An introduction and welcome to the conference.
Dr. Graham Cairns is an academic and author in the field of architecture who has written extensively on film, advertising and political communication. He has held Visiting Professor positions at universities in Spain, the UK, Mexico, the Gambia, South Africa and the US. He has led academic departments in the UK and the US. He has worked in architectural studios in London and Hong Kong and previously founded and ran a performing arts organisation, Hybrid Artworks, specialised in video installation and performance writing. He is author and editor of multiple books and articles on architecture as both a form of visual culture and a socio-political construct. He is currently director of the academic research organisation AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society), and Executive Editor of its associated journal Architecture_MPS.
Jason Montgomery is an architect, urban designer, scholar, and educator. His design work focuses on the nature of place, rural and urban space, and building tectonics. His research reflects his interests in architecture and urban morphology. He co-organized a number of conferences and symposia addressing the complexity of cities. He was the editor of a recently published volume Place-based Sustainability: Research and Design Extending Pathways for Ecological Stewardship, and a guest editor of a special issue of AMPS Journal: Re-imagining the City: Urban Space in the Post-Covid City.