Definition Series: Infrastructure

Group Exhibition

03.05.2016: Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, US

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, 97 Kenmare Street, New York

With Marjolijn Dijkman, Laura Herman, Femke Herregraven, Brian Larkin, Basim Magdy, Nader Vossoughian, and Clare Lyster

Definition Series: Infrastructure, curated by Laura Herman, invites scholars, artists, and critics to discuss contemporary implications of this omnipresent term. In her words:

“To define infrastructure implies a categorical act, where we consciously or unconsciously decide upon which part requires attention, and what can (temporarily) be disregarded. Perhaps it is the ability to be many things simultaneously that has made infrastructure such a magnetic concept in the humanities and social sciences in the past decade. Yet, in the realm of technology, architecture, and urban planning, to approach infrastructure as inherently paradoxical—as both ‘generative and degenerative; constructive and destructive; future oriented but ultimately fleeting; fluid and mobile yet inflexible—requires technical skills and specific epistemologies*.’”

Accounting for the paradoxical and often conflicting poetical and material qualities of infrastructure, this Definition Series will juxtapose a number of definitions, in the hope that complementary urgencies across fields come to light and potentially reinforce, influence, or contradict each other.

*Cymene Howe et al., “Paradoxical Infrastructures Ruins, Retrofit, and Risk,” Science, Technology & Human Values, December 23, 2015.

This event is free and open to the public, with seating on a first come, first served basis. Storefront members receive reserved seating. If you are a member and would like to reserve a seat, you can RSVP here. If you would like to become a Storefront member, please see here.

Image: Femke Herregraven, Sprawling Swamps, 2016, image still, interactive digital environment, courtesy of the artist