This Week's Work 06

I have not been feeling so well the last 2 days... probably a result of over-working, sleeping little, and eating poorly. I've tried to catch up the last two nights, but still feel drained. Maybe it's the 2+ coffees I have a day... hm... Trying to curb that!

I'm to meet up with an IIT friend tonight for drinks, but I"m also missing out on a really cool 1920s prohibition party.

The internet has been down at school, so while this is excellent for productivity, it also further removes self from knowledge of life outside our tiny white space. It is a 'burden' to leave the attic room at all when working, so on days that we have crit, a handful of us will arrive in the morning and stay for a solid 12 hours. We might leave the building twice. And then you walk home, famished, searching for any signs of food places being open, and eat a junky meal and then go home... sometimes to work longer, sometimes to finally stop and sleep. Usually to work longer.

My roommate leaves next week. I really like her, so this will be sad... it's been nice to have someone to talk to at night. (and who only sometimes tells me to stop and go to bed)

-----------------Studio-----------------
Our crit was moved to this coming Wednesday, with even more expected, so there is a great push (and a thus the not sleeping) to get as much done as possible. I have part of a model complete... one of three pieces.... I still need to plot drawings, hopefully make a NEW drawing, and glue all the model things together.
It takes an infinitely long amount of time to get the strange shapes I'm making. It is tedious. And I dream about doing it.

-----------------The-Deep-End-----------------
Had a private tutorial on Wednesday morning, and he was quite surprised and enthused about the photos I took the last two weeks (the strange and super hero ones). I wrote a little bit about the story line, and we will be developing our narrative over the next two weeks.

-----------------Architecture-To-Architecture-----------------
Mark Cousins came and talked to us. There was little history OR theory discussed, but we touched briefly on the consequences of computing, "What is architecture?," and possible ways to re-engage students in theoretical discussions.
It is funny... one fault of architectural education is that it teaches its students to be excessively critical of everything they see and experience. Thus, every school's coursework and administration befalls constant accusation from disgruntled students. This is true, even at the AA, which is excessively liberal, has no defined coursework, and is almost entirely student-run.
I could hardly keep from laughing or crying out in frustration when members of my class said things like:
"I feel so limited by this reading list. It's like a syllabus. What if this is not what I find interesting?"
"What if I reject the reading?" [the reply to which was: "You have to read a text before you can reject it"]
This led to people arguing over Facebook (and having to explain to Mark Cousins what facebook was... he called it "Disgusting!")
It went on for 2 hours or so. Easily the most lively discussion yet.

-----------------Shaping-Seams-----------------
Did our file for the CNC at the wrong size and have yet to fix it. Oops.

-----------------Other-Life-----------------
Dance on Monday was pretty good. Not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination; there was a birthday party there and the band was from a uni, so there were tooooons of people that didn't know what they were doing cramming the tiny dance floor, flailing about. It's actually quite dangerous, and I was propelled several times into elbows and other moving objects.
I went to the Science Museum with Iain on Tuesday (I think?). Once a month they have an "adult late night" where they stay open til 10, serve drinks and food, and have live music on every floor. It's only for adults, and the place was PACKED. It was so funny to see businessmen in their suits throwing lentils into a giant Lentil-moving-machine.. or playing with little sailboats and a wave machine. I wish I had had my camera! We met up with my roommate and her Brazilian friend, then went to a small cafe after for superjuices. The man sitting next to us must have thought we were on a date, because he kept staring in our direction and then bursting into song. Things like "The first time our eyes met, I knew it was loooooooooooooooooove"
It was awkward.
As we were leaving, he asked me about my boots, and had obviously been eavesdropping because he said "Did you get them in Chicago or Buffalo?"
Wow.

Snapshots from the weekend

Silly dress, a new friend, Super Hero's day off.

farmer's market!

.Love. the farmer's market.

