Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Leah Meisterlin

Lectures by Farzin Lotfi-Jam on “Realtime Environments: Algorithms, Aesthetics, and Politics” and Leah Meisterlin on “Default Settings.”

Farzin Lotfi-Jam (MSAAD ‘12) is director of Farzin Farzin, a multidisciplinary design studio working across architecture, urbanism, computation and media. He is faculty in The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union and at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and is currently an M+/Design Trust Research Fellow. His practice investigates the histories and political implications of spatial media and computation through exhibition practice. From modeling the control matrices of smart cities to spatializing the cultural logics of social media, his individual and collaborative projects are research-based and multimediatic. His work has been collected, supported, and exhibited by institutions internationally, including the Centre Pompidou, Sharjah Art Foundation, and the Graham Foundation. In his talk entitled, Realtime Environments: Algorithms, Aesthetics, and Politics, Farzin will present recent work which uses new spatial media to visualize and simulate how algorithms, models, and notions of “real time” govern urban life.

Leah Meisterlin (’06 M.S.UP, ’09 M.Arch) is an urbanist, GIS methodologist, and Assistant Professor in Urban Planning at Columbia GSAPP. Broadly, her research engages concurrent issues of spatial justice, informational ethics, and the effects of infrastructural networks on the construction of social and political space. Her current research explores the ways in which digital technologies are restructuring urban spatial politics and altering methods, both contemporary and historical, of urban research. She has edited, authored, and co-authored multiple publications, including Comments on Foreclosed (2013) following the exhibition Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream (Museum of Modern Art 2012), and The Buell Hypothesis: Rehousing the American Dream (2011). She has contributed to or co-founded several experimental practices in 21st-century urbanism, including Office:MG, Special Project Office, and PRE-OFFICE. Leah will discuss her recent work in her talk entitled Default Settings.

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This lecture is organized by the Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design Program as part of the lecture series “Techno-Critical Assemblies.” This ongoing series brings together a diverse group of speakers whose work addresses today’s most pressing challenges⁠—environmental, political, social, and beyond.

The Techno-Critical Assemblies Lecture Series is open to current Columbia GSAPP students only.