This Week's Work 02

Week 02: Lectures, The Deep End And the Long Term, Shaping Seams, Studio, Architecture to Architecture

After spending the weekend with IIT friends from Paris, and thankfully being allowed to switch my media studies courses, my academics this week started to look up.

-----------------Lectures-----------------
I missed most of this week's lectures for stupid things, like a 2 hour long "orientation" to the Digital Prototyping Lab, but the one I did sit through was Peter Cook's "How To Be A Young Architect."
Peter Cook is currently the director of the Bartlett, but has long been involved at academically the AA and was a founding member of the revolutionary thinkers of Archigram. He's one of those people that every student and professor knows (of).
He's an incredible lecturer, and his presentation, though not the most informative, was probably the most relaxed, comfortable, and enjoyable I have gone to. It was a "lunch time" series, so it was very very informal and he just kind of talked about a few points to remember or realize when becoming a 'young architect.'
Things like: your business card says a lot about you, so make it personal and make it represent the kind of work you want to do. your location says a lot about you, so avoid "the office" if you want to stay fresh. the dangers and benefits of working under the Starchitect. the banality of over-photoshopped work, but that there's "no excuse for a tacking looking board."
He was crass, he was frank, he was politically incorrect... and it was wonderful.

-----------------The-Deep-End-And-The-Long-Term-----------------
After 20 minutes of running up and down 4 flights of narrow, mountainous stairs in search of either my Publish tutor or the photographer, I finally found the class and met Goswin Schwindinger, the quirky but personable tutor for The Deep End. We spent the class flipping through a slideshow of images the students had taken that week, laughing and making fun of each other, and talking about the more successful photos. It was such a pleasant surprise, and while the class is not about the mechanics of taking a picture (there has been no instruction yet on setting up frames, settings, etc) that is all to come. We will slowly take more and more scripted images so that our final image is one scene that we have completely fabricated and arranged.
I've taken a few, but not many that I'm completely satisfied with.
Here are a few:

Haze on the window pane. My view in the evenings


Green Gloom on Gower Street


Please ignore how creepy it is that I was photographing people through a window.


Jackie and Rafal leaving, come morning, on their way to Mumbai.

-----------------Shaping-Seams-----------------
This is my tutor's media studies course that I have picked up for no credit. We are learning modeling in Rhino, and I'm working on breaking apart and re-seaming a strangely shaped piece with Mike, another VSP. The purpose of the class is to learn Rhino modeling and to think of how, in fabrication, large pieces of CNCed pieces come together in inconspicuous ways. We are drawing inspiration from fabric for our piece and hope to do something very soft, flowing, and layered.
We haven't started working on it yet.


-----------------Studio-----------------
Everyone in my section is great, and we have a nice little studio culture going. Though it's painful sometimes, we all spent the week in our attic space working on the Plate 1 submission (that was due Friday), beginning to work in 3d (with Rhino), and crafting the first bullet points of our Manifesto/Narrative.

My final submission looks a bit like this:


My space is Panoptic Deformation and I will be exploring shifting spaces, distorted perception, and commenting on the lack of 'Nature' in the city.
Because I expressed so much interest in the narrative, I have been advised to work on that over the weekend. What I'm beginning to really love about the AA is not only the freedom to pursue the stuff of your fantasies, but that you are encouraged to work on whatever you think is interesting, in whatever way works for you. This leads to wildly creative projects that the students are devoted to and passionate about, with mountains of work and process behind every decision. So while the resultant architecture is always a bit fantastic, there is no denying that each project is very, very good. It makes sense then, that only after letting each student do what interests them most personally, can you begin to judge and compare where their strengths, interests, and opinions lie. You can then label "good" "better" "best" or find the truly ingenious.
The other part of studio, which is a bit tedious but so simply brilliant, is that we have to keep an organized "White Book" of all of our process, iterations, and opinions about the work we've done throughout the term/yera. The examples we've been shown are 2 inch thick bound masterpieces of research, discovered logic, and aesthetic thought. Having this available during a presentation frees up the final boards to only show images in the spirit of the final result, beautifully crafted and compelling.
[It is also like putting together my portfolio of the year as I go along!]

