Now, what is "Operation a Sucess; Patient Dead" going to be about? I have no idea right now. Is it a joke like the expression of the chapter title itself? Is it a paradox? How is architecture (today) a paradox? Does it have to do with really being metabolic? Being creative/destructive? That would certainly be a fine lead, and I'll have to go over my metabolic material and maybe just formalize it all.
2002.07.09
EXQUISITE CORPSE
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2007.08.19 11:19
Why do you think you're creative?
The bird of paradise was definitely trying to be procreative, indeed prolific. Yet it's metabolism, a creative/destructive operation, that sustains almost all life.
Otherwise, the notion of being creative in the hope of making things better may just as easily mean being creative due to discontent.
2008.11.22 15:15
watching old architects talk to each other
"Architects, for the most part, are not particularly convincing (especially viewed amongst themselves)."
excerpt from "Operation a Success, Patient Dead"
2009.02.02 13:07
Venturi's Lieb (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
...and then/now there's museification
dossier in brief:
(at least) a Philadelphia tradition:
Cedar Grove and contents
Letitia Street House
Hatfield House
Briar Hill library and contents
Period Rooms of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Japanese House
Étant donnés
1977.02 antidote:
"If someone in the museum was truly interested in my work they would let me cut open the building. The desire for exhibiting the leftover pieces hopefully will diminish as time goes by. This may be useful for people whose mentality is oriented toward possession. Amazing, the way people steal stones from the Acropolis."
Gordon Matta-Clark
1993:
Robert Venturi, "Some Agonizing Thoughts about Maintainance and Preservation Concerning Humble Buildings of the Recent Past"
1998:
"Do you know the BASCO sign is now gone?"
"No! Do you know where it is now? We'd like to save it."
1999.10.06
A typed letter signed by Robert Venturi, wherein he laments the demolition of his BASCO 'baby', is currently up for auction at eBay
2000:
"What's the address of the Nurses' Office in Ambler?"
"It's better now if you just look at the pictures."
[found the building and took pictures anyway]
2002.11.23
Monument Hystérique
2004.12.17
"Took pictures of soon to be quondam building; visited museum exhibit without the museum building there yet; entered room that moved from inside one Trumbauer building to inside another Trumbauer building. Where do I get my best ideas?"
2005:
Best Building demolished; flower pattern porcelain enamal panels saved, many now in private and museum collections
2009.01.02
Lieb House; another chapter in the architecture of removement.
3120q
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2009.02.02 14:37
Venturi's Lieb (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
I'd say that the Lieb House is now a museum peice. That's how the building's context has now changed. Villa Savoye hasn't moved, but its context has changed as well. It hasn't been a residence in many years, and it too is now a museum peice.
It was asked above what's going on at Guild House. According to "on the boards" of the VSBA website, Guild House is undergoing rehabilitaion. Just in passing, the physical context of Guild House changed drastically within the first decade of the building's existence. Spring Garden Street was much different/dense in the 1960s and bad zoning decisions changed the street into low-rise warehouses. It's kind of difficult to appreciate Guild House 'in context' now.
For what it's worth, I'm becoming much more interested in architectures within the context of the space-time continuum.
3120q
2009.02.06 10:08
Venturi's Lieb (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
"...the question about whether that particular research is still relevant to this particular generation."
"why do we like when old ads are painted on the sides of buildings - and try to protect them - but wouldn't allow them now? why would we protect/grandfather a huge neon when we are disallowing similar sized led displays?"
"the name of the exhibition was spelled out in those plastic letters above the entry to the gallery, in the gorgeous grand entry hall of the museum."
[I'd say] Museification sometimes "has a way of nostalgically applying aesthetic qualities that were not present in the origin."
It is becoming more clear what Agamben means by "everything today can become a Museum, because this term simply designates the exhibition of an impossibility of using, of dwelling, of experiencing."
The antidote then may well be to simply use museums. And in that sense, the Lieb House has now been museified, but, if and when it reaches its ultimate destination, it will then be used as a guest house.
3120q
2009.03.16 11:28
Venturi's Lieb (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
Historical analysis within a space-time continuum is more ongoing productivity and less end-product.
"architectures in the space-time continuum"
architectural history in the space-time continuum
Pergamon, wo bist du?
I'm beginning to wonder which is more immovable, a building or an opinion.
"[This museum should be regarded as a kind of reliquary containing various mementoes symbolizing not only the eternal brother-conflict, but also the military and diplomatic encounters, exchanges and betrayals of recorded history.] An old woman conducts a party through the museum, pointing out relics from the battle career of her hero Wellington, the Iron Duke. There are exhibits under glass and pictures on the walls. A flag, a bullet, a military hat; Duke Wellington on his big white horse; three soldiers crouching in a ditch; a pair of Naopeon's jinnies, making believe to read a book of strategy; and a sex-caliber telescope through which the Duke trains on the flanks of the jinnies."
JC&HMR
most prevalent in our time:
the assimilating imagination, the metabolic imagination
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2009.08.19 10:48
Postmodernism sucks... discuss
Perhaps you can title the article:
Quasi Positive Spin Surgury on the 1700 Year Old Heart of Greek Orthodoxy
or
Operation a Success; Patient Dead
2009.08.19 11:27
Postmodernism sucks... discuss
12.13 16:42
which Acropolis do you prefer?
the Acropolis as used by the ancient Greeks?
the Acropolis as used by the ancient Romans?
the Acropolis when the Parthenon was used as a Christian Church dedicated to Mary?
the Acropolis when the Turks used the Parthenon as a munitions magazine (hence the 17th century (1687.09.26) explosion that pretty much wrecked the place)?
the Acropolis as mass tourist destination with the Parthenon ruins slowly being further destroyed by air-pollution?
the Acropolis Museum as viewing platform?
[multiple choice, I'm sure]
If I write an article about this I might entitle it:
Turkish Magazine + Spark = Explosion @ Architectural Wonder.
2009.08.19 15:18
Postmodernism sucks... discuss
Purist perhaps in the sense that I'm most interested in the source material that's available.
Regarding S. Sophia:
I'd read Procopius, Buildings of Justinian.
I'd research the church's history within the Orthodox hierarchy.
I'd refresh my knowledge of the Fall of Constantinople.
I'd try to research/document as best as possible the change from church to mosque. (and, as a sidebar, research/document all the mosques that reenact S. Sophia)
I'd try to research/document how "Constantinople has continued up to the present day as the seat of a Patriarch of the Orthodox Church."
I'd try to research/document how the mosque changed to a museum. (It sounds like there may be some actual legistation, and, if so, I'd suspect the wording to be very interesting and informative.)
I'd try to research/document how the museum operates.
The pre-Justinian Church of Aya Sophia in Constantinople was burned Jan. 15, 532 A.D. The work of reconstruction was begun Feb. 23 of the same year, and the new building was dedicated Dec. 26, 537...
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