what is public space?

http://pruned.blogspot.com/2006/11/underpass.html

to gentrify or not gentrify?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/arts/design/30urba.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

"The new Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is a radical rejoinder to this seismic shift. Designed by Andrew Zago, its intentionally raw aesthetic is conceived as an act of guerrilla architecture, one that accepts decay as fact rather than attempt to create a false vision of urban density."

Waitless-ish Airport

The New York Times reports on the new TSA prescreening program being unveiled at airport security.

http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2006/11/29/business/29airport.html&tntemail0=y

ALTERED, STITCHED AND GATHERED at PS1

This should probably go right to the top of your list of things in New York to catch post-reviews.

http://www.ps1.org/ps1_site/content/view/218/102/

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is pleased to present Altered, Stitched and Gathered, an exhibition that brings together artists exploring or transforming familiar objects and social practices through a deliberate methodology. The exhibition, curated and produced entirely by the museum’s assistant staff, is on view in the Third Floor Main Galleries from December 14, 2006 through January 22, 2007.Each artist utilizes a step-by-step production process. Be it implied, seemingly spontaneous, or unnervingly rigorous – each leads to outcomes that range from the humorous to the politically charged. Though their methods vary, they stem from similar sensibilities – the serial formalism of Conceptual art and the calculated yet DIY nature of 1960s Fluxus practices.Commenting on the intended uses of the original and how it was produced, the works in the exhibition question accepted notions of practicality and impracticality, recollection and fabrication. Early examples exploring these themes, such as Yoko Ono’s poetic instructional work and Ben Vautier’s inventive musical composition, are presented with more recent work. Included are Serkan Özkaya’s hand-rendered newspaper covers; corporate logos arranged in Moorish patterns by Gunilla Klingberg; Cornelia Parker’s steamrolled and suspended silverware; and Shinique Smith’s site-specific installation of clothing and fabric. Artists also include Ai Weiwei, Ann Böttcher, Vija Celmins, Jacob Dahlgren, Tom Friedman, Sharon Hayes, Emily Jacir, Guillermo Kuitca, Dinh Q. Le, Li Songsong, Rä di Martino, Ola Pehrson, Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, Paul Salveson, Stephanie Syjuco, Jacques Villegle, and David Wojnarowicz.

Luxury Council

You guys might be interested in this group, the Luxury MArketing Council, a consortium of luxury interests from different fields. They publish articles and have events, many in New York.

http://www.luxurycouncil.com/

Critical Positioning

Several of you have expressed some concern about how to take on a more specific and sharp position for the thesis. This is understandable considering the focus that we had for much of the semester on the material and analytical exploration of luxury goods. There are a number of strategies available for crafting a more precise position. You can certainly look outward to cultural or architectural issues that are of interest regardless of the issue of Fabricated Luxury, but I would like to suggest that the topic itself can provide a solid platform for taking a critical position, or more specifically, that the definition and use of luxury has to change. Several contemporary issues help to illustrate this.

First, as we have been discussing throughout the semester, Luxury, even when fabricated is not no longer exclusive product of more labor. Contemporary fabrication technologies, rapid prototyping, and mass customization afford the ability to augment the attributes that you have been studying. What does this mean for the thesis? It might mean that luxury or certain luxury behaviors become more broadly available, challenging the previously exclusive status of luxury.
It would follow that new ideas about luxury would have to be formulated. Questioning what that new luxury is, what its characteristics are, and how it can be produced would certainly fall under the category of a critical thesis.

Some Resources on Mass Customization:

http://www.managingchange.com/masscust/overview.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/08/pf/goodlife/customization/
http://www.core77.com/reactor/mass_customization.html


Second, on a global level there is an economic and cultural shift in the global luxury market. We are seeing rapid growth and the vast accumulation of wealth in nations like China and Russia, regions like Dubai, and even smaller nations like Ireland and Vietnam while nations such as France, Japan, and even the United States are experiencing an economic slowdown and an aging population. A changing luxury market has meant that the most prominent luxury consumers are increasingly coming from outside of the traditional luxury set and increasingly non-Western, especially at the highest end of the market. Again, it follows that luxury intelligence has to be reoriented in order to take advantage of this shift and new ideas of about luxury would have to be formulated. This change is both formal and material, as well as protocol and program-driven.

Some examples:

"Chinese Speak the International Language of Shopping"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/world/europe/07eurochinese.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"Market for Luxury Brands Booms in Shanghai"
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-03/13/content_314462.htm

"Middle Class India Plows New Wealth into Big Weddings"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p01s04-wosc.html

One for Laura: Vanity Vodka

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/fashion/05shake.html?ref=fashion

Olafur Eliasson at Louis Vuitton

The artist Olafur Eliasson, has an installation opening in the window of every Louis Vuitton boutique worldwide on November 9. The text of the announcement is below:

"Olafur Eliasson has created a site specific installation for Louis Vuitton’s shop windows,to benefit the charitable organization 121Ethiopia.

In a collaboration with Louis Vuitton to benefit the charitable organization 121Ethiopia, founded by Olafur Eliasson and his wife, Marianne Krogh Jensen, Mr. Eliasson has created a site specific installation for Louis Vuitton’s shop windows, making a presentation that challenges the typical commercial luxury goods display. Starting on November 9th, in each store window at every Louis Vuitton location worldwide one “Eye see you” lamp will be on view. Resembling the pupil of an eye the sculpture is comprised of a low-pressure sodium lamp, which consumes a very small amount of energy and produces a strong monochromatic yellow light. Vibrant and illuminating, the piece creates a dialogue and connection between the interior of the store and the exterior spectator, flooding the street with light as the evening darkens, and transgressing the physical and psychological boundary represented by a commercial window display. Seen by millions of pedestrians “Eye see you” will beco me part of the urban streetscape in New York and abroad for the duration of its installation, combining the typical notion of window shopping with the intellectual and visually stimulating experience of looking at art."

Spaminiums

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/garden/02spa.html

Airworld

Some of you might be interested in this exhibition sponsored by the Vitra Design Museum on the design and air travel. http://www.artnews.info/gallery.php?i=638&exi=1807

New Czars of Conspicuous Consumption

The New York Times reports on the exploding luxury market in Russia:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/business/worldbusiness/01millionaire.html