The sessions
icam17 Montreal / New York 2014
Out of a total of 5 sessions envisaged for the conference agenda, four will be held in Montreal. Related to the exhibition Archaeology of the Digital II being held at the CCA during the conference, the first two sessions will be on archiving born-digital material. We would like to discuss, several case studies icam members are working on and a session on the pure technical aspects. Archiving born-digital material implies an understanding of the first experiments which set the standards that are now more and more common. It means that we need to work on the projects not only as examples of the present or the future, but as something shaped in the past.
How can we, as archival and curatorial institutions, unravel the myths of the digital and how can we collect, ingest and make data accessible for our public?
A call for papers will explore a wide range of case studies dealing with the complex process of archiving digital projects, from the acquisition to public access of a project. What instruments can we use, what software and/or hardware is necessary to read digital material, how do we determinate what we are collecting, and will we be able to make curatorial choices within digitally designed projects? The second session on the technical aspects will be presented in the form of a workshop and related to the case studies – input of icam member is very welcome! (Chair: Martien de Vletter, CCA, Montreal, Canada)
The third session will present new institutions and organzations that emerge in different parts of the world. These younger institutions, in South East Asia or Africa, represent a variety of approaches. We hope to welcome ArchiAfrika based in Ghana, Pusat Documentasi Arsitektur in Indonesia, M+ from Hong Kong and others.
The fourth session in Montreal is dedicated to The pressure of the contemporary. Barry Bergdoll (MoMA and Columbia) and Jean-Louis Cohen (NYU, tbc) will discuss the sense in which historical research has been increasingly overshadowed, even devalued, in both the university and museum settings by the presentism of our fast-paced information culture. This is an issue that has an impact on the full panorama of architectural culture, from the preservation and extension of knowledge of the past, to collecting and preserving, and to programs and exhibitions in architectural institutions. After the two lectures there is room for discussion. (Chair: Matevž Čelik, Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia)
The fifth session is being held in New York at Columbia University on collaborative projects and collaboration among different institutions in respect to the archives. The joint venture between MoMA and Avery Library for taking care of the Frank Lloyd Wright archives will be used as a case study, and we welcome other case studies from icam members. (Chair: Guus Beumer, Het nieuwe instituut, Rotterdam)
icam in Montreal (20-25 September 2014)
The first part of the conference will be hosted at the CCA, which will be celebrating its 35th anniversary, and the 25th anniversary of its building. In 1979, the CCA was founded by Phyllis Lambert (who is also one of the founding members of icam) as a new form of cultural institution to build public awareness of the role of architecture in society, to promote scholarly research in the field, and to stimulate innovation in design practice. Ten years later the institution moved into a new building designed by Peter Rose integrating the historically classified Shaughnessy House (1874) designed by William T. Thomas. In that same year (1989), icam 5 was held in Montreal.
The CCA’s exhibitions and public and educational programs forge links between architectural thinking and practice, the history of ideas, and changing social and cultural conditions – founded on the conviction that architecture is a public concern.
Touring in and around Montreal
The sightseeing program in and around Montreal starts with an introduction at the CCA on architecture in the city. During the official opening of the conference a lecture about architecture in Canada will be given. During the following days, we will offer various tours that address the different historical moments and architectural developments in Montreal. A mountain and a river define the urban landscape of Montreal at first sight. But there is much hidden in the city and its history, with at least two major events influencing its development: the World Expo in 1967 and the 1976 Olympic Games.The first day starts with a walking tour around Westmount Square with the famous towers by L. Mies van der Rohe (1964-1969) and Place Alexis-Nihon, designed in 1967 by Harold Ship and Stanley King. In the afternoon we will explore the riversides by visiting Habitat 67, a housing project by Moshe Safdie (1960-1970) and the Biosphere (the former American Pavilion for Expo 67) from Richard Buckminster Fuller (1965-1967). Infrastructure and modernity are the topics for a third tour passing McGill Campus, Place Ville Marie (I.M. Pei and Associates/ Henry Cobb, 1957-1966), Bonaventure Complex (Affleck, 1963-1967), Place Victoria (Luigi Moretti/Pier Luigi Nervi, 1962-1965) and Montreal’s underground.
icam in New York (25-28 September 2014)
On the fifth day the conference will continue in New York, hosted by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in collaboration with Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. The world’s first curatorial department devoted to architecture and design was established in 1932 at MoMA. From its inception, the collection has been built on the recognition that architecture and design are allied and interdependent arts, so that synthesis has been a founding premise of the collection. Including 28,000 works – before the recent co-acquisition, with the Avery Library, of the Frank Lloyd Wright and Taliesin archives — ranging from large-scale design objects to works on paper and architectural models, the Museum’s diverse Architecture and Design collection surveys major figures and movements from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Starting with the reform ideology established by the Arts and Crafts movement, the collection covers major movements of the twentieth century and contemporary issues. The architecture collection documents buildings through models, drawings, and photographs, and includes the Mies van der Rohe Archive. The design collection comprises thousands of objects, ranging from appliances, furniture, and tableware to tools, textiles, sports cars—even a helicopter. The graphic design collection includes noteworthy examples of typography, posters, and other combinations of text and image.
Avery Library’s world-renowned collections are exceptional in both numbers and depths. The collections comprise more than 650,000 volumes on architecture, art, and related fields of study including Avery’s extensive collection of more than 40,000 rare books. The library also owns an estimated 2 million architectural drawings, prints, photographs, and other original architecture-related items. Avery Library maintains a large current and retrospective periodicals collection; this collection is essential to production and publication of the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, the most comprehensive periodicals index in the field.
