Thrilled with the following interviews!
Here I talk with Maria Kruglyak about my curatorial work and writing on Ken Isaacs, occasioned by the multiplatform mapping project Visual Natures: The Politics and Culture of Environmentalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries, organized by the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon, which featured Isaacs’s Knowledge Box. Read the interview online…
Read MoreFlag Art: Raising New Symbols of Belonging
As the end to a most trying year draws near, hopes for a fairer and more equitable future are weighted against the injustices of the present that attempt to erode the very foundations of our democracy. Even in the wake of the U.S. election’s positive outcome, conservative politicians and right-wing extremists, cloaked in the guise…
Read MoreReviews of Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs are in!
Metropolis | Ken Isaacs Wanted to Retool the Way We Live by Justin Kamp • February 18, 2020 New City | Before the Tiny House: Inside the Matrix Dives Into the Design Legacy of Ken Isaacs by Michael Workman • April 14, 2020 Inland Art | Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs by Paul Krainak…
Read MoreFrench edition of Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs out now!
Dans la matrice: le design radical de Ken Isaacs published by Sombres torrents is available here: http://sombrestorrents.com/dans-la-matrice.html#/
Read MoreArt and Nature Parks: On Common Ground
Walking in the Eastern Woodlands of the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, one discovers an open clearing in which lies a large concrete basin surrounded by a skeletal wooden structure all weathered by the forces of nature and time. The central pond-shaped form, cracked and empty save for a few fallen leaves, was once…
Read MorePlanting the Future City
As I have mentioned many times here and throughout my critical practice, Rosalyn Deutsche’s book Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics has been an endless source of inspiration for me. Deutsche centers her discourse on public art in political reinventions of public space, looking to radical definitions of democracy and to analogies that equate cities with…
Read MoreFor the Common Good: Chicago Architecture Biennial’s “. . .and other such stories”
Just ending its 14-week run that coincided with the rise of global anti-government protests, the Chicago Teachers Strike, and devasting fires in Australia, this year’s iteration of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) offered a platform for projects, many collaborative and citizen-led, that explored the social function of architecture and its publics. Titled “. . .…
Read MoreNew book out now!
At long last, my book Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs published by Half Letter Press is now available! Inside the Matrix surveys the highly individual practice of American architect and designer Ken Isaacs, whose populist, DIY designs created from the 1950s to the 1970s challenged mainstream definitions of modernism. Highlighted here are his Living Structures, Microhouses, and Alpha Chambers, experimental living and educational environments that provided alternative solutions to the spatial and environmental challenges of midcentury modern life.
You can purchase a copy here: https://halfletterpress.com/inside-the-matrix/
Read MoreMapping the Waterways of Milwaukee with Mary Miss
The topography of the Upper Midwest is a patchwork of farms, prairies, flatlands, and large urban and industrial centers, diverse natural and built environments intimately tied to the Great Lakes and the region’s rivers. Within the current discourse on climate change, the impact of hurricanes and other environmental hazards upon coastal areas has somewhat overshadowed…
Read MoreSupport from Graham Foundation
Honored and thankful for the Graham Foundation’s support of my book, Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs, published by Half Letter Press and due later this year.
Read More