-----------------Architecture-to-Architecture-----------------
Brett Steele, the Director of the AA, gave our lecture this week on the evolution of plan and architect's roles as Information Organizers. This was related to our readings about conceptual art and architecture, trying to understand the meaning of formal components, searching for a universal language of form, and the definition of conceptual architecture.
It's all incredibly interesting, but sitting through discussion makes me feel completely ignorant and unread because the students at the school are so well versed in architectural theory. If there were anything I could change instantly about IIT, it would be a stronger emphasis on reading theory.

==+==+==+==

I feel completely sick and over my head.

This Week's Work

Week 01: Studio, Publish on Demand, Architecture to Architecture


-----------------Publish---ON---Demand-----------------
I am hopeuflly dropping Publish on Demand in order to pick up a very strange Photography course. I will also start attending Shaping Seams, but not receive credit.

Publish on Demand requires a rough draft of a manifesto for next week. While I would love to write something and have it published at the AA, we are writing a manifesto for studio and there are only 3 weeks of content development for the class. The latter weeks are simply printing it off. I would prefer to be in a class that has 8 full weeks of content since I am only here for a short time.
However, I did scratch out the beginnings of a manifesto, because I have been agonizing throughout this [incredibly] long week about a need and desire for depth, sincerity, and meaning.

I filled a few pages in my sketchbook with musings that went from "End of the World and Total Collapse" to "Hope Beyond and Before Despair." It's much healthier to end on a bright note.


-----------------Studio-----------------
Self Dividing Line by J. Tarbell

We are being asked in Studio to create art from Processing or Flash scripting, to obsess over an image, a shape. Knowing that this will turn into my studio project, I have been having a hard time overcoming my inherent disdain for such practice. This is not only a very different approach than I normally take, but emblematic of the type of architectural design process I disagree with.
We have chosen a script to modify play with. For Monday, we are to have a finished piece. The final image can be a collage or taken directly from the script. It can have color, represent anything, and should be jaw-droppingly beautiful.
While I'm not quite there yet, my first attempts at playing with the script have resulted in a few compositions like this:


Growing things


Cloud or mountain?


Secret box


-----------------Architecture--to--Architecture-----------------
My History / Theory course seems to be a good class. An hour long lecture crammed in a tiny room, sitting on plastic chairs or the wooden floor, is followed by smaller group discussion about an assigned reading and its relationship to the lecture. Though the conversation easily strays to wilder and wilder tangents, it is refreshing to hear people talk intelligently about obscure architectural nuances.
Favorite quote: "We want this to a problem to you. We want you to be agitated."
The TAs/Discussion leaders seem pretty cool... recent grads of the Masters and PhD History and Theory Studies.

For account issues and ease of use, I will be uploading my images to my photobucket album now: view here

These were from last weekend, before classes started. As you may have guessed, now I'm busy and don't have as much time to upload photos and blog, because photos take a long time to shrink and post. However, photobucket should minimize the time issue, because it has a self compressing thing when you upload. Yay smart people =)

It was Simon's 25th birthday party, so Blake and I headed back to Oxford to visit Christ Church and see old friends.



Christ Church from college entrance


The quad behind the Cathedral, taken through a fence because they wouldn't let us in!


We went to the daily Evensong, which is a short service with the choir. The space is breathtaking, though oddly lit.


The ornamentation just drips from every corner and crevice, wrapping around column.


Blake and Steve show off their mad moonwalking skills at Simon's party. We watched an unreal amount of old MJ music videos.


Morning after the party, we headed down to the park by their flat before breakfast to play on the swings and toys. Mina likes going really high!


The little kids in the park started looking at us weird... literally stopping in front of us to gape. It was awesome.


Blake and Simon played a lot of hackey sack before we finally gave in and got breakfast at the Britania.

Ew, nature!!

I'm beginning to sense this weird disconnect of Europeans from Nature.
It is odd, for despite the beautiful rolling English country side, abundant parks and ancient forests, these people (at least these Londoners) have no sense of true Nature: the quiet, the dark, the social disconnect, and internal awakening.

