Download or read book The Urban Improvise written by Kristian Kloeckl and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book for architects, designers, planners, and urbanites that explores how cities can embrace improvisation to improve urban life The built environment in today’s hybrid cities is changing radically. The pervasiveness of networked mobile and embedded devices has transformed a predominantly stable background for human activity into spaces that have a more fluid behavior. Based on their capability to sense, compute, and act in real time, urban spaces have the potential to go beyond planned behaviors and, instead, change and adapt dynamically. These interactions resemble improvisation in the performing arts, and this book offers a new improvisation-based framework for thinking about future cities. Kristian Kloeckl moves beyond the smart city concept by unlocking performativity, and specifically improvisation, as a new design approach and explores how city lights, buses, plazas, and other urban environments are capable of behavior beyond scripts. Drawing on research of digital cities and design theory, he makes improvisation useful and applicable to the condition of today’s technology-imbued cities and proposes a new future for responsive urban design.
Download or read book The Urban Improvise written by Kristian Kloeckl and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book for architects, designers, planners, and urbanites that explores how cities can embrace improvisation to improve urban life The built environment in today's hybrid cities is changing radically. The pervasiveness of networked mobile and embedded devices has transformed a predominantly stable background for human activity into spaces that have a more fluid behavior. Based on their capability to sense, compute, and act in real time, urban spaces have the potential to go beyond planned behaviors and, instead, change and adapt dynamically. These interactions resemble improvisation in the performing arts, and this book offers a new improvisation-based framework for thinking about future cities. Kristian Kloeckl moves beyond the smart city concept by unlocking performativity, and specifically improvisation, as a new design approach and explores how city lights, buses, plazas, and other urban environments are capable of behavior beyond scripts. Drawing on research of digital cities and design theory, he makes improvisation useful and applicable to the condition of today's technology-imbued cities and proposes a new future for responsive urban design.
Download or read book Improvised Lives written by AbdouMaliq Simone and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-12-05 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poor and working people in cities of the South find themselves in urban spaces that are conventionally construed as places to reside or inhabit. But what if we thought of popular districts in more expansive ways that capture what really goes on within them? In such cities, popular districts are the settings of more uncertain operations that take place under the cover of darkness, generating uncanny alliances among disparate bodies, materials and things and expanding the urban sensorium and its capacities for liveliness. In this important new book AbdouMaliq Simone explores the nature of these alliances, portraying urban districts as sites of enduring transformations through rhythms that mediate between the needs of residents not to draw too much attention to themselves and their aspirations to become a small niche of exception. Here we discover an urban South that exists as dense rhythms of endurance that turn out to be vital for survival, connectivity, and becoming.
Download or read book Resurrection City written by Peter Goodwin Heltzel and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-23 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Resurrection City Peter Heltzel paints a prophetic picture of an evangelical Christianity that eschews a majority mentality and instead fights against racism, inequality, and injustice, embracing the concerns of the poor and marginalized, just as Jesus did. Placing society's needs front and center, Heltzel calls for radical change and collective activism modeled on God's love and justice. In particular, Heltzel explores the social forms that love and justice can take as religious communities join together to build "beloved cities." He proclaims the importance of "improvising for justice" -- likening the church's prophetic ministry to jazz music -- and develops a biblical theology of shalom justice. His vision draws inspiration from the black freedom struggle and the lives of Sojourner Truth, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King Jr. Pulsing with hope and beauty, Resurrection City compels evangelical Christians to begin "a global movement for love and justice" that truly embodies the kingdom of God.
