admired aberrant personalities:
Werner Herzog
Jack White
Eric Owen Moss
be different, make it different.
2011-01-01
it is decided. I will work for a few years in 2 firms, one large and one coutre. Then, i will go for my graduate degree in the Bartlett in London. What im unsure of is where i will work and for how long. That will come with slow testing, but I'm putting a cap at 5 years.
On whether i should work locally or overseas, i think the large firm will be done in singapore. the small one overseas. because it is important to acclimatize myself somewhat to the local industry for post graduation.
bartlett school fee: 16 - 6k
On whether i should work locally or overseas, i think the large firm will be done in singapore. the small one overseas. because it is important to acclimatize myself somewhat to the local industry for post graduation.
bartlett school fee: 16 - 6k
2010-12-26
"Make it new", wrote Ezra Pound.
Imagine a garden of potted animals and cable cars suspended in nothing, going nowhere. Is going somewhere so important anyway? Stay nowhere in the now-here: is that not a valid destination?
Stay with me here in my imagination. A bird and a beast, it will be a magnificent feast. Partridges loaded into cartridges and shot into hungry mouths. Under each mouth (really a tube) will be another bowl of pasty delight: a trough of runny textures, mixing flavours (be careful what you pick!) Gorge on gouged gouache paints, a canvas of unearthly delights.
Merry madness, hop to it.
"The artist is always beginning," Ezra Pound once wrote. "Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth. The very name Troubadour means a 'finder,' one who discovers." Readers of Poems and Translations will be able to follow, for the first time in a single volume, a poet whose career moves through a series of beginnings and re-beginnings—perhaps Pound's most distinctively American trait.
Imagine a garden of potted animals and cable cars suspended in nothing, going nowhere. Is going somewhere so important anyway? Stay nowhere in the now-here: is that not a valid destination?
Stay with me here in my imagination. A bird and a beast, it will be a magnificent feast. Partridges loaded into cartridges and shot into hungry mouths. Under each mouth (really a tube) will be another bowl of pasty delight: a trough of runny textures, mixing flavours (be careful what you pick!) Gorge on gouged gouache paints, a canvas of unearthly delights.
Merry madness, hop to it.
"The artist is always beginning," Ezra Pound once wrote. "Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth. The very name Troubadour means a 'finder,' one who discovers." Readers of Poems and Translations will be able to follow, for the first time in a single volume, a poet whose career moves through a series of beginnings and re-beginnings—perhaps Pound's most distinctively American trait.
In his first published book of poems, A Lume Spento, the Pound of 1908 is still very much a late nineteenth-century poet, steeped in the archaisms of the Pre-Raphaelites. A mere four years later, in Ripostes, he has reinvented himself as a modernist proponent of "Imagism," before moving on, in rapid succession, to the avant-garde aesthetics of Vorticism and translations from the Chinese (Cathay), the Japanese ("Noh" or Accomplishment), the Provençal (Arnaut Daniel), and the Latin ("Homage to Sextus Propertius"). Each of these forays into new identities and new languages constituted, as Pound himself explained, a "search for oneself," which entailed "casting off complete masks of the self in each poem."
The title Pound chose for the first comprehensive collection of his shorter poems in 1926 was, significantly, Personae—Latin for "masks." Whether writing in the form of Browningesque dramatic monologues, medieval canzoni, satirical epigrams, Confucian analects, or Sophoclean tragic choruses, Pound in his poems presents us with a medley of masks whose multiple and contradictory features helped shape the face of American poetry in the 20th century.
In his dedication of The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot paid homage to Ezra Pound as "il miglior fabbro"—that is, "the better craftsman"—Dante's term for the Troubadour poet Arnaut Daniel. Pound remains a vital ancestral presence in the lineage of American modernist and post-modernist poetry. The list of his descendants includes not only William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Louis Zukofsky, George Oppen, and Charles Olson, but also the Beats and, more recently, the Language Poets—all of whom in their own fashion learned their craft from his work while observing his central imperative: "Make it new."
2010-12-25
//Captain's Log after Conversation with Dad @ Sungei Buloh
Options for Graduation:
1) Design // End Game: Design Firm
route: no graduate school necessary. Possibilities: Bartlett
Firms: Work in firms related to smaller scaled projects, materials and detailing.
