Tickets available for conference 'Modern Living in Asia 1945-1990'. Please circulate amongst staff and students.

10th Apr 2017 9:00am - 11th Apr 2017 6:00pm

Hosted by the University of Brighton, UK

Convenors: Dr. Yunah Lee and Dr. Megha Rajguru (University of Brighton)

This conference aims to develop the study of modern living in Asia between 1945 -1990 from transnational perspectives. In the midst of acutely debated theoretical positions of globalization, transnationalism and multiple modernisms, in works by Arjun Appadurai (1996), Homi Bhabha (1994), Shumei Shi (2013), Duanfang Lu (2011), we will explore cultural flows beyond borders (national, regional and political) that informed notions of modern living in Asian countries. We also aim to expand the discourse to include geographical areas or countries in Asia that have been under-explored or entirely ignored in scholarly debates.

The full programme is available here: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/design-art-history/idh/internationalising-design-history-events/modern-living-in-asia-1945-1990

Tickets £40 or £20 conc available here: http://shop.brighton.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/arts-humanities/academic-conferences/modern-living-in-asia-1945-1990


Keynote lectures:

Monday 10 April, Sallis Benney Theatre
16:30-17:45

Gyan Prakash, Professor of History, Princeton University
Bombay to Mumbai: The Unhomely City and the Space of the Everyday

If Mumbai points to the future of urban civilization on the planet, Suketu Mehta writes, “God help us.” He is not alone in his foreboding about the implications of urban growth, of Bombay becoming “Slumbay.”  Mike Davis offers a bleak account of what this means for the Global South in his contemporary classic, Planet of Slums. Powerful as his critique is, it is worth remembering that the cities of poor regions have long served as sources of dystopic fantasies. In this talk, I examine the transition of Bombay to Mumbai at the level of the everyday.  I focus on everyday life because it is there that large historical changes and power relations make their presence felt; it is this space that powerful political and economic forces seek to control and change.  However, it is for the same reason that it is in this quotidian space that you find lived experiences and imaginations that cope with these powerful forces.  It is also there that you encounter the “soft city” of urban desires and dreams; it is there that you find the politics of survival and aspirations. My talk will focus on this politics of survival as Bombay becomes Mumbai.


Tuesday 11 April, Sallis Benney Theatre
9:45-11:00 am

Duanfang Lu, Professor of Architecture, University of Sydney
Housing as Method: Rethinking the Culture of Contemporary Architecture

This paper offers critical reflections on architectural modernism and modernity at large by looking into the choice and development of technical, cultural and intellectual methods in housing design in China in 1949–1965. Facing tremendous difficulties to provide inexpensive urban and rural housing in the context of the scarcity of design talents, architects and design institutes responded by adopting a collaborative and open-source approach to housing design. Regional design competitions were held, best proposals were made prototypes that could be adopted and adapted in the respective region, and standardised prefabricated concrete components were mass-produced. Vernacular dwellings were studied to pursue energy efficiency, ventilation and spatial quality in modern housing, with design resources shared regionally. These practices are a sharp contrast to the mainstream culture of architecture today, which celebrates signature architecture as infrastructure for the economy of signs and normalises building on a one-off basis following the rationality of capitalist competition. The paper sets out to reveal and unsettle the epistemological and social unconscious embedded in the contemporary discourse and operation of the profession. It shows how alternative methods of design, organisation and collaboration are useful in this critical questioning and in the democratisation of contemporary architecture. Drawing upon connections between methods from the previous era and the rising methods of open-source architecture and the modern project home, the paper offers a new framework of housing as method to tackle the ubiquitous problem of lack of means to produce quality housing for a wide spectrum of the population in developing nations.