Subtopia heads to NYC

So, less than a week from right now Subtopia is off to our first ever public event at the Storefront for Art and Architecture Gallery. And, incidentally, my first experience in New York City! How exciting is that? Yeah, I know – it’s crazy! I’ve been around the world, dozens of countries (if we meet there I promise to babble your ears off all about my travels), but – it's true, this will be my first time in New York, and, well, I’m quite thrilled at how it is turning out so far. It should be great. New York has resisted me long enough.
With my fellow cohorts, Geoff (BLDGBLOG), Dan (City of Sound), and Jill (Inhabitat), I’ll be hanging out in this awesome gallery, interviewing and talking to people all day, writing little bits, taking short little walks to meet others, to explore Manhattan, meeting hopefully a few of you, all the while introducing this mad list of speakers in and out of the gallery all week long.
Lebbeus Woods, Mark Wigley, Laura Kurgan, Michael Sorkin & Mitchell Joachim, Stanley Greenberg, Joel Sanders, Susan Szenasy, DJ /rupture, Andrew Blum, Jake Barton, William Drenttel, Tom Vanderbilt, Michael Bierut, Lawrence Weschler, Robert Krulwich, Benjamin Aranda & Chris Lasch, Randi Greenberg, Allan Chochinov, Julia Solis, Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano, Scott Marble, Paul Seletsky, Robert Neuwirth, Wes Janz, James Sanders, David Benjamin & Soo-in Yang, Eric Rodenbeck, Kevin Slavin, Gianluigi Ricuperati, Quilian Riano, Miss Representation, Enrique Gualberto Ramirez, George Agnew, Chad Smith, Abe Burmeister, John Hill,Tobias Frere-Jones, Matthew Clark, Jeff Byles, Lifeform, Keller Easterling, and the list isn't over yet.


[Click here to enlarge.]

Seriously, I can’t wait.
Five days listening, chit-chatting, recording, schmoozing, scribbling, note-taking, hanging out, drinking tons of coffee, munching good falafel, drinking a few beers, and just thinking about all this spatial stuff: like, for example, building cities with ecological fortitude; or, how the ‘War On Terror’ has unleashed a ‘new military urbanism’ across the global landscape; or, consider the engineering nuances of designing the world’s greatest manmade acoustic structures; if that’s not your cup of tea, how about a conversation looking at public art as it intersects with architecture towards different strategies of space reclamation. Ever wonder about the modern history of the art of demolition? Or, the distinct characteristics of economically depressed shrinking cities, the American rust belt and how from there might emerge a new architectural scrap futures market? Are you ready to comprehend “the self-organized chaos of Lagos”? How about your interest in the homeless and the design activism of innovating solutions for supportive housing? Care to take a literary journey through New York’s subterranean infrastructure? Or, what is meant by the “spatial products of globalization”?
Well, obviously, I could keep going. But you get the idea. Tons of speakers, tons of topics, or as Jav noted, tons of “topophilic grist.”
Check out the schedule here, though, it is currently being given some last minute time slot treatments, but – that’s the gist of it anyway.
And don’t forget, Saturday, a few fellow Archinectors along with a small gang of local New York City based archi-scribes are gonna throw down an early evening blog-o-matic tag team of short talks and peeps into their own blogs and crazy angles covering architecture on the web. So don’t miss it if you happen to be in NYC next week. If anything, come down for a few drinks, we’d love to meet you!
And, I'll be there a full week, from Sunday May, 27 - Sunday, June 3, if anybody wants to meet up either prior to, or after the event.