FYI,

"Sci-Fi Mecca: It's Where Fantasy Meets Architecture"
Wired
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/multimedia/2007/05/scifi_a
rchitecture

: There's something reminiscent of an alien landscape in the towering
: silver whorls of architect Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project
: in Seattle. And, really, who doesn't see spaceships when looking at
: I.M. Pei's Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland?

: What could have inspired such famous architects to build structures
: that look like they belong in a Darren Aronofsky flick? According
: to architecture futurist Geoff Manaugh, creator of Bldgblog,
: there's a not-so-hidden influence on contemporary architects that's
: widely acknowledged but rarely discussed: the speculative
: architectures in fantasy and science fiction movies.

: That's why Manaugh organized an event at the Art Center College of
: Design in Pasadena, California, where conceptual designers who make
: fantasy cities for movies like Star Wars, The Matrix and Minority
: Report addressed architecture and design students who will be
: making the real-life cities of tomorrow.

-------

"Sci-Fi Mecca"
BldgBlog
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/sci-fi-mecca.html

So it looks like Wired liked our science fiction and film panel, held
last week.

The four panelists, Wired writes, showed "art that's rarely seen
outside the film studio: pictures of otherworldy and futuristic
cities that special effects crews and CGI geeks use as blueprints to
build the backdrops for outer-space fights, alien worlds and castles
fit for dragons."

----------

"Silver Lake Film Festival
- May 8–9, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif."
Achitect Magazine
http://www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?
sectionID=1006&articleID=492853

: AS PART OF THE ANNUAL Silver Lake Film Festival being held this
: month in Los Angeles, architects and filmmakers are invited to
: revel in the influences they've shared since the invention of the
: motion picture a century and a half ago. Blogger Geoff Manaugh of
: BLDGBLOG and Jenna Didier of the L.A. gallery Materials and
: Applications are curating the special two-day event, taking place
: May 8–9 inside a former wind tunnel at Art Center College of Design
: in Pasadena, Calif.

: Day one will feature the symposium "Science Fiction and the City"
: and will consider the connections between radical architecture and
: cinema. Speakers will include set designers Ryan Church, James
: Clyne, Mark Goerner, and Ben Procter, whose credits collectively
: include Star Wars I and III, The Terminal, The Matrix, and Minority
: Report.

: Day two will include screenings of up to 10 excerpts or short
: films, some made by architects, ranging from fly-through animations
: to experimental art films and documentaries. According to the call
: for submissions, "The obvious caveat is that the film has to be
: about architecture, landscape, or the built environment."

: Manaugh hopes, as many do, that architects will be inspired to
: exploit the representational and imaginative tools that film
: offers, as Archigram and Superstudio did in the 1960s. After all,
: movers and shakers in architecture and film have long seen eye to
: eye. Both engage, in some sense, in a plastic art that is
: collaboratively crafted; both produce lasting cultural artifacts;
: and both have had profound effects on the public.

: In fact, German-American architect-turned-film critic Siegfried
: Kracauer once wrote, in Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical
: Reality, "It must always be kept in mind that even the most
: creative filmmaker is much less independent of nature in the raw
: than the painter or poet; that his creativity manifests itself in
: letting nature in and penetrating it." The same can be said of the
: architect, and the festival's producers believe there is more to be
: discovered in the connection between film and architecture.

: "Even if you look at comic books, horror stories, novels, and
: sci-fi films, you'll find some very interesting spaces. There
: aren't as many inhibitions in these other fields," Manaugh
: says. "But interesting architectural ideas are all around us."

Mark Reiff