Materials & Applications (M&A)

🗣️ 2026! Summer! Courtyard! Project! We are so excited to announce the 2026 M&A courtyard project— 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓈: 𝒜𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽 is a courtyard installation led by Liz Gálvez (Office e.g. @office.e.g and the (Im)material Matters Lab) that stages mass and fiber as shared infrastructures for collective comfort in the LA summer. Building on Liz’s ongoing investigations into heat resilience and material experimentation, 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓈 is a civic proposition that adapts passive cooling strategies from desert contexts into the M&A @materialsandapplications x Craft Contemporary @craftcontemporary Courtyard. Earthen thermal mass columns anchor the site, paired with a lightweight, woven canopy that modulates shade, air movement, and light. These systems are not novel inventions but re-imagined inheritances: stone or earthen blocks and woven shade have long functioned as elemental infrastructures across cultures and climates. Recast in the courtyard, they compose an experimental ecology that makes heat’s stubborn but predictable movement legible. Visitors will encounter varied microclimates—cool, heavy earth; dappled woven shade; shifting breezes—that expand thermal design beyond mere survivability toward joy and collective participation in the face of intensifying heat. 🧱🧶💨 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓈 opens to the public on May 31, alongside Craft Contemporary's summer exhibitions. More information about our opening reception and summer programs will be shared very soon! 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓈 is commissioned and produced by Materials & Applications @materialsandapplications and made possible due to the critical support of consultants, including Paul Mayencourt (@paulmayencourt at the Berkeley Wood Lab @berkeley.woodlab ), Salmaan Craig @salmaancraig , and Nous Engineering @nousla , and the generosity of funders including the Pasadena Art Alliance, UC Berkeley Arts Research Center, and UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design @ced_berkeley . Project Team @ucberkeleyarch Lincoln Ruiz-Truong @lincolnrt Theint Lei @theintlei Ian Chu @uhcna_i 🔗 More info via link in bio!

📣 Materials & Applications is seeking a Getty Marrow Undergraduate Public Programs Intern to work with us this summer! This is a 10-week, full-time, and paid position. For more info, click the link in our bio. Applications due the end of April 10 📨 Image: A shadow cast against a wall shows M&A staff waving underneath M&A's 2025 courtyard installation 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 by Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito ⛅️

Throwback to our community benefit dinner AFTERGLOW last month 🌀 We loved reconnecting with friends from across the years to celebrate the close of our 2025 season, which featured projects 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 by Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito and 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵 by Strat Coffman @stratbag and Adam Miller @pneustars ⚡️🦋 We toasted with cocktails by sponsor Supergay @supergayspirits and shared an incredibly nourishing meal prepared by Kylie Kiyomi Obermeier @kitchen.sink.la and Hal Roeser @lovening.agent , while surrounded by florals from Muddy Heaven @muddyheaven . Markele Cullins @markelecullins and Jazmin Jazzy Romero @jazzygirl______ with Amy Amatya presented site-specific performances that whirled and resonated with the energy of 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 to mark the project's final weekend. Thank you to everyone who made this such a joyful gathering, as well as all our collaborators and funders throughout the year who have helped bring our projects to life through community activations and events. In particular, many thanks to our institutional partner Craft Contemporary @craftcontemporary and to the Graham Foundation @grahamfoundation , California Arts Council @calartscouncil , LA County Arts & Culture @lacountyarts , Rice University Subvention Fund @riceuniversity , Foundation for Contemporary Arts @foundationforcontemporaryarts , NOUS Engineering @nousla , and Solarpunks @solarpunks.club for critical support without which these 2025 projects wouldn't have been possible. If you'd like to support our work in 2026, please consider making a donation as 2025 comes to an end. Any amount is impactful and supports the future of experimental architectural practice! Link in bio for more information 🌱 This recap includes photographs by M&A and our friends Sara Suárez @metempsychosis and Alma Ramos @alma__sofia 💞

