BRACKET [TAKES ACTION]: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Hannah Arendt’s 1958 treatise The Human Condition cites “action” as one of the three
tenants, along with labor and work, of the   vita active (active life). Action, she writes, is a
necessary catalyst for the human condition of plurality, which is an expression of both
the common public and distinct individuals. This reading of action requires unique and
free individuals to act toward a collective project and is therefore simultaneously
‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’. In the more than fifty years since Arendt’s claims, the public
realm in which action materializes, and the means by which action is expressed, has
dramatically transformed. Further, spa tial practice’s role in anticipating, planning, or
absorbing action(s) has been challenged, yielding difficulty in the design of the’space of
appearance,’Arendt’s public realm. Bracket [takes action] asks: What are the col lective
projects in the public realm to act on? How have recent design projects incited political
or social action? How can design cata lyze a public, as well as forums for that public to
act? What is the role of spatial practice to instigate or resist public actions? Bracket 4
provokes spatial practice’s potential to incite and respond to action today.
The editorial board and jury for Bracket 4 in cludes Pier Vittorio   Aureli ,
Vishaan   Chakrab – arti, Adam Greenfield, Belinda Tato , Yoshi – haru Tsukamoto as well
as co-editors Neeraj Bhatia and Mason White Deadline for Submissions: February 28,
2014 Please visit www.brkt.org for more info.