Artificial Cryosphere/Landscape Futures
“The Artificial Cryosphere and Public Appreciation of ‘Aeroir,'” with Nicola Twilley, Edible Geography and Gastropod
Sept. 29 at 7:00 in Lovejoy 100
Nicola Twilley will be exploring two atmospheric conditions that exemplify Human/Nature by presenting two ongoing projects: an exhibition and book exploring the artificial cryosphere and an artist project to develop new experiences that enhance the public appreciation of “aeroir.” For the past four years, Twilley has been exploring the largely invisible thermal infrastructure of refrigeration—a vast, distributed winter that has reconfigured both the contents of our plates and the shapes of our cities. In addition to sharing some of her research in this area, Twilley will also discuss her more recent, ongoing collaboration with the Center for Genomic Gastronomy to develop a multi-sensory array of devices, installations, and experiences that aim to make the aesthetics and politics of urban air pollution sense-able as an artifact. From smog meringues to street food-air quality pairings, the project aims to create a series of poetic intermediaries between humans and our collective atmospheric emissions.
Nicola Twilley is author of the blog Edible Geography, co-host of the Gastropod podcast, and a contributing writer for The New Yorker. She is deeply obsessed with refrigeration, and is currently writing a book on the topic. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Cabinet, Aeon, Popular Science, Modern Farmer, Dwell, and the Harvard Design Magazine, among others. In summer 2013, Twilley curated an exhibition exploring North America’s spaces of artificial refrigeration with the Center for Land Use Interpretation; in 2010, with Geoff Manaugh, she co-curated the exhibition Landscapes of Quarantine, an ARTFORUM Editor’s Pick, at Storefront for Art and Architecture. In May 2015, she partnered with the Center for Genomic Gastronomy to present a smog-tasting installation at the WHO’s 67th World Health Assembly in Geneva, as well as at the New Museum’s second annual Ideas City Festival in NYC. From 2011 to 2013, Twilley was a Research Fellow at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, as part of which she collaborated with Geoff Manaugh on “Venue,” a pop-up interview studio and mobile media rig that traveled around North America documenting abandoned NASA training sites, underground health mines, the world’s largest collection of wild yeasts, and more.
“Landscape Futures,” with a discussion of artificial replacements for natural phenomena, with Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG
Sept. 29 at 8:00 in Lovejoy 100
Geoff Manaugh will explain the curatorial vision behind Landscape Futures, a 2012 exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art that foregrounded the instruments and devices through which the planetary sciences and landscape design are performed. By centralizing these mechanisms, the exhibition’s goal was to reveal how humans have become deeply dependent upon machines and other technical intermediaries for interpreting the landscapes around them. Manaugh will also present his ongoing research into the world of artificial replacements for natural phenomena, including legal patents registered for new forms of artificial snow, artificial trees, and even new forms of artificial geology. Discussing these in the context of several site visits performed by Manaugh and Twilley as part of their “Venue” project—including a landscape tour of the nation’s largest active landfill and a trip to the AstroTurf® factory northwest of Atlanta—will show the often-unexpected side-effects of replicating nature.
Geoff Manaugh is a freelance writer and curator. His work has appeared in The New York Times, New Scientist, Popular Science, Domus, newyorker.com, and many other publications, including multiple books, exhibition catalogs, and artist monographs. He lectures regularly on topics related to architecture and landscape at venues around the world, including the Australian National Architecture Conference, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar. He is also the author of BLDGBLOG (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com), a long-running online catalog of spatial ideas and innovations at various scales and in many genres. In 2010, in collaboration with Nicola Twilley, Manaugh curated an exhibition exploring the spatial implications of quarantine for New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture. In 2012, he curated Landscape Futures, a 2,000-square foot exhibition exploring the intersection of digital technology and landscape design, for the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Manaugh is former director of Studio-X NYC at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. His newest book, investigating the relationship between burglary and architecture, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October 2015.
Student Discussions
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Jay Arr Tanya Sheehan spoke on plastic surgery, and its relationship with art and human nature, and the interaction between them all. Her first image was a self-portrait of an artist before ... - Refrigerators and the Natural World October 24, 2015
Kathryn Chow It is interesting to think that one of the most commonplace appliances in the American kitchen arsenal, the refrigerator, has impacted our lives so heavily. Refrigeration has widened the selection ... - Refrigeration Changed… Everything October 6, 2015
Hallie Jester I had no idea how much refrigeration has changed our lives. The thing that made the most sense to me was how refrigeration has changed our landscape. Not having to ... - Frozen Orange Juice? October 6, 2015
Grant Lowensohn Tonight’s lecture was a fascinating exploration into the history of refrigeration. There were a lot of interesting outcomes that persisted as a result of the advent of refrigeration that I ... - Is Food Natural? October 6, 2015
Jessica Tregidgo The idea of flavor changing interests me. The definition of ‘good’ meat and other products has been greatly changed with the introduction of refrigeration. Also, the availability of meat and other ... - Call Me Old Fashioned October 6, 2015
Ernesto I’m not going to lie, after hearing the lecturer last Tuesday I felt like my trust has been betrayed. Silk Milk has fooled everyone thinking it ... - Fridges and Fields October 6, 2015
Joshua I rarely ever think about refrigeration and its effect on society, but for Nicola Twilley it seemed like a hot topic! So I like my fridge? YES! Cold storage is ... - Food Morgue October 6, 2015
mekopp With the invention of fridges, humans have created an arctic over which they have thermal control. One third of the food in the US is at some pointed refrigerated. In a way ... - Cow tunnels in NYC October 6, 2015
Sophie Suechting I found Nicola Twilley’s lecture to be the most intriguing one yet. When she first said she was lecturing about refrigerators, I was highly skeptical and wondering where that topic ... - The Idiosyncrasy of the Aeroir October 6, 2015
mwyndham In Rebecca Harding’s short story “Life in the Iron Mills,” Harding writes, “The idiosyncrasy of this town is smoke.” I originally read this story nearly two years ago, yet this ...