábal as she speaks about climate change, then measure your own ecological footprint and learn ways you might be able to improve your footprint in day-to-day activities that, when collectively practiced, can have direct and feasible results in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (Organized by Latin American and Caribbean Lab, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University.)

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from erix!.

 

BMW Guggenheim Lab design architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Co-Principal of Atelier Bow-Wow, discusses the importance of behaviorology and the crucial role that architecture can play in giving back a sense of autonomy of spatial practice to citizens.

Related Multimedia:

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

Lab Design: A New Take on Public Architecture

Lab Design: Carbon Fiber - Opportunity for Innovation

Architectural Animation

New York Lab Architecture

Atelier Bow-Wow, BMW Guggenheim Lab Architects 

Image: courtesy Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

Join Lab Team member Omar Freilla, founder of the Bronx-based cooperative incubator Green Worker Cooperatives, as he weaves together what a future could look like if we make democracy a part of daily life. Get a bird’s-eye view of the threads that bind immigration, prisons, the economy, the environment, technology, urban design, health care, and more as he kicks off the two and a half weeks of programs he will host at the BMW Guggenheim Lab.

Photo: courtesy Deltree

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Location: A visit to Rocking the Boat, South Bronx
Mode: By subway, walking and rowing 

What if we could recognize environmental injustices with more than just our eyes - how would new forms of action take shape? Building a more interwoven world of justice, growth, health and the commons demands new forms of collaborative enterprise with species and systems beyond ourselves. To understand these new tools at work, creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will conduct an afternoon of research with the good folks of Rocking the Boat, investigating the Bronx River by rowboat.

We strongly recommend you wear appropriate clothes and comfortable shoes as this activity will take place outdoors. In the event of rain the activity will not be cancelled. 

Photo: courtesy spurse

Above: BOOM Palm Springs

We have to start a revolution. The way we age in America is inhumane and inadequate, he says: there are 17,000 nursing homes in this country, and there are 17,000 reasons not to move into any of them. The dignity of aging needs to be reinstated, and we cannot do that by chasing eternal youth. Architect Matthias Hollwich explores a new way for society to deal with aging, by outlining how we can pioneer our own future selves, and how architecture and urbanism can be reengineered to support new living typologies, service proximities, and social relevance and space. Join the conversation and become part of the New Aging revolution!

Image: courtesy Squared Design Lab

 

Artist, critic, and theorist Dan Graham has built a career around our shifting perception of space, which he examines through performance art, installations, video, sculpture, photography, and writings. Join him for a session in which he continues his constant blurring of the distinction between architecture and art in an analysis of comfort that confronts the Atelier Bow-Wow design for the BMW Guggenheim Lab, his own pavilions, and a variety of spatial experiences in Lower Manhattan and far beyond.

Video artist Kelly Loudenberg’s New Urbanism series looks at imaginative and sustainable solutions for urban living, from rooftop farming to Dumpster swimming pools and underground opera houses. Traveling around the world, she visits designers and artists bringing nature to urban settings, finding new ways to live and exploring alternative uses of existing spaces.

Photo: by Mary Mattingly

Left: Data sculpture; right: Public Notice: An Exhausted Film

The lot at First Park, a New York City Parks property, now temporarily occupied by the main structure of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, has been derelict for many years but has the potential to become a vibrant community resource. What will happen after the Lab leaves? Join First Street Green for the What’s Next 2 workshop to help decide.

Event Video

10 am
Meet and greet with volunteers and participants

11 am–1 pm
History of First Park and the 33 East First Street Site by Robert Graf, First Street Block Association President

Future of the 33 East First Street Site by Jorge Prado and Silva Ajemian of Todo Design

Art in the Parks by Department of Art and Antiquities, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

It’s My Park by Annie Fredricks, Hester Street Collaborative, and Jordan Pender, Partnership for Parks

Space as a Making Place for Questions by Graeme Sullivan, Director, School of Visual Arts, The Pennsylvania State University

2–5 pm
It’s My Park—videos by Adrian Sas, producer

Visioning Wall Workshop—participants assemble a modular inspiration/idea sculpture to chart community programmatic interests

Community Survey and Balloon Run—small groups of local volunteers, videographers, and artists canvas the neighborhood and invite participation in the programming workshop at the Lab

5–7 pm
Reception with refreshments, music, and presentation of the completed visioning wall

7–9 pm
Public Notice: An Exhausted Film, a live-cinema performance by Ofri Cnaani, Cheryl Kaplan, and Kathryn Alexander. Powered by a failing battery, Public Notice is an episodic tale that begins with a mock trial. The work, combining folly, tragedy, and history, travels peripatetically through urban and peripheral landscapes and international borders, and ends when the battery runs out of power.

Image (left): © Todo Design, 2011. All rights reserved.

Image (right): courtesy Ofri Cnaani and Cheryl Kaplan, © Ofri Cnaani and Cheryl Kaplan, 2011. All rights reserved.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab presents the portfolio Your House Is Mine, a collection of artwork and writing produced in the wake of the 1988 Tompkins Square Riots in New York City-the confrontation of police and radicals over the eviction of squatters in Lower East Side properties and the 300 homeless individuals living in Tompkins Square Park.

Organized and edited by: Andrew Castrucci and Nadia Coën Produced by: Bullet Space, an anarchist squatter community since 1986.

With artists: ACT-UP, Miguel Algarín, Chris Burden, Paul Castrucci, Betzaida Concepción, Nadia Coën, Yolanda Crespo, Dar, Daze, John Fekner, Eduardo Galleano, Allen Ginsberg, David Hammons, Lady Pink, Pain, Public Enemy, Adam Purple, Red Rodriguez, Will Sales, Sane, Sebastian Schroder, Walter Sipser, Seth Tobocman, Anton van Dalen, Bruce Witsiepe, Krzysztof Wodiczko, David Wojnarowicz, and many others.

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

On the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, we remember the tragic events and where we were on that day. This collective memory, shared around the world, is being reflected in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Jake Barton of Local Projects will discuss the creation of the media design for the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Memorial Guide digital wayfinding and storytelling apps, and an algorithm developed to help in the arrangement of names of those honored by the Memorial

Photo: courtesty Squared Design Lab

In 1958 Jerome Robbins’ “ballet in sneakers” NY Export: Opus Jazz became a smash hit when it was broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show and toured around the world. Set to an evocative jazz score by Robert Prince and abstract urban backdrops by Ben Shahn, the dance told the story of disaffected urban youth through movement that blended ballet, jazz, and ballroom dancing with Latin, African, and American rhythms to create a powerfully expressive, sexy, and contemporary style. Now, the work comes full circle in a vibrant new scripted film adaptation, conceived by the New York City Ballet soloists Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi and shot on location around New York.

Followed by a Q&A with creators Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text: courtesy Bar/Suozzi Productions

Image: courtesy Jody Lee Lipes

 

What does it mean to be an immigrant? And who is really impacted when people leave their homes in search of a dream? Is there more to the story than what is debated in the press? Using popular education tools, the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center will lead participants in mapping their personal migration stories and identifying the forces that encourage us to get up and move. Whether you think of yourself as newly arrived or native born, just curious or a committed community organizer, this workshop will leave you with a new way of seeing yourself and the world.  

This will be a bilingual (Spanish/English) workshop.

Image: courtesy Latin American and Caribbean Community Center 

Isn’t it odd that the terms we use to classify New York’s newly migrated populations are so similar in their connotation? Take humans and plants, for instance: human migrants might be “illegal aliens,” and plant migrants “invasive species.” How we understand systems of migration leads to how we understand circulations of power. Is there a model of thinking about our city’s populace that imagines that everything has moved, and will continue to move? Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will dedicate this session to alternative understandings of migrations and immigrations.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from Rjones0856.

Thousands of Haitian plantation workers in the Dominican Republic toil under armed guard to harvest sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. These modern-day slaves suffer grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education, or health care. Narrated by Paul Newman, Bill Haney’s award-winning documentary follows Father Christopher Harley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of the hemisphere’s poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced.

6:30 pm open seating
6:45 pm screening
8:15 pm discussion with Haitian & Dominican human rights activists to follow screening

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

More than 1,200 cities around the world are bringing democracy into the often obscure and mysterious world of city budgeting. Participatory Budgeting pulls away the curtain that keeps most of us from knowing how our tax dollars are spent. In cities like Chicago and Porto Alegre, Brazil, neighborhood residents are voting in school cafeterias and meeting halls on priorities for government spending. Learn from the Participatory Budgeting Project and Community Voices Heard how New Yorkers are working to bring Participatory Budgeting to the Big Apple. Get a feel for how it works as we create a budget right in the Lab.

Image: courtesy Participatory Budgeting Project

For its By the City/For the City project, the Institute for Urban Design gathered hundreds of design challenges from New York residents and invited designers to develop proposals addressing these ideas. Now, join the Institute as it launches the first-ever Urban Design Week festival (September 15–20) with the announcement of the By the City/For the City competition winners at the BMW Guggenheim Lab. The evening will also feature the launch of An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York, a new publication based on By the City/For the City that presents a collective portrait of how we imagine the city’s future.

Please RSVP at Eventbrite. RSVP is not required, but recommended.

Image: courtesy Institute for Urban Design

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Traveling to: Environment of Lower East Side
Mode of transportation: walking

How would the city look to a naturalist or activist who did not discriminate between alien and native (species)? In light of the move away from the ideology of invasive species in contemporary science, is there an alternative way to look at how we and other creatures circulate and find comfort? Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will lead a study walk through the Lower East Side together with New School's Professor of Anthropology Hugh Raffles during which they will introduce a new classification system for naturalists and immigration-rights activists alike.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) License from kygp

Join Columbia University professor Clara Irazábal as she speaks about the conditions of immigrants in this country and the challenges that a radically and irreversibly multicultural U.S. poses to architecture, planning, and development. She will conclude her presentation by inviting audience members to brainstorm ideas for immigrant integration in New York and debate their implications for planners, policymakers, and community members. (Organized by Latin American and Caribbean Lab, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University.)

Photo: courtesy Clara Irazábal

Join Hester Street Collaborative and Partnerships for Parks as they launch the interactive website for People Make Parks, a project to help New Yorkers participate in the design of their parks. The website, designed by Objective Subject, makes the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation’s capital-design process accessible to community groups throughout the city. When citizens weigh in on park design, government builds better parks—and the public continues to care for places that they have helped to make.

An interactive exhibit of People Make Parks tools, media, and case-study park sites will be on view.

Image: courtesy People Make Parks

I Meditate NY has created an urban meditation series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to be held every Saturday at 10 am from August 6 until October 15. This series introduces meditation to empower participants to contemplate what “comfort” means to them. It provides a technique for examining the inner environment to enhance the outer environment. Sessions aim to challenge comfort zones and provide a tool to create sustainable comfort: comfort that comes from within and goes with you. Each session includes an introduction to meditation.

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

Join the BLK ProjeK and executive director Tanya Fields to share food and ideas about food sovereignty and a more economically inclusive local food system. Participants will excite their palates with dishes representing the flavors of the Bronx prepared by local chefs and locally sourced from New York City’s community gardens and urban farms. Each table will offer not only a culinary treasure, but rousing conversation around the local. What is local? What does it look like, and who does it include? Facilitated by moderators who are doing the hands-on work of bringing an inclusive and just local food system to New York, this workshop will expand participants’ knowledge as well as their palate and offer possible alternatives to fix a broken food system.

Event Video

Image: courtesy The BLK ProjeK

Join us for an informal reception with incoming students from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to reflect on future goals relating to the transformation of urban life. The event will be led by Urbanology game facilitators Kate Dineen, Eric Henderson, and Steven Lenard, who will be joined by distinguished Wagner faculty Zhan Guo and Eduardo Moncada for a dialogue about urban issues and our individual potential to make change. NYU Wagner educates students to be socially minded future leaders of nonprofit organizations, government institutions, and private corporations in service of the public good.

Photo: NYU Wagner

Join us for the launch of Landform Building: Architecture’s New Terrain, a book edited by Stan Allen and Marc McQuade, designed by Thumb and published by Lars Müller with the Princeton School of Architecture. Landform Building traces an alternative history of architecture understood as artificial landscape.

Presentations by Lucia Allais, Nina Katchadourian, Geoff Manaugh, Eric Sanderson, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo will address the larger context of the book: the place of nature in the contemporary city, and the many ways in which the division of nature and culture is being remapped today.

Image: courtesy Robert Miller Gallery, New York

Sharon Gannon and David Life, co-creators of Jivamukti Yoga, consider the comfort of animals as we “confront comfort” in the city. Yoga teaches us that real comfort for ourselves can only be attained if we provide comfort for others. This talk will include a simple and fun asana practice suitable for everyone.

Photo: courtesy Sharon Gannon and David Life

Above: Jeremiah Newton, James Rason, and Zach Steuart-Portier after a screening of Beautiful Darling at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2011

Clayton Patterson has created a series of five Sunday Salons for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. This week, join Jeremiah Newton, playwright and executor of the estate of Candy Darling—one of Andy Warhol’s superstars—as he shares anecdotes about Warhol’s Factory and its legacy. A native New Yorker, for the past 20 years Mr. Newton has served as the film industry liaison for New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009 he produced the feature-length documentary Beautiful Darling, which premiered at the Berlinale and at New Directors/New Films at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was also a writer of the 1996 indie I Shot Andy Warhol. His new play, StarDusk, is based on his experiences with Candy Darling, and takes place on closing night of a production of Tennessee Williams’ Small Craft Warnings. Newton is the recipient of the Hamptons International Film Festival’s 2010 Golden Starfish Award, and the prize for Best Documentary at the 2010 Chicago International Film Festival.

Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beautiful-Darling/109274572424772

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Traveling to: Clayton Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum, 161 Essex Street, New York
Mode of transportation: Walking

Photo: by and courtesy Clayton Patterson

More Dates
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011

Mahina Movement combines poetry and song to create passionate music tied to flesh and bone, straight from the heart. The all-woman trio tells stories of the personal and political wrapped with courage, strength, and an awareness of human struggle and connection. Three voices and one guitar blend to produce a powerful force, mixing folk, rock, and rhymes in English, Spanish, and Tongan simmered with indigenous roots and culture. Mahina Movement generates a strong, steady “movement” for community—with radical love, unstoppable activism, and ruthless compassion. They’ll be joining forces with Friends of the Congo to raise awareness of the escalating levels of violence taking place in the Congo—violence rooted in the mining industry, which supplies the global demand for the electronics that maintain modern levels of comfort.

Image: courtesy Mahina Movement 

Director Tim Skousen offers a rare glimpse inside the notorious Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where men are finding hope and transformation through the Hudson Link program, one of the only college-degree-granting programs in New York’s Department of Corrections. The program, which is sponsored through individual donations, is rigorous. While 60 percent of the nation’s convicts fall into recidivism once released, none of the Hudson Link graduates have returned to prison. Instead, these men return home with a strong desire to serve the communities that they formerly preyed upon.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: courtesy of Tim Skousen/Zero Percent
Text: courtesy of Sarah Harris

Worker cooperatives are businesses that are owned and controlled by the people who work in them. Their workers have a direct stake in the local community and the power to be more environmentally responsible. They tend to create long-term stable jobs, maintain sustainable business practices, and bring democracy to the workplace. Join Lab Team member Omar Freilla of Green Worker Cooperatives for an interactive workshop to learn what cooperatives are all about, what it takes to start one, whether you’ve got what it takes, and how to get going. Then join in on the fun and be a cooperator for an afternoon by playing the new board game Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, a fun and educational game where players make tough choices to keep their cooperative in business going while putting their teamwork talents to the test. This is a game of skill and solidarity, where everyone wins—or everybody loses.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from theregeneration

This workshop is followed by Live Feeds Feedback Session 8: We talk about collaboration, but just how do we collaborate if we don’t know who or what to bring to the table? Join creative consulting and design collaborative spurse in exploring what happens when we cannot escape collaboration, and how this might play out in terms of our current sensibilities about comfort. 

