Author Archives for GeoSocialReblog
york apartments - night view
Waiting
The follow-up narrative sketches, Timescapes, describe integrating adaptive temporal maps into spaces for waiting:
I make a detour to the halo
which marks the location of
a waiting portal. I stand on
the temporal map as close to
the Highbury mark as I can.
The play of light from the
halo above describes the
temporal topography of
London.
I’m interested in the possibility of a walkable interface for my own temporal tube maps, and also the issue of how travel time and waiting times are intrinsically linked, which ties in neatly with thoughts on Dave Chatting’s Ipswich maps too.
Liverpool Light and Shadow
Went to Liverpool this morning and it is nice to see that the grandly entitled Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King (ie the catholic cathedral) has now had its main entrance, promenade and visitor centre completed.
Further afield I note that the real catalyst for contemporary architecture is Liverpool University with several new buildings of various sizes and dispositions.
Aldham Robarts Learning and Resource Centre, Mount Pleasant, 1994, Austin Smith Lord
I noticed the shadow’s of the trees against the plain white backdrop of the University of Liverpool’s Aldham Robarts centre, and it got me wondering whether some architects are actually able to plan certain shadow and light effects on the surfaces of new buildings. As an architect, this would be a wonderful area to explore - especially in this age where a building can be placed into a virtual world with sunlight and shadow.
Take this even further and you could plan certain shadows from various sculpted points in the landscape to reach certain parts of the building at certain times. Imagine also surfaces which react to slight variations in temperature and change colour or leave an imprint for a short time just like a pinhole camera.
Hang on - hasn’t this light and shadow trick been done before - Stonehenge?
More recently I was impressed by the way tree landscaping formed shadow effects on Tadao Ando’s screen in Manchester - see below..
In RAMBO, Free to Be You and Me
Bet you thought you’d never see that genius graphic again, eh? Curbed loyalists will remember it as the winner of our summertime ‘Hoodwinked contest, which crowned RAMBO as our favorite new neighborhood name. And guess what? The nabe finally got some media play. In Time Out New York’s Public Eye column, which questions a passerby about his or her fabulous sense of style, suave artist Francis Estrada had this to say:
What neighborhood do you live in? I live in Rambo in Brooklyn.
What’s that? [Laughs] It’s “Right After the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.”
Apart from geography, how does it differ from Dumbo? It’s a neighborhood that’s hard to classify. If you live in Dumbo, people assume you’re an upscale, conservative young professional. In Rambo, you can be whoever you want. Rambo is limbo.
We’re hoping he meant the awesome party game by the same name, and not “a place or state of neglect or oblivion.”
· Public Eye: Francis Estrada [TONY]
COMPETITION: Designing the Future of New Orleans
Architectural Record, in partnership with the Tulane School of Architecture, has announced two International design competions to propose new housing for New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The Dual competions are: 1. New Orleans House Prototype, open to current architecture students; and
2. High-Density on the High-Ground, open to everyone.
Participants in these competitions will design much-needed housing for the city of New Orleans. The first competition will generate proposals for a house prototype, variations of which can be replicated throughout the city. In this competition, the house prototype will be demonstrated as an affordable single-family home on a typical New Orleans lot. The second competition will generate a 140-unit housing community with mixed-use components on a high-ground site by the Mississippi River. Winning designs will be published in Architectural Record and presented at the 2006 AIA Convention and Expo. Selected submissions will appear on McGraw-Hill Construction web sites.
Design Objectives:
Participants are encouraged to consider the following issues:
Climate, Geography and Culture of New Orleans
Sustainability
Pre-fabrication and/or Modular Systems
Important Note: While the competition welcomes visionary or hypothetical proposals, contestants are encouraged to consider that New Orleans faces a severe and immediate housing crisis, and is in need of practical, affordable solutions to this problem.
How to enter:
Click on the link below for the entry form.
Fill out, print and fax or mail in the form with the entry fees.
All competition materials will be sent to entrants within two weeks after the entry form is received.
