2007.04.20 12:24
Featured Discussion: Volume
To: design-l
Subject: i had no idea
Date: 2002.03.25 18:45
When I sent the following posts to design-l on 10 March 2002:
Aside from membership, it is more likely the content of Design-L that is the most valuable. I have said it before, and I'll probably never tire of saying it, but I believe that whole Design-L archive is most "historical" architectural text of the last decade and still going. I use the word "historical" to describe its distinct originality as an electronic text, its uncensored inclusiveness, its completely "democratic" accessibility, its completely objective record keeping system, and its very fine system data retrieval. I doubt there is any other "architectural" list that goes back so fully to 1993 [the archives actually goes back to 1992. sl]. Howard and John have done, and continue to do, architecture a great service via "designing" and maintaining Design-L.
Regarding:
"What I have found around design circles in NYC is that there is not much interest in the Internet as a forum for exchanging ideas and imagination. That it is seen primarily as a vehicle for advertising and promoting one's work and reputation -- one way communication, one to many, and no desire at all for two-way much less many-way discourse, disputation and challenge from "nobodies." The latter, as far as one call tell, from the panic in the eyes of the ambitious, is pure death. Again, we have seen evidence of that on this list."
there are some strange (or are they just stupid?) contradictions here. One, it is not really possible to criticize list activities as being one-sided if the person doing the criticizing chooses not to be involved. The non-active person is more at 'critical' fault than the active participant. Two, what really seems to bother non-participants about internet forums is the new ability for individuals to "self" advertise and promote their works and reputations. The act of advertising and promoting (one's) architectural work and reputation has a very long history, well beyond the history of internet forums. What's different now is that anyone with talent and ambition can now do it, i.e., "share it!" freely--a completely new architectural 'paradigm'. Third, internet forums facilitate completely open "peer review", more or less the exact opposite of the traditional "peers" that really just want to control the "review". Fourth, as a participant of Design-L, I can honestly say that never have I thought of any other participant of Design-L as a "nobody". The presence of each participant is always somehow magically manifest each time they participate. For me at least, that is something quite extraordinary, and indeed something that is most difficult to experience anywhere else, especially on such a potentially global scale.
and
I thought There's No Controlling Nobodies might make an appropriate title for a publication comprised of letters from Design-L.
...I had no idea that the first post in the design-l archive is dated 10 March 1992.
Steve Lauf
2007.04.20 11:29
Featured Discussion: Volume
Having now read all the bold faced entries, I find most of the content already redundant in that none of the processes and thinking and actions involved are new to the way I operate architecturally. And given the resources that Volume has at its disposal, one should expect so much more. Just compare the output/effect of Quondam with its minimal resources. Makes you wonder where the real limits lie.
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2007.04.19 22:58
Featured Discussion: Volume
Well, since most people are behind the times, yes, the future.
2007.04.19 22:52
Featured Discussion: Volume
Actually it's the attention deficit economy, hence, in the future, everything will be an advertisement.
2007.04.19 22:16
Featured Discussion: Volume
I don't buy Volume because it's too cheap. If I'm not paying at least $100.00 for a magazine, then it's just not worth it.
2007.04.19 22:09
...and speaking of random tangents
Sometime in the future republish all emails I sent to archipol at Quondam. This will pretty much be a full archive of the "sleeping giant" since I was almost the only person to ever send anything to archipol. Maybe call the feature Dear Comatose.
Now, where exactly did I store that html file of the archipol archive list showing the hundreds of Happy Saint Helena Day emails?
Coincidently, the email I sent to archipol 1999.04.18 was entitled tsPOWa, which was my first email ever about St. Helena.
2007.04.17 10:52
...and speaking of random tangents
1998.04.17
the next four-five months
The work on the Ichnographia is well on its way... Besides the actual work on this project, it is becoming more and more clear that the methodology behind Piranesi's plan is very applicable to a rethinking of my own neighborhood. By that I mean that the Ashdale Valley, Rising Sun & Tabor, Cedar Grove, Tacony Creek, etc. all add up to a stimulating narrative, and can well be "drawn up" as an Ichnographia. This is where my Campo Marzio work and my Tacony Creek Park work overlap intellectually, and I will elaborate on how this relates to Tacony Creek/Cedar Grove in a subsequent note.
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1998.04.23
the Ichnographia as "theme park"
Because of my potential trip to Rome in June, I have mentally played with the notion of the Ichnographia being used (perhaps for the first time) as a "guide map." Using the Ichnographia as a guide would seem ridiculous to most because the large plan has always been dismissed as a pure fantasy. It can act as a guide, however, especially if one is aware of the textual background of the plan, meaning the historical texts which describe ancient Rome.
Along these lines, I came up with the idea of looking at the Ichnographia as a ancient Roman theme park--a virtual place where one can vicariously experience the ancient city as well as learn about the history of the city. I am not at all a fan of late 20th century theme parks, but their "virtuality" has not escaped me. Judging by what is created today in terms of simulacra and mass entertainment, it is as if the Ichnographia is like their uncanny prototype.
The themes Piranesi uses are numerous:
a. the Imperial genealogy of both the Bustum Augustii and the Bustum Hadriani.
b. the forward and backward "ride" of the Triumphal Way.
c. the military themes along the Equirius.
d. the numerous garden designs
e. the Nemus Caesaris and the Bustum Hadriani
In a way, the whole typological catalogue is nothing but one variation on a theme after another.