Photo: courtesy Lucia Seijo

In a landscape dominated by abstract notions of capital and production, SolidarityNYC presents five short portraits of people behind a different kind of economy—one where democracy, justice, ecological sustainability, and cooperation are essential to the bottom line.

Portraits of the Solidarity Economy are shot and edited by Alex Mallis and Iva Radivojevic of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and produced by Cheyenna Weber, Michael Johnson, and Caroline Woolard of SolidarityNYC.

Image: courtesy SolidarityNYC

After Argentina’s economic collapse of 2001, Latin America’s most prosperous middle class faces a bleak landscape of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. That is, until the former employees of the Forja auto plant reclaim the space and run the factory themselves. This simple but daring act shows how workers are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of a failed system. Avi Lewis’s documentary is set against the backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic disaster is the frontrunner.

7 pm screening
8:30 pm post-film discussion with members of NYC worker cooperatives

Text and image: courtesy Icarus Films

Being an effective communicator is an essential skill that gives advocates for social change the tools to hone their story, challenge prevailing cultural narratives, and ultimately build stronger movements that can bring about change. The Storytelling Cafe (led by Lab Team member Omar Freilla and other members of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center) introduces a story-based model that links traditional organizing techniques with new strategies and communication methods. Topics covered include identifying story types, creating and developing your story, using social media to disseminate your story, and pitching your story to the press.

Image: courtesy Latin American and Caribbean Community Center

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Ever wonder where your power comes from, where your waste goes, or how all of that “stuff” made its way to store shelves? The neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, has become a hotbed of community organizing as local residents, mostly young people, have challenged the City and State over the area’s polluting industries. See for yourself what it’s like to live next to the places many people prefer not to think about. Hear firsthand the impacts on the lives and health of residents. Travel the route proposed for a new waterfront bicycle path and hear what youth leaders from UPROSE have to say about it all.

Image: courtesy UPROSE

Today we live in an era of overurbanization. Large numbers of people gather in cities, but the resources we share are limited. This leads to problems such as overcrowding, traffic congestion, air pollution, unemployment, class conflict, and so on—problems not only at the government level, but also for those of us who live in cities. If we can’t flee—or if we don’t want to flee—then we have to take action to make our lives more comfortable. In a presentation on his urban research and curatorial projects, artist and curator Ou Ning shares his personal actions and public interventions to see how we can develop the discussion about these challenges and explore solutions.

Photo: by Nie Zheng, Beijing, 2008

Community Supported Kitchen in East Harlem offers members healthy, tasty, home-style dinners and the social benefits of group meals at a convenient community location for a low-budget price. East Harlem native and Community Supported Kitchen founder Terry Rodriguez will speak about similar initiatives around the country while dissecting the inner workings of a community-supported kitchen. Join Terry in figuring out how to bring a community-supported kitchen to a neighborhood near you.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from modomatic

From the Lab, the tour will visit Colors Restaurant in Manhattan.

Does collaboration economically benefit New York? If so, who benefits? The newest experiments in economic justice are emerging as worker cooperatives. Join spurse and see how these ideas meet on a visit to one of the city’s most extraordinary worker cooperatives.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Lars P.

Join Michael Manfredi and Marion Weiss and their Harvard University Graduate School of Design studio for a workshop on the topic of “evolutionary infrastructure.” Larger than life but part of it, infrastructure has an immediate presence; it shapes our environment and urban life in vital, authentic, and often messy ways. With the ultimate goal of discovering the renewed potential of the utopian megaform in the context of today’s evolving metropolis, the group will lead a presentation on the challenges and potential of inhabitable infrastructure in urban territories, followed by a workshop.

An analysis of selected inhabitable infrastructure proposals conceived between 1925 and 1969 and selected realized precedents constructed between 1915 and 2010 will serve as the touchstone for a larger study analyzing the physical and philosophical extension of the High Bridge Towers/Nervi Bus Station—a constructed utopia superimposed over the Cross Manhattan Expressway.

Digital collage: by Weiss/Manfredi 

It’s a party for the people! Get a head start on celebrating 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives. Join the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives in celebrating workers who’ve fired their bosses and are putting democracy to work, literally. It’s a night of music and more as we screen short cooperative films, play Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, and let cooperators and the cooperative-curious mix and mingle. We might even introduce a little cooperative speed dating for those of you looking for partners (for coops, that is).

Photo used by permission under Creative Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)  License from antar_sea_of_hands

I Meditate NY has created an urban meditation series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to be held every Saturday at 10 am from August 6 until October 15. This series introduces meditation to empower participants to contemplate what “comfort” means to them. It provides a technique for examining the inner environment to enhance the outer environment. Sessions aim to challenge comfort zones and provide a tool to create sustainable comfort: comfort that comes from within and goes with you. Each session includes an introduction to meditation.

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

An annual tradition for over 15 years, the First Street Block Party is an event that brings together neighbors and friends of the block for a day of fun and festivities. Come celebrate this year at a special edition of the block party as the BMW Guggenheim Lab joins in on the fun.

This year’s event will offer attendees an opportunity to try various foods (including chicken served by a resident of First Street who has made chicken for the annual block party since 1979), purchase goods from a diversity of vendors,* and enjoy live music on First Street between First and Second Avenues. Music will be performed by a variety of artists representing a diversity of styles, including jazz, soul, rock and roll, hip-hop, and R&B. The tunes will set the tone for the day as the yearly First Street Block Association flea market is joined by a host of new sellers. Vintage clothing, original artwork, jewelry, custom hats, pottery, textiles, sweets, and stationery are just a few of the offerings. The musicians will also have CDs for sale, and Frank 151 Magazine will be giving out magazines and stickers.

Come take part in a celebration of this gem of a street, and see what this neighborhood is all about.

*All proceeds from vendor fees will be donated by the Block Association to a local cause.

Event Video

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from Art Institute of Portland

Who needs to outsource manufacturing anymore? Meet the kid-friendly future of manufacturing as the cooperative team of HTINK and the folks at MakerBot Industries bring their mobile mini-manufacturing plant to the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Whether you’re a real kid or just a kid at heart, a certified techie or confused by touchscreens, you’ll have fun using MakerBot’s mini 3-D printers to make your own gizmo, thingy, or doohickey. For young people and adults.

Image: courtesy Jonathan K. Santiago

Photo: courtesy Pash Buzari

Photo: by and courtesy Marlis Momber

Whether you have been a long-time resident of the East Village or Lower East Side, or are simply a temporary passerby feeling at home here, join us for an evening of storytelling based on your neighborhood experiences, hosted by local Mx Justin Vivian Bond. Described by the New Yorker as “the greatest cabaret artist of [v’s] generation,” Bond is known for v’s great voice and buoyant sense of humor. Come and share your neighborhood dreams, nightmares, histories, joys, and sorrows with Justin Vivian, and neighborhood guests including Laurie Weeks, author of ‘Zippermouth,’ singer Little Annie, artist Kembra Pfahler best known as The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.

Photo: by Amos Mac

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

Take control of your health with free massage therapy, acupuncture, and herbal medicine consultations, as well as workshops and demonstrations led by Third Root Community Health Center that will highlight ways in which health care can be affordable for all.

Photo: used under Creative Commons from Dennis Wong

 

In collaboration with Third Root Community Health Center, playwright Eisa Davis and singer, teacher, and activist Morley explore alternatives to pills and “health care." Catch this medicine show full of insta-yoga, curative herbs, DIY acupuncture, lively music, and revelatory narratives—a movement in every sense of the word—brought to you by the practitioners and participants of Third Root Community Health Center.

Photo: used under Creative Commons from Lars Plougmann

Lab Team member Omar Freilla of Green Worker Cooperatives wraps up the two and a half weeks of programs he’s brought to the Lab—workshops, screenings, tours, music and theater, how-to sessions, presentations, and celebrations—with an animated talk that brings together lessons learned along the way. Omar will reflect on the goals of the Lab and the outcomes so far in order to pass the programming stick to the next Lab Team member, Charles Montgomery.

Photo © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

Since 1979 Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music, and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge, he’s recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos, and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.

Text: courtesy Remy Chevalier

How do cities and city systems make or break the psychological well-being of their residents? New York Lab Team member and journalist Charles Montgomery has been investigating the link between urban design, emotions, and human behavior for his forthcoming book Happy City. His conclusion? The world-saving city and the happy city are the same place. Join Charles as he explains the urban adventures behind the book and the science the Lab will explore in its final weeks. Find out how you can join the experiments that will be taking place.

Photo: courtesy Deltree

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Can paying attention to our moods help us rethink the self? Can we develop a different view of the self—a self that extends beyond our skin, out into the surrounding environment? One that is distributed and woven into the environment? In this workshop, led by creative consulting and design collaborative spurse, participants will use wayfinding and psychogeographic exercises to evolve a model of the self as a combination of mind, body, and environment.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from josef.stuefer

Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians, and policy makers. Created in the postwar housing boom, Pruitt-Igoe was to be a symbol of renewal, prosperity, and democracy. It appeared to offer a largely African American community the chance to leave tenements behind for a clean, modern lifestyle. But as Chad Freidrich’s documentary shows, the American city was also changing in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake.

Q&A with Producer Paul Fehler and New School Professor Joseph Heathcott will follow screening

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image courtesy of St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

RSVP is REQUIRED for this event and has reached capacity. Thank you for your interest in the program. Please join us at the Lab for another event. 

Meeting at:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street)
New York, NY 10128

Traveling to: BMW Guggenheim Lab

Mode of transportation: subway

On an average weekday, about 8.5 million people around New York depend on public transportation provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Learn how the simple act of riding the bus or subway can influence your emotions and sense of status. Brainstorm ways to build better commutes with psychologist Carlos Felipe Pardo, an expert on urban-transit issues.

Photo: courtesy CarlosFelipe Pardo 

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Whether you travel by foot, train, bus, or car, the way you move has a stunning impact on the way you think and behave. Join our panel as they share fascinating insights into the psychology of commuting. Learn new ways to maximize happiness on your way to work. With Traffic author Tom Vanderbilt, transit psychologist Carlosfelipe Pardo, and Alejandro de Castro Mazarro from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from ktylerconk.

 

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Traveling to: local community gardens
Mode of transportation: walking

Here is a simple but radical thought: Our empathy pulls us beyond ourselves and out into the world. This not simply a mental act; empathy links and stitches together environments, practices, and creatures. How does this physical holding together happen? What are the movement-spaces of empathy? Come develop—and test—extended ideas of empathy via movement and wayfinding exercises, led by creative consulting and design collaborative spurse.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) License from darkophoto

Cities are machines that produce interactions among strangers—interactions that can be as lyrical and profound as they are singular and momentary. Significant things happen when we talk to strangers: we’re interrupting the expected narratives of daily life, shifting perspective, forming unexpected connections. And in a way, we’re waking up. This workshop sends participants on small, targeted missions to interact with strangers in order to experience this fundamental urban pleasure, and to learn about the unwritten rules that guide it.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from Nestor's Blurrylife

New insights in brain science suggest that we are hard-wired for altruism and trust—even among strangers. Lab Team member Charles Montgomery invites neuroscientist Paul Zak and psychologist Emanuele Castano to help design a party that will bring out the love in even the most hardened New Yorker. Join us for a night of experiments in trust, play, and radical conviviality.

Event Videos:

Love Night 

Paul Zak - Dr. Love at Love Night 

In collaboration with:

Project for Public Spaces: Photography for Love Night video
Anna Letitia Mumford: Video editing for Love Night video

Ryan V. Brennan: NYC Based Social Performance & Collage Artist

Dr. Sabine Seymour: Director, Fashionable Technology Lab at Parsons The New School for Design

Research assistant Scott Peterman, and the entire class of Fashionable Technology

Performance:

Youmna Aoukar
Hannah Lea Dykast
Christopher Koelsch
Isaac Malca
Angie Marie Rodriguez Fernandez
Galina Rybatsky
Isabella Scott
Daniel Selden
Lauren Slowik
Chandni Thawani
Yang Chih-Han
Boshan Zhou

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from Thomas R. Stegelmann

I Meditate NY has created an urban meditation series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to be held every Saturday at 10 am from August 6 until October 15. This series introduces meditation to empower participants to contemplate what “comfort” means to them. It provides a technique for examining the inner environment to enhance the outer environment. Sessions aim to challenge comfort zones and provide a tool to create sustainable comfort: comfort that comes from within and goes with you. Each session includes an introduction to meditation.

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

The ability of people of different races and cultures to live together in cosmopolitan cities is a triumph. We are constantly mediating a tug-of-war between deep-seated instincts for fear and trust. Where do these instincts come from? How can we build more convivial cities and lives? Join psychologist Emanuele Castano, expert of social identification, and empathy, and neuroeconomist Paul Zak, who studies the chemistry of connection, morality and happiness in an exploration of the science and mystery of terror and kindness in cities.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License from heathbrandon 

“Battle for Brooklyn shows, up close and dirty, just how large a role developers play in defining the forms and functions of the urban landscape.” —Spacing Toronto

The critically acclaimed film Battle for Brooklyn is an intimate look at the community fight against the Atlantic Yards megaproject. Filmed over seven years, it follows opposition leader Daniel Goldstein, whose home sits in the way of the proposed basketball arena. Tackling issues of urban planning, eminent domain, community, and the nexus of developers and government, the epic tale will open your eyes and put you on the edge of your seat.

Image: courtesy Michael Galinsky

How do human beings understand space and place? How do our surroundings influence our feelings and behavior? Colin Ellard, research psychologist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, delves into the neuroscience behind space and direction. Ellard's presentation will combine theory with case studies and hands-on demonstrations.

Video from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo: courtesy of Colin Ellard

Join us for a variety show dedicated to the sounds of New

York, organized by Audio Visual Arts (AVA) and comedian Greg Barris. Acoustic experts and sound artists will collaborate with comedians to explore the beauty, danger, and potential of the New York soundscape, addressing issues of noise pollution, noise prevention, sonic comfort levels, and quiet zones along the way. There will be sonic demonstrations. There will be audience participation. There will be music, and there will be laughs.  

Presented by Audio Visual Arts

Host: Greg Barris
Comedian: Reggie Watts
Ethnomusicologist: Alexandre Tannous
Comedian: Todd Barry
Author/sonic expert: George Prochnik
Music by Forgiveness
Image: courtesy Justin Luke

Videos from the Event:

George Prochnik at the Sound Sweep

Alexandre Tannous at the Sound Sweep

Reggie Watts at the Sound Sweep 

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

There’s an old saying that goes, “You can never go home again.” This may mean the bookstore that you spent your childhood in has been replaced by another Trader Joe’s, or maybe those sweet old neighbors have moved away after 30 years. These types of changes are sometimes hard to bear when they happen in or around our homes. But what would it be like to grow up or grow old in a place where no two days are ever really the same? That is what thousands of people, of all backgrounds, are experiencing on the Lower East Side. Amidst all the topographical, cultural, demographic, and economic changes, they remain firm in calling these streets home. “Growing Up and Old on the Lower East Side” will bring together locals who will share five-minute stories about how and why they call the Lower East Side home. This event is organized by PenTales, an international project that brings together people and their stories through live events. Share your story at pentales.com.

