MULTISTORY* Guest Lecture Nishat Awan Thursday 29th November 6pm | Events

We are pleased to announce a MULTISTORY* guest lecture by

Nishat Awan // Topological Atlas

Thursday 29th November 2018 // Lecture 6pm

Dr Nishat Awan is Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures and Principal Investigator on the ERC Starting Grant, Topological Atlas: Mapping Contemporary Borderscapes. The project is hosted by the Centre for Research Architecture.
Prior to joining Goldsmiths, she was Senior Lecturer at University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, where she led the MA in Architectural Design.

An architect by training, Nishat's work focuses on the intersection of geopolitics and space, including questions related to diasporas, migration and border regimes.
She is interested in modes of visual and spatial representation and is committed to exploring ethical forms of engagement with places at a distance.

Topological Atlas aims to develop a transdisciplinary research programme for mapping, analysing and intervening in border areas in the form of a digital atlas. The project uses topology as conceptual framework and methodology to make maps that produce 'seamless transitions' from the space of the migrant to that of the security apparatus that creates barriers to her movement.

Contemporary borders operate in ways that are more complex than in the past. They have variously been conceptualised as porous, shifting and solidified. Where a border may be open for some, for others it is an impenetrable wall. Combined with the mobility of geopolitical territorial formations that operate beyond legal frameworks, the very concept and legality of the border is being radically questioned by socio-political phenomena. Such phenomena range from the formation of ISIS to the situation in Europe where states have opened and closed their borders against agreed treaties. We need new ways to make sense of these increasingly complex spaces. The project aims to develop a transdisciplinary research programme for mapping, analysing and intervening in border areas in the form of a digital atlas. The project is global in scope and addresses a series of sites that have been chosen for their place within one common migrant trajectory towards Europe. These borderscapes encapsulate many of the contemporary concerns around geopolitical borders including conflicts, shifting territories, securitisation and increasingly hazardous journeys that are too often fatal. They also show how the border itself operates as a topological entity.

For more information:
http://www.topologicalatlas.net/

//
MULTISTORY* is a student and alumni led guest lecture programme series at Canterbury School of Architecture, University for the Creative Arts. It seeks to invite architects, designers, writers, curators, photographers and artists to speak about their work.