PLACE TALKS, 2015-2021, was a series of visual lectures that occurred at, and in collaboration with, the Prelinger Library in San Francisco. Bay Area artists, writers, designers, architects, archivists, librarians (and other curious people) shared talks on location-related topics, illustrated by content from the library's collection.
PLACE TALKS was organized by by Nicole Lavelle and Charlie Macquarie.
This website is an archive. Read our final newsletter here for more information about our indefinite hiatus, and to learn about projects you can support in our absence.
We're delighted to present work by our final speakers from Season 6, originally scheduled for March 19, 2020 and reimagined in January 2021 in digital formats.
The Burl Concentrate presents Processes of Dissolution.
➩ Click here to experience their interactive PDF.
The Burl Concentrate is the dialogic research project of the artists and writers Sarah-Dawn Albani and Connie Zheng, which is committed to developing new language for the effects of a changing climate. We see the critical significance of modeling this form of writing now, with a close focus on the material of place, and our project assumes the practice of close looking, developing research as a form of personal and cultural critique, and writing as an essentially collaborative creative pursuit between scholars, sites, histories, and the materials we encounter. We are currently spending time with soil, geology field guides, and haunted landscapes.
Jonah Susskind presents Finding the Fringe.
➩Click here to view his video.
Jonah Susskind is an urbanist, artist, writer, and researcher whose work focuses on emergent socio-ecological conditions of accelerated urbanization. Susskind has held research and teaching appointments at MIT and the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture. His essays have appeared in books and journals including the Harvard Design Magazine, Designing With Nature Now (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy), and Wood Urbanism: From The Molecular to the Territorial (Actar). He is currently working on a book about the Wildland Urban Interface.
ARCHIVE — View the archive of previous seasons of PLACE TALKS lectures.
PLACE TALKS was a platform for performative research, and a dynamic framework for location-oriented inquiry. Founded by Nicole Lavelle in 2015, and co-organized by Nicole Lavelle and Charlie Macquarie from 2016-2021, PLACE TALKS supported the Bay Area creative community by creating a context for exchange that encouraged interdisciplinary practices and forged connections through the commonality of place.
ORGANIZERS —Learn more about Charlie and Nicole here.
NEWSLETTER —Click here to join the PLACE TALKS mailing list to learn about future programming, publications, and opportunities.
PLACE TALKS was funded by the Prelinger Library's residency frameworks, and by donations from the audience. Thanks for your support! The first two seasons of PLACE TALKS were generously funded by an Alternative Exposure grant from Southern Exposure, by the Prelinger Library's Artist-in-Residence Program, and by donations from the audience.