X-TALK #29 BY Grga Basic

Monday July 24th at 7pm at Turbo Talk by Grga Basic

Contested Landscapes: Critical Cartographies of Conflict Urbanism

Abstract: The talk will provide an overview of the ongoing work at the Center for Spatial Research that aims to document and narrate the conflict and urban damage in Aleppo, Syria, as well as situate the current work of the Center within a larger discourse of geographic representation, subjectivity, and authorship in visualizing geospatial data. As designers and cartographers, we create representations that question and even counter the paradigms and biases of the institutions whose spatial data we rely on. By shifting the focus to the design phase of the mapping project, the talk will demonstrate how maps can be used as narrative tools that create reality, rather that represent it.

About Grga Basic:

Grga Basic is an architect and scholar whose work focuses on critical, narrative, and investigative cartography, and design representation. He is an Associate Research Scholar at the Center for Spatial Research (CSR) at Columbia University where he also teaches courses on GIS and cartography.

Prior to joining the CRS, Basic held academic appointments at Harvard University’s Urban Theory Lab, and worked as a designer with Atelier Seraji in Paris. His work has been exhibited at the Venice, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Rotterdam Biennials of Architecture and has been featured in The Cartographic Grounds, The Funambulist, and GSD Platform, among others.

Basic holds Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees from Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and Master in Design Studies in Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.