2) Urban // End Game: IBM-ish, consulting
route: graduate school, Berlage / ETH / LSE (find more)
Firms: IBM, AMO,
possibilities:
/*
Double Masters Degree in Urban Policy @ LSE / SciencesPO
Graduate Admissions Office,
LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree (Urban Policy),
LSE
Houghton Street
London W2CA 2AE
*/
Human Geography
resources:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/urbanAtLSE/
Options for Graduation:
1) Design // End Game: Design Firm
route: no graduate school necessary. Possibilities: Bartlett
Firms: Work in firms related to smaller scaled projects, materials and detailing.
2) Urban // End Game: IBM-ish, consulting
route: graduate school, Berlage / ETH / LSE (find more)
Firms: IBM, AMO,
possibilities:
/*
Double Masters Degree in Urban Policy @ LSE / SciencesPO
Graduate Admissions Office,
LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree (Urban Policy),
LSE
Houghton Street
London W2CA 2AE
*/
Human Geography
resources:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/urbanAtLSE/
2010-12-24
Thoughts on Marina Bay Sands:
Pushing aside initial prejudices on the factors driving the project, it feels like the sheer scale of it seems unexploited: a form chopped into three discrete elements. Also, the height is a missed opportunity. A simple example is the elevator ride up. There is no sense of.... wonder, spectacle or performance. If a building wants to be a spectacle or an icon, it should god-damn perform. Elevators should feel like rockets into the sky, not silent teleportation tombs.
The bridge that leads to it is also another disappointment. The Helix is like decoration, a christmas bauble. It feels like the centrifugal nature of a helix could be used for a sense of disorientation, an undulating path that cuts in and out of it. If not, why bother? It then appears clunky and over structured.
Thoughts on Singapore:
There is a greater and greater gap in the rich and the poor. This is engendered in the landscape itself, through larger scales of development, higher and higher prices of entry. Is singapore too small or structure?
This needs elaboration.
Pushing aside initial prejudices on the factors driving the project, it feels like the sheer scale of it seems unexploited: a form chopped into three discrete elements. Also, the height is a missed opportunity. A simple example is the elevator ride up. There is no sense of.... wonder, spectacle or performance. If a building wants to be a spectacle or an icon, it should god-damn perform. Elevators should feel like rockets into the sky, not silent teleportation tombs.
The bridge that leads to it is also another disappointment. The Helix is like decoration, a christmas bauble. It feels like the centrifugal nature of a helix could be used for a sense of disorientation, an undulating path that cuts in and out of it. If not, why bother? It then appears clunky and over structured.
Thoughts on Singapore:
There is a greater and greater gap in the rich and the poor. This is engendered in the landscape itself, through larger scales of development, higher and higher prices of entry. Is singapore too small or structure?
This needs elaboration.
2010-12-18
//Night Before SG
it was an atmospheric night.
"Reason has always existed, only not always in reasonable form."
"The reform of consciousness consists only in enabling the world to clarify its consciousness, in waking it from its dream about itself, in _explaining_ to it the meaning of its own actions."
"The reform of consciousness consists only in enabling the world to clarify its consciousness, in waking it from its dream about itself, in _explaining_ to it the meaning of its own actions."
"Our motto must therefore be: Reform of consciousness not through dogmas, but through analyzing the mystical consciousness, the consciousness which is unclear to itself, whether it appears in religious or political form. Then it will transpire that the world has long been dreaming of something that it can acquire if only it becomes conscious of it. It will transpire that it is not a matter of drawing a great dividing line between past and future, but of carrying out the thoughts of the past. And finally, it will transpire that mankind begins no _new_ work, but consciously accomplishes its old work."
- Karl Marx (1818-1883), For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing(1843)
2010-12-17
//X-Lab Finals and Hollywood, Geisha House
Today was one of the more relaxing finals I've had. The presentation format went well, and Hernan's comments on the aesthetic is heartening.
After that, going out with the rest in hollywood was such a bust. I'm not sure if I felt out of place or didn't fit in, or if there's a difference between the two. Am I not making the effort to open up? I think I should observe how Proto does it. He seems to be good at handling these things. Either way, I am what I am and I don't think I'll be going out with them again.
Tomorrow, I need to cut a short video and clear up my desk. Hopefully, if there's time, the gym or something as well as pack my bag. AND call daniel.
good night.
Today was one of the more relaxing finals I've had. The presentation format went well, and Hernan's comments on the aesthetic is heartening.
After that, going out with the rest in hollywood was such a bust. I'm not sure if I felt out of place or didn't fit in, or if there's a difference between the two. Am I not making the effort to open up? I think I should observe how Proto does it. He seems to be good at handling these things. Either way, I am what I am and I don't think I'll be going out with them again.