Photo: courtesy Stephanie Ursula Hodges

The term “urbanism” typically calls to mind the material condition of our built metropolitan environments. However, Vincent Appel and Everett Hollander, two young urbanists and architects, have started to identify a group of developing practices that exceed the limits of typical urban nomenclature but which are purely urban in nature nevertheless. In an afternoon conversation, Appel and Hollander introduce and ask PlayLab, Public Workshop, Tattfoo, and Marion Wilson to engage the public to help define the notion of "urbanism" as a creative process. Join them for a series of workshops and help redefine our evolving definition of urbanism from those who are actively realizing alternative ambitions for our urban environment through play, crowd sourcing, emergence, collective intelligence, and extradisciplinarity.

Image: courtesy Vincent Appel

Above: Left to right: Daniel Levin, Clayton Patterson, Ben Solomon, Albert Maysles, and Jenner Furst, Maysles Theater, Harlem, 2010

Clayton Patterson has created a series of five Sunday Salons for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. This week, join Patterson, documentarian, artist, and archivist of the Lower East Side since 1978, and moviemakers Jenner Furst, Ben Solomon, and Daniel Levin for an intimate talk. Furst produced and Solomon and Levin directed the documentary Captured: A Film History of the Lower East Side (2008), an historical account of drag, punk, heroin, and gentrification in the Lower East Side.

Ben Solomon was born and raised in downtown Manhattan. A child of the 1980s, son of a poet father and photographer mother, he grew up surrounded and inspired by the arts and the streets of New York. Captured (2008) was Ben’s first feature film, and since then has continued to express himself in a multitude of mediums, working as a filmmaker, a DJ, and always resourceful member of the local and international creative community.

Daniel Levin lives and works in New York. Captured (2008) was his first feature documentary. He is the director of photography for the second season of the Emmy Award–nominated Sundance Channel docu-series Brick City. He has shot films for HBO (Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, 2009) and Sony Music (This Is Jim Jones, 2009). He shot and co-directed his first feature narrative, Dirty Old Town, which is being released this fall.

Jenner Furst began making narrative films in his early teens. Captured (2008) was his first feature documentary. Soon after the film’s release, Furst began collaborating on Brick City (2009), his early work on the series helping to elevate the vanguard concept, and the series went on to garner a Peabody Award, an Emmy nomination, and critical praise around the world. While co-producing the second season of Brick City, he directed his first feature narrative, Dirty Old Town.

Clayton Patterson’s hand on the history of the Lower East Side over the past 30-plus years is undeniable. As an artist, filmmaker and photographer, Patterson’s unending political, cultural, and at times illegal documentation of Lower East Side life has captured everything from drag queens and tattoo artists to police brutality. As a gallery owner, Patterson has shown work ranging from Dash Snow to Charles Gatewood. With Captured, his documentation of the last free period of the Lower East Side became a documentary. In the 1980s he became a happenstance cap-maker, and his embroidered jackets and caps soon found their way to Hollywood (Mick Jagger and Matt Dillon were fans).

Links:
http://www.capturedmovie.com/site.html

http://patterson.no-art.info/memo-en.html

More Dates:
Sunday, October 16, 2011

Bogotá Change is the story of two charismatic mayors, Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa, who, using unorthodox methods, in less than ten years turned one of the world’s most dangerous, violent, and corrupt capitals into a peaceful model city populated by caring citizens. With Mockus and Peñalosa and key members of their staff as firsthand witnesses, the film uncovers the ideas, philosophies, and strategies that underlie the changes in Bogotá and are now being exported to cities worldwide.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Text: courtesy Upfront Films

Image: courtesy Andreas Møl Dalsgaard

Above:  Alan Vega of Suicide, during a 1980 performance

From 1975 to 1980 video artists Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong spent their nights documenting the punk rock music scene in nightclubs around New York and playing the performances on their TV show Nightclubbing. Modern Music, culled from their archive of more than one hundred performances, presents a range of cutting-edge music styles, including no wave, art rock, new wave, jazz fusion, and all their combinations. Featuring performances by the Talking Heads, Lounge Lizards, DNA, Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Contortions, John Cale, James Blood Ulmer, and Sun Ra.

Followed by a Q&A with Emily Armstrong, Max Blagg, Juliette Campbell, Legendary Damon, Lynda Garcia, Pat Ivers, and Pebbles van Peebles.

www.gonightclubbing.com
 
Photo: courtesy Pat Ivers

Lab Team member Charles Montgomery shares insights from his first week at the Lab, during which he and his collaborators conducted experiments to see how city spaces and systems influence our emotions, our behavior, and our happiness. How might these insights alter the way we build and live?

Pictures from the Event 

Photo © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

As consumers, we move through the world in a very particular manner. Our habits of consumption shape our cities, our bodies, and our thoughts. Is it possible to map new habits and ways of being in the city? How can sensing our environment activate nonconsumer patterns? What are the bodily and environmental skills needed to develop new possibilities? Join creative consulting and design collaborative spurse to collectively map out testable alternatives.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from the justified sinner.

Since World War II, North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. But its promises of space, affordability, and upward mobility have proven hollow. This prescient film predicted in 2004 that when oil prices began to rise dramatically (as they did in 2008), the end of suburbia would only be the beginning of a much greater unraveling of the American Way of Life.

Join director Greg Greene after the film in a discussion of the current state of cities in North America, and how New York can become resilient to near-future shocks such as peak oil, freak weather, and deepening economic turmoil.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy of Gregory Greene

Above: “From the Ground Up”

How can cities prepare for shocks and stresses such as peak oil, freak weather, and deepening economic turmoil? Greg Greene, director of the documentary The End of Suburbia (2004) and the ResilientCity Project, hosts a two-part exploration of urban resilience. 

1 pm

Explore how New Yorkers can build resilience and thriving communities between now and 2030, with Michael Haggerty and Raj Kottamasu (winners of the 2010 ResilientCity.org Design Ideas Competition), Dan Miner (Beyond Oil NYC), and Anne Pope (Sustainable Flatbush).

2:30 pm

Resilient Lower East Side: Take part in an interactive workshop to explore how the East Village can build resilience toward a thriving, fair, and comfortable 2030. Moderated by Greg Greene and Crowdbrite inventor Darin Dinsmore. 

Image: courtesy Michael Haggerty and Raj Kottamasu 

 

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Join us for a discussion with Benoit Jacob, Head of BMW i Design, BMW’s sustainable mobility division, and NYC Department of Transportation Chief of Staff Margaret Newman as we explore urban mobility and the role of design in creating sustainable transit systems.

Left: Photo courtesy BMW i Design
Right: Photo courtesy NYCDOT

Climate change, peak oil, and resource scarcity pose a real threat to urban life. Can big cities meet these challenges through technology and good planning, or are they doomed? A no-holds-barred debate between suburban critic James Howard Kunstler (Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency) and James S. Russell, author of the just-released The Agile City: Building Well Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change. Firmly moderated by Bloomberg Businessweek senior editor Diane Brady.

Photo: courtesy Charles Montgomery

 

What would it be like to experience the city as a nonconsumer? Join creative consulting and design collaborative spurse for a foraging walk and sense a world of pleasures underfoot. Following curiosity down alleys and meandering across parks, we will collect edibles from parks, dumpsters, restaurants, and markets and have a “freegan” picnic at the water’s edge. Dress code: be ready for a little dirt and adventure.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Ed Yourdon.

Digital devices and networks are merging with our physical environment, allowing us to capture information in real time, process it, and communicate it back to our cities. The citizen is at the center of this new urban condition: empowered by digital technologies, our capacity to make smarter decisions and to contribute to the place we live in is greatly enhanced.

The MIT SENSEable City Lab has been exploring this momentous change in projects with cities around the world. Assaf Biderman, associate director of the MIT SENSEable City Lab, will take us on a journey through the lab’s view of the future city, followed by a discussion.

Photo: courtesy Assaf Biderman

Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, discusses how the confluence of sustainability imperatives, economic stagnation, and digitally enabled creativity has given rise to a movement of connected consumption. On- and off-line, people are sharing, swapping, collaborating, renting, gifting, trading, and teaching. Innovations such as Freecycle, time banks, and co-working make it possible for households to live low-impact, high-satisfaction lives anchored in rich social networks and financial independence. Professor Schor will share her findings on the present and future of a development that is likely to transform daily life in dramatic ways.

Photo: courtesy Juliet Schor

Signified is a documentary project featuring and highlighting the work of queer-identified individuals who are fostering enriching and sustaining vibrant and diverse communities. The project is comprised of an ongoing web series of short video profiles, an online platform for educational-resource exchange, and a salon forum featuring the work of a diverse range of queer people and organizations. Join us as we discuss the vision behind the project, screen highlights from season 1 of the video series, and hear from two of Signified’s featured subjects, MM Serra and Darnell Moore. Live drumming and refreshments to follow.

9 pm screening
9:30 pm discussion with Darnell Moore and MM Serra

Image: created by and courtesy Anna Barsan and Jessie Levandov

I Meditate NY has created an urban meditation series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to be held every Saturday at 10 am from August 6 until October 15. This series introduces meditation to empower participants to contemplate what “comfort” means to them. It provides a technique for examining the inner environment to enhance the outer environment. Sessions aim to challenge comfort zones and provide a tool to create sustainable comfort: comfort that comes from within and goes with you. Each session includes an introduction to meditation.

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

Sprawl dominates American cities. Its monotonous, low-density, single-use, auto-dependent landscapes are making us sick and endangering the health of the planet. Can Anywhere, USA, be fixed? Join June Williamson, co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia, for a hands-on repair workshop. Through images and sketching, learn how to apply “retrofitting” tactics to build healthier, happier, and more sustainable suburbs.

Image: courtesy June Williamson 

Small, portable computers are an integral part of our lives. With the ubiquity of wireless connectivity, they are integrated into our physical environment. If we imagine our future city as a computer in the open air, how will citizens take part in programming and improving their environment? What opportunities will this present for addressing some of the pressing challenges of today? How will this catalyze innovation, promote equity, or impact governance?

In this workshop, examples of projects that explore this future scenario will be shown, followed by an interactive exercise for designing real-time urban services. Led by Assaf Biderman, associate director of the MIT SENSEable City Lab.

Photo: courtesy Assaf Biderman

Sprawl: the uncontrolled spread of urban development into neighboring regions. Explore this multifaceted concept with June Williamson, author of Retrofitting Suburbia, as she moderates a discussion on the history, development, and future of sprawl with panelists Rachel Heiman, an urban anthropologist at the New School specializing in the comforts and anxieties of the American middle class; Galina Tachieva, an urban planner and author of The Sprawl Repair Manual; and Christoph Gielen, a photographer exploring sprawl and the intersection of art and environmental politics through photographic aerial studies of infrastructure.

Photo: by Christoph Gielen

Lab Team member Charles Montgomery and design anthropologist Michael Prokopow (Ontario College of Art and Design) lead audience members on an Internet surf toward the city of our desires. Give us your favorite real or virtual place. We’ll surf there together and explore the architectures of design and desire in our own minds.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from FredMikeRudy

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

Above: Haus-Rucker-Co. (Günther Zamp Kelp, Laurids Ortner, and Klaus Pinter; Austria, 1967–92), Flyhead Helmet, from the Environment Transformer project, 1968

The urban landscape produces feelings of anxiety, fear, pleasure, and excitement. Join Kaja Kühl, founder and principal of youarethecity, as she brings together psychologists and urban design experts to create devices that alter our urban sensory experience. How do scent, sound, taste, sight, and touch influence our feelings of comfort or discomfort in public space? Can design improve happiness? Participants will create wearable objects that alter and enhance their experience of the sites surrounding the Lab. 

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0  License from
maiabee

 

Danish architect and enfant terrible Bjarke Ingels inspired many with his 2009 manifesto-in-comic-book-form Yes Is More, in which he questioned predecessors and contemporaries for architectural escapades he felt had become naively utopian or scarily pragmatic. His firm BIG searches for a pragmatic utopian architecture that surprises on social, economic, and environmental levels. Do you wonder whether sustainability can be understood not as a series of sacrifices, but as an exercise in pure pleasure-seeking? Join Ingels for a visual tour of hedonistic sustainability.

Watch Bjarke Ingels' presentation here

An Archtober event

Photo: by Julien de Smedt courtesy Bjarke Ingels Group

Above: Showing how cities around the world are taking back their streets for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders.

Streetfilms produces short films that show how smarter transportation design and policy can create better places to live and work. The nearly 400 videos made by Streetfilms have been viewed more than four million times online and have inspired action and behavioral change worldwide. But they do not bring about change alone. Join us for a night of Streetfilms, followed by a discussion with Elizabeth Press, Streetfilms producer; Caroline Samponaro, director of bicycle advocacy at Transportation Alternatives; and Mike Lydon, principal of the Street Plans Collaborative. The discussion will focus on how these groups are working together to make New York City a safer, more sustainable, and healthier place to live.

6 pm open seating
6:15 pm screening

Image: courtesy Streetfilms 

The city is malleable. We can break apart and reassemble public space and systems to maximize comfort, conviviality, and resilience. Lab Team member Charles Montgomery shares insights and prototypes from a week of experimental sidewalk, sprawl, and system repair at the Lab.

Pictures from the Event

Photo © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

 

Public spaces have been contested throughout the history of New York. Now hundreds of activists are camped out in the heart of the Financial District. What are the written and unwritten rules that govern how we use public spaces? How have they changed over time? What happens when activists contest those rules? Join us on a tour from the BMW Guggenheim Lab to the Financial District, where we will interview occupation participants and consider the past, present, and future of the commons.

Tour Video 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 2.0 License from david_shankbones

Do you still remember phone numbers? If you are like us, the answer is very few, if any. Would it be fair to say that you use your cell phone’s memory as part of your own? How do we and our ways of sensing the world change as we deeply fuse with our technology? Join creative consulting and design collaborative spurse to map this new medium that we are rapidly becoming.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from alex ragone.

On October 16, the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s programs in New York will come to an end. The Lab building will be disassembled and shipped to Berlin, and First Park will be a vacant site for your creative intervention. Show us what its future holds. Project for Public Spaces, First Street Green, and a host of partners ask you to make First Park’s future. The night will be an experiment in ideas from earlier sessions with neighborhood residents and a chance to create new, fun, and crazy visions. We’re testing the future now, seeing how your ideas make us all feel, and evolving from rethinking New York to remaking it.

Photo courtesy Charles Montgomery

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

3 pm open seating
3:15 pm screening

Still from The City

Image: courtesy Willard Van Dyke & Ralph Steiner

How can urban systems bring out the best in us? Evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson explains a unique Darwinian approach in his new book The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time. Join Wilson in conversation with theoretical psychologist and BMW Guggenheim Lab Advisory Committee member Nicholas Humphrey. Learn how we respond to unconscious cues in the built landscape. Share ideas on how we might build a pro-social New York City.

Videos from the event:

The Nature of the City: Nicholas Humphrey

The Nature of the City: David Sloan Wilson

Photos: courtesy Nicholas Humphrey (left) and David Sloan Wilson (right)

Above: Haus-Rucker-Co. (Günther Zamp Kelp, Laurids Ortner, and Klaus Pinter; Austria, 1967–92), Flyhead Helmet, from the Environment Transformer project, 1968

The urban landscape produces feelings of anxiety, fear, pleasure, and excitement. Join Kaja Kühl, founder and principal of youarethecity, as she brings together psychologists and urban design experts to create interventions that alter our urban sensory experience. How do scent, sound, taste, sight, and touch influence our feelings of comfort or discomfort in public space? How do we design for a happier experience of space? Participants will create temporary installations to alter the experience of the sites surrounding the Lab.

