"When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better."
mae west
excerpt from Sylvia Lanvin article on Thom Mayne, FreshMorphosis2
2010-12-08
//quick thoughts: Capitalism and Architecture
Superstudio's project is a commentry of a capitalist driven architecture: in terms of its scale and non-humanistic considersations. In this mode, we become refugees in a materialized capital economy.
I like this non-humanistic consideration. Human design is like ergonomic design. its boring. It lacks a level of interface or interaction. a struggle and subsequent personal triumphs, a niche in the world.
 |
| SuperStudio |
Superstudio's project is a commentry of a capitalist driven architecture: in terms of its scale and non-humanistic considersations. In this mode, we become refugees in a materialized capital economy.
I like this non-humanistic consideration. Human design is like ergonomic design. its boring. It lacks a level of interface or interaction. a struggle and subsequent personal triumphs, a niche in the world.
2010-12-04
//HalfBaked, the Wired Store Experience
The wired store is cutting edge: neither store nor museum, it is a physical node in a network of multiple identities in print and the internet. the physical location thus has been relieved of the pressure to persuade consumption.
Instead, its inducement to consume is in more nefarious, invisible ways. It ties articles to gadgets, it markets itself by association to geekologie. it made it alright to be a geek by mixing it into a loose sterotype: easy to buy into, hard
The wired store is cutting edge: neither store nor museum, it is a physical node in a network of multiple identities in print and the internet. the physical location thus has been relieved of the pressure to persuade consumption.
Instead, its inducement to consume is in more nefarious, invisible ways. It ties articles to gadgets, it markets itself by association to geekologie. it made it alright to be a geek by mixing it into a loose sterotype: easy to buy into, hard
2010-12-01
//Rocket List from NY
(from a conversation with Kevin, Phoebe , Nikki and the city in general)
Tired ot Tourists
I am now wary of the idea of the Tourist and fear the traps of being a dilettante. Smooth experiences reinforcing the beliefs that maybe Belize is about the sand and the ocean, the NY is about the Grid and LA is about sprawl. All boringly true.
What is a tourist and what is its opposite? I propose a tourist is one who experiences an expectation. A vision of the world that is already stale with repetition and stinks of boredom.
"Have you been to [insert it reference] in [insert vogue location]?"
"You haven't? its fabulous. The [insert it-dish] is to-die-for."
Conversations scripted by Zagat and Yelp and the Lonely Planet and gobbled up and chewed on and spat out. An experience structured by someone elses and filled with empty synonyms, propped to life with other actors who smile sparkle and dazzle. I smell the smoke but see no fire.
How to Be A Ghost
How you draw the world is how you see it. How you see it structures how you experience it. When all the buildings and clothes and programs and ideas in the world look the same, feel the same, work the same, doesn't this mean.... everyone lives the same life? How boring. When all the experiences collapse into each other,
Progress is a violent lie.
A ghost is a spectre from another world. An inconsumable, drifting mystery. Through the ghost one views alternative snippets: a different posture, a different conversation, a different reality.
Ghosts are perspectival tools.
Through ghosts, we understand lies so we can construct new ones. Self-conscious lies, freed to construct its own responsibilities and agenda and understands the boundaries of its agency.
These boundaries oscillate between free horizons and the understanding that maybe all we do is construct material worlds and structural skeletons.
Lie Alone
Ghosts are alone in a crowded world. It is a personal journey to offer up a different world: one must live it before one can share it. One must dream it with the freedom of an artist but record it with the precision scientist.
Beauty is a premonition of another world.
An Atmosphere is when you gently circle this world, a faint inkling of how it feels and might be.
I construct beauty and atmosphere through words, pictures and colours. A simple 2-dimensional representation of a desire.
An atmosphere can be built up into a collage, found objects cobbled together to try and build a spatial scaffold. At this point, textual words must be forgotten, and the material becomes a language. A silent conversation through the hands.
Trust the process, it can later be reverse engineered. Trust the gut.
Machined Insecurities (Landmines to Ponder)
Too much consumption too little production, I said 2 years ago. Too much too much, too little of the little.
Too much of my ranting too, might I add.
