Summer Workshop
June 8-19, 2009

MAPPING ATHENS IN THE 21st CENTURY

A two-week workshop in Athens, June 8-19, 2009 will offer an opportunity to examine the city in the 21st century, as it has been transformed over the last few years following the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. The workshop will focus on photographing and mapping contemporary Athens, with special attention to the following: the expansion and accessibility of different areas of the metropolis linked by new infrastructure networks [highways, Metro and light-rail systems, the internet]; the insertion of new nodes/points of density along the networks [both monumental structures of consumption and culture as well as new gentrified areas]; transformations in the constitution of the city's public spaces [from controlled, privatized space to space of no-rule] and the surrounding Attic landscape; cultural shifts and clashes caused by the rise in immigrant population and increasing consumerist and anti-consumerist behaviors.

A small number (4-6) of Princeton students (undergraduates and graduate students in Urban Studies, Architecture and other creative arts or humanities disciplines) will be selected to team-up with an equal number of students from the Architecture School of the University of Patras. The first week will focus on photographing and filming Athens in the 21st century while the second week will focus on studio work and mapping contemporary urban transformations. Explorations of the city neighborhoods and infrastructure networks will accompany discussions and talks by invited lecturers on urbanism, contemporary photography and film, as well as archival explorations at the Benaki Museum. New open source media, internet blogs and free press will also give a new dynamic profile to the city. Two reviews of the studio work will be scheduled: mid-way into the workshop, Monday, June 15, and a final session on Friday, June 19.  Workshop participants will produce a web site "Mapping Athens in the 21st Century" featuring their projects, with new visions of the city, experimental, open-ended and unfolding.

Workshop faculty: M. Christine Boyer (School of Architecture and Program in Urban Studies, Princeton University); Dimitri H. Gondicas (Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University); Yannis Aesopos (School of Architecture, University of Patras); Petros Babasikas (School of Architecture, University of Patras).

Invited speakers: Alexandra Moschovi (Department of Photography, University of Sunderland, UK); Joel Smith (Curator of Photography, The Art Museum, Princeton University); a number of Greek scholars, architects, urban planners, and artists.

Application:  Interested students should submit a two-page statement expanding on their academic and interest in this workshop, a curriculum vitae including relevant coursework and/or professional experience, and names of two academic references on the Princeton faculty.  Travel expenses (roundtrip airfare NY/Athens/NY and local accommodation expenses (double occupancy) will be covered. 

Deadline: Monday, May 4, 2009

Information:  Please direct all inquiries to Dimitri H. Gondicas:
gondicas@princeton.edu