2016.08.22 10:14
Thread Central
the wall was lost in translation
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2016.08.22 17:40
Thread Central
Ah, to remember all those pit-stop meals at The Girls--route 9 where route 50 comes in, right there in the center of the triangle. There was definitely something Josie and the Pussycats about the place. Summer of '73 and follows. Back then it was Folsom where you were most likely to get a speeding ticket.
2016.08.23 15:20
22 September
The kind of laughter provoked by Lequeu's encyclopaedic work makes us classify it with that 'certain Chinese encyclopaedia' mentioned by Michel Foucault:
It left a suspicion that there is no worse disorder than the incongruous and the linking of things that do not belong together ... this would be a disorder which sets aglitter the facets of many possible orders of things in the no-man's-land of the 'heteroclite' which has neither laws nor geometry; and we must take this term in its etymological sense as meaning things that are so placed, 'laid down' or disposed that they have no slot or pattern into which they naturally fit, and no common
place or ground underlying them. Utopias are reassuring, because although they have no place in reality they open up cities with vast avenues, admirably designed parks, landscapes of milk and honey, even though our access to them is chimerical. But heterotopias are disturbing, no doubt because they furtively
undermine language, because they prevent us from naming this or that; because they destroy or confuse names; because they set out to corrupt or demolish 'syntax'--not only that syntax which structures phrases, but that less obvious one which binds words and things together, side by side and face to face. That is why utopias allow the creation of fables and discourses, confabulations which are the direct outcome of
the spoken language itself in its natural dimension of the fabula; whereas heterotopias inhibit expression, halt words in their tracks, threaten the very existence of a unifying grammar: they dismember our myths and strike barren the lyricism of fine words.
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2016.08.24 10:03
26 August
Conjuring Venturi's Eclectic Houses as subliminal mausoleums? Strada Novissima as a street of subliminal mausoleums? Soane's House as subliminal mausoleums? Johnson's Estate as subliminal mausoleums? I think I should read "The vertigo of the mélange" again, this time from a different perspective.
Funny, just looked at "The vertigo of the mélange" and the article after it is "Union of the arts: Sir John Soane's museum-house" and the ultima article is "The house of dreams and memories: Philip Johnson at New Canaan" and the whole issue is on the museum of architecture.
Quondam as subliminal mausoleum? Who knew?
2016.08.24 15:31
Cuteness and the fight for architectural preservation
The end of second video: Sylvia Lavin in such a cute top joyfully taking a snap of Rudolph turned classical. What could be cuter than that?!
Easter Bunny comes early this year. Hollow chocolate or FAT revival? Same difference.
2016.08.24 16:08
Cuteness and the fight for architectural preservation
Exactly what cultural ground is architecture losing?
Is this project really an example of architecture gaining cultural ground?
Ephemerality and cultural ground are kind of polar opposites, aren't they?
I can still remember when they boarded up the windows of abandoned homes along North Philadelphia's Broad Street with cutely painted window scenes with curtains and cats and flower pots. Aesthetically, it worked. The abandoned buildings quickly looked better, but it didn't take long for that betterment to fad, rot, and ultimately be demolished.
I thinks it's good to remember that ephemerality can actually be nothing but ephemeral.
2016.08.24 17:13
Cuteness and the fight for architectural preservation
Regarding strategy, again, I think it's good to remember that ephemerality can actually be nothing but ephemeral.
When exactly did architects fill the role of leader and teacher in the community on matters related to space, lifestyle, urban culture etc.? Have architects ever even been trained to be leaders and teachers in the community on matters related to space, lifestyle, urban culture etc.? Don't tell me cuteness and wishful thinking are the same thing.
And companies that want to sell products or real estate to the public, like computer, furniture or car companies, do not put a lot of effort in trying to "educate" the consumer, they advertise, i.e., put a lot of effort/money into fabricating consumer need/desire.
Does the public really need/desire architects to fill the role of leader and teacher in the community on matters related to space, lifestyle, urban culture etc.? I seriously doubt it.
2016.08.25 16:04
Cuteness and the fight for architectural preservation
Do you mean interactive media as a means to broaden the awareness of current/pressing preservation issues? Because I don't see how any interactive media can assuredly aid preservation. For example, this cuteness game could just as easily be used to promote demolition--it all depends on the intentions of the person using the game (or any other interactive media).
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