Our guest lecture series continues on Tuesday, 14 May with a talk by a co+labo associate and regular contributor, Professor Davisi Boontharm (Meiji University), in which she will be presenting some of the latest in her research into
the qualities of the urban which reach far beyond measurable phenomena, which include the ultimate quality—the quality of life. Regardless if they are extraordinary, such as beauty, or simple, ordinary experiences, such as everyday life, those qualities are notoriously difficult to capture and communicate. Davisi argues that, if we want to communicate the most precious characteristics of place, artistic sensibility needs complement the established methods.
This presentation will consists of selected explorations and attempts to communicate personal insights. Those experiments include diverse sketching and drawing methods, challenging the dominant notion of ‘mapping’ as ‘infographics’, mere visual representation of data. It seeks ways of capturing and communicating, presenting and representing the non-measurable dimensions of place through the variously combined visual and textual exegeses.
The processes of drawing and writing need to be seen as primarily bodily experiences where the pleasure and desire are always present, and they should never be denied. Even more than that, these subjective sensations and their expressions need to be strategically included, and their implementation in urban empirical research encouraged.
Davisi's lecture will be followed with presentation by recent co+labo and Politecnico di Milano graduate and ... Akitaka Suzuki's seminar Experiences and Thoughts on my Design Process
