The event, organized by professor David Sperling, from the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (IAU) of the University of São Paulo in São Carlos, marks the beginning of activities pertaining to “Fabrication” at the IEA São Carlos. The aim is to draw together research studies on the potentialities and challenges that arise from “fabrication” in today’s technological environment, permeated by processes that are increasingly mediated and controlled numerically. This is a national ongoing discussion that will address various areas of knowledge, including architecture, engineering, computing, physics and chemistry.

Over the course of two days, the conference will bring together professors and researchers from various institutions, including USP, Unicamp, Embrapa and the Renato Archer Information Technology Center. The opening will be attended by Martin Grossmann, IEA director, and Renato Anelli, coordinator of the IEA São Carlos,

Exhibit

As part of the symposium, the exhibition Homo Faber: Digital Fabrication in Latin America will open on October 14, from 5:00 pm, at the USP São Carlos Cultural Center. São Carlos will be the first city to host the traveling version of the exhibit, which was first presented in July in São Paulo, during the XVI CAAD Futures Congress, and will now travel around South America.

The exhibition features an unprecedented mapping of digital fabrication in the field of architecture in Latin America, with an overview of what 25 university laboratories, research groups, architecture studios and independent actions are investigating and producing in the area. Articulated under the premise that fabrication informs matter, the works comprise a vast array of interests and means, as well as openness to experimentation in processes and results.

Curated by professors David Sperling, from IAU-USP, and Pablo Herrera, from the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, the exhibit will remain open at the Cultural Center until November 13, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm.

Professor Jan Carson will discuss her writing and delve into her themes, writing style, and her journey as a Northern Irish writer. The event is part of the 2025 opening of the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies.

Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Her latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday (UK) in April 2024 and Scribner (US) in July 2024. Her writing has been aired on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and RTE. She is the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast 2025 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first stage play, an adaptation of the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit will be produced by Replay Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in March 2025. Her next novel, Few and Far Between is forthcoming in early 2026.

Registration

Free and public event | Registration is not required
Online event (http://youtube.com/@iea-usp) | No attendance certification will be provided
The event will be held in English and no simultaneous translation into Portuguese will be provided

For a long time, Latin America seemed to be one of the success stories of the “third wave” of democratization. Following democratic transitions in the 1980s and early 1990s, most countries in the region appeared to be on the path to democratic consolidation in the 2000s and early 2010s. In recent years, however, Latin America’s democratic consolidation has begun to unravel amid major populist challenges from both the left and the right. The global “polycrisis” with interlocking challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, economic recession, climate change, and the increasingly assertive role of autocratic powers like China and Russia is exerting further pressures on democratic regimes.

This workshop will study the current trends of democratic regression and autocratization, but also instances of resilience and possibilities to defend democracy in Latin America. It will explore the ambiguous relationship between populism and democracy as well as the connections between democracy and (economic and political) liberalism.

Opening: José Álvaro Moisés (IEA)

Presenters: Aaron Schneider (University of Denver), Carlos Meléndez and Lisa Zanotti (Universidad Diego Portales), and Thomas Legler (Universidad Iberoamericana).

Chair: Brigitte Weiffen (The Open University)

Live transmission at http://www.iea.usp.br/aovivo

Organization

IPSA Research Committee 34 Quality of Democracy (https://www.ipsa.org/page/rc34-quality- democracy)
Quality of Democracy Research Group at the IEA

Registration

Free and public event | Registration is not required
Online event (http://www.iea.usp.br/aovivo) | No attendance certification will be provided
The event will be held in English and will be no simultaneous translation into Portuguese

Programme