Tuesday 11 November 2008 6:30–8:30PM
Haft Auditorium
Fashion Institute of Technology
Building C
27th Street and Seventh Avenue

PERSONAL SPACES/PUBLIC VISIONS

The architectural firm Diller Scofidio+Renfro and the graphic design studio 2×4 both create very high-concept work which is attracting not just attention, but raucous enthusiasm. For years, DS(+R) worked behind the scenes as an idea lab, and now their work is bursting onto the public scene with high-profile projects like the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the upcoming High Line and Lincoln Center projects in New York, and the unforgettable “Blur” a pavilion constructed of Swiss mist.

Similarly, 2×4 was launched from an ivory tower (Yale) and is bringing a cool, fresh, and brainy approach to graphics, with thoughtfulness fueling work that transcends aesthetics. At 2×4, Michael Rock has created high-profile projects for Prada, the Brooklyn Museum, and even Nike for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Is the brainpower of both of these studios antithetical to today’s aesthetics-driven process? What comes between a laboratory of ideas and work in the public sphere? What constitutes the track from theory to practice (and back again)? And why are these visual and spatial expressions of such personal visions ultimately so magnetic for wide audiences?