Photo: used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0  License from
maiabee

 

Leaving from: any point in New York 
Traveling to: across New York 
Mode of transportation: walking, rain or shine 

Go viral with creative consulting and design collaborative spurse as they launch a special edition of MATR, their latest phone app, which they will use to lead participants in a three-hour game across New York. MATR is an interactive sound experiment that changes as you move. But what happens when “you” are no longer a single individual, but a crowd of hundreds, or even thousands? How will you move, and where? Unlike most rule-bound games, MATR promises to trip the outcome in unexpected ways. Where will the game lead us, who will we encounter, and more interestingly, what sort of event will this make? For the final research endeavor in the Live Feeds series, become part of a massive, self-organizing, and fully emergent swarm to celebrate—and shepherd in—a future model of how change happens.

Step 1: RSVP so that we can contact you with up-to-the-minute news about the game.

Step 2: Download the MATR app to your smartphone (iPhone or Android). It’s free! Please remember to use earphones.

Step 3: Begin the game at 2 pm, wherever you are in New York, and end the game at 5 pm in a totally unexpected place!

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License from divya.

Last year, first- and second-grade students at the Neighborhood School in Manhattan took part in a multidisciplinary moviemaking study as a lens to look at community. Along with thinking about film crew roles, interdependence, and the community of filmmakers who collaborate to create a film, they looked at diverse genres and film history. By the end, they had created their own student films!

This year’s seasoned class, in partnership with the BMW Guggenheim Lab, has created a site-specific movie on the theme of confronting comfort in the city. Please join us for a screening of the Master Kids Film Festival and the premiere of the film Comfy, directed, shot, and edited by children.

Image: courtesy Alexis Neider

Join us for a variety show dedicated to the sounds of New York, organized by Audio Visual Arts (AVA) and comedian Greg Barris. Acoustic experts and sound artists will collaborate with comedians to explore the beauty, danger, and potential of the New York soundscape, addressing issues of noise pollution, noise prevention, sonic comfort levels, and quiet zones along the way. There will be sonic demonstrations. There will be audience participation. There will be music, and there will be laughs.

Host: Greg Barris
Comedian: Jim Gaffigan
Sound Specialist: Mason Wyatt from City Soundproofing
Comedian: Heather Lawless
Special Guests
Music by Forgiveness

Image: courtesy Justin Luke

Videos from the Event:

George Prochnik at the Sound Sweep

Alexandre Tannous at the Sound Sweep

Reggie Watts at the Sound Sweep 

I Meditate NY has created an urban meditation series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to be held every Saturday at 10 am from August 6 until October 15. This series introduces meditation to empower participants to contemplate what “comfort” means to them. It provides a technique for examining the inner environment to enhance the outer environment. Sessions aim to challenge comfort zones and provide a tool to create sustainable comfort: comfort that comes from within and goes with you. Each session includes an introduction to meditation.

An Archtober event

Image: courtesy I Meditate NY

To learn more about I Meditate NY visit: http://www.imeditateny.org.

For the past three months, we have been working with Lab visitors to test the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. Come and hear about the early results from the experiment. Learn how neuroscience has begun to influence architecture and design. Join panelists as they brainstorm new experiments and recommendations for happier spaces. With Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, Dr. Esther Sternberg, author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being, Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, and others.

Videos from the Event:

Testing, Testing, Tested: Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.

Testing, Testing, Tested: Colin Ellard 

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License from Eric Fischer.

Nearly seven months have passed since the five Lab Team members were pulled together from disparate parts of the world for an initial meeting in New York to collaborate on how to address the theme of Confronting Comfort for the first BMW Guggenheim Lab. Experimentation was the imperative, leading to a deep exploration of visible and invisible systems that exist in our everyday lives, shaping our understanding and levels of comfort. Tasked with developing a spectrum of free public programs at the New York Lab, the team put together ten compelling weeks of experiments, discussions, debates, workshops, panels, tours, and screenings guided by the theme.

How have the New York Lab Team’s initial ideas of comfort and their system’s approach to the topic changed? What kinds of conclusions and lessons have come forth? Join Lab Team members Olatunbosun Obayomi, Omar Freilla, Charles Montgomery, Elma van Boxel, and Kristian Koreman in a final conclusive talk as they share highlights from their time in New York, give their insight on the future of the city and First Park, and impart their thoughts and takeaways from their time here at the New York Lab.

Photo by Kristopher McKay, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

The research and design collective spurse have spent the last eleven weeks conducting crowd-sourced research at the Lab. They have diagnosed the hidden frameworks of our consumer paradigm to reveal what’s at the core of current debates about sustainability and the state of urban environments. The results of their research offer a radical challenge to our certainties concerning resource use, equality, and the future of our planet. In addition, spurse will present an audacious set of pragmatic alternatives grounded in rethinking public space, reimagining the relation between humans and non-humans, and developing tactics of the commons.

Photo: by Kristopher McKay, © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York 

You’ve had the opportunity to create your own ideal city by making collective and individual decisions online and in the Lab while playing the game Urbanology. Designed by Local Projects, the game allows participants to be city planners for a day, lobbying for various initiatives regarding innovation, transportation, health, affordability, wealth, lifestyle, sustainability, and livability. With each game, a different city with varying priorities was built.

Data from every session has been collected. Which initiatives took precedence and which took the backseat? What does the future city look like and how does the data compare to your ideal city? Join Keeli Shaw of Local Projects as she reveals the aggregate data collected from those games, which spurred heated debates in the Lab and online, and see how the comprehensive results compare to your own.

Related Multimedia:

Introducing Urbanology

Urbanology at the Lab 

Urbanology: Buidling Your Future City

Urbanology Analysis 

Photo: by Roger Kisby, © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

Sharon Zukin, professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and City University Graduate Center, takes us on a walk through the physical, social, and cultural meanings of "comfort" in New York's public spaces—from places for standing, sitting, and sleeping, to places for being with the same or different people—asking along the way whether cities must have places that offend our "comfort level."

Video from the event:

Sharon Zukin: On Comfort

Photo: courtesy Richard Rosen

The Comfort Series lectures, a compilation of talks at the Lab given by local and global authorities in a diversity of fields, have shed light on new ways of perceiving and addressing comfort and discomfort in our daily lives on a local and global scale. As we consider comfort over a spectrum of variables through the shifting landscape of urban living, what patterns on the topic have risen? What can we take away from these talks? BMW Guggenheim Lab Public Programs Manager Rosanna Flouty shares her thoughts and insights on the ideas that were introduced throughout the run of the Lab and reflects on how to negotiate those overlapping and diverging thoughts.

Event Video

Left: Photo Josh Falk, 2010

Right: Photo by Duncan Ball, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

BMW Guggenheim Lab Advisory Committee member Wang Shi has scaled the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest. He is also the founder and chairman of China Vanke Co., Ltd., China’s largest residential real estate developer and a leader in the field of green building and socially conscious urban development. Join us as Wang discusses how his passion for mountain climbing has taught him to cherish modern civilized life while being ever conscious of our environment.

Photo: courtesy Wang Shi

For the past two and a half months, the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab has offered fifty-five days of free events and been host to close to two hundred programs. Maria Nicanor, Assistant Curator, Architecture, and David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies, argue that our greatest resource in reimagining urban space is right beneath our noses—the people. Join us as the curators describe how user-generated content can be harnessed and repurposed for solving the most pressing issues facing our cities and environment today.

Event Video

© The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

Cities are becoming larger and more complex. Gary Hustwit's new documentary, Urbanized, highlights innovative urban design practices across the globe in regions facing daunting social and ecological challenges. We see how a subtle understanding of human behavior can inspire creative problem solving that ultimately transforms a city’s social well-being.  

For two and a half months, the BGL has investigated how our need for comfort positively and negatively impacts our urban environment. Moderated by Lab member Charles Montgomery, this wide-ranging discussion features a diverse guest panel who will respond to clips from Urbanized and bring their own priorities and ideas to the table in an effort to see how we might urbanize with comfort.

Image: courtesy Gary Hustwit

Above: Yoga Local Launch Party, New York, November, 2009

Yoga Local NYC has curated this Sunday morning outdoor yoga series for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Please join us for challenging and inspiring classes from a selection of local yoga studios. The heart of yoga is both physical and mental: residing in the dynamic, living tension created by challenging one’s self to grow while accepting our human limitations. Yoga practice can be seen as the embodiment of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s mission in New York: confronting comfort. Yoga mats will be provided.

Event Video

Photo: courtesy Yoga Local by Kelly Guenther

The BMW Guggenheim Lab currently sits within First Park, a New York City Parks property on Houston at 2nd Avenue, where it will live until October 16. But what is to become of this site once the Lab continues its travels to Berlin and Mumbai? More importantly, who will take over? The final in a series of four workshops about what's next for First Park, this event will be an active planning session for those who want to be involved in the future of the space. Join us as we develop action steps and form a volunteer committee charged with overseeing future events at First Park. 

Image: courtesy Kristian Koreman

Painting of Clayton Patterson by Curt Hoppe at Hoppe’s studio on the Bowery, New York, 2011

Lower East Side resident and artist Clayton Patterson has created a series of five Sunday Salons for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. This week, join Patterson and artist Elsa Rensaa as they talk about their archive of the neighborhood.

As an artist, filmmaker, and photographer, Patterson’s unending political, cultural, and at times illegal documentation of Lower East Side life has captured everything from drag queens and tattoo artists to police brutality. As a gallery owner, Patterson has shown work by Dash Snow and Charles Gatewood among others. With Captured: A Film History of the Lower East Side (2008), Clayton’s documentation of the Lower East Side was memorialized. In the 1980s he became a happenstance cap-maker, and his embroidered jackets and caps soon found their way to Hollywood (Mick Jagger and Matt Dillon were fans).

Elsa Rensaa, longtime friend and cohort of Patterson’s, has been an integral advocate for the LES Archive that includes tens of thousands of photographs, a couple of thousand hours of video, and different kinds of ephemera related to the Lower East Side and its history.

http://www.capturedmovie.com/site.html

http://patterson.no-art.info/memo-en.html

Photo: by and courtesy Curt Hoppe

Join us for an evening of celebration as the Lab ends its ten-week run in New York.

Pictures from the Closing Celebration

Photo by David Heald, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

The BMW Guggenheim Lab opens today in Berlin. Join us as curator Maria Nicanor introduces the Berlin Lab Team—José Gómez-Márquez, Carlo Ratti, Corinne Rose, and Rachel Smith—and hear what’s in store at the Lab in the weeks ahead.

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Das BMW Guggenheim Lab wird heute in Berlin eröffnet. Erleben Sie mit uns, wie Maria Nicanor das Berliner Lab-Team vorstellt – José Gómez-Márquez, Carlo Ratti, Corinne Rose und Rachel Smith – und erfahren Sie, was in den nächsten Wochen im Lab auf dem Programm steht. 

Get your hands dirty in this daylong maker marathon. Experiment with tools like laser cutters and 3-D scanners alongside makers, artists, engineers, and computer programmers.

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Werden Sie bei diesem eintägigen Marathon für Tüftler und Bastler selbst aktiv. Gemeinsam mit Bastlern, Künstlern, Ingenieuren und Programmierern können Sie mit Werkzeugen wie Laserschneidern und 3-D-Scannern experimentieren.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

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Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: Making Things Move. Do-it-yourself solutions to making things can be intimidating, so today we demystify the basics by adding movement to everyday objects.

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Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Dinge bewegen. Viele Menschen wagen sich nicht an „Do it yourself“-Lösungen heran. Deshalb bauen wir heute erste Berührungsängste ab, indem wir alltägliche Gegenstände in Bewegung setzen.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

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Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

In this family-friendly workshop, learn about the basic concepts behind movement, including kinetics and electricity, by making bottle rockets and more. 

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In diesem familienfreundlichen Workshop erfahren Sie alles über die Grundkonzepte der Bewegung wie Kinetik und Elektrizität anhand von Aktivitäten wie der Herstellung von Flaschenraketen und vielem mehr. 

What if your baby's stroller was a rugged all-terrain vehicle that could conquer Berlin’s winter streets? Bring your stroller, bicycle, wheelchair, or other personal mobility device to the Lab and create the ultimate intelligent, personalized transportation technology for the city.

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Sie träumen von einem Kinderwagen, der als robustes Geländefahrzeug auch den winterlichen Straßen Berlins trotzen kann? Bringen Sie Kinderwagen, Fahrräder, Rollstühle oder andere von Ihnen genutzte Fortbewegungsmittel mit ins Lab, um eine ultimative intelligente und individuelle Transporttechnologie für die Stadt zu entwickeln.

The maker movement continues to grow worldwide, as makers with varied interests master new technologies, discover new opportunities, and create new communities. Join Dale Dougherty, cofounder of O’Reilly Media and founding editor and publisher of Make magazine, as he shares his experience leading and following the maker movement.

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Die Maker-Bewegung kann auf der ganzen Welt Zuwächse verzeichnen: Bastler mit ganz unterschiedlichen Interessen meistern neue Technologien, entdecken neue Möglichkeiten und schaffen neue Communitys. Erfahren Sie von Dale Dougherty, Mitbegründer von O’Reilly Media, Gründungsredakteur und Herausgeber des Make-Magazins, was er im Rahmen der Maker-Bewegung erlebt hat.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

||

Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: Making Things Digital. Today we look at the practical and conceptual implications of widespread digitization and how we can use intelligent devices in our everyday lives.

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Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Making Things Digital. Heute untersuchen wir die praktischen und konzeptuellen Implikationen einer weitverbreiteten Digitalisierung und denken darüber nach, wie wir intelligente Geräte im Alltag nutzen können.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

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Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

Join a weekly walking tour that brings learning out of the classroom and into the streets. Led by members of Urbanophil and mikromakro, the Mobile University of Berlin provokes participants to mine their urban environment through acting, mapping, and multimedia.

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Nimm an einem wöchentlich stattfindenden Rundgang teil, der das Lernen aus dem Kontext des Klassenzimmers löst und auf der Straße erlebbar macht. Von Urbanophil- und mikromakro-Mitgliedern angeleitet, fordert die Mobile Universität Berlin die Teilnehmer heraus, ihre urbane Umgebung durch Schauspiel, Mapping und Multimedia zu ergründen.

Do you know what an Arduino is? Discover news ways to sense and control the world around you using Arduino microcontroller boards and other sensors made from everyday materials.

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Wissen Sie, was Arduino ist? Lernen Sie neue Möglichkeiten für Umwelterfassung und -steuerung kennen, die mit Arduino-Mikrocontrollerboards und anderen Sensoren aus alltäglichen Materialien realisiert werden können.

Cubelets are simple color-coded blocks that snap together to create robots. Learn how to use Cubelets kits to create robots that can respond to your environment.

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Cubelets sind einfache, farblich markierte Bausteine, die zu Robotern zusammengesetzt werden können. Lernen Sie, wie Sie mit Cubelet-Bausätzen Roboter bauen können, die auf die Umwelt reagieren.

In this workshop we’ll explore how to program sensors to send messages via SMS and Twitter. Learn how to turn inanimate objects into intelligent devices that talk back!

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In diesem Workshop beschäftigen wir uns mit der Programmierung von Sensoren für die Versendung von Nachrichten über SMS und Twitter. Lernen Sie, statische Objekte in intelligente Geräte zu verwandeln, die mit Ihnen kommunizieren!

This compilation of videos and short films explores today’s DIY culture and the various forms of modern artisanship and craftsmanship. The films portray people making things and also investigate technological innovations.

