Archinect - News

Occupying institutional space with light: The Illuminator

2018-10-31T16:29:00-04:00

Enter the Illuminator, a New York-based art activist collective, whose shifting membership has mastered the legal grey zone that regulates projection in public. [...] the Illuminator takes the normally stationary technology out of the classroom and onto the streets, affixing a high-powered, 12,000-lumens projector atop a van — or, when special nimbleness is required, a trolley — to ignite urban façades with political statements that are as bold as they are temporary.

Image: The Illuminator Collective.

For this recent Urban Omnibus feature, digital media scholar Eli Horwatt interviews art-activist collective The Illuminator. Since capturing the public attention with their Occupy-inspired 99% Bat Signal projection in 2011, the collective has been, quite literally, making headlines with large-scale interventions on institutional facades such as the "We’re all sitting ducks" slogan beamed on the outside of the United Nations building during a Nuclear Non-Proliferation conference in 2015 as well as smaller installations like the Edward Snowden hologram.

Image: The Illuminator Collective.

"When we project directly onto the facade of an institution whose policies and actions we stand against, we know that we are working within a set of constraints that require precise planning and rapid adaptability. We know that if they become aware of our actions, institutions will work quickly to remove any type of critical messaging from association with their buildi...

Activism targeting London's housing crisis bubbles to the surface

2015-03-27T13:38:00-04:00

Protestors against low-income housing demolition are not just fighting for their homes, but often for their ability to stay in London at all. The small amount of “affordable” housing being discussed as a replacement is really a figleaf.

Cooper Union and former occupiers reach an agreement

2013-07-16T19:03:00-04:00

We have received news that the administration, Board of Trustees of The Cooper Union and those who have occupied the Office of the President since May have reached an agreement that ended the occupation on Friday, July 12. A "working group", as described in more detail below, consisting of Board, faculty, alumni, students and administration representatives, will be established to seek an alternative to tuition that will "sustain the institution’s long-term financial viability and strengthen its academic excellence".

The working group will report to the administration and Board of Trustees for consideration at the December Board of Trustees Meeting.

The Board also confirmed, in accordance with the motion approved at the June Board meeting, that procedures for student representation on the Board will be established at the September meeting.

An interim room has been identified as a Community Commons that can serve as a student center or a community center for all members of the...

Occupy: The Day After

2011-12-08T16:02:26-05:00

For if there is one abiding historical certainty it is that, eventually, things change. And they can be made to change. There is no such thing, however, as a revolutionary architecture. Nor does history ever simply start from scratch. Instead, post-revolutionary questions can be posed in advance to infrastructures that already exist.... to reinvent what used to be called housing, schools, hospitals, factories, and farms in a way that asks: What else must change for these changes to be possible?

Reinhold Martin argues that architects must plan for post-revolutionary conditions. A follow-up to his earlier essay for Places, "Occupy: What Architecture Can Do."

ORTO ERRANTE - Episod 2.0 Terme di Caracalla for the Accampata / Occupy Rome

2011-11-21T18:34:20-05:00

The Roman shared gardens, the guerrilla gardening groups, the associations and citizens last weekend took care of the movable edible garden “ORTO ERRANTE” which has moved ("orto errante" in Italian means wandering garden) from Santa Croce in Gerusalemme to a spot near the ancient CARACALLA BATHS with the Occupy tents.

The ORTO ERRANTE chorally (1) built has a low environmental impact and is reversible since it is made with painted reused wooden market boxes and hemp bags filled with earth and plants brought by the Roman shared gardens.

Originally Zappata Romana was asked by the Rome Occupy to put up an edible garden in the square of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, near the tents. Zappata Romana called the people who take care of the many shared gardens in city and the response was surprising, more than 20 groups joined and came to the appointment. In one afternoon it was built with the enthusiastic help of everyone, passing by citizens included. Zappata Romana b...