Material Future: The Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron and the Vancouver Art Gallery

Building for Change Symposium
Keynote by Dr Ocean Howell

Panel with Justin Langlois, Lorna Brown and Cameron Cartiere
Saturday May 23, 2-5pm, Courtroom 302 in the Gallery
Free to the public. Everyone welcome.

This public symposium begins with a keynote lecture Who is the Public? The History of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Design of Urban Public Space by Dr. Ocean Howell. Following this presentation, local cultural practitioners Justin Langlois, Lorna Brown and Cameron Cartiere will participate in a panel discussion entitled Claiming the Commons: Art as an Agent for Change.

About the Keynote:

WHO IS THE PUBLIC?
THE HISTORY OF INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION IN THE DESIGN OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE

When we talk about “the public,” we’re never really talking about everyone. The very concept has always quietly relied upon certain exclusions along the lines of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, employment status, nationality, immigration status, recreational preferences, addiction, sartorial style or any number of other dimensions—from the most fundamental aspects of our identities to the most trivial expressions of our personalities. Through a history of how public space was designed in twentieth-century North American cities, this lecture traces major shifts in the very conception of publicness and citizenship.

Ocean Howell is Assistant Professor of History at the Clark Honors College and in the Department of Art History at the University of Oregon. His book, Making the Mission: Planning and Ethnicity in San Francisco, is forthcoming in November 2015 from the University of Chicago Press. His essays have appeared in the Journal of Urban History, Space and Culture, the Journal of Architectural Education, and Topic Magazine. He has been interviewed for articles in the New York Times, the Guardian (UK) and the Congressional Research Quarterly (US), and he has appeared on The Current on CBC Radio.