Tomorrow, I need to cut a short video and clear up my desk. Hopefully, if there's time, the gym or something as well as pack my bag. AND call daniel.
good night.
2010-12-16
//Thursday, December 16 2010.
//The Day Before XLab3.0 Finals
"... a dream that hath no bottom." - Shakespeare
I got up late, as I have been over the past few days. Its not late nights anymore, and I worry it might become a habit. The problem with habits is that they are repetitive in a way that isn't always productive: in a way, it sometimes becomes a barrier to progress. Quite literally, the comfortable lull of procedure dulls out any desire to produce.
Out of bed to the computer, straight away. The funny thing I find is the waking hours are when I get decent ideas. I should keep up the habit of a notepad next to my bed and spending the day working through some of these ideas. I finally get on the case of the thesis trailer: the first part is done, just minor tweaks.
"Once upon a time, a dirty and messy situation was made into a clean and orderly promise." -is this the best narrative? or can you find a poem or lyric that would better suit it?
The studio video is coming out fine. Baptiste has amazing taste and aesthetics. From him I learned even more about qualities, and the rut I fall into trying to logicize things when maybe I'm not the best person to do that. But I also see the pitfalls of getting lost in a program.
Dinner with studio was slightly awkward, and I think I've withdrawn somewhat into my own shell over the past week at home. Part of me thinks I will need that individual space next semester and I will spend the other half of the time walking around alone. I should remember to meet up every once in a while with justus or something though to keep track of things. I also need to maintain a regime for fitness and sanity. Writing in this will be part of that.
Finally watched Inception. Its really cool how its four nested layers, and really is happening in a split second of a split second. Dan has such perspective on movies: its almost as if hes removed from it, understanding it.
Inception makes me wonder: do we need to construct our own redemption. Our memories can become fuel for dreams or glues to hold us back, almost. What is the tale about? is it about confront truth or constructing one. Did he really plant that seed dream in his wife? or is he
On another note, the scary part of the network is the idea of a consensus, or buying into the wisdom of crowds. Where previous consensus might have been an agreement to disagree, could agreement to agree, and subsequent agreement on top of that entirely smooth out the role of the individual? I think I need to read more to better articulate this.
In anycase, connecting this to Inception, it feels like life is the construction and pursuit of a narrative, at the end of that day. Previously this narrative might've been provided by religion, then by tradition and then by... the media now? or is that overhyped. Its looser, anyway.
Outlook on Life:
urbanism, brazil, bartlett.
Possible Goal:
stay floating, IBM
on the trailer:
1) Regular Grid (desert)
2) Box and Axes (archipelago)
3) Green Growth (an outside in the inside)
//The Day Before XLab3.0 Finals
"... a dream that hath no bottom." - Shakespeare
I got up late, as I have been over the past few days. Its not late nights anymore, and I worry it might become a habit. The problem with habits is that they are repetitive in a way that isn't always productive: in a way, it sometimes becomes a barrier to progress. Quite literally, the comfortable lull of procedure dulls out any desire to produce.
Out of bed to the computer, straight away. The funny thing I find is the waking hours are when I get decent ideas. I should keep up the habit of a notepad next to my bed and spending the day working through some of these ideas. I finally get on the case of the thesis trailer: the first part is done, just minor tweaks.
"Once upon a time, a dirty and messy situation was made into a clean and orderly promise." -is this the best narrative? or can you find a poem or lyric that would better suit it?
The studio video is coming out fine. Baptiste has amazing taste and aesthetics. From him I learned even more about qualities, and the rut I fall into trying to logicize things when maybe I'm not the best person to do that. But I also see the pitfalls of getting lost in a program.
Dinner with studio was slightly awkward, and I think I've withdrawn somewhat into my own shell over the past week at home. Part of me thinks I will need that individual space next semester and I will spend the other half of the time walking around alone. I should remember to meet up every once in a while with justus or something though to keep track of things. I also need to maintain a regime for fitness and sanity. Writing in this will be part of that.
Finally watched Inception. Its really cool how its four nested layers, and really is happening in a split second of a split second. Dan has such perspective on movies: its almost as if hes removed from it, understanding it.
Inception makes me wonder: do we need to construct our own redemption. Our memories can become fuel for dreams or glues to hold us back, almost. What is the tale about? is it about confront truth or constructing one. Did he really plant that seed dream in his wife? or is he
On another note, the scary part of the network is the idea of a consensus, or buying into the wisdom of crowds. Where previous consensus might have been an agreement to disagree, could agreement to agree, and subsequent agreement on top of that entirely smooth out the role of the individual? I think I need to read more to better articulate this.
