Faculty of Design speaker series: Michael Rakowitz November 27, 2006

Auditorium (Room 190, Level 1)

Michael Rakowitz is an artist/designer who divides his time between Chicago and New York. In 1998 he initiated his award-winning paraSITE project, which catapulted him into the international arts scene. Rakowitz’s lightweight, inexpensive design hooks onto exterior building air vents, causing the polyethylene shell to inflate and heat. Since inception, paraSITE has been distributed to homeless individuals in Cambridge, Boston, New York, and Baltimore.

As Professor, Department of Sculptural Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, Rakowitz is known for infusing social consciousness into the practice of art making, and for blurring distinctions between conceptual artist, designer, architect and sculptor.

This year Rakowitz held a residency at the Trafo Gallery, Budapest, Hungary. He has also participated in the P.S.1 Special Projects Program, Long Island City, NY, the Société Imaginaire, Dresden, Germany, and the Special Interest Group in Urban Studies (SIGUS) Workshop in Jordan, Kerak, Jordan. He has received numerous awards, including the 2003 Dena Foundation Award and the 2002 Design 21 Grand Prix by UNESCO. In addition to his position at MICA, Rakowitz is Associate Professor in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University and a contributing editor for Surface Tension: A Journal on Spatial Arts.

Presented by the Faculty of Design with the generous support of M.C. McCain.

Official Website: http://www.ocad.ca