Lofticries.
An awesome video for what has so far been my favorite song of 2011. The bonus is that it was made by a fellow Kent State student. Check it out!
Lofticries with trembling eyes.
Commence.
I need to find some inspiration to continue to post to this blog, even if blogging (from what I'm told) is already dead.
But a quick update, I graduated last weekend from KSU with my Bachelors of Science degree in Architecture. That was a rough four years. Glad it's over, but like many things I'm left with the question of whether I did enough with my time at Kent. Immediately I can't help but feel regretful for the way many things turned out. But I need to remind myself that everything is a learning experience and frankly so little of what I learned from attending university was academic. It's cliche but it's also true. I just hope that Kent has steered me in the right direction for how I want to create my life and career from here and that my poorer than anticipated academic performance won't completely squander those dreams.
Oh Kent.
But on a more optimistic level, I really did have a great time at Kent. I have been so privileged to even attend school and to go through architecture school; I realize it's something few can claim. It's an experience that completely changes a person and makes one see the world and life different from most people on so many levels, I couldn't even begin to explain it. I'm scared but excited for my future, and I'm definitely going to miss the people that made this past 4 years so great, despite the torture we had to put up with.
Oh Kent, I'll miss you.
PROOF: That I've graduated.
But a quick update, I graduated last weekend from KSU with my Bachelors of Science degree in Architecture. That was a rough four years. Glad it's over, but like many things I'm left with the question of whether I did enough with my time at Kent. Immediately I can't help but feel regretful for the way many things turned out. But I need to remind myself that everything is a learning experience and frankly so little of what I learned from attending university was academic. It's cliche but it's also true. I just hope that Kent has steered me in the right direction for how I want to create my life and career from here and that my poorer than anticipated academic performance won't completely squander those dreams.
Oh Kent.
But on a more optimistic level, I really did have a great time at Kent. I have been so privileged to even attend school and to go through architecture school; I realize it's something few can claim. It's an experience that completely changes a person and makes one see the world and life different from most people on so many levels, I couldn't even begin to explain it. I'm scared but excited for my future, and I'm definitely going to miss the people that made this past 4 years so great, despite the torture we had to put up with.
Oh Kent, I'll miss you.
Tokyo!
Tokyo! has been saved in my instant queue for months now, undeservedly alone and neglected, but yesterday I finally got around to watching it.
And it blew my fucking mind...away.
Tokyo! is really three short films comprising one unique (bizarre) look at Japan's largest metropolis. And although each story uncovers and probes different aspects of human experience and emotion in unrelated story-lines, the urban context connects all three and frames each tale. Like sister films Paris, Je'taime and New York, I Love You, the starring role undoubtedly goes to the city itself. While there was no collaboration between the directors (director Bong Joon-ho said, "The three of us saw each other’s work for the first time there [at the Cannes premiere.]"), the trailer went as far to announce "Do we shape cities, or do cities shape us?" I couldn't find any information on if the producers of the film were architects in a past life, but creating a montage of urban themes was undoubtedly a scheming goal from the film's inception.
One particularly fascinating detail from Michel Gondry's contribution "Interior Design" conjured up a whole new scenario when the character Akira, a burgeoning filmmaker, gets inspired by a strange urban space...
"Something's wrong with these buildings. They all refuse physical contact with each other. Every night, flat ghosts slide in and out of these gaps and wander about the city. They wander about the city scaring the people shit-less. The authorities fill in the gaps with concrete, but the buildings keep moving apart letting the flat creatures take over."
A premise for a film (or book?) I hope to see (read) one day. Movie stills from Leos Carax's "Merde" and Bong Joon-ho's "Shaking Tokyo" below.
And it blew my fucking mind...away.
Tokyo! is really three short films comprising one unique (bizarre) look at Japan's largest metropolis. And although each story uncovers and probes different aspects of human experience and emotion in unrelated story-lines, the urban context connects all three and frames each tale. Like sister films Paris, Je'taime and New York, I Love You, the starring role undoubtedly goes to the city itself. While there was no collaboration between the directors (director Bong Joon-ho said, "The three of us saw each other’s work for the first time there [at the Cannes premiere.]"), the trailer went as far to announce "Do we shape cities, or do cities shape us?" I couldn't find any information on if the producers of the film were architects in a past life, but creating a montage of urban themes was undoubtedly a scheming goal from the film's inception.
One particularly fascinating detail from Michel Gondry's contribution "Interior Design" conjured up a whole new scenario when the character Akira, a burgeoning filmmaker, gets inspired by a strange urban space...
"Something's wrong with these buildings. They all refuse physical contact with each other. Every night, flat ghosts slide in and out of these gaps and wander about the city. They wander about the city scaring the people shit-less. The authorities fill in the gaps with concrete, but the buildings keep moving apart letting the flat creatures take over."
A premise for a film (or book?) I hope to see (read) one day. Movie stills from Leos Carax's "Merde" and Bong Joon-ho's "Shaking Tokyo" below.
Inflatables.
Around the end of this past semester a giant inflatable torus was brought to life on the Kent State campus, a product of the Operative Detailing seminar led by Jason Turnidge. Since I was in Italy, I couldn't be there at that time, however much to my delight, the big plastic fun house was re-inflated this summer here in Cleveland within the courtyard of the Sculpture Center.
