museum quality

Maison de Verre

2008-01-22T12:57:00.001-05:00

26ouro.xlarge1, originally uploaded by harvard4.

Maison de Verre was one of the first building that I was asked to study in architecture school. It was in a studio where we studied the relationship between a building and a piece of technology. I chose the relationship between this building and an SLR camera and the comparison still effects my thinking seven years later. Built from 1928 to 1931, it is one of the earliest examples of a truly modern house and in many ways it is still innovative and strikingly modern by todays standards. Pierre Chareau was a furniture designer and this was his first house. Look here for an interior and entrance shot.

I'm also just a big aalto fan in general.

2008-01-22T12:21:00.002-05:00

Besides the library at Mt Angel Abbey, the other project that I really love by Aalto (although I've never seen it in person) is the Viipuri Library

Aalto

2008-01-22T12:18:00.001-05:00

, originally uploaded by [lolo].

Alvar Aalto's library at the Mt Angel Abbey in Oregon is high on the list because of the quality of light in the space. It is perched on the edge of a step hill side with views out over the farmland of the Willamette valley but one only appreciates these views through a few small windows that come as a surprise between book shelves. The focus of the space is on a central area that is lit by a combination of natural and artificial light. It is the kind of space that is so conducive to getting lost in a book.

Branding Cities

2006-10-22T00:53:00.000-04:00

DSCF3135.JPG, originally uploaded by Kodamakitty.

What does the sign mean anyway? If cities become brands then what?

under-globalization/under-globalized

2006-10-19T19:59:00.000-04:00

Pyongyang Metro, originally uploaded by my new office.

As the value of the "development project" buy the world bank and others, becomes more dubious, other plans for the future of the planet have room to expand and take the place of that previous model. A country or region's degree of "under-globalization" could be a new lens to replace the rhetoric and sound of inevitability around the measures of "underdeveloped, developing and developed" nations. However you feel about globalization, it is likely mixed. And mixed is more likely how people in many parts of the world feel about the changes occurring around them at the moment.
As the US continues to out-source and as a result "un-develop" it's own economy, the development model of the last century takes another blow. This and other trends will continue and the only useful meta-distinction that may remain is that between "globalized" and "under-globalized" locals. The scale and distinctions (boarders) of these places become much smaller as communities try to maintain their "sense of place" (to use a new urbanest term), and people seek to preserve or invent what make their environment unique. I'm not totally against these forces however. My hope is that like the unbroken mountain range of 100 million years ago which once connected all of North and South America and lead to an incredible spike in the range of species diversity because of it's networked and connected nature, the cultures of the world today can gain diversity and strength through their interaction.
Places like Pyongyang, North Korea are decidedly under-globalized and as a result poss an interesting parallel to the "under-developed" regions of the last century. Like the orientalist fetishisation of the casaba or barrio for its otherness, now anywhere that is under-globalized can take on parallel alure. Anywhere that is lacking in plastic signs and english menus, or people without a shred of sarcasm (this may not deserve to be in the list but it has held true in my experience), is ripe for fetishisation.
This can be seen in a deluded form in people's urning for the uniqueness of small towns in america, but when it pervades an entire country and builds up behind a damn of sanctions and travel restriction, like in the case of North Korea, this isolationist cocktail can provide a powerful punch to the "hardcore-cultural-connasseur."
Alright, this blog entry has good pedantic and out of hand so I think that I will just stop there. When I think too much in the above voice I start feeling like the really lame step-dad in michel gondry's "science of sleep." I still haven't found a "voice" for this blog that I like, but maybe it just needs to be the outlet for the above voice so that I don't bore people in conversation by slipping into it, conversely I'm reinforcing it buy indulging in it... not sure?

548 Riverside Drive

2006-10-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

548 Riverside Drive, originally uploaded by kymtyr.

I left New York two days ago and now I'm in uncharted water... At least for me. I'm taking a year off graduate school and I don't really know what I'll be doing for the next year which is the 'uncharted water' part. I just know that I needed time away for school, and now I have it.

positive futures?

2006-06-08T18:37:00.001-04:00

Most of the "CCCP in space" stamps that I uploaded to Flickr were very optimistic in nature. But these to are a real exceptions!

This is my first Blog entry in a long time but my plan is to do a lot of blogging from China, so stay tuned.

welcome to the fun palace

2006-02-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

more cedric price then cedric price's "fun palace."

exposure

2006-02-10T19:40:00.000-05:00

the century with mushroom clouds

I was looking for this project/piece today and I found the artist's web page. Given the singularity, and brilliance of "the century with mushroom clouds," I was surprised that so much of his work is so bland and almost corporate. I guess that is the disadvantage of having a web site that catalogs all your work; the mystique is lost. Good and bad work, sit on the same plain at the same resolution. His page, of any "fine artist’s" web-presence I’ve seen, is most like that of an architectural office (and that is not a good thing!) Instillation artists (who are commissioned) must face similar self-promotion issues to architects, and presenting a large volume of work would imply an ability to produce consistently...
However, when branding becomes an issue, there is probably more cultural capital in being under-exposed.

cultural melting bath

Jersey chiaroscuro

2006-02-04T15:49:00.000-05:00

light and dark is relative...

