new york NEW YORK

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface in July of 1969, they wore 21-layer, fabric-and-latex spacesuits crafted by seamstresses from the assembly line of Playtex, maker of bras and girdles. Nicholas de Monchaux will tell the story of the 21-layer spacesuit, and how it relates to, among other things, eighteenth-century androids, Christian Dior’s New Look, Atlas missiles, cybernetics and cyborgs, latex, JFK’s carefully cultivated image, the CBS lunar broadcast soundstage, NASA’s Mission Control, and the applications of Apollo-style engineering to city planning.

Nicholas de MONCHAUX, “Fashioning Apollo”
Wednesday, 01/09
6.30 pm / School of Visual Arts, Design Criticism
136 West 21st Street, Floor 2
New York, NY 10011

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

USC Wins Prestigious NASA Research Award for the Moon and Mars — As NASA’s Curiosity rover continues its exploration of Mars, USC professors have won a highly prestigious NASA research award to develop new robotic construction technologies for building structures on the Moon and Mars. Professors Behrokh Khoshnevis (Engineering), Anders Carlson (Architecture), Neil Leach (Architecture) and Madhu Thangavelu (Astronautics) have been awarded a Phase 2 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) research award for a project titled “ISRU Based Robotic Construction Technologies for Lunar and Martian Infrastructure.”

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brooklyn NEW YORK

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

adam DAYEM: The term folly is considered to have been derived from two different French words: folie, meaning pleasure or delight; and feuilée, which quite literally refers to a leafy arbor. A folie is associated with miscalculation, foolishness and extravagance; it often serves no apparent purpose beyond some mythic or folkloric association. A feuilée, on the other hand, has nothing to do with spectacle and ostentation, but is about embracing nature in a more modest way.

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MOON

USC Professors Behrokh Khoshnevis (Engineering), Anders Carlson (Architecture), Neil Leach (Architecture) and Madhu Thangavelu (Astronautics) have been awarded a NASA research grant into the potential use of Contour Crafting robotic fabrication technology to build structures on the Moon. The grant was one of only 30 awarded to over 700 applicants by the NASA Innovation Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC). The title of their research proposal is: “Contour Crafting Simulation Plan for Lunar Settlement Infrastructure Build Up.”

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