Ian Callender

𝘜𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 installed at the exhibition Time Space Existence @ecc_italy at the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture. In back, an original subway stanchion pole procured from the MTA; at right, subway seating of the same provenance, and original installation video documentation. Atop, a wire mesh drop ceiling suspending a projection screen, with projectors mounted to the base of the stanchion pole. At left, more photos of the original installation, and a dynamic map which tracks the video’s movement along the route of the 6 train. Photo cred 1,2 the massively talented @adrien_barakat Photo 1 featuring the wonderful @studio.ponsi_andrea.luca and their lovely children

It is with great enthusiasm that I share news of the publication of a book, 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦. Sofian Audry, Sarah Barns, Susan Blight, Stefano Bloch, Brian W. Brush, John Cayley, Eliza Chandler, Lisa East, The Current Team (Provides Ng, Artem Konevskikh, Eli Joteva, Ya Nzi, and GPT2), Martijn De Waal, Sherry Dobbin, Anthea Foyer, Ekene Ijeoma, Jiabao Li, Melissa Mongiat and Mouna Andraos (Daily tous les jours), Matt Nish-Lapidus, Tiemen Rapati, Scott Rodgers, Ozayr Saloojee, Ana Tobin, Anna Weisling, Hoa Yang, contrib., to whom we are deeply, deeply grateful Ian Callender and Annie Dell’Aria, eds. Freek Lomme, graphic design 96pp, available via Set Margins' @setmargins / link in bio 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 is an edited volume of newly commissioned work from twenty-one contributors across architecture, visual arts, design, curation, academia, and public policy, all working to push the boundaries of the intersection of digital technologies and architecture. Authors responded to a set of provocations with images and brief texts, from descriptions of relevant artworks and design projects to reflections spawned from first-person encounters with media architecture to scholarly analyses to AI-assisted theory. These themselves transfigure into a set of provocations, supplanting the original questions which inspired their construction, through which to encourage further theory and practice. The volume is framed by essays written by me and my co-editor, Annie Dell'Aria (@annerd23 ) of Miami University of Ohio. I first came across the Media Architecture Institute in 2014 while writing my undergraduate thesis on embedded computing—in fact, a hefty chunk of its bibliography is citations of early MAI publications. In early 2022, when Dave Colangelo (@daveroo ) generously asked that I join as a publications chair for this year's Media Architecture Biennale (where we launched, in Toronto just a few weeks ago), it seemed to me more than fitting to develop a book which would build on that original tome of work I had found so influential. This, then, is the result of that work.

Profoundly honored and thrilled that UPTOWN UNDERGROUND has been nominated for award at the Media Architecture Biennale @mabiennale @mediaarchitecture Taking inspiration from a glass bottom boat, the intervention pulls back the ceiling off of a New York City subway car to accurately reveal the train’s greater context and grant a new perspective of movement through the city. Geolocation and acceleration data from a cellphone are used to synchronize (and accordingly offset) four projectors attached to Raspberry Pi’s over a peer-to-peer WiFi network, all on battery power. A series of installs took place in late 2019, without formal permission, on 6 Trains running between Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall and 96th Street. The project can be viewed alongside other nominees at the Biennale’s website: awards.mediaarchitecture.org #mediaarchitecture #urbanintervention #installationart #projectionart #nycsubway

Scores, in “ad hoc,” 18 E 50 Gallery, NYC, 2024 36" x 36" each, inkjet on Mylar

Contribution to 𝘊𝘓𝘖𝘜𝘋 [𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘴(𝘊) 𝘓𝘦𝘯𝘵(𝘓) 𝘖𝘶𝘵(𝘖) 𝘜𝘴𝘦(𝘜) 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦(𝘋)] initiated by Catty Dan Zhang @cattydanzhang + Carl Lostritto @lostritto , on view in 𝘐𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺 at Ewing Gallery @utkcoad , Oct 27–Dec 2, 2025. Grateful to be invited to partake! Working from a point cloud passed on by Leighton Beaman + Zaneta Hong @materialpropositions , I kept circling the gap between data and reality. Clouds are not objects but gradients—of state, temperature, density, light. Light ricochets from particle to particle, trapped and scattered, the object only an illusion. Like projection itself: light refracting within the lens until both image and apparatus become form. Data projector, laptop, camera, #cloudslentoutusediscipline Instagram feed, 18-second loop

Greatly looking forward to participating in Re-Mining Media Ecologies, a symposium this coming Monday hosted by @corneelcannaerts and @lidia_gasperoni — deeply grateful to be in the mix! I’ll be discussing how alternative epistemologies—from Haraway’s feminist situatedness to Boltanski & Chiapello’s neoliberal networked projective city—can reframe materialist understandings of digital technologies through data, nature, logic, structure, form. June 2 · Online (link to register in bio) NY 10h–12h · London 15h–17h · Brussels 16h–18h bartlettarchucl @columbiagsapp @kuleuven 2 𝘉𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 with @kortneyhinden 3 Donna Haraway, 𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘴 4 𝘙𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘜𝘯-𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥

