2/23/05 Contact: Jennifer L. Johnson, 334/844-4285 (johnsjl@auburn.edu)
David M. Granger, 334/844-9999 (grangdm@auburn.edu)

AUBURN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PRESENTS “CITY STAINS AND CITY STRAINS” EXHIBIT

AUBURN – “City Stains and Strains,” an exhibition of seven works of art by master’s of landscape architecture thesis students is underway at the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction Gallery in Dudley Commons on the AU campus.

Students were asked to record the everyday life of the city of Auburn by tracing the stains and strains found on the streets, sidewalks, and public walls of the city. The tracing and retracing of the ordinary, accidental, and unintentional marks of human occupation begin to define the surface condition of our inhabitation of place.

“The project is a ‘warming-up’ project to get the students into the routine of making, of thinking about craft and composition, and about basic research as the basis for all design,” said Michael Robinson, an AU professor of landscape architecture. “The tracings are not just a primary recording of the objects traced, but are works of art in themselves, as well as a piece of ‘primary research’ about Auburn and a recording of the student’s journey through the adventure itself.”

In addition to the tracings, students were asked to record the time of day, date, the exact location of the object traced, the means by which the original mark was made, by whom they thought the original marking was made, the weather conditions during the primary tracing, people they talked with while making the tracing, interesting conversations that may have occurred during the journey that searched out the mark to be traced or while they were recording the mark.

“City Stains and City Strains” runs through March 6. Gallery hours for the exhibit are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information contact Michael Robinson at 844-5486.

Auburn University is a pre-eminent land-grant and comprehensive research institution with nearly 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama’s largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.

(Contributed by Jennifer L. Johnson.)

# # #

feb05:AU-stains&strains