But I fear I am driven more by anger and frustration and less by passion and desire. I oscillate between the two and I despair when I realize my misplaced anxieties. Keep calm and carry on, give yourself goals, or in the absence, give yourself boundaries. Respect them.
Today a visit to the ITP left me slightly jaded. A ton of energy and bravado, but headless soldiers marching on in footprints they aren't aware of. More and more, I think the point of a graduate program is not what you learn, but who you learn from. Knowledge is malleable and easily transferred and absorbed. Experience less so.
When I am dead, I would like to send my family (this includes non-blood brothers) on adventures to open their minds. To John, bring my ashes to Los Angeles and scatter it into the ocean. You will stay there for a week and everyday bring a new stranger to the coast and tell him a story.
To Kevin,
I despise the comfortable familiarity enjoyed with friends. I despise that I enjoy it, and I fear that I cannot not enjoy it. Sadly I am sometimes human.
On my death marker it will read:
"Finally Human."
Ghost
. Kool-
-Spend a few months in Belize
-Visit a Monastary
-If dead, send friends on adventure
- MORPHOSIS
(from a conversation with Kevin, Phoebe , Nikki and the city in general)
Tired ot Tourists
I am now wary of the idea of the Tourist and fear the traps of being a dilettante. Smooth experiences reinforcing the beliefs that maybe Belize is about the sand and the ocean, the NY is about the Grid and LA is about sprawl. All boringly true.
What is a tourist and what is its opposite? I propose a tourist is one who experiences an expectation. A vision of the world that is already stale with repetition and stinks of boredom.
"Have you been to [insert it reference] in [insert vogue location]?"
"You haven't? its fabulous. The [insert it-dish] is to-die-for."
Conversations scripted by Zagat and Yelp and the Lonely Planet and gobbled up and chewed on and spat out. An experience structured by someone elses and filled with empty synonyms, propped to life with other actors who smile sparkle and dazzle. I smell the smoke but see no fire.
How to Be A Ghost
How you draw the world is how you see it. How you see it structures how you experience it. When all the buildings and clothes and programs and ideas in the world look the same, feel the same, work the same, doesn't this mean.... everyone lives the same life? How boring. When all the experiences collapse into each other,
Progress is a violent lie.
A ghost is a spectre from another world. An inconsumable, drifting mystery. Through the ghost one views alternative snippets: a different posture, a different conversation, a different reality.
Ghosts are perspectival tools.
Through ghosts, we understand lies so we can construct new ones. Self-conscious lies, freed to construct its own responsibilities and agenda and understands the boundaries of its agency.
These boundaries oscillate between free horizons and the understanding that maybe all we do is construct material worlds and structural skeletons.
Lie Alone
Ghosts are alone in a crowded world. It is a personal journey to offer up a different world: one must live it before one can share it. One must dream it with the freedom of an artist but record it with the precision scientist.
Beauty is a premonition of another world.
An Atmosphere is when you gently circle this world, a faint inkling of how it feels and might be.
I construct beauty and atmosphere through words, pictures and colours. A simple 2-dimensional representation of a desire.
An atmosphere can be built up into a collage, found objects cobbled together to try and build a spatial scaffold. At this point, textual words must be forgotten, and the material becomes a language. A silent conversation through the hands.
Trust the process, it can later be reverse engineered. Trust the gut.
Machined Insecurities (Landmines to Ponder)
Too much consumption too little production, I said 2 years ago. Too much too much, too little of the little.
Too much of my ranting too, might I add.
But I fear I am driven more by anger and frustration and less by passion and desire. I oscillate between the two and I despair when I realize my misplaced anxieties. Keep calm and carry on, give yourself goals, or in the absence, give yourself boundaries. Respect them.
Today a visit to the ITP left me slightly jaded. A ton of energy and bravado, but headless soldiers marching on in footprints they aren't aware of. More and more, I think the point of a graduate program is not what you learn, but who you learn from. Knowledge is malleable and easily transferred and absorbed. Experience less so.
When I am dead, I would like to send my family (this includes non-blood brothers) on adventures to open their minds. To John, bring my ashes to Los Angeles and scatter it into the ocean. You will stay there for a week and everyday bring a new stranger to the coast and tell him a story.