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Diese Video- und Kurzfilm-Kompilation erforscht die zeitgenössische Kultur des Selbermachens (engl. DIY culture - „Do it yourself“) und die verschiedenen Formen modernen Kunstgewerbes und moderner Handwerkskunst. Der Film porträtiert Bastler und Macher und erforscht technologische Innovationen.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

||

Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: Making Health. We explore a philosophy that has its roots in design for developing countries and is finding its way back into everyday clinics around the world, changing the way we approach our body in the city.

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Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Making Health. Wir beschäftigen uns mit einer Philosophie, die ihre Ursprünge in den Entwicklungsländern hat, nach und nach in Kliniken auf der ganzen Welt Beachtung findet und auch unseren Blickwinkel auf gesundes Leben in der Stadt verändert.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

||

Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

Experimental psychologist Colin Ellard explores how our physical and mental function is affected by architecture and urban design. The workshop invites participants to experiment with a variety of tools that can be used to measure the psychological impact of the environment.

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Der Forschungs-Psychologe Colin Ellard erläutert, wie unsere physischen und geistigen Funktionen durch Architektur und Städtebau beeinflusst sind. Der Workshop lädt Teilnehmer dazu ein, mit einer Vielzahl von Werkzeugen zu experimentieren, die benutzt werden können, um die psychologischen Auswirkungen einer Umgebung zu messen.

Empowerment health technologies allow us to take greater control over decisions that affect our health. Examine and build various technologies that can help you “make health” for yourself.

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Mit medizinischen Technologien für Empowerment erhalten wir mehr Kontrolle über gesundheitsrelevante Entscheidungen. Lernen Sie verschiedene Technologien kennen und entwickeln Sie eigene Technologien, mit denen Sie Ihre Gesundheit fördern können.

What makes a street, a neighborhood, or a city accessible? Join John Schimmel and Raul Krauthausen for a local walkabout using smartphones to identify and map locations with and without equal access.

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Was macht eine Strasse, eine Nachbarschaft oder eine Stadt zugänglich? Begleiten Sie John Schimmel und Raul Krauthausen bei einem lokalen Spaziergang bei dem Smartphones benutzt werden, um Orte mit und ohne gleichberechtigten Zugang zu identifizieren und zu kartografieren.

Meet Ant Farm: a subversive 1970s architecture, art and media collective that explored new ways of thinking about space, land and time. This documentary introduces the people behind the collective and investigates their impact on their times and their legacy today.

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Ant Farm war ein subversives Kollektiv in den USA der 70er Jahre, das neue Wege erforschte, über Raum, Land und Zeit nachzudenken. Der Film stellt die Menschen hinter dem Kollektiv vor und untersucht ihr Wirken und ihre heutige Bedeutung.

While most children live in cities today, understanding, questioning and experimenting with the urban environment is rare. This workshop facilitated by Cameron Stevens proposes one way of encouraging children and young people to engage with their immediate urban surroundings.

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Obwohl die meisten Kinder in Städten aufwachsen, ist die Auseinandersetzung und das Experimentieren mit der städtischen Umwelt in ihrer schulischen Ausbildung unterrepräsentiert. Cameron Stevens leitet eine Workshopserie, die Kindern und Jugendlichen eine vielfältige Auseinandersetzung mit ihrem städtischen Umfeld ermöglicht. 

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan), introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

||

Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: Making Environment. See how do-it-yourself technologies can help you to better understand and change your environmental footprint.

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Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Making Environment. Erfahren Sie, wie „Do it yourself“-Technologien Ihnen dabei helfen können, Ihren ökologischen Fußabdruck besser zu verstehen und zu verändern.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

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Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

How can we make information about the world around us more accessible? How can we make this information work for us? See how technology normally used in a scientific setting can help improve our everyday lives.

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Wie können wir Umgebungsdaten zugänglicher machen? Wie können wir diese Daten gewinnbringend einsetzen? Erfahren Sie, wie Technologien, die normalerweise im wissenschaftlichen Umfeld genutzt werden, unseren Alltag verbessern können.

Have you ever wanted to make your own home-roasted coffee? Join Anna Young and build your own solar coffee-bean roaster using cheap household materials. Anna Young is the R&D Officer for International Laboratories of Innovations in International Health at MIT.

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Wollten Sie schon immer Ihren eigenen Kaffee rösten? Bauen Sie gemeinsam mit Anna Young Ihren eigenen mit Sonnenenergie betriebenen Kaffeeröster aus günstigen Haushaltsmaterialien. Anna Young ist Mitarbeiterin für Forschung und Entwicklung beim MIT im Bereich International Laboratories of Innovations in International Health.

Hear Natalie Jeremijenko speak about her diverse work and research exploring strategies and civic actions for producing a healthy urban environmental commons. 

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Erleben Sie Natalie Jeremijenkos Vortrag über ihre facettenreiche Arbeit und erforschen Sie Strategien und Bürgeraktionen für die Schaffung eines gesunden urbanen Umfelds. 

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan), introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Workshop with Natalie Jeremijenko.

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Workshop mit Natalie Jeremijenko.

What are the global implications of do-it-yourself solutions? Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: The Politics of Making.

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Welche globalen Auswirkungen haben Do-it-yourself-Lösungen? Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: The Politics of Making.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

||

Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

||

Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

Exploring the strategies of technological disobedience and need-based architecture, this workshop provides a forum for participants to discuss and create actions that improve their city by documenting and hacking space.

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Dieser Workshop beschäftigt sich mit den Strategien technologischen Ungehorsams und bedarfsbasierter Architektur und bietet den Teilnehmern ein Forum für die Diskussion und Erarbeitung von Aktionen, die durch Dokumentation und „Hacking“ öffentlicher Räume zur Verbesserung der Stadt beitragen.

Join us for a participatory tour through Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg that positions you as the researcher, measuring the effects of the city on your own brain and body

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Unternehmt mit uns einen auf Mitbestimmung ausgerichteten Ausflug durch Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauer Berg und agiert als Forscher, der die Auswirkungen der Stadt auf den eigenen Geist und Körper misst.

The Lab turns into a forum for a unique system of casting that is not only a call for actors and extras, but also a call for ideas about the content of Alterazioni Video’s next video project, which takes the city of Berlin as its star.

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Alterazioni Video wandelt das Lab in ein Forum für ein einzigartiges Casting-System um, welches nicht nur ein Aufruf für Schauspieler und Laiendarsteller sondern auch ein Aufruf für Ideen für den Inhalt des neuen Videoprojekts von Alterazioni ist, das die Stadt Berlin als Hauptdarsteller einsetzt.

Learn about the Technological Disobedience movement from interdisciplinary artist and designer Ernesto Oroza.

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Erfahren Sie mehr über die Technological Disobedience-Bewegung des fachgebietsübergreifenden Künstlers und Designer Ernesto Oroza.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

||

Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: Making Games. Explore different kinds of game design and confront the possibilities of using play to overcome challenges in the city.

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Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Making Games. Lernen Sie unterschiedliche Spielkonzepte kennen und denken Sie über Möglichkeiten nach, Spiele für die Überwindung städtischer Probleme zu nutzen.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

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Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

Explore ways to modify parks and playgrounds by experimenting with tools like washable spray chalk and PVC pipe building blocks.

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Erkunden Sie Möglichkeiten, Parks und Spielplätze zu verändern, indem Sie mit Hilfsmitteln wie abwaschbarer Sprühkreide und PVC-Rohren experimentieren.

How can we make technology like electronics, medical devices, and environmental sensors easier to understand? Using colors and symbols, we’ll “translate” sophisticated concepts into simple building blocks.

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Wie können wir Technologien wie elektronische und medizinische Geräte oder auch Umweltsensoren verständlicher machen? Mithilfe von Farben und Symbolen „übersetzen“ wir komplizierte Konzepte in einfache Bausteine.

Exploring the strategies of technological disobedience and need-based architecture, this workshop provides a forum for participants to discuss and create actions that improve their city by documenting and hacking space.

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Dieser Workshop beschäftigt sich mit den Strategien technologischen Ungehorsams und bedarfsbasierter Architektur und bietet den Teilnehmern ein Forum für die Diskussion und Erarbeitung von Aktionen, die durch Dokumentation und „Hacking“ öffentlicher Räume zur Verbesserung der Stadt beitragen.

Where do good ideas come from? Join toy designer and humor expert Barry Kudrowitz in a workshop centered on generating ideas through games.

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Wo kommen gute Ideen her? Besuchen Sie einen Workshop des Spielzeugdesigners und Humorexperten Barry Kudrowitz, in dem neue Ideen spielerisch entwickelt werden.

Toy designer Barry Kudrowitz leads an interactive talk on the connections between creativity, humor, and play. Learn how play and humor can improve our leisure, academic, and work activities.

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Der Spielzeugdesigner Barry Kudrowitz führt ein interaktives Gespräch über die Zusammenhänge zwischen Kreativität, Humor und Spiel. Erfahren Sie, wie unsere Freizeit-, Studien- und Arbeitsaktivitäten durch Spiele und Humor verbessert werden können.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

||

Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Lab Team member José Gómez-Márquez introduces the topic of the day: Making Macro. Join us for a birds-eye view of the maker movement and learn how people find empowerment through making.

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Lab-Teammitglied José Gómez-Márquez stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Making Macro. Lassen Sie uns heute die Macherbewegung aus der Vogelperspektive betrachten und erfahren Sie, wie Menschen durch Machen Verantwortung übernehmen.

Ever wondered what to do with your old cell phone? Or how to build a custom window garden? Consult with resident makers, experienced engineers, and hacker masterminds on how to turn your idea into something real.

||

Sie wissen nicht, was Sie mit Ihrem alten Mobiltelefon machen sollen? Oder wie man einen maßgefertigten Fenstergarten baut? Fragen Sie Bauspezialisten, erfahrene Ingenieure und Computerspezialisten, wie Sie Ihre Idee verwirklichen können.

Have an idea for an invention? Turn it into a reality! Shape, mold, and build your own creations using our lending library of tools and devices and the help of our Engineering Genius Bar.

||

Haben Sie eine Idee für eine Einladung? Verwirklichen Sie sie! Formen und gestalten Sie Ihre eigenen Kreationen unter Verwendung der Hilfsmittel in unserer Leihbibliothek und mit Hilfe unserer Engineering Genius Bar.

We’re bringing together people from all over Berlin who share a do-it-yourself interest. See how other people’s ideas can influence the way you approach your life and your own creative endeavors!

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Wir bringen Menschen aus ganz Berlin zusammen, die am „Do it yourself“-Ansatz interessiert sind. Lassen Sie sich von den Ideen anderer Menschen inspirieren und erleben Sie, wie sich Ihre eigene Herangehensweise und kreative Arbeit verändern!

In this presentation and skillshare workshop, join maker culture activist Bilal Ghalib for a look at what’s happening in maker spaces in Berlin and around the world.

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Nehmen Sie an diesem Workshop für Präsentation und praktischen Erfahrungsaustausch mit dem Kulturaktivisten Bilal Ghalib teil und erfahren Sie mehr über die Maker-Bereiche in Berlin und in aller Welt.

Konrad Zuse, the subject of this film, started out building his first computing machines in his parents’ Berlin home. He went on to create the Z3, considered today to be the first fully functional computer.

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Konrad Zuse, dessen Leben dieser Film folgt, begann im Zuhause seiner Eltern, seine ersten Rechenmaschinen zu bauen. Er entwickelte später den Z3, der heute als erster, voll funktionsfähiger Computer gilt.

Meet Lab Team member Rachel Smith and learn about her work and research as she kicks off her week of programs at the Lab. Under the title Dynamic Connections, she’ll explore topics like cycling, city transformations, tourism, and more. 

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Treffen Sie Rachel Smith und informieren Sie sich beim Start ihrer Veranstaltungswoche im Lab über ihre Arbeit und Forschung. Rachels unter dem Titel „Dynamic Connections“ (Dynamische Verbindungen) zusammengefasste Veranstaltungen drehen sich um Themen wie Radfahren, Beispiele für Stadtumgestaltungen, Tourismus und mehr. 

 

The Copenhagenize Index rates more than 80 major cities around the world based on their bicycle-friendliness. What place does Berlin have in the index? Is your city even included? Join us at the Lab to find out!

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Der Copenhagenize Index bewertet mehr als 80 große Städte in aller Welt, basierend auf deren Fahrradfreundlichkeit. Welchen Platz nimmt Berlin im Index ein? Ist Ihre Stadt überhaupt dabei? Besuchen Sie uns im Lab und finden Sie es heraus!

 

End the day with a social and engaging night out full of fresh ideas, discussion, and lots of new information on cycling. This PechaKucha-style presentation will showcase a cross-section of the Berlin cycling community.

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Lassen Sie den Tag mit einem gesellschaftlichen und anregenden Abend voller frischer Ideen, Diskussionen und neuer Informationen zum Thema Radfahren ausklingen. Diese Präsentation im PechaKucha-Stil wird ein Profil der Berliner Fahrradgemeinde aufzeigen.

In The Invisible Frame, Tilda Swinton takes us on a tour of the remnants of the Berlin Wall. The film is a meditative portrayal of the city of Berlin and the landscapes that surround it.

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Im Film “The Invisible Frame” nimmt uns Tilda Swinton mit auf eine Tour entlang der Überreste der Berliner Mauer. Der Film ist ein meditatives Porträt der Stadt Berlin und der Landschaften, die sie umgeben.

While most children live in cities today, understanding, questioning and experimenting with the urban environment is rare. This workshop facilitated by Cameron Stevens proposes one way of encouraging children and young people to engage with their immediate urban surroundings.

||

Obwohl die meisten Kinder in Städten aufwachsen, ist die Auseinandersetzung und das Experimentieren mit der städtischen Umwelt in ihrer schulischen Ausbildung unterrepräsentiert. Cameron Stevens leitet eine Workshopserie, die Kindern und Jugendlichen eine vielfältige Auseinandersetzung mit ihrem städtischen Umfeld ermöglicht. 

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

||

Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Lab Team member Rachel Smith introduces the topic of the day: Space for Everyone. By identifying how well-functioning neighborhoods address the needs of children, an aging population, and people with disabilities, we will explore both absurd and very practical visions for urban life.

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Lab-Teammitglied Rachel Smith stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Space for Everyone. Wir gehen darauf ein, wie gut funktionierende Stadtviertel den Bedürfnissen von Kindern, älteren Menschen und Menschen mit Behinderung gerecht werden, und beschäftigen uns dabei mit gleichermaßen absurden wie praktischen Visionen für urbanes Leben.

Labplatz: Transforming Parking Space is about rethinking the way we use our street space and urban space in general. Join us in this series of actions to redefine parking spaces. Instead of cars, come park some chairs.

Both human- and battery-powered, the rolling karaoke party Music on the Move takes a mobile sound system, loads it on a cargo bike, and rides at random around town in search of interesting places (and people) to sing.

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Musik hat die Macht eine unmittelbare Verbindung zwischen Fremden entstehen zu lassen. Joe Hatchiban bringt seine berühmt-berüchtigte Bearpit Karaokeparty auf die Straßen und zieht mit ihr und einem Lastenrad durch Berlin, immer auf der Suche nach interessanten Orten und Menschen.

Does traffic make you feel uncomfortable and stressed about using your bike in the city? Come join a road-safety training session facilitated by the ADFC Berlin e.V.

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Fühlen Sie sich wegen des dichten Verkehrs in der Stadt auf dem Fahrrad unsicher und unwohl? Nehmen Sie an einem vom ADFC Berlin e.V. geleiteten Fahrsicherheitstraining teil, um die Sicherheit beim Fahrradfahren aufzubauen.

Join Ben Hamilton-Baillie as he examines a different approach to street design and place-making based on shared space. Building on an understanding of behavioral psychology and the power of ambiguity and intrigue, Hamilton-Baillie explores integrated, low-speed shared streets.