In no way do I want to cheapen my interpretation of the Campo Marzio by relating it to modern theme parks, but the fact remains that there are similarities. Does this mean that Piranesi is yet again (200) years ahead of his time in terms of planning? Does this correlation shed new light on the present relevance of the Ichnographia as a planning paradigm that prophetically explains architecture's state as well as shed light on the future? These are certainly questions that I never expected to be asking myself, yet I have thought about the possible urban design relevance of the Ichnographia for today, but not from the point of view of modern theme parks.
I guess this is just another issue to consider, but it is also a very far reaching one because of the implications toward a possible understanding of the future of architecture.
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2007.04.17
there's a movie in there somewhere
Ever since learning about Helen Gregoroffsky Fisher, I've wanted to see The Europeans again (a movie I haven't seen in almost 30 years, and little did I know I was a Merchant/Ivory fan way back then). Henry James wrote the novel, and I want to read that soon, although Miers' journals probably draw a better picture. Anyway, I finally saw The Europeans again last night, and yes it all relates quite well. Now I envision a new movie, Learning from Helen Gregoroffsky Fisher.
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2007.04.16 15:21
...and speaking of random tangents
2000.04.16
exploiting Quondam
...tired of doing all the serious work at Quondam... tired of not having creative fun. ...it's time to begin OTHERWISE EYES. ...start "invading" the existing pages with new data that is there like product placement or is disinformation or is just infringement text/imagery.
...the notion of a museum present throughout, albeit a museum completely otherwise.
...feeling that even with the invasion/unethical approach, an architectural philosophy will come through...an iconoclastic approach engendering originality...changing the Ichnographia, adding "bold" topics to the Encyclopedia, P. as a hyper(?) museum of architecture, Synopsis of Architecture by Papidakis and L., "how to be the best architectural client," hyper building additions, religious conversions (Hurva goes Christian, etc.), Seroux and the Denkmal (plus more [like Durand]), the P. model with all the other site plans grafted on, the NOT THERE imagination.
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1812.04.16
Ury
After spending the morning writing a letter to his son Miers Jr. in St. Petersburg, Russia, Miers goes out to garden (where the mailbox is now) and is attacked by a bee, and is ill the rest of the day.
2007.04.14 23:00
...and speaking of random tangents
1999.04.14
an alter-ego for Quondam
Just before going into the hospital, I started to think about creating an alternative Quondam environment, one that is accessed through Quondam’s main page, and utilizes the same collection and themes as Quondam , but nonetheless affords Quondam a “place” to be much more liberal, uninhibited, and all out revolutionary(?). At first it may appear that this is borrowing the theme of schizophrenia + architectures, but that is really not the intention at all. The main objective is to apply all the new dexterity implications inherent in CAD and the digital revolution vis-à-vis architecture and representation. Perhaps the alter-ego can go so far as to present the notion of an alter-ego to architectural history as well.
...begin this “alter-ego” virtual museum through presenting any number of cad model distortions and collisions. These new “models” will in turn offer the opportunity to create and engage in new architectural environments that will come to represent a totally new and unprecedented world of architecture.
Perhaps this alter-ego museum will most resemble schizophrenia + architectures in that really anything can go on there. Actively indulge in taking up any of the more unconventional ideas and take them to whatever mean or extreme. Perhaps the correct term for this other Quondam place is super-ego Quondam, a place where architecture enjoys the virtuality of digital infinitude.
The alter-ego may ultimately produce something akin to what Piranesi continually produced through his engravings and texts...
[This note was first published online within schizophrenia + architectures toward the end of 1999. Also, there was briefly online an alter-ego Quondam via a madnouQ link. OMA's spawning of AMO was extremely coincidental.]
2007.04.09 23:29
3DH Gallery
The idea of this system was developed in 1637 in two writings by Descartes. In part two of his Discourse on Method Descartes introduces the new idea of specifying the position of a point or object on a surface, using two intersecting axes as measuring guides. In La Géométrie, he further explores the above-mentioned concepts. --wikipedia
So let me rephrase...
The xyz coordinate system is not necessarily the same thing as Cartesian rationalism.
Interestingly...
The work, La Géométrie, was responsible for introducing the Cartesian coordinate system, which is a mathematical graph in which x is the horizontal line and y is the vertical line, and in which the positive numbers on the x line are on the right and the negative numbers on the left, and the positive numbers on the y line are on the top and the negative numbers are on the bottom, and specifically discussed the representation of points of a plane, via real numbers; and the representation of curves, via equations. --wikipedia
So the system was not so much a rational cage, rather a method to represent curves?!
2007.04.09 23:04
3DH Gallery
"'bout the same thing right?"
Are you kidding me?!?
I'm pretty sure there was such a thing as categories before Kant. And I am curious whether the concept of XYZ coordinates existed before Descartes.
The point of my questions was more to highlight the notion that the "buck doesn't stop" with citings of Descartes or Kant.
Descartes used the xyz coordinate system to help form his theory of logic, but I don't think he invented the mathematical system of xyz coordinates. (I could be wrong, but that's why I asked the question.)
The xyz coordinate system is not necessarily the same thing as Cartesian logic, and I think that's where your references (and perhaps even the way you're being taught) get confused.
It wasn't too long ago when architectural 'theorists' were using the term "non-Euclidean geometry" incorrectly too. It wouldn't surprise me it the term is still used incorrectly. (see "A Glass of Blue Nun Wine" in A Quondam Banquet of Virtual Sachlichkeit: Part II)
anyway...
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