To Kevin,
I despise the comfortable familiarity enjoyed with friends. I despise that I enjoy it, and I fear that I cannot not enjoy it. Sadly I am sometimes human.
On my death marker it will read:
"Finally Human."
Ghost
. Kool-
-Spend a few months in Belize
-Visit a Monastary
-If dead, send friends on adventure
- MORPHOSIS
//A Letter for Ah Kong
This is how I will remember Kong Kong.
He has a low and guttral viking grunt. With this, he spoke with the calculated eloquence of thunder washing over an imprecise horizon. Some nights though, his fingers danced light as ballerinas over a large black piano. And I think he used this to speak another gentler language. Back to the piano, he played with an odd set of thumbs: fat, flat and squashed and liked to croon "Danny Boy". I suspect he liked Andy Williams. And sometimes on some nights, Oma, would sing along, whiskey glass in hand.
Oma, my heart is with you.
Kong Kong lived a soldiers regime. He was very strict and severe: on everyone, himself included. But he also had a mischievous child's curiosity for adventure. I think some of this came from a deeper defiance: to prove that whatever we think life should or should not be, it could and would be. If only we dared.
Kong Kong, cheers to you.
On my wall in my room is a picture of you in a white singlet, sun-kissed and grinning with sweat on your forehead. You're raising a black glass of tarry Guiness. Oma, you are on the wall too, next to him, with a pot of delicious in your hand at the large round table where we shared all our meals. This is a standing definition of my childhood, a gift I will to pass on to my own family and them to theirs.
"Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling."
Kongkong, this is how you are remembered: a viking's ballerina, an artisanal lawyer and a soldiered child. An artist who chiseled life from the hard rock of living. Thank you Kongkong for having the audacity to be who you want to be.
I love you and I miss you dearly.
Your grandson,Lennard.2010-11-29
//NY_Notes
_On Material Enthrophy // Geometry and facting can be used to channel elemental forces that subsequently act on the building, creating lines of rust, decay and maybe melts. // Visually this can be used to emphasize contouring and depth, not unlike how a pencil shades.
_On Mies // His forms were planes floating in the air, a proun in stable equilibrium held up by lines. The spatial proportions played through, from facade to interior letter boxes The qualities of this were achieved by detailing edge definitions, hiding connections as well as the material finish, which hid in the shadows and shone bright in the light: it picked up the tones from the surrounding colours, colour runoff. // The material was inbetween a matt material and a pearly gritty finish that flirted with the light. The interior was a muted wash of orange light: a warm colour temperature that contrast with the cold exterior that caged it.
_On Silhouettes // There is a visual game between opacities, the forms they veil and unveil and on a secondary filigree that is a cacophony of lines, nest like, that wraps it. Order and disorder. It flirts between expectation and anticipation.
_On Wildness // It seems that the Igualada Cemetary is actually a surprising precendent for manicured wildness. Cuts, tears and holes: oscillating light levels or dark and light. Two intertwining bodies: synthetic and controlled, curated and wild. What this means is one is where there is shopping, housing, all the civil programs we have come to know as associated to the city. The other is a winding route, partially an accident from the fall out between the new and the existing. what this means is I need to define a larger territory, and then reduce it. (whatever that may mean, at this point). // Could the THICK wall be made of garbage? The point is that it could be something that grows with time, like flubber. What will be interesting is when they encroach upon each other: entirely filled up. Could it be used as formwork? A residual imprint. What material would be interesting?
_Halfway Observations
//The two boys self-consciously explored each other. Their implicit submission to each other was painfully obvious to everyone but them.
//Her berber blue blousen dress accented her skin subtly. The silhouette of her high-waisted puffy pants echoed the silhouette of how her hair fell which silhouetted the shape of her soft face. She also played the cello and laughed like one too.
//It was hard to regard her with any preset assumptions. I liked the strangeness of her: it wasn't subversive or reactionary, just raw and stripped. She was sensual without being sexual and perhaps its because of the matter-of-factness and almost machinic precision with which she treated her body- no smirk of self-satisfaction or strain of effort. It forced me to regard her body as a thing- a material thing that moved and had shape and texture. History without baggage. Maybe that is what experience is.
