PROJECT S'MORE: new M&A installation opening weekend Saturday & Sunday, May 25 & 26th.

Project S'More: small is more, is opening to the public this weekend from noon - sundown on Saturday & noon - 5 on Sunday. Through the early weeks of June Edmund Ming-Yip Kwong's parametric pressure-laminated plywood structure will build like the narrative of the stories it will house - arcing skyward as it's filled with writing workshops and performances that cultivate community through the sharing of ideas. The hands-on experience will celebrate the construction of the foundational layers of S'More and invite people to visit the jigging stations for a chance to press a panel for the final structure or join us around the fire for S'Mores and drinks at dusk on Saturday.

Drawing on the research of plywood pioneers like Charles and Ray Eames and the egalitarian ethos of Rudolph Schindler, Project S'More scales up plywood forming methods from human to city scale in service of creating an easily constructed, lightweight, environmentally friendly pavilion for public use. Kwong, an architect with Thom Mayne's Morphosis Architectsfirm, conceived the lofty 18' tall hexagonal grid framing system while at MIT studying architecture. Later he advanced the process while in residence at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture implementing a form similar to a chiminea cinched by a canopy of heat shrink film. Inside, a campfire anchors a ring of seating elements.

The installation was fabricated by an array of volunteer architects, designers, students, and enthusiasts, through a series of public workshops and after-hours studio sessions. The exercise in social sculpture was guided by artist Oliver Hess, founder of Aperiodic Industries and director emeritus of Materials & Applications, with the structural engineering support of Matthew Mylnek, director of Nous Collaborative & faculty in the Applied Studies Department at SCI-Arc. In a series of workshops volunteers learned construction techniques from basic carpentry to CNC piloting and operating the augmented reality variable pressure jigs as they designed, constructed and commanded the tools of S'More's creation. Hess wanted the construction to be an evolutionary process as the relationship between people and machines shifted throughout fabrication. The experience will continue throughout the summer with story circles and continued construction. Visit www.emanate.organd sign up on the mailing list for more details.

Project S'More was supported with a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, Metabolic Studio, The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Special thanks to POTTED for donating the beautiful concrete fire pit for the summer!

The M&A exhibit courtyard has been a testbed for innovative ideas from emerging architects and artists since 2002. This compact urban site emphasizes public participation and interaction with the most challenging and compelling concepts in architecture, design and the arts. Project S'More augments M&A's realm of inquiry by dissolving the boundary between sensible and the sublime, the grounded and the gregarious.

Location

Materials & Applications
1619 Silver Lake Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
t: 323.739.4MN8
e: contact[at]emanate.org

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M&A is a research center dedicated to pushing new and underused ideas for art, landscape and architecture into view.

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