Spring Event to Investigate Emerging Subjects of Debate in Design;

Symposium Coincides with 85th Anniversary of Interior Architecture Program

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 21, 2016) – The Department of Interior Architecture within Woodbury University’s School of Architecture has issued a call for entries for its 2017 Unmentionables Symposium, to be held in Los Angeles, April 7-8, 2017.  The Symposium coincides with the 85th anniversary of the university’s Interior Architecture program.

As art critic Dave Hickey has said, “the emerging subjects of debate that change the discourse of art are driven by ennui. We don’t stop talking about something because we have figured it out, but because we get bored and the terms of the discussion become threadbare.”

“As such, the next subjects of debate tend to be those that are the most mysterious and incomprehensible, the ones most removed from recent memory,” said Heather Peterson, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and abstract review coordinator for the Symposium.  “The emergent is likely to come from the least acknowledged, mined, or understood condition of the present – those things that we dare not say or fail to mention – the subjects that go unspoken.”  The Unmentionables Symposium will serve as a provocation for marginalia, taboos, illicit ideas, and under theorized issues to be let out of the woodwork, providing unrestricted terrain to explore notions of critical interiority and the constructed environment.”

The symposium will begin on Friday April 7th with a keynote address by renowned British designer Faye Toogood, followed by three panel discussions and a session of closing remarks on Saturday April 8th. The panels will be moderated by Billie Tsien, Principal of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners; Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-Chief of Metropolis Magazine; and Edward Lifson, Former Director of Communications for the Pritzker Prize, with closing remarks by Rossen Ventzislavov, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Woodbury University, and Heather Peterson, Symposium co-coordinator.  

In addition to the scheduled participants, the symposium is also supported by the work of its advisory board: Lois Weinthal, Chair of Interior Design at Ryerson School of Interior Design; Frank Clementi, Principal of Rios Clementi Hale and a transdisciplinary design educator; Raymund Ryan, Curator at Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art; and Gloria Gerace, renowned museum and cultural consultant.  Symposium organizers include Christoph Korner, Chair of Interior Architecture, and faculty members Annie Chu, FAIA IIDA, Heather Peterson and Matthew Gillis, Assoc. AIA.

Authors are encouraged to submit scholarly abstracts and research-driven design projects across a wide range of topics, including history, theory, practice, interdisciplinary inquiry, and any other subject of current discourse.  Submissions are expected to be original research that has not been presented previously at other scholarly events or published at other venues.

Abstracts will be double-blind reviewed by a panel of Woodbury University reviewers who will recommend acceptance for presentation at the event.  In order to promote a diversity of voices, a maximum of two abstract submissions per author is allowed, including coauthored work.  Abstracts will be selected for a series of three panel discussions and formatted for a 15-minute presentation per panelist, and must be received by Dec. 15.  The entry fee per abstract has been set at $25.  For submission requirements, please visit the Unmentionables Symposium website.

Woodbury University’s School of Architecture is a network of hubs strategically sited within the Southern California megalopolis: Burbank/Los Angeles, San Diego and Hollywood. Together, these sites form a critical infrastructure for architectural investigations. The school’s undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture and interior architecture train students as entrepreneurs, architect citizens, and cultural builders. 

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California.  The university ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine, and is a 2016-17 College of Distinction.  With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor's degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Liberal Arts, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture.  The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as a Master of Architecture degree with a concentration in Real Estate Development. Visit woodbury.edu for more information.

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Edge Communications, Inc.

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