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Architecture, Technology collide in Copy + Paste

2017 Exhibitions, Heinz Architectural Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jonathan Gaugler | gauglerj@cmoa.org | 412.216.7909

Copy + Paste: Hall of Architecture
October 14, 2017–May 6, 2018
The Heinz Architectural Center Galleries + Hall of Architecture

Pittsburgh, PA…Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) announces Copy + Paste: Hall of Architecture, an eight-month investigation into the museum’s spectacular Hall of Architecture. Visitors to the Hall are constantly wowed by the nearly 150 building facades, monuments, and fragments from across the Western World. What many people don’t realize is that this collection is entirely plaster copies, painstakingly cast and reassembled in 1906–1907. It is the only remaining collection of its type in the US, and one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic spaces.

Over the course of Copy + Paste, curators, technologists, students, architects, and artists will test new ways of presenting information about this special collection. Activities in The Heinz Architectural Center and the Hall range from augmented reality and 3D printing to creative interventions and hands-on activities. The Hall is a mash-up of geography, styles, and periods, so contextualizing and presenting rich content is a priority for Copy + Paste organizer Alyssum Skjeie.

A screen held up to an architectural column displays text information about that object, showing both the column and text on the screen.

Courtesy of Francesca Torello and Josh Bard

Copy + Paste activities and visitor feedback will inform future efforts to create a dynamic, active, and inspiring Hall. These activities include:

  • Plaster Re-Cast – Experience the Hall of Architecture with a new augmented-reality app, by Francesca Torello and Josh Bard from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), School of Architecture. See this impressive cast collection in a new light through interactive historical content and virtual 3D models of the original buildings
  • CMU Architecture Studio – professor of architecture Joshua Bard leads a studio exploring the material culture of architectural plaster, examining its historic importance and possible future robotic applications. Students will work in the exhibition galleries, and their resulting experiments will join the Copy + Paste presentation.
  • CopyShop – a space for creative thinking and making inspired by the Hall of Architecture, the Copy Shop hosts visitor activities designed by invited makerspace expert Jennifer Grayburn in collaboration with the CMOA Education and Exhibition departments.
  • Archival Materials – new digitization efforts make available historic documents on the Hall of Architecture’s original 1907 design, the creation of the casts themselves, and the ideals of creating a grand study collection for people who could not travel. Some of the most intriguing items will be on view in the exhibition, with periodic rotations.

Copy + Paste: Hall of Architecture is organized by Alyssum Skjeie, program manager, The Heinz Architectural Center.

HACLab is a project of CMOA’s Heinz Architectural Center. Each Lab invites creative thinkers to design dynamic experiences investigating architecture in Pittsburgh and beyond. The projects are fluid, experimental, and evolve using visitor participation and feedback. We hope that HACLabs offer visitors a new appreciation of human encounters with the built environment.

Support
General operating support for Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by The Heinz Endowments and Allegheny Regional Asset District. The programs of the Heinz Architectural Center are made possible by the generosity of the Drue Heinz Trust. Carnegie Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Carnegie Museum of Art
Carnegie Museum of Art enriches people’s lives through art. The museum is committed to global engagement and regional advancement. We champion creativity and its importance to society with experiences that welcome, inspire, challenge, and inform. Our core activities—collecting, conserving, presenting, and interpreting works of art—make those experiences possible. Our world-class collection of over 30,000 works emphasizes art, architecture, photography, and design from the 19th century to the present. One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art was founded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895. Learn more: call 412.622.3131 or visit cmoa.org.

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