Today I purchased (in under 20 pounds):
-delicious spicy mixed salad
-unpasteurized whole milk straight from the cow
-a breakfast bread
-a whole wheat loaf
-pressed apple juice
-carrots
-apples
-incredibly tastey dried apple chips
-leak and potato soup


So, not that it's of interest to anyone, but I plan on eating some really beautiful organic-y meals this week. Makes me happy =)

spooky fun

More studio tangents that I am no longer pursuing... but I thought they were kinda funky.

This Week's Work 05

This week was "Open Week," which is supposed to mean that you don't have classes. However, because following rules is what the school is against, I actually did have [almost] all of my classes anyways, but at random times.

-----------------Lectures-----------------
This morning was the "Architectural Machines" symposium, so I sat through several lectures about advanced technology in design this morning. Most were interesting; a few projects were absolutely incredible [Memory Cloud] and some left more to be desired [Spoorg. Krets was ok]
I was most interested to hear about the level of focus towards augmenting beautiful human experiences. The sole purpose for things like Memory Cloud, Spoorg, and SplineGraft is to create something fun, silly, and techy. I often get caught up in the 'dangers' and 'inhumanity' of the mechanical tools we use and are crafting for people. I see projects occasionally gaming about control and manipulation: all fairly dark and disturbing; and it makes me a bit terrified, to be honest, of the world envisioned by those in academia. [This is a complete fallacy, however, as few people are actually in architecture to NOT do 'good.']

As most of the lecturers were quite uncharismatic, I spent most of the time drifting off and thinking about studio.

I did miss several excellent lectures this week, due to tutorial and personal choices for life outside of architecture. Somewhat unbelievably, I do try for that.

-----------------Seams-----------------
Nothing new here. We are supposed to start fabricating our final piece. I would show images of what it looks like, but I don't have the files. I've actually not done anything for this class except watch Mike, openmouthed, as he flies around Rhino. My usual question is "What command was that?"

-----------------The-Deep-End-----------------
Sunday night, 11 pm. Actually I left at 10 and got there at 10:30, thinking the sketchy night bus I had to take would last an hour due to construction difficulties.
Anyways, I found myself in a not-so-nice part of town in a very loud, kitch Turkish restaurant where 2 birthday parties were raging to deafening live folk music. Prompt, as always, the rest of the class filtered in by around midnight. We got food, some enjoyed bevvies, and a little after 1 we decided that it was time to go photograph.
Donning ridiculous costumes, the group of crazies (my whole class, mind you) started running around and climbing on equipment in a closed-down meat market. The place was eerie, with bits of trash and flesh littering the streets. It smelled like dead fish and old things. The night was cool and damp. Shortly there after, before we could set up any photos, a pair of cops crept by in their car andstarted orering us, in very harsh tones, the get the HELL out before they arrested us all and confiscated our cameras. 5 minutes later we had bribed the ONE shop keeper that was still around to let us photograph ourselves in front of the stall. There was a trolley of cow legs in front, a picture of Obama in back, and eventually a drunk woman on her way home to decorate our photoshoot.
It took a good hour for the one shot, so sometime around 2 we packed up to look for the next place. About 5 yards away, in a covered area, a strange lineup of dirty shipping containers laid an eerie backdrop for individual shots.
Yasmina and I left them there at 2:30, still goofing off, because she had work to do, and she was the only one I really knew.
I really didn't get into the whole experience like I would have wanted. I didn't know what to expect at all, and was not dressed properly, nor prepared for the absolute silliness that ran the night. I was dressed in very serious, sensible clothes, while the others were either cross-dressing in lingerie, wearing silver space suits, or a throwback to disheveled Edwardian grace.
Supposed to meet with the tutor this week, but now it's Saturday and he never returned my email. Awesome.

-----------------Studio-----------------
Working hard, as always. After my tutorial on Wednesday, I now have to work out some insane model. Insane in process, not appearance. Many many layers of divided lines stacked to create an undulating, artificial landscape. I'm working on how to 1) get Flash, AI, Cad, and Rhino to do the hard work for me and 2) how to make something that doesn't look like a lame pile of boring things.
Tricky... all very tricky...

