Proxy Landscapes is a two-day symposium that will explore how numerous landscapes act as proxies for remote sites, processes, and transformations that are otherwise inaccessible or unobservable. A diverse group of designers, historians, anthropologists, and theorists will discuss landscapes that carry traces of hidden phenomena or act as indicators of latent processes.
Artist and researcher Susan Schuppli, Director of the Centre for Research Architecture in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths University, London, will deliver the symposium’s keynote on Thursday, April 10 at 6.30pm at the Kleinman Energy Forum of the Fisher Fine Arts Library. She will discuss her personal practice and exploration of key questions about landscape indicators. On Friday, April 11 from 9.30am – 6.00pm, a symposium will be held in the Plaza Gallery of Meyerson Hall with nine guests who will share their research and address questions about how the built and natural environment act as stand-ins, indicators, and storytellers. Three panels will focus on unique relationships between observation and interpretation of the landscape. The first panel will address test sites that replicate distant conditions on local terrain. The second panel will focus on landscape traces, remnants, and symbols, which often serve as indicators of hidden structures and latent processes. The third panel will explore autographic landscapes, which function as dynamic records of their own formation and evolution.
The Proxy Landscapes symposium is organized by Associate Professor Robert Pietrusko, Department of Landscape Architecture, and hosted by the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology.
If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.
Proxy Landscapes Symposium
Schedule
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Susan Schuppli, Director of the Centre for Research Architecture in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths University, London, will deliver the symposium’s keynote at the Kleinman Energy Forum of the Fisher Fine Arts Library.
9:30 am - 6:00 pm
Friday, April 11, 2025
A symposium will be held in the Plaza Gallery of Meyerson Hall with nine guests who will share their research and address questions about how the built and natural environment act as stand-ins, indicators, and storytellers.