2012.05.20 16:03
Need help identifying a building drawing! Please!
I'm trying to find out who did this design for "improvements to the Palace of Versailles"?
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2012.05.16 11:08
First Images of the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei
"In the future, all the past (and even the present?) will be a fiction."
or
[I'm just not myself till I] Rita Novel.
2012.05.12 10:59
Obscenely Rich Tech Folk Are Still Building Their Island Utopia Off The Coast of San Francisco
The issue is "ownership of design," not ownership of images.
2012.05.11 11:51
10 Buildings that Changed America
"When [Bishop] Athanasius sought to overcome resistance from monastic establishments, he chose a more effective strategy than accusing their most respected leaders of demonic possession. Instead he effectively co-opted the most famous of them--Anthony--by writing an admiring biography picturing Anthony as his own greatest supporter. Since Anthony had died, Athanasius had a somewhat free hand, and his biography turned Anthony into a model monk--a model, that is, of what the bishop wanted monks to be. For in his famous Life of Anthony, the sophisticated and fiercely independent teacher known from his letters disappears, and Athanasius replaces him with his own vision of an ideal monk--an illiterate and simple man. So while Anthony's letters show him to be educated in philosophy and theology, Athanasius pictures him as someone who despises educated teachers as arrogant men who are ignorant of God. And although in his letters Anthony never mentions bishops, clergy, or church rules, Athanasius pictures him instead as a humble monk who willingly subordinates himself to the clergy and "the canon of the church." Athanasius also depicts Anthony as one who hates Christian dissidents as much as he did--and who, like the bishop himself, calls them not only heretics but "forerunners of Antichrist." Far from acting as an independent spiritual mentor, Athanasius' Anthony pleads with the bishop to not allow anyone to revere him, especially after his death. As the biography ends, Athanasius pictures Anthony bequeathing all that he has--his sheepskin cloak and his outer garment--to Athanasius and the bishop's trusted ally, Bishop Serapion of Thumis, to show that Anthony regarded them as his spiritual heirs and trusted them to guard his memory."
Elaine Pagels, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation (2012).
Thus I'd now like to (step back) and address what might just be your real intent, that being to elevate the value of architecture within general culture. My advise to you (specifically as a writer) is to fictionalize this world where you see architectural value elevated. It could be short stories, a novel, or even a series of novels. The point being to create something that "the public" can relate to, consume, and hopefully even be inspired by--essentially putting ideas into people's mind via fiction. Also, forcing yourself to really imagine this world and how it manifests itself might just also deliver solutions to what you see as today's real problems.
Stephen Lauf, in "CONTOURS: The Divisions that Bind Us" (2012.01.19).
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2012.05.07 17:49
Lebbeus Wood in China
Since I will never see this work in person, my experience of it will never be anything but virtual. In fact, most of the architecture I "know" I've never seen in person, thus my experience of most of the architecture I know is virtual. Since the existence of (distributed) drawings and then photographs and then CAD models and then digital images, it has been possible to experience architecture virtually.
2012.05.06 18:08
Help with Thesis: Memory and Urbanism
Sounds like you're headed toward Random Access Memory and Urbanism.
2012.04.20 14:24
Why are we having this conversation?
"In the future, everything (including what I wear) will be an advertisement."
2007.01.16
"In the future your whole life will be a phone call."
2007.01.24
In the future, everyone will be a self link, with absolutely nothing to be sorry about. Self link architects will be all the rage, even.
2007.10.03
"All the world’s a next stage."
2008.10.13
2012.04.18 10:24
Why are we having this conversation?
Regarding chatter, I really don't know much about it because I don't blog, Facebook, Tweet, and I don't even own a cellphone. I'm still subscribed to the late antiquity listserv (which for a while now is more just a bulletin board), and read and sometimes post to archinect/forum.
Regarding online (architectural) discourse these days, it's probably best to also consider whatever interface is involved. Back in the day of heavy listserv activity, the interface was as plain as it could get--an email--and the discourse was a lot just like letter writing, and there was really no social media aspect to it at all.
If you look at archinect/forum of 2003 and 2004, you'll find posts with more text, many of letter length, and there still was no real social media aspect to it.
Within archinect/forum 2005-2006 you begin to see a social media aspect developing within the forum, and this coexisted with ongoing discourse. In 2007 (more or less) you begin to see the social media aspect balloon (a bit out of control) and hence cause some damage to the discourse (in that you start to see some participants no longer appearing).
Also, from 2006 on you see the rise in popularity of blogging, and then Facebook, tweeting, etc. There are now many interfaces for discourse, but there is more of a social media aspect to all of it, even the latest version of archinect/forum.
That said, as far as interfaces go, I'd say the second to last version of archinect/forum had the best design in terms of providing agency for architectural discourse. First of all because it was a true forum (and not a blog)--anyone could start a topic and anyone could comment within a topic (where as a blog is (for the vast majority) always the same person starting a topic). Secondly, the posting (ie, publishing) process was very quick and easy, and there was a was a variety of means for expression. Third, there was virtually no advertising or social media.
I guess my point is that online architectural discourse probably thrives better within an interface/environment that has a low social media aspect to it and where advertising really isn't an issue.
I realize that the online paradigm now is one of the masses providing content freely while at the same time generating profitable advertising revenues for the agency and not for themselves, but is that also a paradigm that engenders worthwhile architectural discourse?
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2012.04.17 13:42
Why are we having this conversation?
Orhan, experience itself is a factor of getting good at participating in online discourse--I started back in 1997 when I subscribed to the archithestics (sp?) email list-serv. You have to write and keep on writing, and you have to write with conviction (like curtkram said, think for yourself). Speaking personally, if I'm not just sharing something, then I'm probably aiming at critique. And, at best, the effect is not so much to make an all out change, rather to add to or somewhat shift or even clearify the overall perspective.
You also have to read a lot of what other people say.
Don't hold it against me, but I could watch HouseHunters International for hours. And it's not just to hear the sound of a doorbell.
2012.04.17 09:03
Why are we having this conversation?
Underlying (perhaps even subliminally) all of the posts so far is the audience factor. I think that's the base appeal of participating within online discourse--the very real potential of what you do/think/say being seen/heard by many. And if you get good at participating in online discourse through the easy agency of the internet, then you begin to see an effect.
2012.04.17 08:37
You must qualify for free work
In Edward St. Aubyn's At Last (an autobiographical novel) we learn how Patrick's drunk, aristocratic father decided to circumcise his infant son on the kitchen table.
2012.04.16 10:04
Why are we having this conversation?
Yes, multiple voices are definitely a necessary aspect of good online discourse. I can't say that I'm ever really convinced by another voice, or threatened by another voice, but other voices harbor engagement. I've found that what I like most about multiple voices is that I come to think of something I haven't thought before because of what another voice has said, thus, in a way, making my own voice clearer. For example, what I just 'said' is what Donna's, "I'm tired of the sound of my own voice." made me think.
2012.04.16 14:36
Why are we having this conversation?
I like it when substance and self-promotion are the same thing because that frightens [critics] more than anything.
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