Issue 02 The Search Engine

The second issue of ARPA Journal is now online! 'The Search Engine’ asks what unnamed search engines have existed and where they have been hiding. Where might they be found, and what should they be? The issue is guest edited by Troy Conrad Therrien, and includes articles by Emily Abruzzo, Gerald Bodziak, Benedict Clouette, Leigha Dennis, David Joselit, Jochen Hartmann, Lydia Kallipoliti, Laura Kurgan, Nicole Lambrou, Garrett Ricciardi, Julian Rose, Jeffrey Schnapp and Dan Taeyoung. 

Please also see our call for submissions for Issue 03 Performance.

Call For Submissions:Issue 03 Performance

Performance is enhanced, targeted, tested, specified, reviewed and applauded. In each case, the design of performance is the orchestration of results. Architects might guarantee water resistance, for example, and calibrate this objective against cost, labor or the desire for exposure. Performance frames decision-making by metrics of efficiency, optimization and sacrifice (or yes, satisficing). In this familiar logic of technocratic governance, criteria are also codified in legal terms and challenged by architects who exceed lax building codes or undermine excessive ones. Beyond the technological, as argued in Perform or Else: from Discipline to Performance, engineered performance generates productive friction with that of corporate management and art practice. Employee reviews of workplace efficacy and theatrical events alike alter behavior, just as a building’s program might train or untrain well-worn habits.

Issue 03, ‘Performance,’ asks how criteria are established and enforced in architectural research practice. How do designers and researchers define, evaluate and communicate performance and its attendant value system? To what degree can we determine or guarantee performance? How do we acknowledge image and perception as a function of effectiveness? Who is performing? In a ‘demo or die’ culture, how and where is performance tested?

Editor:Janette Kim

Submission Guidelines
We seek thoughtful and playful approaches to applied research on the built environment. Contributions may include opinion pieces, examinations of pivotal moments in the history of applied research, investigations of the protocols of research practice, and photo essays on research projects that critically apply risky practice or design projects that have experimental implications. Articles are not limited in length (600-2000 words, recommended) and can be published in linear text format, photo essays, videos or other media. Contributors are encouraged to demonstrate techniques and protocols in meticulous detail. Eligibility to contribute is not limited by institutional affiliation or area of expertise.

To apply, submit an abstract in one pdf document (4MB max) to arpa@arch.columbia.edu:
Info:title and subtitle
Bio:author name and bio
Submission Type: critique or project
Abstract: 300 words max
Optional: Images, websites or writing samples

Deadlines for Issue 04 are as follows:
Abstracts due Dec 15, 2014.
Contributions (once selected) due March 1, 2015.

> via arpajournal.gsapp.org