On Friday morning we will offer tours through New York collections (Open House), with visits to Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and Guggenheim Museum, New-York Historical Society, Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the City of New York. In the afternoon the fifth and last conference session is being held at Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, Columbia University on collaborative projects and collaboration among different institutions in respect to the archives. The joint venture between MoMA and Avery Library for taking care of the Frank Lloyd Wright archives will be used as a case study, and we welcome other case studies from members. (Chair: Guus Beumer, Het nieuwe instituut, Rotterdam) An evening reception will be hosted by Avery Library: Wallach Art Gallery, Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University “The Garden Necropolis: art and architecture of New York’s Woodlawn.
On the last day of icam17 we offer a morning walking tour through Harlem (ending in a coffee reception at Bergdoll House).
icam17 extra activities
icam17 market place and pecha kucha
Market place – throughout the conference in Montreal
Members and new participants are encouraged to bring flyers, posters, postcards, programs, and any kind of publications which might be of interest to other attendants, to be put on display throughout the conference. Members interested in reserving a space at the Market Place are kindly requested to send an email to icam2014@cca.qc.ca
It is possible to sell your publications in the CCA bookstore. Please inform Sarah Mitchell on how and where to get your publications: smitchell@cca.qc.ca
Pecha Kucha on publications – Tuesday 23rd September
During lunch at CCA, you are encouraged to step forward and give a brief presentation on the latest, most interesting, or outstanding publication of your institution. Albert Ferre, CCA’s associate director of Publications, will give you the floor for 6 minutes and 40 seconds to present the project and to stress its importance. You will have to present the project in 20 slides / images, and you need to send these in advance. Each image will be shown 20 seconds. Please inform us about your presentation at icam2014@cca.qc.ca
Conversation on publications – Wednesday 24th September
Following the Pecha Kucha on Tuesday, an informal round table discussion on architecture publications will be moderated by CCA’s chief curator, Giovanna Borasi. How are institutions represented in their publications, does your institution have a publication strategy for paper and / or online publications? Are you able to reach your public through publications? Please inform us about your position on this topic (at icam2014@cca.qc.ca), and you’ll be given the floor to participate in the discussion.
Download sessions
Greg Lynn: Archaeology of the Digital (PDF, 0.1 MB)
> David Peyceré: Managing Access to a Regular 15-Year-Old Digital Archive: A Hard Job for 50-Year-Old Archive Curators (PDF, 0.2 MB)
> Ann Whiteside: E-Architectural Documentation: Methods and Tools for Preservation. FACADE Case Study (PDF, 0.4 MB)
> Kurt Helfrich: RIBA’s “Archiving the Digital” Conference: Lessons Shared, Lessons Learned, and Tasks Ahead (PDF, 0.6 MB)
> Emilie Retailleau, David Stevenson: The Exhibition as an Investigative Tool (PDF, 1.2 MB)
> Aric Chen: Building a Collection from Scratch, and Another Point of View (PDF, 0.2 MB)
> Nadia Purwestri & Febriyanti Suryaningsih: Constructing an Indonesian Architecture Documentation (PDF, 0.4 MB)
> Choi Won-joon: Documenting Architectural Modernity of Korea (PDF, 0.5 MB)
> Joe Osae-Addo: Africa: An Organic Living Museum Without Walls (PDF, 5.6 MB)
> Barry Bergdoll: Exhibiting History in a Period of Presentism, or should we still be collecting archives? (PDF, 0.2 MB)
> Guido Beltramini: Elements for a New Historical Project (PDF, 0.6 MB)
> Catherine Moriarty and Harriet Edquist: Curating Design Archives Data for Research Collaboration (PDF, 0.6 MB)
> Behrang Mousavi: Collaborations for Archiving, Presenting and Researching Architecture: Topics of Shared Interest (PDF, 1.5 MB)
> Triin Ojari: New Frontiers: Museums in Transformation (PDF, 0.7 MB)
> Carole Ann Fabian: The MoMA-Avery Co-acquisition and Joint Stewardship of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (0.5 MB)
> Juhana Lahti: Shared System? Collection Management Collaboration in Finland (PDF, 0.1 MB)list of lectures
Session 1: Archiving Born-Digital Materials
Greg Lynn: Archaeology of the Digital
David Peyceré: Managing Access to a Regular 15-Year-Old Digital Archive: A Hard Job for 50-Year-Old Archive Curators
Ann Whiteside: E-Architectural Documentation: Methods and Tools for Preservation. FACADE Case Study
Sofie de Caigny: Preservation of hybrid architectural archives
Kurt Helfrich: RIBA’s “Archiving the Digital” Conference: Lessons Shared, Lessons Learned, and Tasks Ahead
David Stevenson, Emilie Retailleau: The Exhibition as an Investigative Tool
Session 2: New Lessons
Aric Chen: Building a Collection from Scratch, and Another Point of View
Nadia Purwestri & Febriyanti Suryaningsih: Constructing an Indonesian Architecture Documentation
Choi Won-joon: Documenting Architectural Modernity of Korea
Joe Osae-Addo: Africa: An Organic Living Museum Without Walls
Session 3: The Pressure of the Contemporary
Barry Bergdoll: Exhibiting History in a Period of Presentism, or should we still be collecting archives?
Guido Beltramini: Elements for a New Historical Project
Session 5: Case Studies on Collaboration
Catherine Moriarty and Harriet Edquist: Curating Design Archives Data for Research Collaboration
Behrang Mousavi: Collaborations for Archiving, Presenting and Researching Architecture: Topics of Shared Interest
Triin Ojari: New Frontiers: Museums in Transformation
Jordi Falgàs: Masó: From Private Oblivion to Public Rescue to Shared Custody
Carole Ann Fabian: The MoMA-Avery Co-acquisition and Joint Stewardship of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives
Juhana Lahti: Shared System? Collection Management Collaboration in Finland
