Under the Influence 005

Please join us for Under the Influence 005, which will take place at MAK Center for Art and Architecture.

Under the Influence is a series of conversations that expands upon the concepts of Los Angeles Modernism. This radical movement rejected predetermined rules and embraced experimentation, striving for freedom of expression in all areas of culture. Modernism also catalyzed an interest in social equality, politics, healthy environments, new materials, and innovation, ushering design into a new and transformative era. The series brings together architects, artists, and designers from all over the world to engage in dialogue with local architects, landscape architects, and creatives in LA's iconic modernist spaces. We aim to uncover the influence of this radical approach on today’s culture and will reflect on what we do next by bringing foreign and local voices into experimental and progressive conversations.

Two speakers are invited for each talk: one local and one from elsewhere. Each speaker will present their work, highlighting the experimental approach’s influence that Los Angeles Modernism set in motion. The presentation will be followed by a conversation among the speakers and with the audience, initiated by a question each speaker asks of the other.

Speakers: Caroline Dahl (Sweden) and Heidi Duckler (Los Angeles). 

Date: Saturday, May, 4th 2024 – 6:30 to 9.00 PM

Venue: MAK Center for Art and Architecture

Tickets: Non-Members $30, Members and Students $15

Bios:

CAROLINE DAHL

SLU 

LinkedIn 

Caroline Dahl is an associated professor in landscape architecture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). At the department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management she is responsible for the subject of design of urban landscapes. Trained as an urban designer at BTH in Sweden and as an architect at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles and with a Ph.D. in landscape architecture her research interest deals with transforming urban landscapes and how transformation can be orchestrated through increased awareness to site-specific qualities, temporalities, and entanglement of humans and non-humans. Approaches to research includes transdisciplinary and design research, often explored through interpretative methods of narrative and imaginaries. Caroline has written extensively for professional magazines, and recurrently participates in juries and exhibitions. Prior to joining academia in 2010 as director of a research platform, Caroline held various leading positions at public authorities, and she is regularly invited back to contribute to task forces, feasibility studies etc. In 2023 she was appointed expert in a governmental task force with the commission to develop a new structure for national planning in Sweden. 2016-2023 she was Head of the SLU Think Tank Movium, dedicated to debate and reflections on contemporary urban landscapes. In concurrence with her academic engagement, she runs a research-oriented design practice committed to mediate the intersections and overlaps between architecture and urbanism.

HEIDI DUCKLER

website 

Heidi Duckler is the Founder and Artistic Director of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles, California and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Titled the “reigning queen of site-specific performance” by the LA Times, Duckler is a pioneer of place-based contemporary practice. Her methodology emphasizes how dance, born from individual experience, can be a tool for awareness.

Duckler’s 2019 short film “Where We’re Going” was recently selected for the 2023 Aphelion Film Festival, and her 2022 film “The Tender Bondy Sings” was selected for the 2023 IndieFEST Film Awards Festival. In September, Duckler will speak at the Creatives in Conversation Conference held by the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles chapter. Currently, Duckler is on faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Film and Media Studies Department.

Duckler earned a BS in dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in choreography from UCLA. She also served as a board member of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance Advancement Council. Her awards include the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance; the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Engaging Dance Audiences Award; and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award.

RSVP HERE

This program is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture, and by Neutra VDL Studio and Residences.

Special thanks to MAK Center For Art and Architecture  for hosting this event.

Event Organizers: Lorena Garcia & Monica Lamela Blazquez, Donatella Cusmá, Roberto Paz

Image credits:

Image 1: How does space transform in post-industrial landscapes? Designing trans-scalar processes of interaction and reaction in Nyhamnen, Malmo. Credit: Caroline Dahl

Image 2: Design critique of the post-industrial transformation project of Ile de Nantes, France. Caroline Dahl together with Lisa Diedrich. Credit: Facsimile Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2016

Image 3: Fieldwork at post-industrial sites in Europe and the USA, unveils transformations celebrating unconventional site-specific qualities of scale, decline, and the unfinished. Clockwise from above: Ile de Nantes, France; Parco Dora, Italy; Steel Yard, USA; Frihamnen, Sweden. Credit: Photo Caroline Dahl

Image 4: Prototyping space, processes, and collaborations in the contemporary city – book edited by Caroline Dahl and Titti Olsson, Think Tank Movium and the City of Gothenburg. Credit: Graphic design: Södra Tornet; Illustrations: Rocío Soto

Image 5: Heidi Duckler Dance "Refest" - Photo Credit: Mae Koo

Image 6: Heidi Duckler Dance "Laundromatinee" - Photo Credit: Vivian Babuts

Image 7: Heidi Duckler Dance "Manifesto" - Photo Credit:  Heidi Duckler

Image 8: Heidi Duckler Dance "The Body of the People" - Photo Credit: Gina Clyne