I've been working on a Plate of degenerative paving patterns: Though this is not complete, this is how it's going. There will be a section with loads of veg inserted in... I have a few printouts testing various options, but I will probably opt for the scripted vegetation over a hand drawing so it fits with the language of the rest of my work.


If I get a rendering out sometime today, I'll post it. I've got to get my files ready for hours at the lasercutter, but I want to make sure I know what's going to happen before I commit. It's expensive to make mistakes.

-----------------Other-Life-----------------
Dance was incredible on Monday... best so far! The band was wonderful and ... I've already posted about this.
Went to dinner with Iain the Scotsman on Wednesday, whom I met dancing. He's about my age and is very good at giving me tips on what NOT to do when I go to Scotland, unique British turns of phrase, and insight into the fallacies of UK reporting.
It was so refreshing to go out with someone outside of the school of architecture. For 3 hours, I did not speak a word or think about architecture. So needed.

Again on Thursday, Mike, myself, and Elora (from Norway) went to the pub and ISH bar for karaoke after tutorial. This going out on Thursday thing has been really nice- I take a night off when I really really need it, so that I'm recharged for Friday and can spend the whole weekend alternating between working hard and resting hard without feeling guilty either way. Though it's impossible to not talk about architecture wen you go out with other architects, we at least managed to keep it kind of light, and spent a good portion of it commenting on our schools or drilling Mike for all of his theoretical insight.

I'm planning on going to the Barbican today, and then possibly to an Evensong at St. Paul's, and then to a blues dance in the evening. I, unfortunately, do not know anyone going to the blues thing, so I have another dance back up, just in case I need to escape.

I'm going to the market on Sunday (maybe with my roommate Hellen) and then.... oh, well, lots of work again.

ba-da boo!

Dancing last night was awesome! The band was really good, I met some great people, and danced really hard (so that by then end, I was completely drenched in sweat. yum).
Note to old guys who like to jerk girls around when dancing: please trim your nails.

I have a cut on my finger from some dude that doesn't understand girls aren't lassos because he had long, sharp nails. ew.

This Week's Work 04

I have technically finished 4 weeks, nearly 1/4th of my academic time here.

This week was slow and fast. The routine is shortening my week, extending my day.

-----------------Lectures-----------------
Ken Yeang, the green skyscraper designer, lectured on Wednesday. It was anticlimactic, and I was not that impressed with either his speaking or his presentation. I appreciate what he does, and think it's very beautiful, but his approach is not one of inventiveness or fun.. He has organized and summarized every possible obstacle and design process into 4 or 5 points. There were LOADS of these lists, with color coding that responded to charts and diagrams.
And herein lies the problem of "Green Design" for most designers. It is boring, it is technical, and there is no freedom. There was no passion. I keep coming back to a quote of Werner Sobek's from the last lecture I went to at IIT: "Don't talk about it, just do it." He was referring to Zero Energy, Zero Carbon, Zero Waste. He does extraordinarily inventive and beautiful buildings, and spends 90% of the time talking about the design concept, ignoring the impressive feat of producing a building with Zero Waste.
Sigh of relief!

I also attended Peter Cook's third lunchtime lecture, on How To Be An Interesting Architect. Not nearly as good as the first one, he showed images of projects he thought were good or refreshing. There was really no "How To" about it, but provided a nice substitute to studio-talk in the lunchroom.


-----------------Shaping-Seams-----------------
Showed work, have to make a model for Monday (CRAP!), and spent most of the time trying to understand what Mike had done.

-----------------The-Deep-End-And-The-Long-Term-----------------
Have to meet up with the class tonight (ugh) to perform/photograph our "concept" for our photos. I went out several times with friends this weekend to take photos, but unfortunately wound up being the model for most of them and not the photographer (thus the photos are not mine, and not what I would have taken). I just didn't think about it, really. Oh well.
Pretty nervous about this, actually.
This week I've focused most on light and the human form. I'm pretty interested in how kind of odd situations can draw attention to shape; the 'death' like poses punctuated with selective highlights.
They are kind of a mix between the "Do something you wouldn't normally do" and the "secret worlds" suggestions I got from last class.