Download or read book The Accidental City written by Lawrence N. Powell and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-13 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the history of the city from its being contended over as swampland through Louisiana's statehood in 1812, discussing its motley identities as a French village, African market town, Spanish fortress, and trade center.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies written by George Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: V. 1. Cognitions -- v. 2. Critical theories
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies Volume 2 written by George E. Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-22 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improvisation informs a vast array of human activity, from creative practices in art, dance, music, and literature to everyday conversation and the relationships to natural and built environments that surround and sustain us. The two volumes of the Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies gather scholarship on improvisation from an immense range of perspectives, with contributions from more than sixty scholars working in architecture, anthropology, art history, computer science, cognitive science, cultural studies, dance, economics, education, ethnomusicology, film, gender studies, history, linguistics, literary theory, musicology, neuroscience, new media, organizational science, performance studies, philosophy, popular music studies, psychology, science and technology studies, sociology, and sound art, among others.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts written by Alessandro Bertinetto and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-22 with total page 1133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last few decades, the notion of improvisation has enriched and dynamized research on traditional philosophies of music, theatre, dance, poetry, and even visual art. This Handbook offers readers an authoritative collection of accessible articles on the philosophy of improvisation, synthesizing and explaining various subjects and issues from the growing wave of journal articles and monographs in the field. Its 48 chapters, written specifically for this volume by an international team of scholars, are accessible for students and researchers alike. The volume is organized into four main sections: I Art and Improvisation: Theoretical Perspectives II Art and Improvisation: Aesthetical, Ethical, and Political Perspectives III Improvisation in Musical Practices IV Improvisation in the Visual, Narrative, Dramatic, and Interactive Arts Key Features: Treats improvisation not only as a stylistic feature, but also as an aesthetic property of artworks and performances as well as a core element of artistic creativity. Spells out multiple aspects of the concept of improvisation, emphasizing its relevance in understanding the nature of art. Covers improvisation in a wide spectrum of artistic domains, including unexpected ones such as literature, visual arts, games, and cooking. Addresses key questions, such as: - How can improvisation be defined and what is its role in different art forms? - Can improvisation be perceived as such, and how can it be aesthetically evaluated? - What is the relationship between improvisation and notions such as action, composition, expressivity, and authenticity? - What is the ethical and political significance of improvisation?
Download or read book Improv for Democracy written by Don Waisanen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While much has been written about what democracies should look like, much less has been said about how to actually train citizens in democratic perspectives and skills. Amid the social and political crises of our time, many programs seeking to bridge differences between citizens draw from the surprising field of improvisational theater. Improv trains people to engage with one another in ways that promote empathy and understanding. Don Waisanen demonstrates how improv-based teaching and training methods can forward the communication, leadership, and civic skills our world urgently needs. Waisanen includes specific exercises and thought experiments that can be used by educators; advocates for civic engagement and civil discourse; practitioners and scholars in communication, leadership, and conflict management; training and development specialists; administrators looking to build new curricula or programming; and professionals seeking to embed productive, sustainable, and socially responsible forms of interaction in and across organizations. Ultimately this book offers a new approach for helping people become more creative, heighten awareness, think faster, build confidence, operate flexibly, improve expression and governance skills, and above all, think and act more democratically.
Download or read book The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom written by Katherine S. McKnight and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-05-09 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people know The Second City as an innovative school for improvisation that has turned out leading talents such as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. This groundbreaking company has also trained thousands of educators and students through its Improvisation for Creative Pedagogy program, which uses improv exercises to teach a wide variety of content areas, and boost skills that are crucial for student learning: listening, teamwork, communication, idea-generation, vocabulary, and more.
Download or read book Designing Urban Transformation written by Aseem Inam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While designers possess the creative capabilities of shaping cities, their often-singular obsession with form and aesthetics actually reduces their effectiveness as they are at the mercy of more powerful generators of urban form. In response to this paradox, Designing Urban Transformation addresses the incredible potential of urban practice to radically change cities for the better. The book focuses on a powerful question, "What can urbanism be?" by arguing that the most significant transformations occur by fundamentally rethinking concepts, practices, and outcomes. Drawing inspiration from the philosophical movement known as Pragmatism, the book proposes three conceptual shifts for transformative urban practice: (a) beyond material objects: city as flux, (b) beyond intentions: consequences of design, and (c) beyond practice: urbanism as creative political act. Pragmatism encourages us to consider how we can make deeper and more systemic changes and how urbanism itself can be a design strategy for such transformations. To illuminate how these conceptual shifts operate in vastly different contexts through analysis of transformative urban initiatives and projects in Belo Horizonte, Boston, Cairo, Karachi, Los Angeles, New Delhi, and Paris. The book is a rare integration of theory and practice that proposes essential ways of rethinking city-design-and-building processes, while drawing critical lessons from actual examples of such processes.