Named treehugger: giant torus, the courtyard in Cleveland was not the original site for the project, and even though providing a tree (as did the campus site...hence the pun), a few permanent sculptures required that the structure be roped and suspended over them, re-adapting the torus to the new site.
But after releasing this project to the greater Cleveland area it begs the question, “What are the intentions, if any?” Was the project decidedly satirical, or maybe just purposefully offensive. Is "treehugger" a play on words or is it simplistically and innocently literal? Was the selection of the torus shape an exploitation of design process or explotation of exploitation? By no stretch of the imagination the goal was to provoke not just the viewer but architecture at large; which I can definitely get into.
From the artist's statement: “Doing more with less” -- a Buckminster Fuller ideology in a situation when there is no “more”. No fabrication lab, no CNC mill, no … – only an idea to provide a back drop for an event made feasible through the use of a diagram, a plotter, sharpies, 4 mil vapor barrier, tape, a leaf blower, and time. 36 unique two-dimensional surfaces are hand cut in 4 mil vapor barrier, individually taped into continuous loops, and joined edge to edge on 35 seams accounting for 10,357 linear feet of packaging tape. A flattening of the relationship between representation and actualization through exploitation of design process and fabrication achieves a 1:1 space approachable in the context of a three-week vertical seminar assignment. A torus was selected for its ability to define a closed loop of inside | outside space with a singularly curved membrane that turns doubly curved through the simple process of inflation. A focus on the production of a temporary and mobile space for a particular event-based experience calibrates material selection, precision, and construction. Siting provokes arches, drops, lifts, compressions, and expansions as edits resulting in various modes of access between the outer and inner | outer spaces of the inflatable turned architectural trope capable of making a scene.
Precisely. "Making a scene", not just creating a place for one. Not very often do we at Kent get to design in a 1:1 relationship with the final product, and for that, I'm incredibly jealous of these students. Even if Treehugger leaves you with a sarcastic and bitter taste in your mouth, the efforts of the students and the opportunity this gave them can still definitely be appreciated.
And for that, I commend everyone involved. Good work Kent.
Students // Graduate: Eric Pros, John Collett, Diana Kichler, Rachel Crafton, Alex Hosack. Undergraduate: Justin Parish, Justin Gantz, Nathan Bailey, Rachel Pensinger, Jenelle Kuehne, Jeremy Beatty, Paul Adair
Professor // Jason Turnidge.
Note: This post is nearly two months late. The aforementioned event happened on June 11th, 2010. I also posted this to my Archinect blog.
Legal.
I just turned 21 two minutes ago.
And by the way, I made it back to the states safely, however reluctantly. More to come soon: semester wrap-up, final presentation, summer plans.
I'm in Kent now for the summer. Hitmeup, friends.
And by the way, I made it back to the states safely, however reluctantly. More to come soon: semester wrap-up, final presentation, summer plans.
I'm in Kent now for the summer. Hitmeup, friends.
Finality sandwich.
Final reviews were two days ago.
In two days I will be on a plane back to The States.
Europe, I will definitely miss you. Don't make me leave.
In two days I will be on a plane back to The States.
Europe, I will definitely miss you. Don't make me leave.
København.
[the mountain dwellings by big.]
[at the 'career cannon' concert, but don't remember what happened here.]
[all photos courtesy martin, my host, seen here in the black t-shirt, his gorgeous family behind him and his friends/roomates beside me.]
And I'd like to think I did.
Some of the highlights from my trip >>>
> Living for three days right next to Big's Mountain Dwellings, possibly my favorite building. UNREAL.
> Visiting the office of JDS Architects. I literally went inside and was shown around the studio...still can't believe it.
> Danish bike lanes. They line almost every street making biking the best way to move through the city. The Danish people have adapted bikes in to many different forms...moving groceries, pets, children, etc.
> Having dinner with Martin, his roommates, and his family. They made some sort of fried danish pork meatloaf. Very good.
> Going to a concert with Martin, his entire family, friends, and roommates to see his (soon to be?) brother-in-law perform.
> Bar hoping in Copenhagen. We'll stop there.
> Having wine and bread for breakfast at 1 in the afternoon and watching the final episode of Twin Peaks with the guys.
> Being asked by the owner of a restaurant specializing in hamburgers what my opinion of his hamburgers was.
> The Danish Kroner. About 7 of them equal one US Dollar and since Denmark is a Socialist welfare state with ridiculous taxes, my hamburger cost 187 kr, or 32 dollars.
> Visiting the Danish Architecture Center and seeing the exhibition of 3XN Architecture's work.
> Walking around Copenhagen, getting trapped by canals with no bridges over them and not having a map.
> The CPH metro. The trains are driver-less allowing one to sit in the front to witness the train move through the underground and illuminated tunnels beneath the city. Beautifully futuristic.
> Siting next to Big's Harbour Bath project and reading their monograph. I almost started crying from pure joy and amazement...realizing my whole world was converging in one place for me at that moment.
That's the short of it. I am hoping to get an internship in the city in the future because spending more time in Copenhagen is definitely on the agenda.
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