---
I want answers.
More like... I want discussion.
I want discussion of real answers. For a future I agree with and see as possible.
I want discussion of a future of peace and happiness.
Peace and happiness is not nano-technology. It is not mile-high towers. It is not self-contained, isolated cities. It is not robot-driven, drug-induced ecstasy.
It is small. It is leafy. It is space and it is community.
So I'm a hippy? Or I'm an idealist?
But how do I begin to talk about rebuilding from waste, intense urban permaculture, or designing sanity in a place like London, where no one knows what dark, or quiet, or privacy is?


"There is nothing. It is like... completely out there."
"It was so dark, I had to use a light to find my way back!" "Oh, that's scary!" "yah!"
"There was no internet! I spent 4 days trying to set it up, but I had to leave because I can't live without internet!"

I want to do something good (and leafy) and peaceful and announce:
Welcome, good people! This is the rest of the world!
and open eyes to a setting sun over miles of untouched wilderness, to torrents in oceans impossibly long, to a forest of real trees not devised by an algorithm.
How, in all of this vast goodness, could you possibly propose a future without renewal?

First Day

So.... my first day was a bit frustrating and quite a lot less than I was expecting.

I didn't get into the studio I wanted; I was one of two who were "randomly selected" to switch because of over-interest in the Redesigning London section. This was incredibly disheartening, because not only am I uninterested in my studio's brief, I'm not sure if IIT will accept the work / product as a studio project. This sounds harsh, but I came to the AA to have brilliant people critique my thinking; I would rather have them critique something of real importance to me (how to use what we have already built instead of building new, using recycled materials and creating local economy) rather than my solely aesthetic taste.
The brief is to develop shapes based on aesthetic judgment. It's supposed to be fun, lighthearted, non-traditional. I'm just not sure IIT will look at the final 13 panels I've created (as artwork, essentially) and say "why yes! Mies would certainly understand that as proper studio work! A+!" even though I will work incredibly hard.

We'll see. There is a chance it might become more serious.

There's also a chance we might not go to Russia because of visa issues, but we should know more about that by the end of the week or early next.

My media studies course on architectural publications is not at all what I expected, and I'm not sure if I'll get as much out of it as I wanted. I have to write a manifesto by next monday. I think I will either write about whole tree architecture (and base it off my recent research for EcoStructures), the digital revolution in public institutions (and use my studio project from last semester), or my more recent musings for urban habitation (which I was hoping to pursue in this term's studio.. before my dreams were thwarted!).
The only small problem is that I need images... and a lot of them... and none of those projects have many (or any) worth publishing.

Apart from running around the city

I am thinking about:

City of Ember
Wall-E
Lebbeus Woods
Gordon Matta Clark
parasites
the 4th dimension
sanity and peace

and how they're all connected

but more on that later

British Museum

Continuing our touristy travels, Blake and I headed out on an adventure towards the AA and the British Museum yesterday. We found a great art store close by and bough sketchbooks and pen sets (on sale!). Spending too much money is really easy, especially when things are overpriced but look innocently inexpensive. The school feels much smaller than I expected and smelled strongly of char from the lasercutter, but it was really nice to see it and the people before I "have" to be there tomorrow. However, the museum was fantastic, and I feel a bit more comfortable maneuvering through the labyrinth that is London.


The rough route B + I walked from the ISH to the store, AA, and museum.


The BBC tower is really the only visible landmark, and in the usual haze it looks much like an alien seed pod that has sprouted in the city center


"what are you looking at dearie? The roof?" "oh, i just like how the tree comes up behind the building" She need not know that I mostly like her in this photo


I think Blake dreams about quirky English flashing details


The Foster space is much better in person, and it was very exciting to see!


The museum is full of really breathtaking stuff, like THE Rosetta Stone. We were all huddled around the glass trying to read the inscriptions (Which we just learned were in the 3 languages of Egypt: heiroglyphs, the traditional script we always associate with Egypt; Demotic, the spoken language of Egypt at the time; and Greek, the language of the government.)


English school girls eagerly watching a beheading.


