PUBLIC WORKS: GLOBAL DESIGNS FOR AGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Bruce Mau, Chief Creative Officer, BRUCE MAU LIVE!,
and Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Bruce Mau Design
Armin Linke, Exhibiting Artist in Public Works,
Museum of Contemporary Photography
Moderated by Aaron Renn, Consultant and Author, Urbanophile blog

Robust and sophisticated infrastructure is a defining characteristic of modern civilizations and global cities. But aging infrastructure presents financial, political, and potentially catastrophic challenges to both designers and policymakers. Join The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Museum of Contemporary Photography for a discussion with world-renown designer Bruce Mau and Italian photographer Armin Linke on the urgency of investing in infrastructure and how future designs can creatively use new and existing elements to address social and environmental problems. A reception in the museum’s gallery will allow guests to view the Public Works exhibition, which features the work of over forty international artists.

Bruce Mau is the chief creative officer of Bruce Mau Design. Since founding his studio in 1985, he has used design and optimism to originate, innovate, and renovate businesses, brands, products, and experiences. Mau was awarded the Louise Blouin Foundation’s Creative Leadership Award and the AIGA Gold Medal for Communication Design. In 2001, he received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design.

Armin Linke lives in Milan and Berlin. He is an artist who combines different mediums to blur the border between fiction and reality. His photographs will be on view in the Public Works exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography from April 29 through July 17, 2011. Linke is a guest professor at the HfG Karlsruhe at the IUAV Arts and Design University in Venice and a research affiliate at MIT Visual Arts Program Cambridge.

Aaron Renn, known as The Urbanophile, is an opinion-leading urban affairs analyst on a mission to help America’s cities thrive in a 21st century that will be very different from the 20th.  His Urbanophile blog is one of the top urban affairs web sites in the country, with original and innovative ideas and analysis available nowhere else. His ideas have been featured by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, the Atlantic Monthly, and others, and his writing has appeared in publications such as Forbes, the Portland Oregonian, and the Dallas Morning News.

Mau’s 2004 book, Massive Change: The Future of Global Design, will be available for purchase and signing before the program, during the reception and gallery viewing.

Additional Resources:

•  Franck Mercurio, "Public Works at the Museum of Contemporary Photography: Berenice Abbott and Other Photographers Celebrate Infrastructure," Time Out Chicago, 05/18/2011