_On Material Enthrophy // Geometry and facting can be used to channel elemental forces that subsequently act on the building, creating lines of rust, decay and maybe melts. // Visually this can be used to emphasize contouring and depth, not unlike how a pencil shades.
_On Mies // His forms were planes floating in the air, a proun in stable equilibrium held up by lines. The spatial proportions played through, from facade to interior letter boxes The qualities of this were achieved by detailing edge definitions, hiding connections as well as the material finish, which hid in the shadows and shone bright in the light: it picked up the tones from the surrounding colours, colour runoff. // The material was inbetween a matt material and a pearly gritty finish that flirted with the light. The interior was a muted wash of orange light: a warm colour temperature that contrast with the cold exterior that caged it.
_On Silhouettes // There is a visual game between opacities, the forms they veil and unveil and on a secondary filigree that is a cacophony of lines, nest like, that wraps it. Order and disorder. It flirts between expectation and anticipation.
_On Wildness // It seems that the Igualada Cemetary is actually a surprising precendent for manicured wildness. Cuts, tears and holes: oscillating light levels or dark and light. Two intertwining bodies: synthetic and controlled, curated and wild. What this means is one is where there is shopping, housing, all the civil programs we have come to know as associated to the city. The other is a winding route, partially an accident from the fall out between the new and the existing. what this means is I need to define a larger territory, and then reduce it. (whatever that may mean, at this point). // Could the THICK wall be made of garbage? The point is that it could be something that grows with time, like flubber. What will be interesting is when they encroach upon each other: entirely filled up. Could it be used as formwork? A residual imprint. What material would be interesting?
_Halfway Observations
//The two boys self-consciously explored each other. Their implicit submission to each other was painfully obvious to everyone but them.
//Her berber blue blousen dress accented her skin subtly. The silhouette of her high-waisted puffy pants echoed the silhouette of how her hair fell which silhouetted the shape of her soft face. She also played the cello and laughed like one too.
//It was hard to regard her with any preset assumptions. I liked the strangeness of her: it wasn't subversive or reactionary, just raw and stripped. She was sensual without being sexual and perhaps its because of the matter-of-factness and almost machinic precision with which she treated her body- no smirk of self-satisfaction or strain of effort. It forced me to regard her body as a thing- a material thing that moved and had shape and texture. History without baggage. Maybe that is what experience is.
I should get to writing an obituary or memoriam soon. and a call to Yoon is owed. The Peter letter will be finished in the plane.
2010-11-24
//Thesis: Reflections
Wildness
_Afterthoughts:
Its hard to judge if today's review went well or not. Feedback was scant and the main concern was
1) how to bridge between the gap of the urban plan and the human scale in terms of representation
this feeds into two issues
a) the dogmatic logic of developing the urban plan
b) how ths generates aberrations
two videos were well received, "didactic" was a term positively used. Herwig expressed concern about my time scheduling for such a project, especially when done by 1 person.
The lecture by Thom Maybe was especially useful. "What is that useless bridge?" "thats architecture"
The urban scale logical development has been brewing in your mind for a long time, and its time to punch it out for the final. This will be the scaffold for the architecture. It will be approached sequentially and diagrammatically in two veins:
1) Massing Exploration
2) Organizational Strategies
These are two independent studies that will intertwine at a later date by translating organizational strategies into a simple architectural language: line (3 thicknesses), surface (three opacities) and volumes/objects (aberrations)
XL
(1)_Massing Explorations
Step 1) Path Optimzation
network all the points and study it via path optimization.
+does this network cut through voluntary building surrenders?
-yes it does. this one is entirely fabricated based on the 99 year lease.
+what happens when you meet an empty area?
-engage the centroid of the empty area. to this end, a voronoi may actually be useful.
Step 2) Datum Planes
establish 2 datum planes which define 3 zones: everything above, everything below and everything in-between.
+this gives you the flexibility to burrow and hurdle
+three lines oscillate within these boundaries. They can kiss and delaminate.