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Erleben Sie Ben Hamilton-Baillie, wie er einen anderen Zugang zu Straßengestaltung und Raumschaffung, basierend auf dem Prinzip von Gemeinschaftsbereichen, untersucht. Aufbauend auf einem wachsenden Verständnis für Verhaltenspsychologie und den Einfluss von Vieldeutigkeit und Intrige, erkundet Hamilton-Baillie integrierte, gemeinschaftlich nutzbare Straßen mit langsamem Verkehr.

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

||

Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Lab Team member Rachel Smith introduces the topic of the day: Cars and the City. What is the future of parking with the imminent rise of electric cars in cities? What new problems do electric cars add to the parking dilemma?

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Lab-Teammitglied Rachel Smith stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Cars and the City. Wie funktioniert das Parken in Zukunft, wenn immer mehr Elektroautos in den Städten unterwegs sind? Welche neuen Probleme entstehen mit Elektroautos im Hinblick auf die angespannte Parksituation?

These days, there are fewer and fewer excuses to leave your bike at home. Join us for a test ride to compare regular bikes with eBikes, and help collect data for the very first "No Excuse Zone Map" of Berlin.

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Es gibt immer weniger glaubwürdige Ausreden, das Fahrrad zu Hause zu lassen. Nehmen Sie an unserer Probefahrt mit herkömmlichen Rädern, Elektrofahrrädern und solarbetriebenen Fahrrädern teil und helfen Sie uns, Daten für den ersten Berliner „Stadtplan der ausredefreien Zone“ zu sammeln!

Join us for a participatory tour through Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg that positions you as the researcher, measuring the effects of the city on your own brain and body

||

Unternehmt mit uns einen auf Mitbestimmung ausgerichteten Ausflug durch Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauer Berg und agiert als Forscher, der die Auswirkungen der Stadt auf den eigenen Geist und Körper misst.

How can you define and narrate the abstract issue of urban climate change, particularly concerning mobility? The different lectures this afternoon are linked to that question and are part of Climate Media Factory’s “Tell Your City” project.

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Wie kann man das abstrakte Thema Urbaner Klimawandel vor allem im Bezug auf Mobilität definieren und zusammenfassen? Die verschiedenen Gespräche am heutigen Nachmittag befassen sich mit dieser Frage und sind Teil des Climate Media Factory Projekts „Tell Your City“.

Parking hasn’t changed much over the last 100 years. With an increasing density of urban space and in the wake of e-mobility, there is an urgent need for new ideas and concepts. If we could change parking, what would we do and why?

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Das Parken hat sich in den letzten 100 Jahren kaum verändert. Mit zunehmender Dichte städtischen Raums und mit Beginn der E-Mobility gibt es einen dringenden Bedarf an neuen Ideen und Konzepten. Wenn wir das Parken verändern könnten, was würden wir tun und warum?

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

||

Erstelle dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitness-Programm und trainiere mit uns jedes Wochenende. Gemeinsam wandeln wir das Lab und dessen gesamte urbane Umgebung in einen Trainingsort um.

Lab Team member Rachel Smith introduces the topic of the day: Transforming Cities. Learn about successful examples of city transformations in Berlin and elsewhere and important urban changes you can contribute to.

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Lab-Teammitglied Rachel Smith stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Transforming Cities. Lernen Sie Beispiele für erfolgreiche urbane Transformation in Berlin und anderen Städten kennen und erfahren Sie, wie auch Sie sich an wichtigen urbanen Änderungsprozessen beteiligen können.

The Marathon of Transformation is a daylong program devoted to projects that have transformed, are transforming, or will transform cities. Speakers will share obstacles encountered, success stories, and current processes of city transformation.

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Der Marathon der Transformation ist ein ganztägig stattfindendes Programm, das Projekten gewidmet ist, die Städte verändert haben, verändern oder verändern werden. Die Referenten werden über ihre Erfahrungen mit Hindernissen, die Sie bewältigen mussten, ihre Erfolge und den derzeitigen Prozess der urbanen Transformation berichten.

Walk, garden, recycle, and play your way toward urban change in this participatory seminar led by Mirko Zardini, director and chief curator of the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

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In diesem partizipatorischen Seminar von Mirko Zardini können Sie beim Gehen, Gärtnern, Recyceln und Spielen Ihren Beitrag zur Stadtentwicklung leisten. Mirko Zardini ist Direktor und leitender Kurator des Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Start your Sunday lazily with this leisurely bike ride, stopping for a nice morning coffee on the way and chattering en route back to the Lab. This Berlin edition of Lazy Sunday Cycle is led by Amy Saunders and Rachel Smith.

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Beginnen Sie Ihren Sonntag angenehm mit diesem gemütlichen Fahrradausflug mit einer Pause für einen guten Morgenkaffee und angeregter Unterhaltung auf dem Weg zurück zum Lab. Diese Berlin-Variante des Lazy Sunday Cycle wird von Amy Saunders und Rachel Smith geleitet.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

||

Erstelle dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitness-Programm und trainiere mit uns jedes Wochenende. Gemeinsam wandeln wir das Lab und dessen gesamte urbane Umgebung in einen Trainingsort um.

Join a weekly walking tour that brings learning out of the classroom and into the streets. Led by members of Urbanophil and mikromakro, the Mobile University of Berlin provokes participants to mine their urban environment through acting, mapping, and multimedia.

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Nimm an einem wöchentlich stattfindenden Rundgang teil, der das Lernen aus dem Kontext des Klassenzimmers löst und auf der Straße erlebbar macht. Von Urbanophil- und mikromakro-Mitgliedern angeleitet, fordert die Mobile Universität Berlin die Teilnehmer heraus, ihre urbane Umgebung durch Schauspiel, Mapping und Multimedia zu ergründen.

A movie marathon featuring champions of transformation, including local politicians in Colombia’s capital Bogota, dancers in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas and young men surfing the river in Munich, Germany.

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Ein Filmmarathon, der Pioniere urbaner Veränderung vorstellt, einschließlich lokaler Politiker aus Kolumbiens Hauptstadt Bogota, Tänzer und Musiker aus den Favelas von Rio de Janeiro sowie junge Männer, die auf einem Münchener Fluss Wellen reiten.

Environmental activist and surfer Chris Hines describes how a small group of surfers took on the British water industry and government to clean up the UK’s coastline.

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Umweltaktivist und Surfer Chris Hines beschreibt, wie eine kleine Gruppe von Surfern es mit der britischen Wasserindustrie und der Regierung aufnahm, um die Küstenlinie und Meere des Vereinigten Königreichs zu säubern.

Congestion is one of the largest problems in today’s cities. In New York, London, Paris, and Copenhagen, urban planners are looking to reclaim the streets from the automobile.

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Eines der größten Probleme heutiger Städte ist die Verkehrsbelastung. Stadtplaner und Denker in New York, London, Paris und Kopenhagen suchen nach Lösungen, um die verstopften Straßen von Autos zu befreien.

Lab Team member Rachel Smith introduces the topic of the day: Dare to Share. Thanks to the latest technologies, collaborative consumption is on the rise. Today we will look at pioneers in this trend and its larger economic implications.

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Lab-Teammitglied Rachel Smith stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Dare to Share. Dank modernster Technologien findet kollaborativer Konsum immer mehr Zuspruch. Heute lernen wir Pioniere dieser Bewegung kennen und beschäftigen uns mit den gesamtwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen.

For sixteen years, Heidemarie Schwermer has lived without money, without her own apartment and with only a few possessions, just by sharing. She hosts a “Give-and-Take Table” accompanied by conversation. Consider new ways of living and implement first steps.

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Seit 16 Jahren lebt Heidemarie Schwermer ohne Geld, ohne ihre eigene Wohnung und mit nur wenig Eigentum einfach vom Teilen. Sie moderiert einen gesprächsbegleitenden „Gib-und-Nimm Tisch“. Überdenken Sie neue Lebenswege und setzen Sie einige erste Schritte um.

There is enough to feed, house, and clothe all human beings. The problem is, not everyone has enough money to buy what they need. What we all do have is time and knowledge. Join us for an evening of sharing.

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Auf dieser Welt gibt es genug zum Essen, zum Wohnen und Kleidung für alle Menschen. Das Problem ist, dass nicht jeder genug Geld hat, um sich das zu kaufen, was er braucht. Was wir alle haben, ist Zeit und Wissen. Begleiten Sie uns an einem Abend des Teilens.

Can you imagine giving away all your belongings? Heidemarie Schwermer, a former teacher and therapist from Germany, decided one day to change her life, and gave away everything she owned. Today, fourteen years later, she still lives a life without money.

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Können Sie sich vorstellen, Ihr gesamtes Hab und Gut aufzugeben? Heidemarie Schwermer, eine ehemalige Lehrerin und Therapeutin, entschied sich eines Tages ihr Leben zu verändern und alles wegzugeben, was sie besaß. Vierzehn Jahre später lebt sie noch immer ohne Geld.

While most children live in cities today, understanding, questioning and experimenting with the urban environment is rare. This workshop facilitated by Cameron Stevens proposes one way of encouraging children and young people to engage with their immediate urban surroundings.

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Obwohl die meisten Kinder in Städten aufwachsen, ist die Auseinandersetzung und das Experimentieren mit der städtischen Umwelt in ihrer schulischen Ausbildung unterrepräsentiert. Cameron Stevens leitet eine Workshopserie, die Kindern und Jugendlichen eine vielfältige Auseinandersetzung mit ihrem städtischen Umfeld ermöglicht. 

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Lab Team member Rachel Smith introduces the topic of the day: Life After Tourism. Join us as we explore the positive effects and risks of tourism.

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Lab-Teammitglied Rachel Smith stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Life After Tourism. Beleuchtet mit uns positive Effekte und Risiken des Tourismus.

Join us for a two-part master class about sustainable tourism—one that provides benefits to the community, economy, and environment while operating within our social, financial, and environmental means.

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Nehmen Sie an unserer zweiteiligen Master Class für nachhaltigen Tourismus teil: Nachhaltiger Tourismus soll den Menschen vor Ort, der Wirtschaft und der Umwelt dienlich sein und den sozialen, finanziellen und ökologischen Rahmenbedingungen gerecht werden.

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Lab Team member Rachel Smith introduces the topic of the day: Reverse Garbage Infrastructure. Because waste never really “goes away,” today we will hear from people who have developed innovative ways to use the commodities that we typically dispose of.

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Lab-Teammitglied Rachel Smith stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Abfallentsorgung unter umgekehrten Vorzeichen. Da Abfälle nie ganz verschwinden, kommen heute Menschen zu Wort, die innovative Ansätze entwickelt haben und Materialien nutzen, die normalerweise auf dem Müll landen.

Join us for a participatory tour through Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg that positions you as the researcher, measuring the effects of the city on your own brain and body

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Unternehmt mit uns einen auf Mitbestimmung ausgerichteten Ausflug durch Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauer Berg und agiert als Forscher, der die Auswirkungen der Stadt auf den eigenen Geist und Körper misst.

The Vertech bridge is the first recycled thermoplastic road bridge to be built in Europe and the longest ever constructed. Learn more about this 100-percent-recyclable bridge and how this technology can be applied to other elements of urban infrastructure.

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Die Verteck Brücke ist die erste von Autos befahrbare Brücke aus recyceltem Thermoplaste, die in Europa gebaut wurde und ist die längste ihrer Art. Erfahren Sie mehr über diese 100% recycelbare Brücke und wie diese Technologie auf andere Elemente der Stadtinfrastruktur angewendet werden kann.

Garbage is a broad, all-encompassing term for almost everything for which we no longer have a use. Let’s rethink garbage and our relationship with it. Participate in a series of making activities and find out about global trends for the world’s waste problems.

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Abfall ist eine breite, allumfassende Bezeichnung für fast alles, was wir nicht mehr gebrauchen können. Lassen Sie uns Abfall und unsere Beziehung dazu überdenken. Machen Sie mit bei einer Serie von Herstellungsaktivitäten und erfahren Sie mehr über globale Trends zum Weltabfallproblem.

The Plastiki expedition used an eighteen-meter-long catamaran, mainly constructed out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other waste products. Learn more about this fascinating project from Jo Royle, skipper of the Plastiki and ocean advocate.

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Die Plastiki Expedition benutze einen 18 Meter langen Katamaran, der hauptsächlich aus 12.500 wiederverwendeten Plastikflaschen und anderen Abfallprodukten gebaut wurde. Erfahren Sie mehr über dieses faszinierende Projekt von Jo Royle, Kapitän der Plastiki und Ozeanadvokatin.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

How do our eyes tell our brain to react to the urban environment? Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Basics of Perception and the Urban Micro Lens.

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Wie sagen unsere Augen unserem Gehirn, wie wir auf die urbane Umgebung reagieren sollen? Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Grundlagen der Wahrnehmung und urbane Mikrolinse.

With the performance group CREW, walk in a different place or far-away time via C.A.P.E. (Computer Automated Personal Environment) and overcome the natural boundaries of perception. This could be the future of documentary filmmaking!

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Spazieren Sie mit der Performancegruppe CREW an einem anderen Ort oder in einer längst vergangenen Zeit mit Hilfe von C.A.P.E. (Computer Automated Personal Environment) und überschreiten Sie die Grenzen der Wahrnehmung.

How do we capture our visual perception of the city? Led by photographers and makers Kay Strasser and Jens Werlein, participants in this workshop will construct and test two cameras using more than 5,000 Lego bricks.

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Wie erfassen wir unsere visuelle Wahrnehmung der Stadt? Angeführt von Fotografen und Entscheidungsträgern Kay Strasser und Jens Werlein, Teilnehmer an diesem Workshop wird konstruieren und testen Sie zwei Kameras mit mehr als 5,000 Lego-Steinen.

This series of three lectures focuses on the basics of perception—the anatomy of the eye, visual phenomena, and illusion—as well as perception’s philosophical interpretation. Confront your understanding of perception and learn more about its creative and constructivist performance.

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Lernen Sie die kreativen und konstruktiven Leistungen Ihres Gehirns besser kennen: Prof. Elke Lütjen-Drecoll führt in die Anatomie des Auges ein, Prof. Michael Bach stellt Sehphänomene und Illusionen vor und Prof. Michael Pauen bringt Ihnen die Philosophie der Wahrnehmung näher.

Good conversation conquers all. It leads to friendship, understanding, and serendipitous opportunities. The Bubble Party is all about sharing: sharing conversation, time, ideas, and needs.

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Ein gutes Gespräch erobert alles. Es führt zu Freundschaft, Verständnis und glücklichen Begebenheiten. Die Bubble Party thematisiert alles übers Abgeben – gemeinsame Gespräche, Zeit, Ideen und Bedürfnisse.

Architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel’s dream was to create “a house for everybody,” so he developed a DIY wooden house that you can make completely by yourself. Join us and learn how to built your own One-Sqm-House—no previous experience required.

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„Ein Haus für alle.“ sagt der Berliner Architekt Van Bo Le-Mentzel und entwickelte ein Holzhaus zum Selberbauen. Das Haus besteht aus handelsüblichen Materialien vom Baumarkt und kann von jedem Laien mit Akkubohrer und Säge geschreinert werden. 

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Join a weekly walking tour that brings learning out of the classroom and into the streets. Led by members of Urbanophil and mikromakro, the Mobile University of Berlin provokes participants to mine their urban environment through acting, mapping, and multimedia.

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Nimm an einem wöchentlich stattfindenden Rundgang teil, der das Lernen aus dem Kontext des Klassenzimmers löst und auf der Straße erlebbar macht. Von Urbanophil- und mikromakro-Mitgliedern angeleitet, fordert die Mobile Universität Berlin die Teilnehmer heraus, ihre urbane Umgebung durch Schauspiel, Mapping und Multimedia zu ergründen.

