Biography
David Gersten is an architect, writer and educator based in New York City. He has been a Professor in The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, since 1991, where he has served as Associate Dean under Dean John Hejduk and Acting Dean of the School of Architecture. Professor Gersten has been a visiting professor in the U.S. and abroad at: City University of New York; Rhode Island School of Design (RISD); Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in Spain; Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark; Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar and Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz in Bolivia; and Universidad Catolica de Cordoba in Argentina. He is currently a visiting professor in the Architecture Department and Graduate Studies division at RISD teaching seminars and studios across sixteen Masters of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture departments. He regularly teaches workshops and lectures in academic and cultural institutions though-out the world, including: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, (Denmark), McGill University (Canada), Brown University, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Harvard University, Yale University, Emily Carr, The Canadian Center for Architecture, the National Science Foundation, the Círculo de Bellas Artes, (Madrid, Spain), The University of Puerto Rico, and the United Nations International School.
Professor Gersten is the founding director of Arts Letters & Numbers, an education, theater, film and publishing company dedicated to creating new structures and spaces for creative exchange across a wide range of disciplines. Gersten is currently directing Arts, Letters & Numbers ongoing workshops, theater performances and films as well as working in collaboration with international theater companies and filmmakers on a number of productions.
Professor Gerstens' drawings, stories and constructions have appeared in numerous international exhibitions, and are held in the collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture, the New York City Public Library's print collection and many private collections. He has published widely in national and international publications including: RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, the Peabody Museum; Ineffable; Architecture Computation and the In-expressible; The Making Of Design Principles, RISD; Critical Digital, Harvard; Boulevard, Saint Louis University; Making Science Visible, National Science Foundation; Nacho Criado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid Spain. The Paris-based publisher Editions Firmin-Didot will soon release Hunting Life: A Forever House, a collection of Professor Gersten's drawings and writings.
David Gersten is a graduate of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. He has also pursued studies in phenomenology at the New School for Social Research as well as Islamic Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Academic Research/Areas of Interest
Gersten has published and lectured extensively on diverse areas of research including: the financial markets, ethics and technology, the poetic / material imagination and social justice and the linkages between: memory, perception, language and space.