Off to the Biennale in Venice tomorrow morning, early, early. So here's just for your pleasure a fantastic street art animation by Blu:
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo. ... and I must remember to thank Mauro for the tip :) BLU is definately a new favorite.
For more on street art go to - I think - the web's top blog in that field: woostercollective.com
M FUKSAS D
As I'll be going to the Architectural Biennale in Venice in a few weeks
I was checking up on this years theme... and... I was very happily surprised:
Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, points out what should be an obvious fact: architecture is not building. Buildings are objects and the act of building leads to such objects, but architecture is something else. It is the way we think and talk about buildings, how we represent them, how we build them. This is architecture. More generally, architecture is a way of representing, shaping and perhaps even offering critical alternatives to the human-made environment.
Reading this brought me back to my first day at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art's School of Architecture. Specifically it brought me back to the very moment the introductory lecture peaked. Thit happened when the lecturer came to the rhetorical question "what is architecture?". Insterestingly it turns out that architecture is defined by just three, very precise, parameters:1 ARCHITECTURE IS TIED TO A PLACE
... unfortunately I have long forgotten that third parameter, but I feel I'm not that far off with white cardboard. What I find striking about this definition - and so overwhelmingly opposed by the theme of the Biennale - is how static it is. "Tied" and "limited". Reducing the role of architecture to a physical object. Excluding anything mobile or anything virtual. Denying the existence of time.
2 ARCHITECTURE IS LIMITED BY IT'S OWN MATERIALITY
3 ARCHITECTURE IS ... SOMETHING ... SOMETHING ... WHITE CARDBOARD
Erik Adigard / M-A-D & Chris Salter - Chronopolis
This is the prevalent take on architecture amongst the big fat guys at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. It could be their own problem, but depressingly they are persuing this idea, by actively worsening conditions for different takes on the subject of architecture.
I suppose a typical behaviour from men who reach a certain age having shown less talent at producing something just vaguely fitting their own definitions, than the talent of acquiring an academic chair.
At the same time, fabulous spaces are possible. We can see them in film and in art, where visions of other places unfold in front of our eyes. ... We can watch them grow around us in the carefully planned landscapes that have become our last true public spaces.
These images and spaces are worth looking at not just because they are beautiful, but because we are confronting design challenges for which buildings are not enough.
Read on
The above pictures are from Georgia and South Ossetia this past week. More pictures at The New York Times here and here. Some of them disturbingly beautiful.
What happened last friday makes me feel sick - will the stupidity never end. Probably not. And while Putin enjoys the possibilty of a fresh little war to keep the minds of his ignorant voters occupied for another decade or so, I am really, really wondering what dreams and hopes president Sakhasvili had last thursday when he send in the troops.? Or rather - what the fuck was he thinking? Naive thoughts of future greatness? This war seem so absurdly meaningless. It's outcome so depressingly predictable.
The only one to benefit from this is Putin and Russia.
By Surrend via Politiken. It's an ad the Danish artgroup Surrend put in the biggest Georgian Newspaper some days ago.
Surrend are great. They've done a number of other artistic interventions like this.
We need more disinformation. Otherwise we go mad.
Georgia Georgia
no peace I find
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind
Night spend at dinner/workshop discussing a project on the subject of abandoned buildings and secret places.
Here are some of the things that came up:
abandon.dk - a map of abandoned - but now, no longer secret - places in Danmark
organiseret adgang - a very secretive guy who create "offices" in direlict buildings
crimson - Dutch urban and architectural thinking
Rana Hadad - Lebanese artist, graphic and web designer
Sara Hillenberger, "Völlig Weichgestrikt" , She's also knitted the brain and the intestines.
The project "Hochgekocht" is also a bodily delight - if Arcimboldo had been into sculpture...
On my way to work the other mornig the soft city revealed itself. The dynamic, ephemeral, performative city. Allowing its inhabitants to leave their marks and tracks, letting itself be inscribed. Inviting to be read. The city as a medium. Supporting expression and impression. Of sensations, situations, stories and parallel realities. Creating the framework for urban consciousnes and identity.
That particular morning it revealed a desperate message of paradoxical love:
you little Spoiled
LUXURY Whore
PRINCESS
i hate you
i love you
starting very slow again
Exhibition at MoMa called Design and the Elastic Mind
Found it at Kottke - good thoughts and more to find there...
Love
