• Sat 05 06 2021 / 2 – 5 pm •
Times of Hands – Covid Glossary

by PRASAD SHETTY
with JEEBESH BAGCHI, SOLOMON BENJAMIN, VASTAVIKTA BHAGAT, MARIALAURA GHIDINI, RUPALI GUPTE, JAHNAVI PHALKEY, MAMTA SAGAR, SHVETA SARDA, PRASAD SHETTY, ABDOUMALIQ SIMONE

Lockdowns, health measures and social distancing have given rise to a plethora of spatial practices that negotiate everyday life anew. While working from home, online shopping, digital meetings and remote services are explicitly spatial and can compensate for a share of social activities and the economy of the service industry, there are also practices of desperate migrations, agonizing isolation, the plundering of entrepreneurship, emotional breakdowns as well as mistrust toward public space. This points to a spatial-temporal restructuring in which the differentiation between private sphere and workplace breaks apart, and national, temporal and geographical limitations fall out of relevance. It is a restructuring that brings social consequences.

This crisis is an indicator of the resilience of some of the most fundamental principles of human thought and puts into question the effectiveness of systems as well as concepts like time, space and the public sphere. The long-term effects on our ideas of home, workplace, movement and rest are to be explored. The aim is to collect spatial experiences and resiliencies that have arisen during the pandemic in a Covid Glossary. This is planned as a long-term project that will be collaboratively developed by students and faculty at the SEA as well as academics from other countries in the Global South. Stories of entrepreneurial spirit, marginalization, loss, mistrust, betrayal, black market trade, confusion, organization, etc. will be compiled. The glossary will be transformed into an online exhibition for the symposium.

The symposium invites academics and people working with spatiality from around the world to speculate on the post-pandemic development of spaces and infrastructure.

Dates: 04 + 05 06 | 14:00–17:00 CET | local time Mumbai 5:30–8:30
Venue: online via zoom
Online Exhibition: covidglossary.online
Language: English
Free of charge

We want to share the bright of the day across time zones. Thwarting the dominance of borders and territories in pandemic times we try to foster clusters of solidarity and exchange. Three chapters, three continents, three time zones – keep awake!

PROGRAM

Fri 04 06 2021 Nuances & Patterns

14:00 What happened and how does one see it?
An introduction on the Covid Glossary by urbanist Prasad Shetty

14:15 Stories & Emerging Patterns from the Glossary
A presentation by architect Vastavikta Bhagat and Prasad Shetty

15:00 Reflections & Responses 1–3
With urbanists Solomon Benjamin and Abdoumaliq Simone, poet Mamta Sagar and translator Shveta Sarda

16:00 Round Table: Emerging Patterns, Q&A, and Conclusions
Moderated by architect and urbanist Rupali Gupte

Sat 05 06 2021 Projections

14:00 What is emerging and how does one engage? On the Covid Glossary Exhibition.
A key note lecture by architect and urbanist Rupali Gupte

14:15 Patterns & Projections
A research presentation by Vastavikta Bhagat and Rupali Gupte

15:00 Reflections & Responses 1–3
With curators and scholars Jeebesh Bagchi, Marialaura Ghidini and Jahnavi Phalkey

16:00 Round Table: Emerging Patterns, Q&A, and Conclusions
Moderated by urbanist Prasad Shetty

In collaboration with Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai

Times of Hands is initiated by Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World (ADKDW) Cologne, in cooperation with Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), School of Environment and Architecture Mumbai (SEA), Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM)