co+labo radović     co+labo 2O2O Research in Progress Day presentations+discussions       

After several guest lectures and research presentations, and internal research development sessions, co+labo  held its first 2O2O Research in Progress Day. Undergraduate and Masters presentations were followed by feedback and discussion, involving Professor Neno Kezić (University of Split, 2O2O Distinguished Visiting professor at Keio University, co+labo), Rafael Balboa (2O2O Research Associate at co+labo), Satoshi Sano (co+labo Adjunct Secretary, Visiting Lecturer at Keio University), Sanja Žonja (co+labo PhD researcher) and Darko Radović. Current co+labo, slightly paraphrased draft proposals include - Undergraduate: "The relationship between human-scaled urban gaps, roji and micro-greenery in Tsukishima" (Yurino Oguri), "Reconstruction of  roadside stations in earthquake affected regions of Japan" (Reiya Sasaki), and Masters: "Personal time in public spaces; Hillside Terrace and Bonus Track projects, Tokyo" (Yuki Mori); "Design characteristics of church architecture in Tokyo and their presence in the city" (Amami Iwata), "Multilayered  urban space of railway stations and their surroundings, case of Yamanote Line" (Jumpei Kawamoto), "The type-morphological analysis of urban canals and canal-side lives, Edo-Tokyo (with references of Bangkok)" (Shinichi Nishibori), and "Hidden, undesigned human-scaled spaces in XL precincts of Tokyo, case of Ginza Chuo Dori" (Hiroki Shigemura). The session was co-chaired by Darko and Sanja (... whose gesture, on the photo above, was not a comment of quality of any particular presentations). co+labo lecture, discussion and research presentation sessions continue ...

co+labo radović     co+labo guest lecture and discussion programme 2O2O continues ...      

Our 2O2O lecture series continued with fourth instalment of Rafael Balboa's inspirational lectures - this time on Diagrammatic Thinking in Architecture, and Sanja Žonja's presentation and discussion related to her Doctoral research into graffiti and street art, focusing at Tokyo, the city where "graffiti do not exist". Rafa's and Sanja's talks inspired good discussion and opened a number of issues to be taken upon in the events that follow.  

co+labo radović   Rafa Balboa's second guest lecture + co+labo research in progress day   

co+labo 2O2O takeoff continued with Rafael Balboa's second lecture and first co+labo research in progress session.

 

co+labo radović   Sano Satoshi joins Rafa Balboa in co+labo 2O2O guest lecture series     

In the spirit of the co+labo's Lefebvrian, generous + +++ +  ++++ sign, on Tuesday 26 May 2O2O the laboratory members was exposed to a "surplus" of ideas. The second instalment of Rafael Balboa's lecture (below) was followed by Sano Satoshi's talk, which brings together his rich professional portfolio and the extracts from his just completed doctoral research. The aim is, as always, to help corrupt the minds of co+labo youth, precisely in the way in which Socrates did and which Yukichi Fukuzawa proudly followed - as outlined in Darko's SD Graduation Speech delivered 25.3.2019: 
    - do not follow the paths which are already mapped out for you, do not blindly obey social customs
    - seek, propose and create new, different directions which lead to a true life. 

    - seek how to be good and how to do good; how to be happy.

(flyer design Oguri Yurino and Reiya Sasaki)

co+labo radović     co+labo research fellow Rafa Balboa delivers 1st 2O2O guest lecture      

Following his leadership of co+labo team in an international design competition (the results of which we are still awaiting), Rafael Balboa opened our 2O2O Webex guest lecture series with his pet research topic - Principles of Prostho-Urbanism.
This opening session focused at his practice in Wasabi Studio, and continued towards the theory of Prostho-Urbanism. The lecture and discussions will continue next week. 

(Poster Design: Reiya Sasaki)

co+labo radović     co+labo starts its very special + unusual 12th year at Keio - online       

The School year 2O2O-21 was always to be special. This is the 12th and final year of co+labo @ Keio University The outbreak of Coronavirus has added more than a nuance to that. All of our plans, which included many activities and events, visitors and workshops, had to be cancelled or, to out it euphemistically - postponed. The Pandemic has, perhaps, announced a new era. It has forced us to think and act in new ways, different to what we have experienced and known before. As reported in the 1 May post (below), co+labo is already active in an international initiative which seeks ways to (re)think architecture, cities and urban cultures within this new context.
The 2O2O school year has started much later than we usually begin. While we used to celebrate the beginning of semester 1 in a culturally meaningful and undeniably beautiful way, with hanami, traditional Japanese cherry blossom viewing (and drinking!) event, we now meet on Webex and Zoom - which certainly impoverishes the experience of thinking and learning together. Darko describes that the semester would normally start with "a series of lectures introducing the co+labo way, for new students 'indoctrination sessions' about becoming, and for others about diving deeper into what it means to be a co+labo member. In those lectures, I would invoke some of my intellectual Pantheon, trying to position those ideas towards (in)direct usefulness for what we were to be doing over the next one (undergraduate), three (Masters) or more (PhD) years at co+labo. Usual sources of ideas were coming from the lineages of Socrates to Plato, Heidegger to Nancy, all the way to Bogdanović, Perec, Debord, for many unexplainably Jullien, some recent acquisitions and the likes. Architectural, artistic, and urbanistic contextualisations were bringing in Praxiteles, Vitruvius, Michelangelo, Cerdà, and other diverse thinkers and makers which are impossible to copy or uncritically take on, all the way to broader urban and cultural thinking of always relevant Marx, Lefebvre, Derrida, Cixous, Badiou ... Placing co+labo into these networks of ideas was meant to inspire and help co+labo members to (intellectually) fly. The primary task was always to make our members think (together). Some contemporary and, let's conditionally say, more 'practical' (but never entirely and directly 'useful') thinkers would help me point at entry points into our research and design-research projects to come. One of the regulars was Alberto Manguel. I like to start with his beautifully provocative question" 'what do we think about when we look at the work of art?', only to broaden it towards inquiry into 'what we think when we look at ... a city, building, street, piazza ... at people?' That was in hope that Manguel's depth might be contagious. Roland Barthes was my usual next step, helping locate both co+labo and myself, as a gaijin, in Japan - before venturing further into theories and practice of urbanity". 

Then, various guest lectures would start coming in. From the next week we are going to begin simulating that, of course - online. (What else but simulation of reality could be done online?!) 
There will be enriching talks by co+labo research associates (starting with Rafael Balboa), PhD researchers (Satoshi Sano, Sanja Žonja), visiting professors (Neno Kezić). But, the opening will be given to Manguel himself in, for Coronavirus times, first-hand contact - via his two youtube talks: "On Reading Images" and "Don't You See What I Mean?". If you wish, let Alberto Manguel help you feel this co+labo moment.