[-empyre-] Thanks Millie & James, welcome Catherine Ingraham & Kevin Hamilton

[renate ferro <rtf9@cornell.edu>, timothy murray <tcm1@cornell.edu>]

As we usher in the second week of our discussion of Critical Spatial
Practice, we would like to extend our deepest thanks to Millie Chen
and James Way for introducing us their related forms of practice and
leading us in discussion of their thoughtful understandings of the
criticality of their spatial practices.  Your interventions have set
a great tone and high critical bar for the month to come.  Thanks as
well for volunteering to usher those us on calendars that mark the
beginning of new academic and work years (la rentrée as the French
put it) into the first full week of attentive criticality after
(ideally) a month of sun and relaxation (or a month of skiing for
those down under).  As we shift our attention to this week's guests,
we hope that Millie and James will remain in the wings and dialogue
from time to time with our other guests of the month.

Featured this week on -empyre- are two exciting voices in
architecture and interactive art.

Catherine Ingraham is Professor of Architecture in the Graduate
Architecture Program at Pratt Institute in New York City, a program
she chaired from 1998-2005.  Her writings have been particularly
influential in encouraging architects and architectural theorists to
reflect on the broadest ramifications of the human in spatial
practice, from feminism and identity, to mimicry, framing, and
"post-animal" life.  In addition to her numerous articles in art,
architecture, and critical journals, Catherine is the author of two
very stimulating and influential books, Architecture, Animal, Human:
The Asymmetrical Condition and Architecture and the Burdens of
Linearity.  Of added note is Catherine's award in 2001 for the
winning design, along with Smith-Miller and Hawkinson Architects, for
the ten-story Museum of Women in Battery Park City, New York.

Kevin Hamilton coordinates the New Media program and teaches in
Painting/Sculpture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-
Champaign.  We are particularly pleased to have him as our guest
because he has been participating over the past year as co-organizer
of a reading-working group at Illinois on Critical Spatial Practice
(http://walkinginplace.org/iprh/). His collaborations at Illinois
have included the co-organization of a symposium on walking (http://
www.walkinginplace.org/converge/), experimental courses and
workshops (http://www.art.uiuc.edu/projects/mobilemapping/), and the
commissioning of site projects.  Elsewhere, Kevin worked with
Bratislava's 13m3/Burundi on a series of street tours and
psychogeographic projects (http://kevinhamilton.org/chronozone/), and
he has also written and exhibited as a solo artist. Recent related
projects include a lecture on absence in telecommunication at ISEA06
(http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/ia6_2_communitydomain_hamilton_absenceincommon.pdf),
a Banff residency on languages of creativity in science and design,
and installation of surveillance-based artworks in and out of gallery
settings.

We extend our warmest welcome to Catherine and Kevin, and we look
forward to hearing their thoughts on Critical Spatial Practice.

Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
CoModerators, -empyre-
Department of Art/Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
Cornell University
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