Beautiful China. You thought that China was all, Shanghai grey grimness right?
#Brad and Frank apparently not so buddy buddy after all. It seems that Brad Pitt never returned Frank Gehry’s calls after that infamous photograph. Bad Brad.
#Digital Scanner Used as a Photographic Plate. Photographs of urban environments using a flatbed scanner to capture the image. The extended time required for one complete scan results in 115 megapixel stretched and distorted cityscapes, vehicles and people.
#Indigenous Amazonians display core understanding of geometry
“If the Mundurukú share with us the conceptual primitives of geometry,” the researchers write, “they should infer the intended geometrical concept behind each array and therefore select the discrepant image.”Thanks Matt. And thanks Harvard. #
So my question is, who is going to tell the blind/vision-impaired about this?
Tactile indicators are the second scourge delivered on the world’s cities by the litigious handicapped - the first of course being 1:14 ramp gradients. So it is wonderful to see this sign warning of the dangers of these things in a medium unable to be read by those that make use of the indicators.
Tesselation Chair. Folded Origami Chair.
#Not content with your Eight Volume Complete Works of Corb? Then pick up this 6 DVD box set of 35,000 scanned drawings by Le Corbuser. Only € 5,800. Which is about 9,000 Swiss Francs. ei.Chump change. Via Butterpaper.
#Last week’s post on Felice Varini generated some interest - not too mention a bit of good ol’ Excessive Server Load - and while I welcome all the new readers, I wish I hadn’t named the post something so naff…
However. Someone named Titus (dude, nice Colosseum) mentioned in the comments, the work of Georges Rousse and so the ridiculous titles continue.
While Georges Rousse has been painting rooms in a similar fashion to Varini, his work differs in that the photograph is the end point of the work. And where Varini relies solely on the applied paint surface to achieve the illusion of flatness, Rousse employs additional architectural elements to create situations like the following:
As well as drawings in space:
Berlin, Marienburgerstraße 1998
And colour fields that hover on an imaginary plane:
Gee Bend, anyone?
More:
Photoshopping buildings into food and vice-versa.
#Glassware “inspired by the domes of Venetian churches, creates shadows and reflections, which add brilliance and elegance and bring life to a common material.”
#Where explosions come alive.
#“Automatic Camera situated 7 miles from blast with 10 foot lens. Shutter speed equaled 1/1000,000,000 of-a-second exposure.” Early instances of an atomic explosion.
The photos are by Harold Edgerton aka “Papa Flash” who is famed for using Stroboscopic photography to photograph discrete instances of the everyday - balloons bursting, divers diving into pools, milk drops. These photos were taken using another of Edgerton’s inventions, the Rapatronic camera - capable of taking photographs with exposure times of 10 nanoseconds and are far from everday occurences.
In a micro-split of a split second, before the earth is scorched, what may be mistaken for a slightly sinister prop left over from Baron Munchhausens etc or a fantastic autonomous lunar pod dreamt up by Peter Cook is given life (like there was ever a city more instant than this).
I assume you are familiar with Le Corbusier.
“Dude had every good idea in architecture, and then proceeded to stuff them into a monastery in France yeah?”
Correct.
But I bet you didn’t know he had one of his favourite books bound in the hide of his dead pet dog, did you?
This from the recently published book Le Corbusier: Architect of Books
“He did bind one of his favourite books, Don Quixote, allegedly in leather made from the hide of one of his ogs, “Pinceau”, but the macabre bizzareness of such an act goes beyond the conventional fetishism of of lovers of fine books.”
You will note that:
“the contrast between the brown, very animal-like outer surface and the inner lining of bright, red-and-yellow striped fabric is very striking, making this book a most unusual object and providing evidence of a certain eccentricity on the part of Le Corbusier”
This is the evidence needed to prove Le Corbusier’s eccentricity? Calling himself “The Crow” wasn’t enough? He had to bind the adventures of a mad spaniard with the hair of a dog named “Brush”?
Funny, I happen to be reading Don Quixote at the moment/last eight months, so now all i need is a pet and eccentricity just could be mine.
Thanks to Matt for the tipoff.
Process is an exhibition examining “The role of sketches and models in the development of architectural concepts” starting next Wednesday (18.01.06) at the Utopia Gallery in Waterloo. On display will be drawings and models by Durbach Block, Alex Popov and Peter Stuchbury.
I can hear what you are thinking - gosh, that is a very high proportion of silvery coiffure for one billing. And yes, you are right, however do not let this distract you from the drawings on display. In a similar fashion to last years Shaping Space the exhibition will focus on the process of design rather than the end product with each architect opening up their sketchbooks for review.
Both Stuchbury and Popov produce an architecture that may not get my rocks off, but is certainly sturdy and elegant. Durbach Block (sketchbook above) on the other hand, are hitting their stride and producing some superb work and the many sketches by Neil Durbach and the models of Lisa La Van are an integral part of the practice. So if you are in Sydney, it should be worth checking out.
The exhibition is on from the 17.01 to 04.02 at
Utopia Gallery, 2 Daks Street, Waterloo, Sydney
Felice Varini paints (lines, concentric circles, triangles) on things (tunnels, castles, groovy interiors). A seemingly random smattering of elements that, viewed from a specific point in space, coalesce into a tangible planar element.
“Between full and empty”
I am yet to see one of these in person, however, I imagine the effect is quite unsettling; the eyes struggling to focus on a element that is not there.
“Yellow red blue, via the glass pavilion” off axis.
“Yellow red blue, via the glass pavilion” on axis.
“Trapezoid with two diagonals No.1″ off axis.
“Trapezoid with two diagonals No.1″ on axis.
Sure, Varini may share the same ‘Dad….I Dug another hole…‘ syndrome that Christo suffers from - endlessly repeating past successes - but fuck it, Albers spent decades drawing squares within squares and the world ain’t hurting for it.
All images from Felice Varini
It is difficult to camouflage a battleship. I know I am preaching to the converted here; this is a realisation we have all arrived at on our own.However during WWI, faced with changing weather, various climatic conditions and the insistence of the Germans in sinking their boats, the British Navy had a crack at it. Norman Wilkinson, developed a series of patterns, based on cubism that did not try to hide the ship so much as disrupt the viewing of it.
These boats were the Dazzle Ships. The theory was that U-Boat Captains, staring through their periscopes, would have difficulty judging not only the distance to the enemy target but also which direction it was moving. Thus making aiming a torpedo troublesome.
The Clover. Sketch above, reality below.
Perspective deployed as an evasive tactic.
[update] Rob provides some notes on the world of the Camofleur, an afficianodo of Camoflage.
Improbably Rotated Rectangular Prisms are totally the new black. Don’t believe me?
Exhibit A
The Obelisk Couch by Ross Didier.
Exhibit B
Two Houses in Ponte de Lima by Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Case rested.
Yesterday, you may have been greeted by a blank page here. That is because gravestmor was totally pwned by some hackers - The Bios Team. Rock on fellas. Anyway things are back up and running, hopefully locked down and regular posting should resume soon.
I’ll leave you with this, the dying moments of 2005 on the South Coast of NSW