In anycase, connecting this to Inception, it feels like life is the construction and pursuit of a narrative, at the end of that day. Previously this narrative might've been provided by religion, then by tradition and then by... the media now? or is that overhyped. Its looser, anyway.
Outlook on Life:
urbanism, brazil, bartlett.
Possible Goal:
stay floating, IBM
on the trailer:
For the second half, I think it might be a good idea to photoshop the boxes into a landscape. From the french music, it should slowly mute out that box scene zooming into a bridge scene zooming into a tv scene. It needs some movement, and I think thats where yao's library of effects will come in handy. From the bridge scene, it will pan across the bridge. I should see if I can turn off the Yao layer. Pan across bridge, pan up building, zoom out to yao pointing, then zooming into the people overlooking the city. The balloon flies by. this fades to end credits. The end credits will have all the previous content and photos. the background sound comes back to piaf.
As for sound, I will use a robotic voice output. As discussed today, the final dream is still on: a series of renders, printed out on super nice paper, next to it a mini screen playing the associated clip with the background text. Fables. It all has to be original content for it to have an original impact.
For the final, I should have a ton of test photosetc and a series of site plan iterations and 3 detailled sections, chosen from the three.
Parallel research threads: program distribution, organizational relationships, formal investigations and design exercises every other week.
.1) Regular Grid (desert)
2) Box and Axes (archipelago)
3) Green Growth (an outside in the inside)
2010-12-15
//Getting back to Habit
Dear Lennard,
Next semester will be a rough one. Tuck in, keep the eyes on the prize and work it. Don't be afraid of pushing your use of maya or any graphic program. You have a certain quality, and keep to it, but the final product has to be polished in terms of its presentation. That is your one weakness which Marc Frohn kept in check, but since then has been slightly out of control.
-Lenn
Dear Lennard,
Next semester will be a rough one. Tuck in, keep the eyes on the prize and work it. Don't be afraid of pushing your use of maya or any graphic program. You have a certain quality, and keep to it, but the final product has to be polished in terms of its presentation. That is your one weakness which Marc Frohn kept in check, but since then has been slightly out of control.
-Lenn
//Dec 14: Hernan Crit and Methods for next semester
Today was the X_Lab crits for Daniel, Sille and bunch.
A careful note, the more fussy videos were not as effective. We're not animators. Still frames are the most effective. Learn FLASH, or put it as PDF slides.
For the final presentation, it will be one short movie - narrated stills - and a slide show (maybe). Don't be too indepth about the techniques and logics - that is your blindspot - and shoot for atmosphere. Questions about technique and design decisions can come later, but thats not a conversation you want to have. This was seen in the testa studio 1, where the conversation got bumped up a notch because of it.
Techniques Learnt from
What I've learned from the people I've been under:
From Erwin Viray, I learned about the importance of precedent.
From Lai Chee Kien, the frustration/fear of introducing a new form into the city and maybe you don't need to.
From Josh Taron, to just produce. Keep producing. Sometimes, retroactive interpretations are fine.
From Heather Flood I learned to interrogate a concept from multiple, unbiased perspectives. Then, one has a buffet of criticality to work off on.
In the Greg studio, I learned the power of iterative design and the role of physical models when coupled with digital representation. No one saw what I saw until I presented it all as one, thought.
From Marc Frohn, I further learned the power of quick physical massing to understand a project spatially. A design cannot live in the computer.
From Emily, I learned that maybe everything I've been reading, a reliance on the authority of text, is just an opnion. That I am trying to say through them what I think, so why not just say what I think without them? I also learned about the powerful relationship between physical and digital models, and to take snapshots and to start drawing over them.
Raimund Abraham was a painful studio, and I learned after the fact to stand for what I believe in and to work through it. I should also have learned that architecture can be a private language, but I didn't follow through with it.
Testa gave me the space to firstly explore a whole plethora of tools. Through his comments, I learned that every medium I'm working through is a drawing, and each drawing is a design. I learned how to better articulate the interconnected systems in architecture and also learned my design process, which is halfway through free modelling, words and the rationalization of it. I also learned that I am sometimes too quick to default and get lost trying to systematize something into a repeatable language. this isn't always important.
Today was the X_Lab crits for Daniel, Sille and bunch.
A careful note, the more fussy videos were not as effective. We're not animators. Still frames are the most effective. Learn FLASH, or put it as PDF slides.
