PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
STEM & THE IMAGINATION
LECTURE 05
New Methods for Sensing and Visualizing the Spatial Life of Schools
with Laura Trafí-Prats & Elizabeth de Freitas
Tuesday April 9, 2024 @ 5:30pm
hybrid, face-to-face (if you can!) and zoom
free & open to all, RSVP here
ZOOM: information will be shared via email after registration
The lecture outlines new approaches to spatial research in which space is understood as an intensive terraforming agent (Latour 2017, 2018). We present digital-sensing, mapping and architectural modelling as generative tools that make visible space’s inherent potentials towards openness and differentiation. We explore these ideas through key exemplars of mapping and visualization in contemporary art, design, and architecture. Additionally, we examine the living maps and speculative models created in collaboration with a group of students (16 year olds) during a study on the lived experience of space in a new school building in Liverpool (UK).
Laura Trafí-Prats
Laura Trafí-Prats is a Reader in the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). Her academic practice concerns the fields of art and cultural studies of education. She has published more than 30 articles and chapters, of which an important portion focuses on creative projects engaging young people on the research and transformation of their living environments. Her most recent research has centred on mapping and visualizing the lived experience of space in new school buildings.
Elizabeth de Freitas
Elizabeth de Freitas is a professor at Adelphi University. Her research explores innovative data methodologies in the social sciences, and philosophical investigations of mathematics and digital life. Her work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils, the US National Science Foundation, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and the Spencer Foundation. She works across disciplines. She has published five books and over 50 articles and chapters on a range of topics including critical cartographic methods, sensor technology, mapping software, and learning theories.