This Thursday: Join us for Urban Symposium 1!

Join designers Lyndon Manuel and Leah Nichols as they host Urban Symposium, an interactive happy hour that tackles critical issues affecting our city. As part of StoreFrontLab's Season 2 City Making series, the dialogue-based event is structured as a mash-up of familiar discussion formats: symposium + social experiment + play. 

Urban Symposium 1

Thursday, October 2

6:30 to 8:30 PM

It's free, but space is limited.
Sign up here!

About Urban Symposium

San Francisco residents are angry. They are angry about the city — their city — exemplified by the ongoing storm of headlines, sound bites, and neighborhood tensions. Google bus protests and Twitter tax breaks. Ellis Act evictions and another proposition to limit building heights. In response to the seemingly disconnected consciousness of our city and its citizens, the Urban Symposium series fosters an interactive and participatory dialogue about urban life as it relates to San Francisco's restless social and political climate. 

Excursion #1 with Miguel Arzabe, Friday September 26, 9am-1pm

Miguel Arzabe, sightlines, cement tablet (detail) 2014

Please join SFL artist Miguel Arzabe this Friday, September 26, at 8:45 am for Excursion #1, part of his current StoreFrontLab installation, sightlines. Arzabe will lead participants on a silent hike to an undisclosed hill on public land to reveal a secret vista point that is at the same elevation as the top of the TransAmerica Pyramid.

Excursion #1, Friday September 26, 9am - 1pm.

1. Participants are invited to hike 1.5 miles each way with an elevation gain of 853 feet.

2. Be sure to bring sturdy footwear, sun protection, water, and a snack/lunch.

3. The excursion will be a silent hike, so once the participants enter into the StoreFrontLab gallery, they will take a vow of silence. 

4. Participants will leave the gallery at 9 am. The artist can fit four people in his car, if there are more people, we will arrange a car pool beforehand. The car ride to the trail head will be no more than a 35 minute drive with traffic.

5. Upon arrival at the trailhead, participants will each be given a slip of paper with simple instructions. 

6. The climb will commence.

7. Upon arrival at the vista point, a signal will be given that the vow of silence has ended.

8. Rest, eat, socialize.

9. Hike back to car

10. Drive back to StoreFrontLab by 1pm.


If you are interested in participating, please email arzabe*at*gmail

Opening Sept. 19: Miguel Arzabe, "sightlines" and Ilyse Iris Magy, "Lines Made by Walking"

Join us at StoreFrontLab on Friday, September 19, when we will welcome our first City Making resident artists, Ilyse Iris Magy and Miguel Arzabe. Magy's Lines Made by Walking and Arzabe's sightlines both explore alternative means of mapping to reconfigure our understanding of the city. Over the next month, the public is invited to join the artists as they walk specific routes throughout the Bay Area, and in the process consider the influence of physical exertion and slowness in defining our relationship with the urban environment. How Magy and Arzabe each represent this perception in the gallery space is unexpected and expansive.

StoreFrontLab: Opening Reception
Friday, September 19, 2014
6-8:30PM
337 Shotwell Street, San Francisco
RSVP

September 19–October 19
Join the artists in their respective, very distinct mapping processes. See below for details on how to participate in a walk.

Ilyse Iris Magy, Lines Made by Walking

In Lines Made by Walking, Ilyse Iris Magy leads epic urban walks to locations along the city’s waterfront, marking points of interest from both predetermined and spontaneous criteria. Through rigorous physical charting as well as visual representation, Magy facilitates the collective mapping of our relationship to the landscape, both internal and external. Walks are open to the public; sign up at linesmadebywalking.com.

Still from Miguel Arzabe's Sightlines, video, color, sound, 7 min. 2010

Miguel Arzabe’s sightlines is an exploration of sites encircling San Francisco’s tallest building, the iconic Transamerica Pyramid. Arzabe traces sightlines to the Pyramid from various locations satisfying three conditions: They 1) are accessible by foot on public lands; 2) sit at equal elevation to the tower’s apex; and 3) have an unobstructed line of sight. From this map Arzabe conceived a codex composed of interlocking concrete tablets. He will lead trips to the sites and embed these tablets into the earth. Arzabe will announce the trips as the month unfolds; follow @storefrontlab on Facebook and Twitter for updates.