Schedule:
Questions Deadline - February 8, 2006
Answers Posted - February 15, 2006
Registration Deadline - February 1, 2006
Late Registration Deadline - February 15, 2006
Submission Deadline - March 1, 2006
Jury - March, 2006
Exhibition March 15-29, 2006
+ Designing the Future of New Orleans
Photos © Neil Alexander
Outstanding Universal Value
The official text of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention tells us:
Article 11
2.On the basis of the inventories submitted by States in accordance with paragraph 1, the Committee shall establish, keep up to date and publish, under the title of “World Heritage List,” a list of properties forming part of the cultural heritage and natural heritage, as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of this Convention, which it considers as having outstanding universal value in terms of such criteria as it shall have established. An updated list shall be distributed at least every two years.
reference:http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/
In April 2005 the City of Kazan (Republic of Tartarstan, Russian Federation) hosted an expert meeting to define this three world more clearly.
In a Background Paper provided by ICOMOS it is written:
Criteria of Outstanding Universal Value
Each identification for the world list of monuments and sites of outstanding universal value in the sense of the Convention means - just as in individual countries the preparation of national or regional monument lists - documentation of monuments and sites or cultural properties on the basis of an evaluation following certain criteria. These criteria, however, may change from time to time and we should be aware of the change of values that this entails. For example, the so-called artistic value depends to a certain degree on the taste of the time; it is therefore not an absolute but only a relative value. Also in the past decades there have been changes in what the societies of the various regions of the world consider to be important within the chronological/regional framework of the history of humankind. This also finds expression, for instance, in the considerably expanded “modern” definition of monument.
While in our time there is a strong dominance of purely economic values, in former times there used to be fierce discussion about cultural value orientation, eg if we think of the famous querelle des anciens et modernes of the 17th century in France - the question whether outstanding universal values could only be achieved by imitating the Antiquity or if expressions of the creativity of one’s own time were also allowed.
reference:http://whc.unesco.org/temp/POL/ICOMOS%20OUV%20Paper%20final.doc
IUCN (The World Conservation Union) states concerning the concept of outstanding universal value:
OUV is thus the central construct of the Convention and IUCN considers the following issues are relevant in defining its meaning:
- Outstanding: For properties to be of OUV they should be exceptional. IUCN has noted in several expert meetings that: “the World Heritage Convention sets out to define the geography of the superlative – the most outstanding natural and cultural places on Earth” (Thorsell, 1997);
- Universal: The scope of the Convention is global in relation to the significance of the properties to be protected as well as its importance to all people of the world. By definition properties cannot be considered for OUV from a national or regional perspective; and
- Value: What makes a property outstanding and universal is its “value” which implies clearly defining the worth of a property, ranking its importance based on clear and consistent standards, and assessing its quality.
reference:http://whc.unesco.org/temp/POL/FINAL%20IUCN%20Background%20Document%20for%20Kazan%2004.04.05.doc
In Paragraph 49 of the Operational Guidelines the issue is described:
Outstanding universal value means cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national
boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity. As such, the permanent
protection of this heritage is of the highest importance to the international community as a whole. The Committee defines
the criteria for the inscription of properties on the World Heritage List.
reference:http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide05-en.pdf
The topic offers a wide field for forther discussion. The importance for UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention is immense.
Tatar part of Kazan in the early 20th century.(reference: Wikipedia, GNU)
Cool Effects Light Shirt
Written by Camille Dodson
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Leah Buechley and Nwanua Elumeze have recently developed a light-shirt that plays the ‘game of life’ with cool blinking patterns. The lights come on and animate vibrantly, captured by me on video1 & 2 . The shirt also has an button for interacting with the lights, adding a blinker to the center of the shirt’s grid to change the animating automata. |
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At a recent demoing session I attended, people gathered around Leah to watch the show and learn about the development of this cyber-fashion wear. After viewers had played with the display for a bit, Nwanua pulled out his pda, revealing the wireless programming capabilities of the shirt. Users were excited to draw new patterns and watch ‘life’ grow and change. Behind the Scenes Look at this Magical Garment
University of Colorado at Boulder, USA |
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Bacteria portrait
GFPixel is a “painting” made of genetically transformed bacteria. The organisms are cultivated in about 4000 Petri-dishes that are arranged as a portrait. Like on digital screens part of the bacteria produce the green light – the Green Fluorescent Protein-gene is switched ON and in the other part the GFP-gene is switched OFF.
The works plays with the border between living world and the digital world, the portrait seems to be digital but it lives and dies during the exhibition.
A work by Austrian media artist Gerfried Stocker and molecular biologist Reinhard Nestelbacher. More images (click “Gallerie und Details”)
GPF Pixel can be seen at Medialab Madrid until April 2, as part of an exhibition of the most outstanding projects of digital culture which have won prizes in recent years at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.
