Theatrum Mundi launches Negotiating Spaces: Time, Knowledge, Place, Material

Research seminar hosted by LSE Cities

Negotiating Spaces is a new nine-month investigation on themes emerging from over a year of collaborative workshops in London, New York, Frankfurt and Copenhagen. The project will convene a working group of 30 practitioners from backgrounds as diverse as architecture, urban planning, choreography, music, software design, performance, acoustic engineering, sociology, literature, activism, geography and contemporary art to consider the divergent tools these practices hold to create and negotiate spaces in the contemporary city.

At the core of the investigation is the question of ‘Negotiation’ as a central tenet of the contemporary city in two senses: First to negotiate as in the practice of deliberation, dialogue, contestation and compromise. Second to negotiate is also to overcome, to find a way over or through. ‘Negotiating Spaces’ reflects these two tactics for navigating the urban. This collaborative investigation is a first step to uncover the tools and experiences from a wide range of disciplines in the spatial practices, visual and performance arts, in an effort to ask questions about how we negotiate spaces today. 

Four salons centred on the themes of Time, Knowledge, Place and Material build up to a public symposium in the Spring of 2014. The first salon ‘Negotiating Time: Can the temporary leave a trace?’ launched on 25 June 2013 at The Shed, National Theatre.

For more information about this collaboration and other Theatrum Mundi projects, visit the project website.

Profiles

    Eleanor Barrett

    Eleanor is the founder and co-director The Brick Box. Eleanor has created over forty original artworks for venues and festivals including the Brighton Festival, LIFT, Bradford Mela, Shunt Vaults and the ICA. She has been the Director of the Bradford Playhouse, and Development Manager at Shunt Events Ltd. In addition to her work with The Brick Box, she is currently the Producer of the Wandsworth Arts Festival 2013, and a School for Creative Start-ups ‘Titan’.

    Amica Dall

    Amica Dall is a founding director of Assemble, a non-heirarchical collective whose work focuses on the social and material processes through which cities are made, producing architecture, art, urban design and research.

    Rosie Freeman

    Rosie is a co-director of The Brick Box. Rosie has produced work at the Shunt Vaults, LIFT, Wandsworth Arts Festival, Lambeth Country Show, Standon Calling Festival, Beatroot-Rendezvous, and Nottingham’s Demo Project.

    Amaara Raheem

    Amaara Raheem is a Sri Lankan born Australian living in London. She is currently studying a Masters by Research in Choreography and Performance at Roehampton University where she also works as the Dance Network Coordinator, developing mutually beneficial, sustainable partnerships between Roehampton Dance and independent artists, researchers and scholars across a range of disciplines.

    Matthias Sperling

    Choreographer and performer Matthias Sperling is an Associate Artist with Dance4 and winner of a Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award. His solo work Riff (2007) has been presented at international festivals including Nottdance (UK), Les Repérages (France) and Springdance (Netherlands).

    Steve Tompkins

    Steve Tompkins studied architecture at Bath University and travelled extensively before joining Arup Associates in London. He was a founding member of Bennetts Associates in 1987 prior to forming Haworth Tompkins Architects with Graham Haworth in 1991.

    Adam Kaasa

    Adam Kaasa is Director of Theatrum Mundi and a Research Fellow in the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art.