Upcoming Talk: Architecture and Landscape

The Landscape of Affordances & the Potential of Vacancy
230 College Street, PCL room
Time: Apr 22nd, 10:00 am End: Apr 22nd, 12:00 pm
Interest Categories: Visual Studies (UTM), Urban, Sociology, Philosophy
(UTSC),
Philosophy (UTM), Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science &
Technology,
Environment, Communication and Culture (UTM), Cities and Humanities, Arts,
Culture
and Media (UTSC), Art, Architecture, Landscape, Design, 2000-
Lecture by Eric Rietveld, University of Amsterdam


The JHI Working Group on NeuroPhenomenology and Architecture is pleased to
present a
public lecture:


Eric Rietveld, University of Amsterdam


The Landscape of Affordances and the Potential of Vacancy

Comments by Zeynep Çelik Alexander, Daniels Faculty of Architecture,
Landscape and
Design

Dr. Erik Rietveld is a Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam
(AMC/Department of Philosophy/ILLC/Brain & Cognition) and a Founding
Partner of
Rietveld Landscape (www.rietveldlandscape.nl). Rietveld Landscape is a
design and
research studio operating at the crossroads of architecture, science and art.

Erik Rietveld was a Fellow in Philosophy at Harvard University and a Visiting
Scholar at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. His
philosophical and
interdisciplinary research on 'Unreflective Action' was awarded by the
European
Science Foundation (2009), the University of Amsterdam (2009), AMC, Amsterdam
Medical Center (2011), and twice by NWO, Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific
Research (Rubicon 2008, VENI 2009).

With his brother Ronald Rietveld, he was curator of the Dutch contribution
'Vacant
NL' to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, author of the Dutch Atlas of
Vacancy,
and founder/director of the architectural design research master 'Vacant
NL' at the
Sandberg Institute/Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Vacant NL was awarded with a
Dutch
Design Award and the Rotterdam Design Prize. They have shown work at
international
exhibitions in Sao Paulo, Oslo, Mumbai, Moscow, and Museum Boijmans Van
Beuningen,
Rotterdam. In September 2013 they will present a new installation at the
Istanbul
Art Biennale.

Erik Rietveld publishes regularly in renowned international journals such
asMind,
Inquiry, Phenomenology & The Cognitive Sciences, Frontiers, andBehavioral
& Brain
Sciences.
The Landscape of Affordances & Potential of Vacancy

In the first part of his talk, Dr. Rietveld will present an account of
'affordances'
or possibilities for action offered by the environment. We understand
affordances as
relations between aspects of the environment and abilities available in a
form of
life, which includes socio-cultural practices in our human case. Thanks to
the
variety of both environment and abilities, the landscape of affordances in
our niche
is very rich and resourceful. In the second part of his talk, Dr. Rietveld
will
illustrate how Rietveld Landscape translated this philosophical
perspective into an
installation for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, which showed the
enormous
potential of 10,000 vacant public and governmentally owned buildings from
the 16th,
17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Optional Readings:
Rietveld, "Bodily intentionality and social affordances in context"
Rietveld, Landscape curatorial statement for Vacant NL
Chemero, "An Outline of a Theory of Affordances"

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.
For further information, please contact the organizer, Dr. Matthew Allen,
or the John H. Daniels Faculty of Landscape, Architecture and Design at
(416) 978-5038.