A few of this week's work:








A few more are here: Photog Album

-----------------Architecture-To-Architecture-----------------
Brett Steele again. Interesting as usual. No one talked during the discussion part, which was painful, but the topic was understandable this time. We read part of Learning from Las Vegas (Venturi) + Fake Images (Corbu) and talked about the role of images and media in shaping our understanding of the New, using media and architecture to sell people stuff, etc.

-----------------Studio-----------------
LOts and lots and lots of drawing to do. I was in crit til 9:30 on Friday (not cool man.. not cool). But I like where my project is going. We have a bit crit next week, so it will be quite busy.

Saturday thoughts

My favorite place in London is the rec center, RV camp, and stables under the overpasses on the way to Oxford. There is a glowing bubble tent that neatly snatches on to the underside of the flying concrete arch, enclosing a basketball court Immediately adjacent is an RV park, part-'on my way out' and part 'I'm here to stay.' It's a strange limbo place; the impermanence of its settlers manifest not only in their dwellings (house on wheels) but site. Their driveway is the highway.
It's a shanty town, grown up. There is even a small house under construction, roof truss and Tyvec stand as monuments to someone who plans on staying a lot longer. In their community of travelers, are they the outcast or the king?

The arena and stables across a small alley is constantly in use. The horses don't seem to mind the roaring traffic 50 feet above their heads. A chestnut, turned out, ambled around and poked his head over the fence. Does this city horse long to run free along the interstate, like the autos whizzing by? Does he see the open stretch of pavement and think "Freedom!"? He is the evolutionary link between horse and car.


back to the noise and the craze of the city after a short stretch in oxford. we barely scratched the surface before the group, eyes flitting towards the door of the cafe, decided they had seen enough. "What more is there?" perhaps they are a different type... perhaps they -did- see enough... perhaps they are contentedly consumed with the city. But I long for country, and open parks without sign of lights or buildings, and a deafening quiet, and space to move. I need solitude, and ancient churches, and an explosion of green things, and fields full of sheep.
I nearly cried on the bus as we pulled away through the streets and back towards London; it's not just that Oxford is so Blake, Oxford is so home.
Even Mike commented that I seemed much more at ease there than London.

It's true.
I'm hooked.

Filtering through pictures, I've decided that I'll be able to fill a scrapbook chronicling all the places I've been to through pictures of moss.
I can't get enough of it; it's so cute, so green, so small and furry. I want some pet moss. The past few days I've been scheming about how to get my hands on some moss, and how to care for it (how i would keep the rock moist, not too sunny, etc). I need to find some moss to nick.

I keep forgetting that "Pants" is a 'bad' word.


I'm reading A Place of My Own, by Micheal Pollan. In the book, he chronicles his personal journey to hand-make a small writing hut in the woods behind his house. He refers to it as his tree house, and writes beautifully about the unique and intensely personal qualities of small, secluded spaces like tree houses and forts under the stairs. The tree house (both of his childhood and in general), he writes, becomes more than just place to hide or play, but a symbol of private childhood ritual... "a temple of one's privacy and independence."

I have a whole theory on how this relates to blogging and Facebook. I'll spare the details.

L

Developments

New Studio developments...

Evening Thoughts

There are two homeless people that I see every night on my walk home. They are punctual, always asleep by the time I get there (let's say, no earlier than 9) and are always in the same state: they both sleep on a few layers of cardboard that fold up to block the light, have nice sleeping bags, and hang their personal belongings on the door handle above them.

So in a way, they can hardly be called homeless, because they have a permanent address on their particular front step. If anyone needed to find them, one would only have to wait til disk to be certain of their location.

I'm afraid I've never met them, or even seen their faces. They are either sleeping or not there at all, and I've never been by in those awkward hours of evening or morning when they must retreat before the regular work day starts.

But anyways, this skewed notion of home has me thinking of my own perception of home.
I was asked several times this evening "Where I call home?" and no matter how many times people ask, or how many times I rehearse the answer, I always falter. I suppose this is because I've moved enough times that home isn't a place any more; it's people, a feeling, an event.