+These three lines have three widths
(2)_Organizational Strategies (semi spatial, ribbon studies)
study strategies:
+Nodal - open areas
+Interface - crash through
+Stack - even field
+Earthworm
-RESIDUE: wildness.
(do 3 in different decision hierarchies)
things to consider:
environmental strategies (shading, solar orientation)
programmatic adjacencies to existing program
programmatic %
ref: Studio3A- AmericanApparel
(3)_ Collision
not sure yet, but work these two parts together.
The three lines start to vary their thicknesses
Evaluate these via character narrative. Final Output: like a subway map.
The first 2 parts will be done in NY
note to self: give the text a rest, you need more content again.
*PRESENTATION OUTLINE: Thom Mayne, BLACK BG, bottom left, SIMPLE TEXT (look in dropbox)
can this tie into the metabolists?
Wildness
_Afterthoughts:
Its hard to judge if today's review went well or not. Feedback was scant and the main concern was
1) how to bridge between the gap of the urban plan and the human scale in terms of representation
this feeds into two issues
a) the dogmatic logic of developing the urban plan
b) how ths generates aberrations
two videos were well received, "didactic" was a term positively used. Herwig expressed concern about my time scheduling for such a project, especially when done by 1 person.
The lecture by Thom Maybe was especially useful. "What is that useless bridge?" "thats architecture"
The urban scale logical development has been brewing in your mind for a long time, and its time to punch it out for the final. This will be the scaffold for the architecture. It will be approached sequentially and diagrammatically in two veins:
1) Massing Exploration
2) Organizational Strategies
These are two independent studies that will intertwine at a later date by translating organizational strategies into a simple architectural language: line (3 thicknesses), surface (three opacities) and volumes/objects (aberrations)
XL
(1)_Massing Explorations
Step 1) Path Optimzation
network all the points and study it via path optimization.
+does this network cut through voluntary building surrenders?
-yes it does. this one is entirely fabricated based on the 99 year lease.
+what happens when you meet an empty area?
-engage the centroid of the empty area. to this end, a voronoi may actually be useful.
Step 2) Datum Planes
establish 2 datum planes which define 3 zones: everything above, everything below and everything in-between.
+this gives you the flexibility to burrow and hurdle
+three lines oscillate within these boundaries. They can kiss and delaminate.
+These three lines have three widths
(2)_Organizational Strategies (semi spatial, ribbon studies)
study strategies:
+Nodal - open areas
+Interface - crash through
+Stack - even field
+Earthworm
-RESIDUE: wildness.
(do 3 in different decision hierarchies)
things to consider:
environmental strategies (shading, solar orientation)
programmatic adjacencies to existing program
programmatic %
ref: Studio3A- AmericanApparel
(3)_ Collision
not sure yet, but work these two parts together.
The three lines start to vary their thicknesses
Evaluate these via character narrative. Final Output: like a subway map.
The first 2 parts will be done in NY
note to self: give the text a rest, you need more content again.
*PRESENTATION OUTLINE: Thom Mayne, BLACK BG, bottom left, SIMPLE TEXT (look in dropbox)
can this tie into the metabolists?
2010-11-22
//Things I've Learnt This Week
//MAYA
goodwebsite: creativecrash.com
_Ncloth:
+tweak global scale for large objects (default units = cm)
+its not a simulation tool, just make it look realistic
_Texturing:
+3D maps dont need mapping. easy.
+map both reflections AND refractions
_HDRI
+this is editable in photoshop! useful
_Shadows
+use raytrace, settings: 0.5, 10, 6
+Area lights: use linear decay and tweak the values
_Cut animation
+Cut Face>Options>CutFaceAuto
_OpeningFiles
+open>options>ignore version
+export as MA, open in text doc, delete words
//AE
website: videocopilot
_ObjectTrack
+track with four points and map to video file.
+Track backwards and forwards to sidestep disappearance
_AE + PS = Awesome
+can import layers
//Photoshop
_ScreenType
+Shift/F
//note to self: be disciplined about your hours.
