...ment & SKOR - 'Social Housing - Housing the Social' - The Reader OUT NOW!

Actors, Agents and Attendants II: Social Housing—Housing the Social November 4 and 5, 2011  Felix Meritis, Keizersgracht 324, Amsterdam www.skor.nl www.journalment.org The second edition of a series of symposia initiated by SKOR| Foundation for Art and Public Domain. Social Housing—Housing the Social is a two-day symposium that emphases the relationship between the waning political and practical imperative of social housing and the broader political and philosophical idea of 'housing the social.' Given the increasing global condition of unequal wealth distribution, and the specific urgency brought about by cuts in social and cultural funding in the Netherlands, can forms of cultural production be reclaimed as tools with which to design and defend social space, or are the agents and engineers of such projects merely tools in the further decoration of reduced welfare rights? What do we want cities to accommodate today? What is the legacy of the utopian ideals of the 1960s and what alternative plans for living together in cities are being incubated now? How do we deal with the very real problems of social division brought about by poverty, migration, addiction and lack of representation? What roles do artists, designers, architects play in this process?  …ment, as an independent publishing project, is concerned with the establishment of alternative discursive channels and  with the task of addressing and participating in ongoing discussions.  The Reader  for the symposium is developed in collaboration with SKOR, Foundation for Art and Public Domain. This special issue, designed by Boy Vereencken, is devoted to the main topic of our symposium and proposes a space where research, theoretical texts and possible responses can meet. It is conceived as an integral part of the discussions developed during the symposium and as being parallel and independent research into the topic. Contributions include: Teddy Cruz, Ludwig Engel, Thèo Frey, Liam Gillick, David Harvey, Nikolaus Hirsch, Anthony Iles & Josephine Berry Slater, Suely Rolnik and Slavoj Žižek. The reader is accompanied by a postcard edition by Brandlhuber + Emde, Schneider. An ongoing online platform will collect textual and audio-visual material produced during the symposium and will expand the printed reader with new texts and contributions.   Visit us at www.socialhousingthesocial.blogspot.com Admittance includes: symposium reader, coffee, lunch, dinner and refreshments.  Venue: Felix Meritis, Keizersgracht 324, Amsterdam Registrations and full programme  www.skor.nl SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain is an internationally operating art institution based in Amsterdam, which advises, develops and creates art projects in relation to the public domain. The projects organized by SKOR react to socio-political changes in society and new developments in contemporary art, urban design and landscape architecture. Through addressing such current topics, SKOR contributes to the debate about the politics of the public domain. Journal for Contemporary Culture, Art and Politics is an publishing initiative run by Federica Bueti, Benoit Loiseau and Clara Meister.