A 30 min. talk by Keith Mitnick, Institute for the Humanities 2018-19 Helmut F. Stern Faculty Fellow and associate professor of architecture, followed by Q & A.

In this talk, Mitnick reflects upon the ways that buildings and fiction writing embody different forms of spatial narratives that shape how we experience the physical environment.

Similar to the way that architecture is used in literature to define the social and psychological outlooks of characters, and the settings in which their lives occur, buildings present fictions about the world. By framing “views,” ordering “centers, margins and in-betweens,” and choreographing movement and sensorial experience, they tell stories about who are, what we value, and where we are—a process that becomes particularly interesting when the fictions they present fail to align with what we hold to be true. The images we create of our buildings and cities tell stories as well, shaping our conceptions about the places in which we live, and broadcasting them to others.

Using examples of his own work as an architect and a writer, he will creatively explore the intersection of different spatial narratives in words, images and physical forms, and conjecture upon new approaches for considering their similarities and differences.