DIRT

DIRT (MIT Press, 2012) presents a selection of works that share dirty attitudes: essays, interviews, excavations, and projects that view dirt not as filth but as a medium, a metaphor, a material, a process, a design tool, a narrative, a system. Rooted in the landscape architect's perspective, DIRT views dirt not as repulsive but endlessly giving, fertile, adaptive, and able to accommodate difference while maintaining cohesion. This dirty perspective sheds light on social connections, working processes, imaginative ideas, physical substrates, and urban networks. Join Marilyn Jordan Taylor, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, along with DIRT managing editor Cathryn Dwyre and designer K. T. Anthony Chan for a lively discussion about the newest book from viaBooks, PennDesign’s student-led publication. www.vanalenbooks.org