UB Art Gallery to Host "Responsive Architecture"

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Art Gallery will present "Responsive Architecture," an exhibition featuring architectural prototypes that explore how humans interact with their surroundings. The exhibition will open on April 5 with a public reception at 5 p.m.

The architectural prototypes presented in "Responsive Architecture" include artifacts and spaces that sense and respond to their physical environment. By integrating computational technologies into the material fabric of everyday situations, this work questions the role of context awareness and considers the actions and events that might transpire in these new spaces.

The exhibition features projects that were carried out in two architectural studios and seminars -- "Sense Space," conducted by Omar Khan, UB assistant professor of architecture, in the fall of 2005, and "Between Now and There: Databodies and Sentient Spaces and Physical Computing," conducted by Mark Shepard, assistant professor of architecture and media study, in the spring and fall of 2006. These courses are one component of the newly formed dual degree program between the departments of Architecture and Media Study. The aim of the program is to provide a critical context for experimental practice addressing contemporary confluences of architecture and computational media.

UB Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Thursday to 7 p.m. For information, call 645-6912. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be on view in the second floor gallery through April 15.

The UB Art Gallery is funded by the UB College of Arts and Sciences, the Visual Arts Building Fund, the Seymour H. Knox Foundation Fine Arts Fund, and the Fine Arts Center Endowment.