For the final presentation, it will be one short movie - narrated stills - and a slide show (maybe). Don't be too indepth about the techniques and logics - that is your blindspot - and shoot for atmosphere. Questions about technique and design decisions can come later, but thats not a conversation you want to have. This was seen in the testa studio 1, where the conversation got bumped up a notch because of it.
Techniques Learnt from
What I've learned from the people I've been under:
From Erwin Viray, I learned about the importance of precedent.
From Lai Chee Kien, the frustration/fear of introducing a new form into the city and maybe you don't need to.
From Josh Taron, to just produce. Keep producing. Sometimes, retroactive interpretations are fine.
From Heather Flood I learned to interrogate a concept from multiple, unbiased perspectives. Then, one has a buffet of criticality to work off on.
In the Greg studio, I learned the power of iterative design and the role of physical models when coupled with digital representation. No one saw what I saw until I presented it all as one, thought.
From Marc Frohn, I further learned the power of quick physical massing to understand a project spatially. A design cannot live in the computer.
From Emily, I learned that maybe everything I've been reading, a reliance on the authority of text, is just an opnion. That I am trying to say through them what I think, so why not just say what I think without them? I also learned about the powerful relationship between physical and digital models, and to take snapshots and to start drawing over them.
Raimund Abraham was a painful studio, and I learned after the fact to stand for what I believe in and to work through it. I should also have learned that architecture can be a private language, but I didn't follow through with it.
Testa gave me the space to firstly explore a whole plethora of tools. Through his comments, I learned that every medium I'm working through is a drawing, and each drawing is a design. I learned how to better articulate the interconnected systems in architecture and also learned my design process, which is halfway through free modelling, words and the rationalization of it. I also learned that I am sometimes too quick to default and get lost trying to systematize something into a repeatable language. this isn't always important.
2010-12-14
FutureCities Lab, Singapore
http://archinect.com/jobs/description.php?id=103080_0_30_0_C
http://archinect.com/jobs/description.php?id=103080_0_30_0_C
Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems
Designing and Maintaining our Living Space
Short description
The MSc in Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systemsoffers a broad university-level education for planners and managers of our spatial environment and its infrastructure systems. Supervised by a personal tutor, students choose an individual curriculum according to their personal interests and talent. The curriculum covers obligatory courses in planning methodology and communication, spatial organization and economics, history and theory of urbanization, and land use. Each student chooses two out of four core subject areas: Transportation planning, Traffic systems, Spatial development, Environmental planning. A wide range of electives and an interdisciplinary project work allows students to specialise further in their chosen direction or broaden their knowledge. The 16-week Master's thesis focuses on one of the chosen core subject areas.
2010-12-12
//Talking Differently to Myself
What I liked most about the Merchant of Venice is how it played with my presumptions. It turned them on its head while letting the audience lead with moral smugness before turning it back on me again. It made me suspend moral judgement and to see an underlying sameness to the different point of views. It makes one think what is isn't necessarily so, and maybe that the alternatives are no different except for being different.
Salman has been on a recent craft and material revival: the fetishization of handmade objects and a rejection of the machine. But is machined perfection so bad? Why is it we crave a sort of retrospective return to this romantic notion of craft and folk. Is it because of a seeming human connection an errant stitch conveys? or is it a longing for material, tactile feedback. Has modernity been so cold? Do we regress or do we move forward. I think it is the engagement of the senses that he is craving. The smell of leather, and conversely, also the smell of PVC. The visual tic of a craggly line. Cold metal is fine, as long as it has an other to play off against. What
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is another Schnabel beauty.
What I liked most about the Merchant of Venice is how it played with my presumptions. It turned them on its head while letting the audience lead with moral smugness before turning it back on me again. It made me suspend moral judgement and to see an underlying sameness to the different point of views. It makes one think what is isn't necessarily so, and maybe that the alternatives are no different except for being different.
Salman has been on a recent craft and material revival: the fetishization of handmade objects and a rejection of the machine. But is machined perfection so bad? Why is it we crave a sort of retrospective return to this romantic notion of craft and folk. Is it because of a seeming human connection an errant stitch conveys? or is it a longing for material, tactile feedback. Has modernity been so cold? Do we regress or do we move forward. I think it is the engagement of the senses that he is craving. The smell of leather, and conversely, also the smell of PVC. The visual tic of a craggly line. Cold metal is fine, as long as it has an other to play off against. What
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is another Schnabel beauty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)