Presence and absence in the city

On 12 October 2012, Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought and New York University co-hosted ‘Presence and Absence in the City’, Theatrum Mundi’s first public conference.

Five panel sessions – ‘State of the Street’, ‘Technological Space’, ‘The Global Street’, ‘The Trade of Ideas and Goods: From Artifacts to Citizenship’ and ‘Theatrical Space’ explored the difference between presence and absence in the city. This difference lies both physically – who is actually on the street?; and perceptually – how are people aware of others, accounting or discounting their presence in urban space? How are those considered invisible or inconsequential enabled to ‘make presence’ in urban space – through their bodies, actions, activities?

Through theoretical conversations and discussions on real life projects the conference aimed to instigate new thinking about public space via our specialist panel of architects, town planners, artists, designers and social researchers.

This event was co-sponsored by Saskia Sassen & Richard Sennett | A Committee on Global Thought Conference | Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation | Co-sponsored by GSAPP and New York University.