One home, obviously, is where my parents are. I lounge around and do nothing, go shopping with mom, groan over absurd dinner exclamations of "I only had X, Y, and Z to eat today!", and consume more home made deliciousness than is (probably, but not likely) healthy.
One home is where Blake is, especially when he's with me. Even the strangest, transitory or new places feel right: a 6 hour plane ride crammed into seats a bit too small, a funny smelling dorm room, a pub in Oxford.
One home is Candice's car, where we spend ages talking about life and love and feeling good, and the amazing things you can find at Salvation Army, or how Martha Stewart is a goddess, or how good food makes you feel whole.

Nowhere really feels like home right now though... I like London, but it just is.

==+==+==
In other news... I have a roommate again, though I haven't met her. She's sleeping, and I think she might be French. I don't think she speaks much English. I was really getting used to having a quiet space to myself... it was perfect for slow mornings and long homework nights.

I went to dance tonight; it's the only place in London I've met any British people! I didn't dance as much, because I spent more time talking with people. I met a few new guys who were really nice, but the band (which was enormous) was too loud to have any meaningful conversation. Haha, I was asked out to coffee by a very sweet Scottish lad (but of course I said no, dear). I got lots of tips on where to travel to, which museums were the best, etc.

I have a lot of work to do this week, but no class at all tomorrow... so I may actually bathe tonight and get an "earlier" start.

Beautiful Day Rule

Why is it that only the most beautiful days are the ones I have to be inside, doing homework. There must be some Great Rule...

However, I did get out this morning.
I went to the Marylebone Farmer's Market at 10 and got some of the most delicious goodies for the week, including:

-2 cheeses from the oldest cheese makers in the country (they can trace their family of cheese makers back to the 1600s!)
-the best quiche I have ever tasted
-3 dirt-covered potatoes
-a lamb and home-made chutney sandwich on organic ciabatta


Lunch!


My glass started doing this really cool thing when the sun hit it just so... Inspiration for studio!


I have successfully avoided my mini-Library Of Destraction in order to make beautiful black and white line drawings for studio.


My new pet... which I got from OxFam for 8 lbs.



Last night, Mike, Loren and I went out to photograph around 9:30. It was a really nice night, and I got a few fun shots... but we wound up in a pub after about 30 minutes of photographing.


Someone should hire me to do advertising photography.


Down an alley


Midnight snack?

Saturday wanderings

I really needed a break from work today, so Mike and I headed out to the John Soane museum and down towards the touristy bit of the Thames. We were going to meet up with others from studio, but it never happened because we went different ways, and decided to go to Westminster Abbey for the Evensong instead of over to the Tate or Covent Garden.


A small church on the other side of the square from the JS museum. I love moss!


After the JS museum, we wandered and found this weird wig shop next to a government building and pub


Across the street were a slew of telephone booths, and since there were no nosy passersby, we took advantage of the touristy "I'm in a red telephone booth!" However, we also learned earlier that day, that the design of the booth was taken from the crypt designed by John Soane for his wife. The original crypt still stands behind one of the churches... somewhere.


We found another museum place by chance, and I started playing with my telephoto lense.


And while I haven't yet been to the Gherkin, it was finally visible from the terrace of the museum!


Banksy, a famous London graffiti artist, paints these incredible, cheeky things all over the place. No one knows who Banksy is. Most often, they are kept in tact because the quality and iconic-ness of the art. However, this theatre on the Thames didn't seem to think it was so nice and tried to wash it off.


Under the Embankment bridge (not sure what it's real name is) we found a book fair. It was really overpriced.


The most incredible space along the Thames, under a major pedestrian walkway- the home of budding London Punks.


Copper to Copper: a member of the force consults tactics with one of the many inventive street performers along the Thames strip.


The slowly turning Eye is dizzing as you stare up at it.


Bright tacky things for sale along Westminster bridge.


Westminster Tube is one of my favorite stops because it's this incredible concrete and steel labyrinth beside Parliament, with eerie lighting. A futuristic robot movie should be filmed here.