Hideki Nakazawa’s “Art Patent Sustaining Project” @ Kandada / Project Collective Command-N
This show, organized within a series of exhibitions curated by Command-N, an activity-based art collective directed by artist Masato Nakamura, highlights the newest activities of artist Hideki Nakazawa, focused on the actual patents he has obtained during the past recent years. His main patent deals with the very simple idea of a “3D bitmap”: if you know what a “pixel” (= abbreviation of pictures + element) is, you just need to think of a pixel in 3 dimensions. This 3D pixel is called “Voxel” (= combination of “volumetric” and “pixel”) and it is Nakazawa who owns the patent for deploying any 3D bitmap art form. He claims that the purest artistic form of expression does not lie in the use of a medium, but rather in the act of creating the medium itself, just like Leonardo Da Vinci who spent a considerable amount of time just in preparing his ideal pigment. With this hypothesis, Nakazawa claims that the artistic quality of his work only resides in the following table:
Left, you see the actual sketch by the artist (in Japanese).
In the exhibition, you can take a look at the actual patent certificates that the artist obtained both in Japan and the US, along with a showcase of the 3D Bitmap editing software he directed and published in 1996.
I was invited to one of his talk shows. As someone who researches the digital copyright licensing system, my initial interest vis-à-vis Nakazawa’s project was inevitably focused on his use of the patent, a right managing system parallel to the copyright system.
Although Nakazawa’s interest to the law was only secondary, I found the way he sells his ‘art patent’ most interesting above all: you can spend ¥150,000 to become one of the stake-holder of the patent, so that you can get capital bonus when the patent receives licensing fees. Even if Nakazawa’s ‘invention’ has nothing new technically, his concept of creation of the medium reveals itself very stimulating to the informational age we are living in.
Roger, Roger
There is a new bilingual design magazine here in Germany. We already have at least four design magazines (depending on what you deem design), but ROGER matches or surpasses most of them. And ROGER is certainly the only German design magazine the rest of the world should care about, because it is the only one that cares.
While reading design magazines and design news sources online I am often appalled by the lack of social responsibility, critical reflection, and political wisdom. People hail works of designers even if the client earns his money from, say, exploitation in the global south, undemocratic regimes, or the arms trade — as long as the aesthetic value of the design work is somewhat recognizable. Not being a designer myself, but often in need of design services, I have met and worked with many designers who share the same impression. I love well designed websites or magazines — indeed I collect them. And there is a new item in my collection: the third issue of ROGER with “International Angst” as the main topic. It combines both design and responsibility.
ROGER tackles design related questions with a holistic and interdisciplinary approach. It closes the gap between your usual design magazine and political types like Adbusters and Consumerevolution. It is the closest yet to a “social design magazine.”
The current issue focuses on the “culture of fear” discussing its effects on society and on designers developing products to match customer demands in a market driven by irrational necessities. The issue features a range of articles addressing the premise from different angles. Whether it is a report from the International Design Action Day (IDAD) or a background article on the reasons for setting up Esuvee.com, a site warning about the dangers of Sports Utility Vehicles, or an interview with the curator of MoMA’s SAFE exhibition, it is always clear that the topic is more than just design. ROGER shows design can be more than aesthetics or selling products. True design is about shaping, shaping our society or future ones. No wonder a feature article on Buckminster Fuller introduces the idea of design science. The magazine itself sounds a little like a scientific project too, to prove that designers can indeed take responsibility.
ROGER is published by the KISD Club, an association of students from the Köln International School of Design. Because the magazine is bilingual, in both English and German, some articles are a little short and the pages, a little crowded. ROGER’s motto “Design People Questions” is also more ambitious than it appears at first. So much more that the magazine sometimes fails to meet its own ambitions. The article about a Chinese design fair called TIC 100 doesn’t even mention that it takes place under a bloody regime that does not hesitate to jail reporters or kill students.
Still, the Editorial of the second issue, which is partly available online, expresses more than I can paraphrase:
“Design tends to be misunderstood and the self-presentations of the primadonnas contribute to this…. It would be better to reorganize those living and consuming circumstances that have become completely absurd and yet serve as a desirable example everywhere…. Luckily, some designers are already conscious of their responsibility.”
Find out more at http://roger.kisd.de/