Four days remain to see 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵! On Thursday, November 13, join us for a closing reception at the M&A Storefront, where we will share a final toast to the project alongside its artists 🍰🥂🦋 🔒 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵 is an interactive architectural device by Strat Coffman @bagstrat and Adam Barrett Miller @pneustars that serves as an event platform. The 𝔅𝔬𝔵 invites visitors to play with various intimacies while on public display, remixing architectures of surveillance. Los Angeles is a city built to watch itself. The imaged body–idealized, fragmented, glowing—circulates endlessly on screens from the theater to the security control room. Beyond the screen, the city can be a hard place for the irl body. We must navigate a landscape engineered to repel and police. Defensive design structures public experience: Benches with spikes. Empty lots fenced off. Cameras that pierce everywhere. 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵 mimics these logics of surveillance and alienation. But instead of policing the body, the installation invites the body in—to flicker on a screen, to bump into another pulse. Surveillance devices—CCTV cameras, floodlights, peepholes, and safety mirrors—are instead deployed as media for collective hiding and revealing, transforming M&A’s street-facing venue into a performative alleyway that gestures toward the city’s buried histories of cruising, of glances traded in plain view. Within 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵, bodies are neither surveilled nor a spectacle. Visitors perform for cameras that don’t report, only reflect—they flicker and glitch, uncontainable and alive to each other. 🔑 The space is open by appointment, and if you can't make our Thursday gathering, we are taking final viewing requests via DM 🔑 📆 Thursday, November 13 ⏰ 6 - 8pm 📍 M&A Storefront Project Space, 1313 Sunset Blvd, LA ✨ Materials & Applications programs are always free and open to the public

Recap! Last month, a Shibari performance activated the Materials & Applications @materialsandapplications Storefront vitrine. Led by rope artist Kemo Burns @burns.rope and featuring Adeléyde @adeleyderose and RJ @damnitrj , the performance utilized 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵 as an infrastructure for tension and pleasure. The M&A Storefront became lightbox of suspended figures, halting the stream of traffic passing by along Sunset Blvd. The 𝔅𝔬𝔵 opened and closed throughout the evening; while closed, the audience could access the project's CCTV system to stream the ongoing performance within the interior. There are five days left to visit and experience 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵!! The 𝔅𝔬𝔵 is an interactive and mutable installation for the M&A Storefront by Strat Coffman @bagstrat & Adam Barrett Miller @pneustars that invites visitors to engage with intimacy, public display, and architectures of surveillance. The space is open by appointment, and we are taking final viewing requests now! You can also join us 6-8pm on November 13 for a collective good-bye to the project; more info soon. 📍 M&A Storefront Project Space, 1313 Sunset Blvd, LA

So excited to gather tomorrow that we're sharing a delicious sneak peek of the evening's menu 🌀😋 Get your tickets now! You can still join us for AFTERGLOW, a celebratory benefit dinner during the final weekend of 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 by Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito ⚡️⚡️⚡️ From 5-8PM on October 25 in the M&A x Craft Contemporary Courtyard @craftcontemporary , we'll gather to share a toast to our summer programs and to generate support, together, for our next seasons. Guests will enjoy a meal of seasonal ingredients, foraged plants, and the culturally vast flavors of Los Angeles’ community prepared by culinary artists Kylie Kiyomi Obermeier @kitchen.sink.la and Hal Roeser @lovening.agent . Artists Markele Cullins @markelecullins and Jazmin Jazzy Romero @jazzygirl______ will offer site-specific performances to complete this summer’s series of experiences that explore the spatial themes and programmatic capacities of 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮.  As with each year’s end-of-season dinner, AFTERGLOW convenes and celebrates the dedicated community that supports and sustains M&A. This event is ticketed to cover costs and to provide support to M&A’s upcoming exhibitions and public programs. Please DM us if this is a barrier. Link in bio for more information 🥂🎟

Professor in the Practice Nathan Friedman and Francisco Quiñones, cofounders of Departamento del Distrito (@deldistrito ) have opened Light Gauge at Craft Contemporary (@craftcontemporary ) in Los Angeles. The installation was produced by Material & Applications (@materialsandapplications ) as the winner of the 2025 M&A x Craft Contemporary Courtyard competition. Informed by adaptable industrial systems and network thinking, Light Gauge is concerned with local strategies for renewable energy production and distribution that increase the accessibility of essential resources to a broad public. A cooling center serves as the installation’s primary program. Panels provide shade. Fans generate a subtle breeze. Energy is free. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Two lightweight structural frames composed of adapted telecom components sit above the courtyard and support photovoltaic, corrugated polycarbonate, and metal mesh panels. Connected to inverters and batteries on the ground, the photovoltaic panels provide power for the installation’s plug-in components (fans, dropdown cords, lights), the museum’s outdoor public programs, and the everyday needs and whims of courtyard visitors. If you’re in LA this weekend, join Departamento del Distrito at Light Gauge on Saturday, October 25 for M&A’s end-of-season dinner, AFTERGLOW. Additional support for Light Gauge was generously provided by the Rice University Scholarly and Creative Works Subvention Fund (@riceuniversity ), the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (@grahamfoundation ), NOUS Engineering (@nousla ), Rohn Towers, and Solarpunks (@solarpunks.club ). Photographs by Adriana Hamui and Departamento del Distrito. #RiceSchoolofArchitecture #ClimateInfrastructure #DesignResearch #SustainableCities #PublicSpace

