the deep

super amazing stop motion animation.  takes the metallic and brings 'em deep down below the horizon.

done by an american director PES.  these amazing stop motions take everyday tools and bits of metals pieces, recombines them into a creepy under water world.  it has the atmosphere of being on board steve zissou's yellow submarine looking through a port hole searching for the jaguar shark.  totally love it.  now you can see too!

"The murky underwater world of fish, seaweed and other aquatic lifeforms is created entirely from old hand tools, nut crackers, calipers, films lenses, faucet knobs, chains, and skeleton keys - that exact opposite of what you might expect to animate sea life with - demonstrating why PES is clearly a master of his craft."

ethnobotanical architecture workshop!

next weekend i'll be heading down to the new school to participate in the futurefarmers workshop.
really excited to work with some of my friends at GSAPP.  hope to represent!

check it.
thanks amy franceschini and myriel!

#occupywallstreet

ideas

the results of an exchange of information after a rather awkward platform for discussing [@gsapp] the events that have surrounded the occupy wall street movement.

[yates mckee was terrific; articulate and insightful!]

see you on friday.

...with a little help from my friends

summer? what summer? it seems i'm not getting one this year. at least in the traditional academic sense of a summer ["break"]. long work days gave way to late work nights. lots of research, illustrator, photoshop, and tweaking rhino models [thanks to peter's processing power!]

following up on competition 1 of 4, here it comes...
straight from the pdf print shop.

#2.

another ideas competition meant our imaginations took the reins and ideas of celebration, unity, festival and broadcasting took over... holy rollers with joo-joo eyeballs. an information pavilion, yes, but also a advertisement to the city at large. kite power. water collection. bringing people together under one roof.

through muddy waters we mojo filtered... this is,
come together, right now [c]over me.

The Olympic Games unify the world in the spirit of healthy competition; inspired by this founding principle, "Come Together..." abstracts the symbolism of the interlocking rings, forming five bands which twist and merge into a unified composition. As a formal gesture the pavilion serves as a funnel, inviting spectators from the city into the charged interior; the reception desk, souvenir shop, and administrative facilities are housed under a twisting canopy, while the cafe spills out to engage the steps of the National Gallery- a place familiar to sitting and collecting.

The exterior of each band is populated with the flags of participating countries, forming a skin which reinforces the idea of cooperation and international competition. The interior is clad with printed and electronic display panels which aggregate on the underside of the cantilevered canopy, creating a large screen for live event display, replay, news, and interviews. The pavilion effectively communicates Olympic activities at the local scale and acts as a kinetic signifier at the urban scale, broadcasting the winner of each event to the city at large through the deployment of embroidered kites whose elevation is indicative of that countries respective ranking.

"Come Together..." employs sustainable design techniques in all aspects of the proposal; the structure is made of reclaimed aluminum, while the flags and kites are woven with a nylon/polyester blend made from recycled PET plastic bottles. Rainwater is channeled from the canopy down the walls and deposited into a water tank underneath the walking platform. Our renewable resource strategy capitalizes on the opportunities presented by this unique locale- the UK, situated in the high speed jet stream, is the eighth largest producer of wind power worldwide; in response, the pavilion is conceived as an energy-generating kite farm which holistically integrates concept and function while broadcasting to the city, celebrating the accomplishments of an international athletic competition.

back to nature; constructed ruin

fantastic! urban reclamation project in tokyo.

a 'haunted' house is magically transformed through the power of design. once covered in ivy, the designer stripped the over-growth revealing the structural elements long left to the passage of time.

i admire the restraint - not to completely gut and start anew. the old structure and new surfaces are well-balanced; it helps to tell the story of the dwelling, not simply masking it behind clean white walls.

a quick overview and stream of consciousness ramble, but check out the whole story.

photos courtesy of takeshi yamagishi

2A_EM FINALLY GOES TO VIDEO!

Finally recieved my new HV40. Heres an sample of what it can do, footage was taken roughly a month ago.

PS: learning premiere/workflow was a real pain in the butt....

come get struck by lightning

[when]: this weekend!

fri and sun

[what]: lightning bolt - presented by jackpot gallery!

[where]: [studio deep end]

315 n plankinton

check em out! it's going to be a stellar party.

plus you can support a local band and local gallery

... and hear good music!

hope to see you all there!

tobi kahn

tension; sculpture + sketches

i really enjoyed this work. came across this artist on daily serving - great resource for contemporary art.

the artist's works sit in a strange spot between tense and placid. they're so simple and elegant. some work is on digital display now as part of the ratio3 gallery in san francisco.