They were hosting a great Assyrian collection. This guy should have been pointing the Way Out.


The Elgin Marbles collection was astounding. The Brits have managed to get their hands on some of the absolute gems of the ancient world and refuse to give them back.


Case in point being the temple recreation of Elgin Marbles, with the perfectly intact friezes.


There were vast rooms of antique clocks and pocketwatches. It was very British, and felt like a room from the Department of Mysteries (from Harry Potter)- a golden glow and soft ticking of clocks that never, ever stop.


Blake fancies himself as a decendant one of these blokes- the ancient gaelic warriors - or one of the celtic guys that painted themselves blue and defeated the Roman army.

We've made it!

Past the headaches of delayed flights, astronomical charges for a cab, a few hectic nights in hostels, and a lot of walking in circles, Blake and I have made it to the UK. We spent the weekend in Oxford visiting a few of his old friends and getting a feel for the slower side of England. It was lovely, delicious, and great fun.


City of Dreaming Spires: view of Oxford across South Park, where I ripped my glove jumping a pointed fence


The texture of Oxford is fantastic.. Old stone, soft moss. Everything is green and grey and completely authentic


Simon and Mina toured us around. We fell in love with the chocolate lace at Patisserie Valerie


Every college in Oxford has its own chapel like this one, St. Mary the Virgin. It is one of the oldest, having been first started in 1250 and gradually added to. The play of light, attention to detail, and craftsmanship of handcarved local limestone of every square inch of the city is astounding.


Oxford is full of small museums and historical places. The History of Science Museum offers several floors of scientific instruments from Newton to Herschel. Some of the very first instruments for calculating angles, explaining the universe, and viewing the stars are on display.


We had High Tea at the Grand Cafe. I've never tasted anything so good as 3 tiers of little egg and salmon sandwiches, scones and clotted cream, and handmade truffles.


Reliving Lewis and Tolkein at the Trout


There are more endlessly historic and beautiful museums, pubs, libraries, and chapels than you can shake a stick at. (no matter how hard you try)


And everything, from the candle sticks to the Gothic domes are ancient, detailed, and so rich


The Duke of Wellington brought back Great Sequoias and planted them in University Park. Our first sighting of the famed American tree. It's sweeping branches skirted down, offering an aromatic shelter from the rain. Don't you want to live up there?


We are back in London, and despite the traffic and crowds, have managed to find all that we need without going crazy (yet). Setting regular eating and waking times has been the biggest problem, as neither of us own a watch and everywhere closes at 5.



More photos: Study Abroad Photostream

It is a rule: nothing goes the way you plan it.

Minor flight crisis. I'm now leaving even earlier, meaning we have to leave the house no later than 4am.

Took a bath anyways. Bath ball dyed the tub (and me) bright pink.

Quick flare of tempers with dad.

But I have 4 hours to sleep and Intelligentsia coffee to wake up to.

There are worse things.

Waiting and waiting

Bags are packed. A bulgy garment bag and two suitcases for 5 months of travel.
The only step I'm sure of is this:
We will be on the airplane for 8 hours.
We will get off the airplane and it will be night.
We will go to the hostel we booked last night.

Will we sleep?
Will the breakfast be good?
Will I, in my delirium from all-day travel, get queasy when we drive on the wrong side, headlights glaring off damp roads and the dull chatter of BBC?

[After that, I'm not sure. We don't even have the next day planned, apart from checking in at ISH.]

I'm wishing life was like Harry Potter, and a house elf would come whisk my bags away and make my bed and organize a relaxing welcome.
Which is interesting; for as much convenience of technology we have to 'make our lives easier' and provide us with comforts of a warm, bright home, there is nothing that yet matches a good hostess. Comfort is not the mechanics of being cared for, but human empathy that accompanies it.

---
In my free time from packing, I've been brushing up on my British slang.
I'm working on growing my 'list of equivalents.' Right now they stand as:
suitcase = trunk = boot = rubber = Johnny*
However simple, I think that the trousers = pants = underwear will be most problematic (or hilarious)

*I would like to continue this one, but I'm not sure how!