For a few more photos from the set, check out the album.

baaah

Bored. In studio. Ready to be done. Wasted the last 24 hours on a tangent. I'm not happy with the conceptual side of my project. This is what I'm working on:

Thursday Highlights

Everyone in studio woke up feeling sick after having slept poorly. We are blaming the Korean food.

IIT and Mies were again brought up in lecture.
Fave quote : "[iit was] a factory for making more little Mies!" [insert picture of perfectly aligned desks being inspected by MvR].

Got a great haircut from an Australian.

Need to find something other than Indian, pub grub, or sandwiches to eat for dinner. I do not want to know how much food has cost me while I'm here... it's a small fortune.

So tonight, I only have to come up with a 4-7 phase storyboard, do more work in 3d, photograph the night sky, and finish my whitebook. Ha.

Fantastical Dreams and Torture through Ornament

We had a brief crit in studio today where everyone presented all the work they have done so far, and where they want to take the project.
It was all very exciting, because the project directions are all unique and interesting, and I couldn't help but pick out pieces from each and daydream while they talked.

Punishment (or torture) through Ornament -
Temporary jails or detention camps, a sort of Inflata-Guantánamo Bay, are another clever attempt at torture through ingenious means: overwhelming Rococo ornamentation adorns each prefabricated detention-cell, too visually stimulating to take in. Sickly sugar-pinks and bright golds; flourishes and grotesques in every corner; every crevice crammed with gilt curls. It hurts to look at that much ornament. Baroque music is pumped into the space and after only a few days, hours even, the detainees succumb! All capacity for thought has been crowded out by the trills and swirls.

===
After, we went for drinks and dinner at a Korean place. Home again, and considering take the night "off."

Workaholics

Despite the two snowdays this week, and having the full weekend, I've spent the majority of the last 4 days in my room, at my computer, working on a manifesto and images for studio.
The highlights have been few... several walks through a snowy Regents Park to count about 50 HUGE snowmen on each patch of grass, dinners with Mike and friends, and several trips down Marylebone High to look at things I can't afford.
For example, I found out today that it would cost 82 pounds to have my mom's awesome vintage Frye boots fixed. [the sole needs to be completely replaced]
I also found a place to get my haircut for 25 pounds, which in THIS city, is a steal. [compare to the average of 50 pounds... or the 240 pounder I found today]

And I'm starting to think that while the AA is worth loads of work... it will be a very sad semester if I keep this up. Working from 10 am to 3 am every day, getting up at 8:30.

However... I am very excited about the adventures of Mr. Holmes, the direction my studio project is going in, and that I am already on my second audio book of the week/end.

I need to go photograph more...

two snow days!

Not sure if it's because I'm not feeling well, or if it's because Deleuze is so damn boring, but I just woke up from a nap after trying to read for 5 minutes.

Please, for our sake and sanity, can the field of architecture start recruiting poets and journalists to ghost-write our absurd theories? Not only would they then be enjoyable and intelligible, but likely more inspiring and inventive.


The school is closed today and tomorrow for 10 cm of snow, so Mike and I took a bit of a break this morning to enjoy the fluff and freedom [that is, until we read the four emails that listed exactly what needed to be done for Wednesday].


Oot and Aboot


The sweet gingerbread Coffee Shop in Regent's. There was a queue to take a photo!


Leave it to the British to hire teams of people to shovel walkways. I can hear the slogan "Investing in People!" ringing behind the absurdity.

The dear, sweet ladies who clean our floor came in this morning at 9 to clean up all of my old roommate's linens and stuff.
Unfortunately, as they do not speak a word of English, and as I have moved almost all of my stuff to other side of the room (with the bigger closet), there was quite a lot of confusion, going in and out, ripping things off the walls, trying to throw away my belongings, etc.
They finally brought in a boy to translate and move heavy stuff, clearing up the matter, and I'm now living in a room that is spotless on one half (the side they just cleaned) and a side that is not so (the side I half-cleaned when I moved my stuff over.

Had I known they would be coming in to do that, I wouldn't have moved so early!