Mitzi Pederson

Untitled, 2008

Cement and ribbon

Installation view

36 x 36 x 139 inches

Mitzi Pederson

Untitled, 2008

Wood and flitter

48 x 3.5 x 0.75 inches

Mitzi Pederson
Untitled, 2007
Graphite on mylar over paper
11 x 8.5 inches

currently, an exhibition titled; they knew what they wanted spreads across four galleries hosting numerous works curated by robert bechtle.

seth curcio of dailyserving says the following:

"the exhibition exists without many surprises or profound connections, but is interestingly interrupted through the work of sculptor mitzi peterson and the painter garth weiser. the inclusion of peterson and weiser complicates the exhibition through abstraction. these two artists’ work are reductive and formal, but continue to engage the greater exhibition in terms of both landscape and the mundane, adding new dimension to the exhibition and requiring the viewer to actually work to extract content through context." mmmmmmmm...

Mitzi Pederson
Untitled, 2009
Wood, silver leaf, string, and bells

127 x 11.5 x 2.5 inches

Kengo Kuma installation

what an amazing installation!!! GO KENGO KUMA

honestly reminds me of final fantasy games... but maybe thats just me...

Heatherwick Studio and Thoughts

Heatherwick-Studio

Shanghai World Expo Pavilion

Inside each rod lies seedling

Designs like this make me wonder about the design process. While Inspiration is drawn from life, landforms or experiences people tend depict only the aesthetic or functional understanding. After seeing this design I wonder if there is more to it than that. A vision produced simultaneously in our minds subconscious from the overflow of thoughts from studying inspiration.

Also can vision only be created by thoughts on life or can they be produced by imagination developed by others?

Link

"the problem with technology...

... is that everyone has it."

bruce mau's incomplete manifesto for growth

"Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project."

some highlights:

well, you get the picture. they're all great insights. i encourage browsing the entire list of 43.

charge my car, not my phone [bill] please

with all the hype of electric vehicles becoming a reality we are going to start facing real life logistic questions very soon.... namely, how and where will we charge these suckers?

telekom austria has recently finished with a prototype for converting obsolete infrastructure into something that could help answer the charge-up dilemma.

stop motion_ possibilities

great stop motion animation by rob carter, an artist who implements stop motion animation and large format photgraphy into his works..

q: what would le corbusier's la tourette monestary look in high gothic drag? question answered.

Stone on Stone [CLIP] from Rob Carter on Vimeo.

humorous, and stunning...
and the artist's site has great depth.

monterrey housing development

ELEMENTAL wins brit insurance design award.
they've created an investment, not a social expense.

busy alejandro.... this is an ingenious project.

q: what happens when you only have the capital to build half a house?
a: provide the half that is the hardest, or impossible, for an individual to do themselves.
in this case, the architect provided the structural framework [ which in residential housing accounts for 80% of the project budget ] and allowed the families to infill as they accumulated the means to expand.


according to ELEMENTAL there were essentially five design parameters:
i. location
ii. urban layout
iii. position of unit on lot
iv. structure for final size
v. middle income dna

home remedies

we moved to riverwest about a year ago. loving the neighborhood. the corner bars. the co-op. the parks. the activism. the artists. the general level of humility and outrage existing in some symbiotic tension.

we moved into a refurbished 'unit' above an emergency sign distributor. the place used to be an old irish tavern. the labels are still on the breaker boxes. a funky mix of wood panelling and cream city brick - painted creamier - keep us warm and out of the wind.

... that be said our rooms were small... so, we put our minds and hands to work. check out the conversion.

[before; up]

[after; down]

no more stuff on the floor.

product_sculpture

this post is long over due, but only recently caught a chance to snap some photos.
for those interested; dimensions are roughly 6' x 8'. it weighs more than you'd care to know, but i've got it up on casters.

i've repurposed some found shipping pallets from a nearby residence doing some remodeling. ripped them down. and integrated a set of 36 plaster tiles i cast from clay, coated in 2 part rubber, and filled with plaster. more on the process.

the piece is rough, raw, and simple connections all honor the same inherent qualities of the palettes. i was interested in using repetition as a visual quality and complement the warm, raw nature of the wood with the white, smooth qualities exhibited by the plaster.

for now. enjoy the photos.

side.01

[plaster]

[full view]

[lighting effects]

[context]

[tile details]

side.02

[wood]

[full view]

[lighting effects]

[latent beauty]

[shadow detail]

comments appreciated...

essay imagery

i've been fascinated by these word clouds for years. it struck me to make some of my own. these two word clouds were made from two essays i wrote for my graduate admissions...

no more remotes

the nytimes article reports on last week's consumer electronics show in vegas, where one of the most significant changes to human-device interfaces since the mouse appeared next to computers in the early 1980s...

moving away from remote controls, mice and joysticks to something that arrives without batteries, wires or a user manual.

it's called a hand.

work + process

i've been back in school working towards completing a sculpture minor as a supplement to the architectural design degree we three have [or are working towards]. i'd like to share some photos of the work in progress.













'tiles' made from a plaster cast
[clay tile + two part rubber + plaster]













modification for connection













structure + surface













variation_complexity through repetition


the work complete and illuminated to follow shortly.