No Cruising: Studio

Mobile Identities and Urban Life

A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH STUDIO INVESTIGATING LOS ANGELES

Spring 2014
Architecture 209 / Art Practice 218

Instructors: Margaret Crawford (Architecture) and Anne Walsh (Art Practice)

This research studio will investigate the multiple themes generated by the concept of mobility (and its inverse: immobility) in Los Angeles. While the city’s automobility has become a questionable cliche, the question of mobility affects almost every sphere of life for its urban residents. The studio will focus on exploring the ways individuals and groups experience mobility and immobility, using methods from ethnography, history, material culture studies, literature, and visual and performance studies. One of the key efforts of the studio will be to create hybrid forms of urban representation juxtaposing humanities perspectives with spatial and movement studies. Together with faculty, students will make several trips to Los Angeles to explore the city, meet with local artists, writers, scholars, civic advocates, engineers and residents. The studio will culminate in visual, textual, and digital versions of student and faculty research.

To learn more about how a studio class functions, see Margaret Crawford's presentation about studio courses.