What is a beautiful city? Who gets to decide what that means? Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Aesthetic Experience of Art, Architecture, and Design.

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Wie sieht eine schöne Stadt aus? Wer entscheidet, was diese Begriffe bedeuten? Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Ästhetisches Erleben von Kunst, Architektur und Design.

Following the Bubble Party, we invite you to join us in adapting these principles for use in your life. Incorporate the ideas from the Bubble into portable and fashionable accessories to provoke and foster talks with strangers.

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Nach der Bubble Party laden wir euch ein, uns dabei zu begleiten, diese Prinzipien für die Anwendung in eurem Leben anzupassen. Übertragt die Ideen aus der Bubble auf tragbare und modische Accessoires, um Gespräche mit Fremden zu provozieren und zu fördern.

Whether you want to create animated pictures, paint architecture, visualize music, interact with artists, or tell stories, you can make it happen in real time using the iPad app Tagtool.

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Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie könnten die Wände und Gebäude Ihrer Stadt in bunte Animationen verwandeln! Das Tagtool wurde genau zu diesem Zweck entwickelt. Lernen Sie, wie Sie Ihre Utopien, malen, animieren und in Echtzeit auf Fassaden projizieren können.

Join us for a lecture series and discussion as we explore what aesthetics, beauty, and ugliness signify for cities, and what those concepts mean for individuals from a psychological standpoint.

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In drei Vorträgen und einer nachfolgenden Podiumsdiskussion erkunden wir, was Ästhetik und Schönheit, aber auch Hässlichkeit, aus psychologischer Sicht, aus kulturwissenschaftlicher und aus philosophischer Sicht bedeuten für Städte, Urbanität und den Diskurs über sie.

This eclectic mix of recent short experimental documentaries from Germany captures the energy of urban life and contemplates how we perceive and experience the urban landscape. Using a variety of techniques, the films explore latent narratives and reveal hidden views.

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Diese vielseitige Mischung aktueller, experimenteller, deutscher Kurzfilme fängt die Energie urbanen Lebens ein und besinnt sich darauf, wie wir die urbane Landschaft wahrnehmen und erfahren. Durch den Einsatz unterschiedlicher Techniken enthüllen die Filme verborgene Erzählungen und versteckte Blickwinkel.

Unconsciously, our minds interact with architecture and urban space every day. Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Unconscious Perception and the City.

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Ganz unbewusst interagiert unser Verstand täglich mit Architektur und urbanem Raum. Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Unbewusste Wahrnehmung und die Stadt.

Join a group of young Berlin-based musicians and help them translate natural urban sounds into musical performance. Explore the city to collect a wide range of sound data to create a temporary sound sculpture-performance.

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In this two-part session, psychologist Tom Stafford introduces the study of perception. Then join us on a "treasure hunt" for experiences that illustrate how our minds respond to the city.

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In dieser zweiteiligen Sitzung, wird Psychologe Tom Stafford Phänomene der Wahrnehmung aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht vorstellen. Folgt uns anschließend auf eine „Schatzsuche“, um Erfahrungen zu sammeln, die uns aufzeigen, wie unsere Psyche auf die Stadt antwortet.

Consider your surroundings through a new lens as Berlin-based architect and Fulbright scholar Matthias Ballestrem discusses how we unconsciously perceive architecture.

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Betrachte deine Umgebung durch eine neue Linse, während Matthias Ballestrem und Robert Gaschler die unbewusste Wahrnehmung von Architektur erörtern.

Man with a Movie Camera , a silent, experimental documentary, is one of the great urban film classics. It portrays a day in the life of various Soviet cities.

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Man with a Movie Camera – Mann mit Filmkamera, ein stummer, experimenteller Dokumentarfilm, ist einer der großartigen Stadtfilm-Klassiker. Er schildert einen Tag in im Leben verschiedener sowjetischer Städte.

While most children live in cities today, understanding, questioning and experimenting with the urban environment is rare. This workshop facilitated by Cameron Stevens proposes one way of encouraging children and young people to engage with their immediate urban surroundings.

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Obwohl die meisten Kinder in Städten aufwachsen, sind das Verstehen, Infragestellen und Experimentieren mit der städtischen Umwelt selten. Dieser Workshop, geführt durch Cameron Stevens, schlägt eine Art der Herangehensweise vor, die Kinder und Jugendliche ermutigt, sich mit ihrer direkten städtischen Umgebung zu beschäftigen.

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

By 2060 one out of every three people will be older than 65. How will we meet the growing needs of this population? Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Age.

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Bis zum Jahr 2060 wird jeder Dritte über 65 Jahre alt sein. Wie werden wir mit den Anforderungen einer alternden Gesellschaft umgehen? Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Alter.

Demographic change is in full swing. We live longer, the birth rate is low, and the percentage of older people is rising. Discuss the challenges of intergenerational coexistence in cities as we search for new approaches for the future.

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Der demographische Wandel ist in vollem Gange. Wir leben länger, die Geburtenrate ist niedrig und der Prozentsatz älterer Menschen steigt. Diskutiere die Herausforderungen von generations-übergreifender Koexistenz in Städten und suche mit uns nach neuen Ansätzen für die Zukunft.

Society and city dwellers are getting older and older, though we still seem to ignore the changes and the potential of intergenerational encounters. We invite you to an age-less happening full of conversations, exchange, and shared experiences to carefully approach these questions.

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Gesellschaft und Stadtbewohner werden älter und älter, wir scheinen jedoch die Veränderungen und das Potenzial von generations-übergreifenden Begegnungen zu ignorieren. Wir laden auf ein altersloses Ereignis voller Gespräche, Austausch und gemeinsamen Erlebnissen ein, um diese Fragestellungen mit Vorsicht anzugehen.

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

What does socially responsible urban design look like? Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: The Social City.

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Wie sieht sozial verantwortliches urbanes Design aus? Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Die soziale Stadt.

The city of Berlin owns a great deal of vacant land, some of which is public and is being sold. Join us in discussion with Florian Schmidt and Jürgen Breiter to learn more about how citizens can get involved.

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Join us for a participatory tour through Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg that positions you as the researcher, measuring the effects of the city on your own brain and body

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Unternehmt mit uns einen auf Mitbestimmung ausgerichteten Ausflug durch Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauer Berg und agiert als Forscher, der die Auswirkungen der Stadt auf den eigenen Geist und Körper misst.

The documentary Geschichten aus der Heimat—Homeland Stories explores urban poverty in Berlin, spotlighting the city’s creative class and other people who are drawn to Berlin by a myth of freedom and self-realization.

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Der Dokumentarfilm Geschichten aus der Heimat setzt sich mit der städtischen Armut in Berlin auseinander, fokussierend auf die kreativen der Stadt und andere Personen, die durch den Mythos von Freiheit und Selbstverwirklichung von Berlin angezogen sind.

Hear sociologist Christian von Scheve address questions of social inequality as they relate to social status and connect to emotions—especially anxiety and anger.

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Erfahre vom Soziologen Christian von Scheve wie er soziale Ungleichheit betrachtet, die im Bezug zu sozialem Rang steht und mit Emotionen - insbesondere Angst und Ärger - verbunden ist.

Join Andres Lepik, professor of history of architecture and curatorial practice at the Technische Universität München (TUM), in discussion on the socially responsible role of architecture, art, and design.

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Begleite Andreas Lepik, Professor für Architekturgeschichte und Kuratorische Praxis and der Technischen Universität München, in der Diskussion über die soziale Verantwortung von Architektur, Kunst und Design.

Discuss and analyze the hotspots of social responsibility for Berlin, such as Liegenschaftsfond’s politics and its problematic agenda, mounting rents, and displacement of habitants from the inner city, the increasing number of social welfare-dependent citizens and their unacceptable living conditions.

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Diskutiere und analysiere die Hotspots sozialer Verantwortlichkeit in Berlin, wie die Liegenschaftsfondspolitik und ihrer problematischen Agenda, steigende Mieten und die Verdrängung von Bewohnern aus der Innenstadt sowie die zunehmende Zahl von Sozialhilfeempfängern und ihren unakzeptablen Lebensverhältnissen.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

It can be challenging to establish meaningful interactions in overcrowded cities. Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Communication and Participation I.

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Es kann schwierig sein, in überbevölkerten Städten bedeutsame Interaktionen mit anderen aufzubauen. Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Kommunikation und Beteiligung I.

Participate in this lecture and workshop about the neighborhood garden project of Corinne Rose: Make Space/Räume schaffen—a project for neighborhood gardens.

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Das Projekt "Make Space - Räume schaffen - ein Projekt für Nachbarschaftsgärten", von Corinne Rose, dem Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF e.V.) und Sebastian Wagner, lädt alle Bürger, Mieter, Wohnungsgesellschaften ein, alle die gerne einen Nachbarschaftsgarten hätten oder bereits einen haben!

Do you feel alone in the big city? Learn how to meet singles and flirt in this workshop that’s rooted in complex urban communication systems and the scientific basics and the fundamentals of successful flirting.

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Fühlst du dich alleine in der Großstadt? Lasse es dir beibringen Singles kennen zu lernen und zu flirten! Dieser Workshop ist auf complexen urbanen Kommunikationssystemen und den wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen des erfolgreichen Flirtens aufgebaut.

What if our daily interactions were based on unconscious processes not connected to logic? What specific logic does our unconscious intelligence follow? Is it smarter to have less knowledge? These are some of the questions Gerd Gigerenzer will explore in his talk.

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Was wäre, wenn unsere täglichen Interaktionen auf unbewussten Prozessen beruhen würden, die mit Logik nichts zu tun haben? Welcher eigentümlichen Logik folgt unsere unbewusste Intelligenz? Ist es klüger, weniger zu wissen? Das sind nur einige der Fragen, die Gerd Gigerenzer in seinem Vortrag untersuchen wird.

Architect and self-declared “karma economist” Van Bo Le-Mentzel presents construction plans for lamps, furniture, and the complete furnishing of your flat. Known as “Hartz-IV-Möbel,” these construction plans are now available in book form for the first time.

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Der Architekt und selbst ernannte Karma-Ökonom Le-Mentzel präsentiert ein gemeinsam mit seiner Crowd geschriebenes und zum ersten mal in schriftlicher Form erhältliches Handbuch mit nützlichen Bauplänen für Möbel, Lampen und ganze Wohnungseinrichtungen. Veröffentlicht von Hatje Cantz.

Celebrate the book release of Van Bo Le-Mentzel, introduced by Cristina Steingräber of Hatje Cantz Verlag, at the Lab, and join us for a crowdscanning party with PeopleHunt .

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Feier mit uns das neue Buch von Van Bo Le-Mentzel, vorgestellt von Cristina Steingräber vom Hatje Cantz Verlag, bei einer crowdscanning party mit PeopleHunt am Lab.  

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Is participation the new urban social order? Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Communication and Participation II.

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Ist Beteiligung die neue urbane Gesellschaftsordnung? Lab-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Kommunikation und Beteiligung II.

Join a weekly walking tour that brings learning out of the classroom and into the streets. Led by members of Urbanophil and mikromakro, the Mobile University of Berlin provokes participants to mine their urban environment through acting, mapping, and multimedia.

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Nimm an einem wöchentlich stattfindenden Rundgang teil, der das Lernen aus dem Kontext des Klassenzimmers löst und auf der Straße erlebbar macht. Von Urbanophil- und mikromakro-Mitgliedern angeleitet, fordert die Mobile Universität Berlin die Teilnehmer heraus, ihre urbane Umgebung durch Schauspiel, Mapping und Multimedia zu ergründen.

In this lecture, engineer and public engager Carsten Joost will report on his experiences with urban participation and intervention during the last twenty years. Using tangible examples from real life, he will outline how authorities deal with civic engagement.

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In seinem Vortrag berichtet der Diplom-Ingenieur und Öffentlichkeitsarbeiter Carsten Joost von seinen Erfahrungen der letzten 20 Jahre im Bereich der Partizipation und Intervention in stadtplanerischen Prozessen. Anhand von konkreten Beispielen wird der Umgang der Behörden mit bürgerschaftlichem Engagement dargestellt.

Some Germans feel that their participation in society is not valued. This results in less civic engagement and low morale. Join Ernst-Dieter Lantermann as he discusses social involvement and life satisfaction.

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Große Teile der Bevölkerung in Deutschland haben das Gefühl, dass ihr gesellschaftlicher Beitrag nicht anerkannt wird. Das Resultat sind ein geringes gesellschaftliches Engagement und eine niedrige Arbeitsmoral. Erfahre mehr von Psychologe Prof. Dr. Ernst-Dieter Lantermann über das Thema der Gesellschaftlichen Teilhabe und Lebenszufriedenheit.

Urban Motion offers a mix of action, movement, dialogue, and self-reflection to explore how we connect to other people’s minds and motives.

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Urban Motion bieten einen bunten Mix aus Experimenten, Bewegungen, Dialog und Selbstreflexionen um besser mit anderen Menschen in Kontakt zu treten.

Stein auf Stein (Stone on Stone) is a rare portrayal of the squatting scene in early 1980s West Berlin. Filmed on Super 8, the film has recently been digitized but never before distributed or publicly released.

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Stein auf Stein ist eine außergewöhnliche Darstellung der Hausbesetzungs-Szene in den frühen 80er Jahren in West-Berlin. Aufgenommen auf einer Super 8 Kamera, wurde der Film kürzlich digitalisiert, jedoch noch nie zuvor veröffentlicht oder präsentiert.

How does architecture affect our happiness, anxiety, and fear? Lab Team member Corinne Rose introduces the topic of the day: Emotions and the City.

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Wie beeinflusst Architektur Gefühle wie Glück, Beunruhigung und Angst? Lab-Team-Mitglied Corinne Rose stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Emotionen und die Stadt.

Join Isabel Dziobek for a personal consultation using training software aimed at improving the perception and understanding of emotions.

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Nimm an einer persönlichen Beratung mit Isabel Dziobek teil, in der sie Trainings-Software einsetzt, die darauf abzielt die Wahrnehmung und das Verstehen von Emotionen zu verbessern.

Can different landscapes actually change the way we treat other people? In this adventurous mobile workshop, you'll be a researcher, a test subject, and a psycho-geographic explorer.

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Können andere Stadtlandschaften tatsächlich die Art ändern, in der wir mit anderen Menschen umgehen? In diesem abenteuerlichen mobilen Workshop wirst du ein Erforscher, eine Testperson und ein psycho-geografischer Forscher sein.

Explore how cities are being redesigned in the name of happiness with award-winning journalist and author, Charles Montgomery.

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Entdecke mit dem erfolgreichen Journalisten und Autor Charles Montgomery wie Städte im Namen der Zufriedenheit umgestaltet werden.

View selections from Playing the City, a series of participatory art projects with international artists in Frankfurt initiated by Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle museum. In this series, artists conquered and transformed city spaces through various actions, performances, and installations.

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Sehen Sie eine Auswahl von Playing the City, welches eine Serie partizipatorischer Kunstprojekte mit internationalen Künstlern in Frankfurt ist und von Frankfurts Schirn Kunsthalle initiiert wurde. In dieser Serie eroberten und transformierten Künstler den städtischen Raum mit verschiedenen Aktionen, Performances und Installationen.

While most children live in cities today, understanding, questioning and experimenting with the urban environment is rare. This workshop facilitated by Cameron Stevens proposes one way of encouraging children and young people to engage with their immediate urban surroundings.

