New Tools for Civic Engagement:  Betaville

David Lieberman was a special invited guest to the Municipal Art Society Summit for New York City (21/22 October), a conference devoted to New York's livability, examining the challenges the city faces in its seemingly contradictory roles as a growing global capital and as a city of unique neighborhoods. Professor Lieberman has been advising the development of Betaville, a project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation based on technology that invites the public to have hands on participation in recreating real urban spaces. This unique project, which currently focuses on Lower Manhattan, was created by Carl Skelton, Director of the New York University Polytechnic Institute's Brooklyn Experimental Media Center.

www.mas.org/summitnyc

TITLES VII Maclaren Art Centre, Barrie

David Lieberman's "Soundings," a poem written for a performance in the Sanctuary of Le Couvent de la Tourette in November of 2008, is exhibited as a "pas de deux" with Tania Ursomarzo's multiple bookmarks of traces of shifting light in TITLES a travelling exhibition of artist’s books.

http://maclarenart.com/exhibitions/titles-7

Foamed Concrete Research

Concrete Cellular Technologies of California is installing a foam generator in the concrete testing laboratories of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. The installation, coordinated by Professor David Lieberman, furthers the initiative of the Yolles Collaborative Studio establishing cooperative research between the faculties of Architecture and Engineering and provides access to materials testing equipment in the engineering laboratories for qualified architectural projects. The foamed concrete generator will be used by Masters of Architecture student Przemyslaw PJ Latoszek for thesis work in the fall term.

www.cellularconcretetechnologies.com

Students interested in pursuing materials research should contact Professor Lieberman to investigate possibilities for collaborative ventures.

Research and Travel Grant

Master of Architecture student Daniel Vivat received a Research and Travel Grant from the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Toronto for a summer trip to Israel. In addition to studying the street patterns of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, stops in Prague and Amsterdam allowed for photographic comparison of the urban textures of Jewish settlements of the Diaspora. The collected images are now being compiled through innovative photographic layering and montage as a means of understanding the experiential qualities of a dense urban grain and fabric responding to specific social patterns. The research and subsequent work are under the supervision of Professor David Lieberman.