//MAYA
goodwebsite: creativecrash.com
_Ncloth:
+tweak global scale for large objects (default units = cm)
+its not a simulation tool, just make it look realistic
_Texturing:
+3D maps dont need mapping. easy.
+map both reflections AND refractions
_HDRI
+this is editable in photoshop! useful
_Shadows
+use raytrace, settings: 0.5, 10, 6
+Area lights: use linear decay and tweak the values
_Cut animation
+Cut Face>Options>CutFaceAuto
_OpeningFiles
+open>options>ignore version
+export as MA, open in text doc, delete words
//AE
website: videocopilot
_ObjectTrack
+track with four points and map to video file.
+Track backwards and forwards to sidestep disappearance
_AE + PS = Awesome
+can import layers
//Photoshop
_ScreenType
+Shift/F
//note to self: be disciplined about your hours.
2010-11-15
Dear Lennard-Future,
How have you been? The past few weeks has been a headlong rush into work with reckless abandon to everything else. Fun has been reduced to the residual time spaces, which makes it lack the oomph. Fun has been reduced to smoking and drinking, which also is another problem .
The pressures of school are piling on: to produce more and more. balancing this with WHY makes it frustrating, and you fidget too much. one test model after another. stop doing that.Friday nights and saturday are no work days, don't try to squeeze in "one more text". Work is work, outside of that, breed a life man.
For example, you could ask ingrid to the museum next week. OR. an afternoon visit to the wanderkammer museum. Also, when you go out, bring your sketchbook and pencil. Draw more. It was good for you.
You're doing semi well with food: cooking and bringing food to school. Problems arise when its a two meal deal, so maybe its best if you have lunch in school and go home for dinner. rest, and then go back to school. Could this be a new work order/ it would fuck somethings up, but could be a useful test. You do good work when you are forced to sit down and work. Cut out the distractions. 25min work bursts are useful, and dont forget to work iteratively.
You can still try to have a life.
Love,
Lennard
How have you been? The past few weeks has been a headlong rush into work with reckless abandon to everything else. Fun has been reduced to the residual time spaces, which makes it lack the oomph. Fun has been reduced to smoking and drinking, which also is another problem .
The pressures of school are piling on: to produce more and more. balancing this with WHY makes it frustrating, and you fidget too much. one test model after another. stop doing that.Friday nights and saturday are no work days, don't try to squeeze in "one more text". Work is work, outside of that, breed a life man.
For example, you could ask ingrid to the museum next week. OR. an afternoon visit to the wanderkammer museum. Also, when you go out, bring your sketchbook and pencil. Draw more. It was good for you.
You're doing semi well with food: cooking and bringing food to school. Problems arise when its a two meal deal, so maybe its best if you have lunch in school and go home for dinner. rest, and then go back to school. Could this be a new work order/ it would fuck somethings up, but could be a useful test. You do good work when you are forced to sit down and work. Cut out the distractions. 25min work bursts are useful, and dont forget to work iteratively.
You can still try to have a life.
Love,
Lennard
2010-11-08
2010-11-06
2010-11-04
2010-11-02
//Looking for References
SHOWstudio: Gareth Pugh A/W'09 by Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.
Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 Collection - Director: Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.
This is an example of a highly refined video.
Ruth Hogben uses cutting very evocatively. The use of symmetry and very intentioned pacing of the video is another enticing prospect. So is the restrained palette.
The space of the screen itself is a canvas, an abstract medium which she engages. Its painting with time, light, shadow and sound.
There is a dynamic balance between the compositional symmtery and connotative asymmetry. Time is malleable, she stretches and compresses it at will: viewing it lends the same feeling of a roller coaster.
SHOWstudio: Gareth Pugh A/W'09 by Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.
Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 Collection - Director: Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.
This is an example of a highly refined video.
Ruth Hogben uses cutting very evocatively. The use of symmetry and very intentioned pacing of the video is another enticing prospect. So is the restrained palette.
The space of the screen itself is a canvas, an abstract medium which she engages. Its painting with time, light, shadow and sound.
There is a dynamic balance between the compositional symmtery and connotative asymmetry. Time is malleable, she stretches and compresses it at will: viewing it lends the same feeling of a roller coaster.
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