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Obwohl die meisten Kinder in Städten aufwachsen, ist die Auseinandersetzung und das Experimentieren mit der städtischen Umwelt in ihrer schulischen Ausbildung unterrepräsentiert. Cameron Stevens leitet eine Workshopserie, die Kindern und Jugendlichen eine vielfältige Auseinandersetzung mit ihrem städtischen Umfeld ermöglicht. 

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Like living beings, cities consume material and produce waste. Lab Team member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day: Sanitary Cities and the Senseable City.

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Wie ein Lebewesen konsumieren Städte Material und produzieren Müll. Lab-Team-Mitglied Carlo Ratti stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Gesunde Städte und die Spürbare Stadt.

Join in as we collaboratively confront our own trash by dismantling and analyzing individual pieces of locally sourced trash with the help of scales, barcode readers, open-source databases, and waste-management data.

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Begleite uns dabei wie wir gemeinsam unserem eigenen Abfall gegenüberstehen und einzelne Teile des örtlichen Abfalls mit Hilfe von Waagen, Barcode-Scannern, Open-Source Datenbanken und Abfall-Management-Daten auseinandernehmen und analysieren.

Convert a trash receptacle into a functional kitchen in this two-day workshop.

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In diesem zweitaegigen workshop entwickeln wir eine funktionale Küche aus normalem Abfall.

What if waste collection was put in the hands of citizens? Dietmar Offenhuber explores the possibilities and limitations of self-organized urban infrastructure.

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Was wäre, wenn die Müllabfuhr von den Bürgern übernommen würde? Dietmar Offenhuber erforscht die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen selbstorganisierter, urbaner Infrastruktur.

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Can we apply the success of open-source software to urban development? Lab Team member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day: Open-Source Cities.

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Können wir den Erfolg von Open-Source-Software auf urbane Entwicklung übertragen? Lab-Team-Mitglied Carlo Ratti stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Open-Source-Städte.

How do cities inform our physical being and expression? Join the BodyCartography Project to engage with the social and physical environments of Berlin from the perspective of your own senses.

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Auf welche Weise beeinflussen uns Städte auf körperlicher und emotionaler Ebene? Mach mit beim BodyCartography-Projekt und setze dich mit der sozialen und physischen Umgebung Berlins aus der Perspektive deiner eigenen Sinne auseinander.

Join us for a participatory tour through Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg that positions you as the researcher, measuring the effects of the city on your own brain and body

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Unternehmt mit uns einen auf Mitbestimmung ausgerichteten Ausflug durch Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauer Berg und agiert als Forscher, der die Auswirkungen der Stadt auf den eigenen Geist und Körper misst.

Convert a trash receptacle into a functional kitchen in this two-day workshop.

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In diesem zweitaegigen workshop entwickeln wir eine funktionale Küche aus normalem Abfall.

Sculptor and performer Thomas Bratzke speaks on City of Names, a unique structure in Kreuzberg that was built and inhabited in 2005 by a group of about forty international graffiti writers.

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Bildhauer und Performer Thomas Bratzke erzählt über City of Names, ein einzigartiger Aufbau in Kreuzberg, der 2005 durch eine Gruppe von internationalen Graffiti-Writern  gebaut und bewohnt wurde.

Can open-source design be applied to architecture and urbanism? Join Joseph Grima, editor-in-chief of Domus, and Lab Team member Carlo Ratti for a conversation about the future of open-source architecture.

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Kann Open-Source-Design auf Architektur und Stadtplanung angewendet werden? Erlebe Joseph Grima, Chefredakteur von Domus, und Lab-Team-Mitglied Carlo Ratti in einer Diskussion über die Zukunft der Open-Source-Architektur.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Lab Team Member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day: Urban Speculation.

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Lab-Team-Mitglied Carlo Ratti stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Urbane Spekulation.

Infoscape Listening investigates the invisible electromagnetic networks that surround us and shows us how a simple device can make such signals audible.

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Infoscape Listening untersucht die unsichtbaren elektromagnetischen Netzwerke, die uns umgeben und zeigt uns, wie einfache Geräte solche Signale hörbar machen können.

Join us for a workshop with Raumtaktik–Office from a Better Future to investigate the future of urban and rural environments.

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Begleite uns in einem Workshop mit Raumtaktik - Office for a Better Future, um die Zukunft von urbanen und ländlichen Umgebungen zu untersuchen.

Build your own outdoor gym and work out with us every weekend. Together we’ll turn the Lab and its entire urban environment into a place for training.

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Baue dein eigenes Outdoor-Fitnessstudio und trainiere jedes Wochenende mit uns! Gemeinsam bauen wir das Lab, den Pfefferberg und die ganze Stadt zum Trainingsort um.

Join a weekly walking tour that brings learning out of the classroom and into the streets. Led by members of Urbanophil and mikromakro, the Mobile University of Berlin provokes participants to mine their urban environment through acting, mapping, and multimedia.

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Nimm an einem wöchentlich stattfindenden Rundgang teil, der das Lernen aus dem Kontext des Klassenzimmers löst und auf der Straße erlebbar macht. Von Urbanophil- und mikromakro-Mitgliedern angeleitet, fordert die Mobile Universität Berlin die Teilnehmer heraus, ihre urbane Umgebung durch Schauspiel, Mapping und Multimedia zu ergründen.

Lab Team Member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day, Scripted Spaces. This term, originally coined by Norman Klein, refers to the narratives that take place in the urban environment. Today we look at the question of who creates these narratives and the process through which they emerge. 

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Lab Teammitglied Carlo Ratti stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Scripted Spaces. Dieser Begriff wurde ursprünglich von Norman Klein geprägt und verweist auf Narrationen, die sich in urbanem Umfeld entfalten. An diesem Tag betrachten wir die Frage, wer gestaltet diese Narrationen und den Prozess, durch den sie entstehen.

Join the Poiesis Fellows as they share material from work on cybernetics, environmental visualization, and smart city development in locations from Asia to the Americas. Explore the infrastructures of measurement, technology, algorithms, and probability that make data beautiful, visible, and valuable.

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Nehmen Sie an einem Gespräch mit den Poiesis Fellows vom Institute for Public Knowledge an der New York University teil. Dabei geht es um die Visualisierung von Daten und Infrastrukturen von Messvorgängen, Technologien, Algorithmen und Wahrscheinlichkeiten, die Daten schön, sichtbar und wertvoll machen.

One of Berlin's most important memorial sites is the former “Checkpoint Charlie.” Berliners mostly agree that, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this site is not taken care of in a way that enables it to serve as an appropriate memorial. We invite citizens to join us in the discussion which will be held at Lab.

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Eine von Berlins wichtigsten Gedenkstätten ist der frühere “Checkpoint Charlie.” Berliner sind sich meist einig, dass dieses Mahnmal, zwanzig Jahre nach dem Fall der Berliner Mauer, nicht in einer Weise gepflegt wird, die es ihm ermöglicht angemessen zu dienen. Wir laden Bürger ein, an der Diskussion, die im Lab gehalten wird, teilzunehmen.

View the classic urban-planning documentary The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (William H. Whyte, USA, 58 min.), based on the book of the same name, that explores open, public spaces in cities and how people use them.

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Schaue dir die klassische Dokumentation über Stadtplanung The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (William H. Whyte, USA, 58 min.) an, die auf dem gleichnamigen Buch basiert, das öffentliche, freizugängliche Räume in Städten erforscht und darlegt wie Menschen sie nutzen.

Join us to discuss food culture and the city as Lab Team member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day: Edible Geographies.

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Diskutiere mit uns über Essenskultur und die Stadt während Lab-Team-Mitglied Carlo Ratti das Thema des Tages vorstellt: Genießbare Geografie.  

Take part in a compact building experiment where visitors have the chance to collectively conceive of, prepare plans for, and build a temporary outdoor structure over a period of only four days.

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Mach mit bei einem kompakten Bauexperiment, bei dem Besucher die Möglichkeit haben innerhalb von nur vier Tagen ein Konzept und Pläne für eine temporäre Outdoor-Struktur zu erstellen und diese dann zu bauen.

In this talk, independent scholar and food historian Ursula Heinzelmann will use bread as a lens through which to explore the historical context and more recent past of Berlin. A tasting of different breads from Balzer, in Mitte, Soluna, in Kreuzberg, and Weichardt, in Wilmersdorf follows.

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In dieser Gesprächsrunde wird die unabhängige Wissenschaftlerin und Ernährungshistorikerin Ursula Heinzelmann Brot als Objektiv einsetzen, um den historischen Kontext und die jüngste Vergangenheit Berlins zu beleuchten. Eine Verkostung der unterschiedlichen Brote aller drei Bäckereien – Balzer aus Mitte, Soluna aus Kreuzberg und Weichardt aus Wilmersdorf schließt sich dem Gespräch an.

Take a whirlwind visual tour of cities around the world as seen through their cupcake shops, ghost orchards, fast-food restaurant distribution, and chewing-gum deposits.

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Begebe dich auf eine aufregende visuelle Reise zu Städten in aller Welt und lerne sie durch ihre Bäckereien, einsamen Obstgärten, Fast-Food-Restaurants und Kaugummiautomaten kennen.

Michael Glawogger’s Megacities tells stories of survival in four megacities around the world: Mumbai, Mexico City, Moscow, and New York.

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Michael Glawogger’s Megacities erzählt Geschichten vom Überleben in vier Megastädten verteilt auf der ganzen Welt: Mumbai, Mexico Stadt, Moskau und New York.

While most children live in cities today, understanding, questioning and experimenting with the urban environment is rare. This workshop facilitated by Cameron Stevens proposes one way of encouraging children and young people to engage with their immediate urban surroundings.

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Obwohl die meisten Kinder in Städten aufwachsen, ist die Auseinandersetzung und das Experimentieren mit der städtischen Umwelt in ihrer schulischen Ausbildung unterrepräsentiert. Cameron Stevens leitet eine Workshopserie, die Kindern und Jugendlichen eine vielfältige Auseinandersetzung mit ihrem städtischen Umfeld ermöglicht. 

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Take part in a compact building experiment where visitors have the chance to collectively conceive of, prepare plans for, and build a temporary outdoor structure over a period of only four days.

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Mach mit bei einem kompakten Bauexperiment, bei dem Besucher die Möglichkeit haben innerhalb von nur vier Tagen ein Konzept und Pläne für eine temporäre Outdoor-Struktur zu erstellen und diese dann zu bauen.

Join the MIT SENSEable City Lab to experiment with altering public space and to witness the effects. Learn about how people move, talk, and interact in public space—and how this information can lead to better design for public spaces.

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Mach mit beim MIT SENSEable City Lab und experimentiere mit Veränderungen im öffentlichen Bereich und erlebe die Auswirkungen mit. Erfahre, wie sich Menschen im öffentlichen Bereich bewegen, wie sie sprechen und sich austauschen – und wie diese Informationen zur Schaffung einer besseren Gestaltung öffentlicher Bereiche beitragen können.

Join us for a tour and concert with GDR civil rights activist and musician Ekkehard Maaß and take a journey through the history of East Berlin.

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Begleiten Sie auf dieser Tour mit Konzert Ekkehard Maaß auf eine Zeitreise zurück nach Ost-Berlin. Der DDR-Bürgerrechtler und Musiker wird im Lab eine Einführung geben und die Teilnehmer danach zu einem Besuch in seinen Salon einladen, wo sich - hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang - DDR Künstler und Dissidenten trafen. 

Take part in a discussion about the influence of new technology on our communication and decision-making processes. Topics include data and visualization, activism and art, and transparency and responsibilit.

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Nehmen Sie an einer Diskussion über den Einfluss neuer Technologien auf unsere Kommunikations- und Entscheidungsprozesse teil. Themenfelder dieser Veranstaltung sind Datensammlungen und deren Visualisierung, Aktivismus und Kunst, Transparenz und Verantwortung.

The complexity of city life often leaves us little time to stop, think, and connect with ourselves. Come to the Lab and let Swanhild Maaß (Chen School for Taijiquan) introduce you to the Chinese practice of meditation, movement patterns, and martial art.

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Die Hektik des Stadtlebens lässt uns oft wenig Zeit innezuhalten, nachzudenken und uns unserer selbst bewusst zu werden. Lassen Sie sich von Swanhild Maaß von der Chen-Schule für Taijiquan in die Welt der chinesischen Meditation, Bewegungsformen und Kampfsportart einführen.

Lab Team member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day: Sense and the City. Explore how new technologies are transforming the way we live in cities.

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Lab-Mitglied Carlo Ratti stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Sense and the City. Entdecke, wie neue Techniken unser Leben in den Städten verändern.

Take part in a compact building experiment where visitors have the chance to collectively conceive of, prepare plans for, and build a temporary outdoor structure over a period of only four days.

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Mach mit bei einem kompakten Bauexperiment, bei dem Besucher die Möglichkeit haben innerhalb von nur vier Tagen ein Konzept und Pläne für eine temporäre Outdoor-Struktur zu erstellen und diese dann zu bauen.

Join the MIT SENSEable City Lab to experiment with altering public space and to witness the effects. Learn about how people move, talk, and interact in public space—and how this information can lead to better design for public spaces.

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Mach mit beim MIT SENSEable City Lab und experimentiere mit Veränderungen im öffentlichen Bereich und erlebe die Auswirkungen mit. Erfahre, wie sich Menschen im öffentlichen Bereich bewegen, wie sie sprechen und sich austauschen – und wie diese Informationen zur Schaffung einer besseren Gestaltung öffentlicher Bereiche beitragen können.

Join us for a participatory tour through Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg that positions you as the researcher, measuring the effects of the city on your own brain and body

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Unternehmt mit uns einen auf Mitbestimmung ausgerichteten Ausflug durch Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauer Berg und agiert als Forscher, der die Auswirkungen der Stadt auf den eigenen Geist und Körper misst.

How would our society look if buildings were made to exist only for a limited amount of time? Lab Team member Carlo Ratti introduces the topic of the day: Temporary Architecture.

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Wie sähe unsere Gesellschaft aus, wenn Gebäude nur für einen festgelegten Zeitraum bestehen würden? Lab-Team-Mitglied Carlo Ratti stellt das Thema des Tages vor: Architektur auf Zeit.

Take part in a compact building experiment where visitors have the chance to collectively conceive of, prepare plans for, and build a temporary outdoor structure over a period of only four days.

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Mach mit bei einem kompakten Bauexperiment, bei dem Besucher die Möglichkeit haben innerhalb von nur vier Tagen ein Konzept und Pläne für eine temporäre Outdoor-Struktur zu erstellen und diese dann zu bauen.

What are the advantages of temporary architecture? Join a panel discussion with architectural experts including Teddy Cruz, Estudio Teddy Cruz; Robert Kronenberg, University of Liverpool; Jürgen Mayer H.; Lena Kleinheinz, Magma Architecture; and Peter Fattinger, Design-Build.

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Was sind die Vorteile temporärer Architektur?  Komm zu einer Podiumsdiskussion mit Architekturexperten wie Teddy Cruz, Estudio Teddy Cruz; Robert Kronenberg, University of Liverpool; Jürgen Mayer H.; Lena Kleinheinz, Magma Architecture; und Peter Fattinger, Design-Build.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab ends its run in Berlin today. Join us for a day of events celebrating our time in Prenzlauer Berg—your last chance to be part of this free urban experiment.

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Am Sonntag, dem 29. Juli 2012, endet die Laufzeit des BMW Guggenheim Lab in Berlin. Wir möchten Sie einladen, mit uns die ereignisreiche Zeit in Berlin gemeinsam zu feiern.

View the shortlisted entries for the Lab’s Rethinking Kala Nagar Traffic Junction Design Competition in an exhibition on the Kala Nagar Skywalk. Come view the selections and cast your vote for your favorite submission as part of the “People’s Choice” round of judging.