par avion

2006-02-03T12:30:00.000-05:00

I came across this paring of stamps last week and an interest in the combination has stuck with me. This is not only because both images represent, in their own way some aspect of the lineage of my current work (Hernan Diaz Alanso's studio), but also because of their internal conversation and mode of representation. Across scale, culture, time and paradigm there is a link here with a common aesthetic conception and perception. It's not productive to "type" or taxonify this quality, even though its greater implications are many, because it wonderfully blurs into so many other esthetics. The relationship implicit is more fecund as an ingredient... there is also something wonderfully "american" (in the sense of this land, not politically), in the juxtaposition of the TWA, Navajo Jewelry and a "par avion" sensibility.

jump suits

2006-01-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

one-piece

weather-proof

jump suit!
A continuous in-seam zipper and expandex chest and arm breathing panels make this aerodynamic suit able to expand and contract with movement. The built-in hood has criss-crossing straps for an adjustable contoured fit eliminating the "blind spot" of most hoods. The bell-like leg cuff design repells water splashing back to the ground. Black nylon cire. Green leather and white cotton piping. The enigmatic creation of eugene tsui.

western, non-western

2006-01-23T18:35:00.000-05:00

I just had a big debate with a friend about the distinctions of "western" and "non-western" in academia (there is a required “non-western” history course at GSAPP). The question is weather these terms are still useful distinctions? Every geographic location has its own unique primitive culture, but nowhere on the planet is truly isolated anymore. And intrepid Australian and Japanese backpackers are voraciously exploring, and for the most part, congenially initiating those last few groups of somewhat isolated people through adventure travel, like the manifest destiny of globalization, in which the least explored places are the most desirable. In this context I think that we need new words and taxonomies for style and culture. At the moment "western" is standing in for non-native or some sense of meta-networked culture or maybe the culture of global wealth. And "non-western" stands in for "primitive" or other less networked practices. You might not agree with these distinctions and I am still trying to define them myself, but what is clear to me is that the word "western" in this context is no longer a geographic distinction, and its usefulness is increasingly dubious.

I was just looking at Hel Looks a catalog of street fashion in Helsinki, and was amazed at how much a lot of these kids look like the kids in Fruits, street fashion from Japan. It was one of those moments when you want new conceptual lense to understand the world. Finland is one of the most homogeneous societies in the "west"(replace with better term) with a strong design culture and so their adoption of street style form tokyo must be part of the "western" experience? I don't think so. The manner of adoption is very different for the anesthetization of the rococo designers of the 17th century who included "oriental" elements in there compositions. I think that there is a great deal of implicit empathy for their not-so-other in the style decisions of the kids from Hel Looks. Thanks Jean for the link.

potential liner pattern

2006-01-23T02:28:00.000-05:00

detail

scorched paint

cute potential

2006-01-22T19:38:00.000-05:00

Thursday at our first meeting, Hernan Diaz Alonso made the argument that grotesque is the opposite of cute. But, I have always seen a fine line between grotesque and cute, with plain as their opposite... what do you think? The relationship between pleasure and pain, with numbness as its opposite might be a parallel? Maybe these generalisations are not useful... but I love to generalize and link things, so here is one more: Maybe if something is Grotesque and small it has more cute potential and if it is Grotesque and large it is more likely to be Sublime like a rugged mountain range .

envelope liners

2006-01-22T13:18:00.000-05:00

aetnan liner

chase liner

ben van brecht of un studio got me interested in envelope liners. there is a range of quality but the good ones are definitly MQ.

frame

2006-01-20T13:03:00.000-05:00

A superstudioesque view of my courtyard. It is the most compelling space that I past through daily. The grid of rivets which secure the retrofit-bat-insulation, balance the nearly imperceptible mesh spanning the opening.

Etymology

2006-01-19T23:02:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot recently about what validates and encourages creative activity. I've also been considering the structures and institutions that wheeled that power. I guess that I see a parallel at the moment between the power of museums and the power of the courts, in which the MOMA is the equivalent or the US Supreme Court for art and architecture -- wielding an incredible amount of power and doesn't usually dealing with the most important issues of the time. What is included in a collection and why, is always interesting and usually political. As a group we are always forgetting, editing and destroying the past and ostensibly a museum counters that process by storing artifacts and re-presenting them in the future. That process however, is finite and really, that is the good news. The question then becomes what and how much of something should be preserved. What are the implications of curation in general, or atleast the effect it has on people who see something exhibited in an official context.

The above thoughts are a side effect of an interest I've had recently in having a blog to curate my own thoughts. The indorsement "museum quality" was stamped into the leg of a plastic dinosaur that I had as a kid, and I was reminded of it recently by my brother. The Diplodocus had come with a Dino-Rider toy set that included three action figures dressed in space suites and a battle station equipped with "twin laser tale guns, dual neck cluster rockets, and hidden armed battle pods" etc... As well as the accolade of "museum quality" being stamped in the leg, a picture of the dinosaur, sans battle gear on the outside of the box, made a similar claim: "Museum Quality Replica." But replica of what? Other more original toy dinosaurs? Artistic depictions of dinosaurs? The story gets even better though, because I just look up Dino-Riders and discovered that because the toys didn't sell, Tyco was able to repackage them and sell them with the endorsement of the Smithsonian:

"Tyco actually received an endorsement from the Smithsonian Institution, which was apparently impressed enough with the technical accuracy of the sculpts that it was willing to license its name for use on Tyco's products. The situation was great for Tyco because it found itself with all these excess Dino-Riders that didn't sell and all they had to do was basically repackage them. The dinosaurs were basically the same as the Dino-Riders except that no figures or weapons of any sort were included with them. They were sold individually and in two packs."