EXHIBITION BRINGS 41+1 CLOSED SYSTEM PROTOTYPES TO STOREFRONT GALLERY
Exhibition Dates: February 17th - April 9th, 2016
Press and Members’ Preview: Tuesday, 2/16 from 6-7 pm
Public Opening: Tuesday, 2/16 from 7-9 pm
On Tuesday, February 16th, Storefront for Art and Architecture will open Closed Worlds, an exhibition curated by Lydia Kallipoliti that presents an archive of 41 living prototypes of closed resource regeneration systems built over the last century. The archive represents an unexplored genealogy of closed systems in architectural practice. The exhibition will also feature Some World Games, a virtual reality installation by Farzin Farzin that presents a contemporary 42nd prototype of a closed system inside the walls of Storefront’s gallery space at 97 Kenmare Street. A related public conference that further explores closed worlds will take place at The Cooper Union on Saturday, February 27th from 12-6 pm.
About the Closed Worlds Exhibition:
What do outer space capsules, submarines, and office buildings have in common? Each was conceived as a closed system: a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary that does not allow for the transfer of matter or energy.
The history of twentieth century architecture, design, and engineering has been strongly linked to the conceptualization and production of closed systems. As partial reconstructions of the world in time and in space, closed systems identify and secure the cycling of materials necessary for the sustenance of life. Contemporary discussions about global warming, recycling, and sustainability have emerged as direct conceptual constructs related to the study and analysis of closed systems.
Closed Worlds will exhibit an archive of 41 historical living prototypes built over the last century that present an unexplored genealogy of closed resource regeneration systems. The exhibition will also feature the virtual reality ecosystem Some World Games, a contemporary 42nd prototype selected as the winner of the Closed Worlds Design Competition hosted by Storefront in November 2015.
From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, Closed Worlds documents a larger disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consensus in the form of a synthetic naturalism, where the laws of nature and metabolism are displaced from the domain of wilderness to the domain of cities and buildings. While deriving from a deeply rooted fantasy of architecture producing nature, Closed Worlds are integrated within the very fabric of reality in our contemporary cities and buildings.
Credits:
Curator: Lydia Kallipoliti
Research: Lydia Kallipoliti with the assistance of Alyssa Goraieb, Hamza Hasan, Tiffany Montanez, Catherine Walker, Royd Zhang, Miguel Lantigua-Inoa, Emily Estes, Danielle Griffo and Chendru Starkloff
Graphic Design and Exhibition Design: Pentagram /Natasha Jen with Melodie Yashar and JangHyun Han
Feedback Drawings: Tope Olujobi with Lydia Kallipoliti
Lexicon Editor: Hamza Hasan
42nd Closed Worlds Prototype Installation | Some World Games: Farzin Farzin (Farzin Lotfi-Jam, Sharif Anous, John Arnold)
About the 42nd Prototype:
Some World Games, the winning installation of the Closed Worlds Design Competition, is an immersive environment that urges visitors to explore and experiment with virtual prototypes generated from the archive of 41 closed systems exhibited as part of the larger Closed Worlds exhibition. Participants are guided through the installation on a looped track that channels their kinetic motion through an orbiting virtual environment.
Some World Games harnesses the expended energy of exhibition exploration-the acts of reading, viewing, and wandering-and puts this agency on display. Entering the installation is a decisive act in which the visitor consents to a moment of vulnerability, plugging into the universe of the archive and engaging with its content through virtual immersion in physical space.
Support:
This exhibition is supported by the Graham Foundation and the New York State Council for the Arts. The research for this exhibition has been supported by Syracuse University School of Architecture and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
42nd Prototype 3D printing resources provided by MakerBot.
3D printing provided by Voodoo Manufacturing.
Fabrication assistance provided by Joseph Vidich, Kin & Company.
General support for Storefront exhibitions is provided by the New York State Council for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Arup, KPF, Sciame Construction, DS+R, and ODA.
About Storefront for Art and Architecture:
Founded in 1982, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization that advances innovative positions in architecture, art, and design. Our exhibitions, events, competitions, publications, projects, and platforms generate dialogue and collaboration across geographic, ideological, and disciplinary boundaries.
General Information:
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Gallery Address: 97 Kenmare Street, New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 431-5795
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am - 6 pm
www.storefrontnews.org
Title
Closed Worlds Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, February 16thType
Exhibition OpeningWebsite
Organizers
From
February 16, 2016 07:00 PMUntil
February 16, 2016 09:00 PMVenue
Storefront for Art and ArchitectureAddress