Download or read book Cybernetics state of the art written by Werner, Liss C. and published by Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART is the first volume of the book series CON-VERSATIONS. Driven by cybernetic thinking, it engages with pressing questions for architecture, urban planning, design and automated infrastructure; in an age of increasing connectivity, AI and robotization and an evolutionary state of the Anthropocene - perpetuating angst-ridden anxiety as well as excitement and joy of a future, that we will be able to predict with less and less certainty. The book, with a foreword by Omar Khan, discusses cybernetic principles and devices developed in the late 20th century – mainly developed by Ross Ashby and Gordon Pask (second-order cybernetics), to learn from for a future of mutual relationship and conversation between man and machine. The anthology reviews and previews cybernetics as design strategy in computational architecture, urban design and socio-ecological habitats - natural and artificial. It weaves together cybernetic-architectural theories with applications and case studies ranging from regional planning to the smart home. Nine chapters written by an international group of authors from four academic generations are structured into two complimenting parts. While ‘A Concept and a Shape’ focuses on the history and theory of cybernetics, its temporary disappearance and future impact (Raúl Espejo, Michael Hohl, Paul Pangaro, Liss C. Werner), ‘System 5’ – relating to Stafford Beer’s project ‘Cybersyn’ - discusses applications, the role of the individual and human feedback; also with a strong theoretical underpinning (Raoul Bunschoten, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Timothy Jachna, Arun Jain, Kristian Kloeckl). CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART invites the reader to enjoy a glimpse into the past to enjoy and discuss a cybernetic future. CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART mit einem Vorwort von Omar Khan ist die erste Buchausgabe der Serie CON-VERSATIONS. Auf kybernetisches Denken und Schaffen basierend, diskutiert CON-VERSATIONS Fragen zu Architektur, Stadtplanung, Gestaltungsstrategien und automatisierter Infrastruktur in einer evolutionär zunehmenden Vernetzung durch künstliche Intelligenz, Robotisierung; im Zeitalter der Anthropozän, in einem Zustand der sich verewigenden angstbeherrschten Unruhe - wie auch einer besonderen Lust auf eine Zukunft, die wir mit immer weniger Sicherheit voraussagen können. Das Konzept ‚Kybernetik zweiter Ordnung’ des späten 20igsten Jahrhunderts, u.a. entwickelt von Ross Ashby und Gordon Pask, begründet das Buch. Es genießt einen Rückblick und eine Vorschau in eine kybernetische Zukunft der gemeinsamen kausalen Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Maschine. Die Autoren schlagen Kybernetik als Entwurfsstrategie für computer-generierte/-gestützte Architektur, Stadtplanung und natürlich und künstliche sozio-ökologische Lebensumwelten vor. Das Buch kombiniert kybernetisch-architektonische Theorie mit Fallstudien reichend von Regionalplanung zu ‚Smart Home’. Neun Kapitel, geschrieben von einer internationalen Autorenschaft aus vier akademischen Generationen, sind in zwei sich ergänzende Buchteile strukturiert. ‘A Concept and a Shape’, mit Kapiteln von Raúl Espejo, Michael Hohl, Paul Pangaro, Liss C. Werner, diskutiert Geschichte und Wissenschaft der Kybernetik sowie ihr temporäres Verschwinden und Einfluss auf die Zukunft. ‚System 5’ (in Anlehnung an Stafford Beer’s Projekt ‚Cybersyn’) mit Kapiteln von Raoul Bunschoten, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Timothy Jachna, Arun Jain, Kristian Kloeckl, beschreibt kybernetische Praxis, die Rolle des Individuums und ‚Human Feedback’ - ebenfalls mit einem starken theoretischen Fundament. CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART lädt den Leser ein, einen aufschlussreichen Blick in die Vergangenheit zu werfen, um eine kybernetische Zukunft zu genießen und zu diskutieren.