One week away!! Join us for AFTERGLOW, a celebratory benefit dinner during the final weekend of 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 by Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito . From 5-8PM on October 25 in the M&A x Craft Contemporary Courtyard @craftcontemporary , we'll gather to share a toast to our summer programs and to generate support, together, for our next seasons. Guests will enjoy a meal of seasonal ingredients, foraged plants, and the culturally vast flavors of Los Angeles’ community prepared by culinary artists Kylie Kiyomi Obermeier @kitchen.sink.la and Hal Roeser @lovening.agent . Artists Markele Cullins @markelecullins and Jazmin Jazzy Romero @jazzygirl______ will offer site-specific performances to complete this summer’s series of experiences that explore the spatial themes and programmatic capacities of 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮.  As with each year’s end-of-season dinner, AFTERGLOW convenes and celebrates the dedicated community that supports and sustains M&A. This event is ticketed to cover costs and to provide support to M&A’s upcoming exhibitions and public programs. Please DM us if this is a barrier. Tickets are on sale! Link in bio for more information 🥂🎟

Recapping our summer programs under 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 by Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito --thank you to all who gathered with us in the checkered shade, cooled by a clean energy-powered breeze 🍃 1-2: During our first program of the summer, a roundtable discussion titled Cultures of Resource Sovereignty, we basked in a mingling of resource-centered practices shared by Asuka Hisa (ICA LA) @asukahisa @theicala , Ale Lemus (Crenshaw Dairy Mart) @ale.porvida @crenshawdairymart , Debra Scacco @debrascaccostudio , Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito , and Solarpunks @solarpunks.club ⚡️ We modeled material exchanges and had our first potluck picnic of the season ⛱️ Photos by Adriana Hamui @adriana.hamui 2-3: Artist and early childhood educator Jacqueline Falcone @carb_party @bedandbreakfast_la led a kids-friendly solar oven workshop, guiding participants in producing DIY cookers that harness solar light and amplify energy. S’mores were on the menu 🌞 🍫 ! 4-5: Emily Russell of Function Design @functiondesigned and Caco Peguero of United Futures @unitedfutures provided a hands-on evening workshop of floral architectures 🌺, staged shadows, and scenic designs that transformed as the sun set. We shared hibiscus drinks and a final potluck as 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 powered a colorful evening display. If you haven't visited 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 yet, you still have time! 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 may be experienced in the M&A x Craft Contemporary Courtyard during the museum's open hours. M&A's projects are always free and open to the public, and programs in the courtyard are produced as part of a partnership with Craft Contemporary @craftcontemporary ✨

Thank you so much for joining us for ‘Glances in Plain Sight’ on 9/26 at @materialsandapplications . We were thrilled to share an unforgettable evening featuring the powerful shorts ‘Behind Every Good Man’ and ‘Fun with a Sausage,’ alongside a custom archival loop video presented in conversation with @bagstrat and @pneustars ’ ‘Trade Safe Chastity Box’ installation, where attendees were captured navigating the piece in real time. Don’t miss your chance to experience it in person before it closes on November 13! While you’re there, be sure to check out @cine.apartamento ’s archival loop video as well. Thank you again for a beautiful night. Until the next one! Photos by @ci.chica 🤍

𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵: Binds for Letting Go Join us at the M&A Storefront for a performance led by Shibari artist and practitioner Kemo Burns @burns.rope on October 4th. 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔅𝔬𝔵, an interactive and mutable installation by Strat Coffman @bagstrat & Adam Barrett Miller @pneustars will transform into a rigging armature and setting for this rope bondage art that centers aesthetics, technique, form, and trust. Burns will suspend and maneuver models through an evolving sequence of restriction and release that animates the installation’s inversion of surveillance logics. Guests are invited to arrive at 7:30pm, and the performance will begin at 8pm. 📆 Saturday, October 4, 8 PM ⏰ Doors at 7:30pm, Performance at 8pm 📍 M&A Storefront Project Space, 1313 Sunset Blvd, LA ✨ Materials & Applications programs are always free and open to the public

📣 Announcing AFTERGLOW Join us for a celebratory benefit dinner during the final weekend of 𝓛𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓖𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓮 by Departamento del Distrito @deldistrito . Beginning at 5pm on October 25 in the M&A x Craft Contemporary Courtyard @craftcontemporary , we'll gather to share a toast to our summer programs and to generate support, together, for our next seasons. We are busy making party plans and can't wait to share details about music, goodies, food, drink, and additional sponsors. See you next month!! Tickets are on sale, so you can make your plans to join us now! Link in bio for more information 🥂🎟