Traffic lights are part of a massive backend system—wired, timed, and in continuous sync with thousands of other lights within the city. The system is regulated by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the Traffic Signal Timing Manual, standards published by the Federal Highway Administration. In them, every blink and delay is specified. Some of the diagrams are wild. It’s a quiet media architecture, one long embedded in our experience and understanding of the contemporary city. Allergies aside, it’s been beautiful out these past few days. Walking down the street, I only just noticed something in their form: each light in NYC hangs from a radial arm, pointing along the arc of an invisible massive circle. The NYC Street Design Manual diagrams it out: 130’ in diameter. Completing the arc extends the geometry deep into the ground below. There are invisible circles everywhere—coordinating movement, encoding intention, structuring the city. What Timothy Morton calls a dark loop: an infrastructure that persists outside of view, but in turn shapes that view. This one is just super literal!

𝘈𝘯 𝘌𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 shown at @manifest.io.berlin feb 2025 Many thanks to @dianacmj for making it real and to @harshinijk_ @baselnaouri for bringing together such a breadth of practitioners. Cred for that last pic @lolarossi

It’s with great enthusiasm that we share the publication of 𝘈𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘞𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 in @rom_for_kunst_og_arkitektur ’s 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘝𝘰𝘭. 3: 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 in collaboration with @lofotenliaf . Link in bio. The essay argues in favor of a materialist reading of wires as a technological medium, which then takes the idea of entanglement as a formal gesture for collaborative writing, and engages a series of dis-entanglement workshops as hands-on starting points for generating theory. (Don’t worry, it makes even less sense when you read it). Our sincerest gratitude goes to Wanda Strauven, who took a chance on encouraging an experimental essay rooted in illegibility, multidisciplinarity, and relationality. Furthermore, to Ingrid Halland @tio2_project (editor of Metode) and Kjersti Solbakken @feilkjersti (curator of LIAF 2024), as well as the Metode editorial board, for seeing the potential in this methodology through to its publication. Finally, to those other authors who wrote for this edition of Metode, for sharing your own deeply meaningful work with us, and in turn for pushing us to take this project to its extreme then find reasonable middle ground. As we pull on one wire, one thought to investigate, others realign. Across architecture, sound art, and media theory, an entire entanglement of discourse becomes implicated. 3. Metode Peer Review/Editing Workshop, Lofoten, September 2024 4. ‘Entanglement Workshop Trial 4’ at Lofoten International Art Festival, September 2024 5. ‘Entanglement Workshop Trial 3’ at Columbia University School of the Arts Film and Media Studies, Media Archaeology, New York, May 2024 6. Launch at ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Oslo, February 2025

Ian Benjamin Callender (@icallender ) investigates material digital ecologies. His research spans media architecture and art; digital infrastructure, both urban and rural; interaction design and physical computing; and architectural history and media archaeology. Ian holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP. His work has been presented at the European Cultural Centre / Venice Architecture Biennale (2023) as well as at ISEA 2022, and the Media Architecture Biennale in 2021. He is co-editor of the volume Provocations on Media Architecture (Set Margins Press, 2023) and is based in New York City. Ian will present "An Emergent Ecology of Situated Simultaneity," a physical intervention and a four-channel sound installation engaging the history of New York City's High Bridge. The High Bridge spans the Harlem River, bounded by parks on both sides and connecting upper Manhattan and the South Bronx; built between 1837 and 1848, it is New York City’s oldest standing bridge. Reading this site as the collection of its histories, instead of one amongst others, attempts to move away from the cyclical valuing-devaluing of narratives upon which Modernity is constructed, instead proposing simultaneous and situated epistemologies. Histories juxtapose ad hoc, each with tangible material and sonic consequences on the High Bridge and its context. 👉 Join us at MANIFEST:IO 2025 on Feb 22-23. Tickets available in the link in bio exclusively on @mae.community ✨ #newyorkcityhistory #highbridge #nychistory #manifestio #manifestioberlin #newmedia #architecture #symposium

Reflecting on the very many desks, of Avery and beyond 2024 - Avery 600N Adv VI 2023 - Avery 500S Adv IV 2022 - Schermerhorn 100 2021 - Avery 500N Core 1 2021 - simultaneous Columbia GSAPP and UCL/Bartlett seminars, remote 2020 - Reykjavik 2017-2019 - The office 2017 - Jake’s office 1992-2016 - Home 2014 - Hegeman 114

Had the amazing privilege of launching 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 at the @mabiennale in Toronto in June, foregrounding the incredible work put forth by the volume’s contributors, sharing the stage with @daveroo and representing @annerd23 and @setmargins . What a blast!