Download or read book Improvised Lives written by AbdouMaliq Simone and published by Polity. This book was released on 2018-12-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poor and working people in cities of the South find themselves in urban spaces that are conventionally construed as places to reside or inhabit. But what if we thought of popular districts in more expansive ways that capture what really goes on within them? In such cities, popular districts are the settings of more uncertain operations that take place under the cover of darkness, generating uncanny alliances among disparate bodies, materials and things and expanding the urban sensorium and its capacities for liveliness. In this important new book AbdouMaliq Simone explores the nature of these alliances, portraying urban districts as sites of enduring transformations through rhythms that mediate between the needs of residents not to draw too much attention to themselves and their aspirations to become a small niche of exception. Here we discover an urban South that exists as dense rhythms of endurance that turn out to be vital for survival, connectivity, and becoming.
Download or read book DIY City written by Hank Dittmar and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some utopian plans have shaped our cities —from England’s New Towns and Garden Cities to the Haussmann plan for Paris and the L’Enfant plan for Washington, DC. But these grand plans are the exception, and seldom turn out as envisioned by the utopian planner. Inviting city neighborhoods are more often works of improvisation on a small scale. This type of bottom-up development gives cities both their character and the ability to respond to sudden change. Hank Dittmar, urban planner, friend of artists and creatives, sometime rancher, “high priest of town planning” to the Prince of Wales, believed in letting small things happen. Dittmar concluded that big plans were often the problem. Looking at the global cities of the world, he saw a crisis of success, with gentrification and global capital driving up home prices in some cities, while others decayed for lack of investment. In DIY City, Dittmar explains why individual initiative, small-scale business, and small development matter, using lively stories from his own experience and examples from recent history, such as the revival of Camden Lock in London and the nascent rebirth of Detroit. DIY City, Dittmar’s last original work, captures the lessons he learned throughout the course of his varied career—from transit-oriented development to Lean Urbanism—that can be replicated to create cities where people can flourish. DIY City is a timely response to the challenges many cities face today, with a short supply of affordable housing, continued gentrification, and offshore investment. Dittmar’s answer to this crisis is to make Do-It-Yourself the norm rather than the exception by removing the barriers to small-scale building and local business. The message of DIY City can offer hope to anyone who cares about cities.
Download or read book Noise Orders written by David Brown and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively book, David Brown locates jazz music within the broad aesthetic, political, and theoretical upheavals of our time, asserting that modern architecture and urbanism in particular can be strongly influenced and defined by the ways that improvisation is facilitated in jazz. Improvised music consists of diverse properties that fail to register in the object-oriented understanding of composition. As a result, it is often dismissed as noise—an interfering signal. However, Brown asserts, such interference can bear meaning and stimulate change. Noise Orders identifies how architecture can respond to the inclusive dynamics of extemporaneous movements, variable conceptions of composition, multiple durations, and wide manipulation of resources found in jazz to enable outcomes that far exceed a design’s seeming potential. By exploring overlapping moments between modernism and the cultural dimensions of jazz, Noise Orders suggests that the discipline of improvisation continues to open and redefine architectural theory and practice, creating a world where designers contribute to emerging environments rather than make predetermined ones. Comparing modern and avant-garde artists and architects with individuals and groups in jazz—including Piet Mondrian and boogie-woogie, John Cage and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Le Corbusier and Louis Armstrong, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)—Brown examines how jazz can offer alternative design ideas and directions, be incorporated in contemporary architectural practices, and provide insight on how to develop dynamic metropolitan environments. Interdisciplinary in its approach, innovative in its methodology, and unexpected in its conclusions, Noise Orders argues for a deeper understanding of the infinite potential inherent in both music and architecture. David P. Brown is associate professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Download or read book Structure and Improvisation in Creative Teaching written by R. Keith Sawyer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-27 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an increasing emphasis on creativity and innovation in the twenty-first century, teachers need to be creative professionals just as students must learn to be creative. And yet, schools are institutions with many important structures and guidelines that teachers must follow. Effective creative teaching strikes a delicate balance between structure and improvisation. The authors draw on studies of jazz, theater improvisation and dance improvisation to demonstrate that the most creative performers work within similar structures and guidelines. By looking to these creative genres, the book provides practical advice for teachers who wish to become more creative professionals.
Download or read book The Image of the City written by Kevin Lynch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1964-06-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.
