3.2.10
2.2.10
article on the history of Arial and Helvetica...more reasons to dislike them both
"To professional designers, Arial is looked down on as a not-very-faithful imitation of a typeface that is no longer fashionable [Helvetica]."
http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html
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http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html
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1.2.10
Party ... Catalan-style.
This weekend we drove to a gorgeous mountain-top plateau for a birthday party in a 1,000 year old house with stone walls, terracotta floors, 20 effortlessly gorgeous Europeans and their unsupervised children. Sounds included a mingling of Catalan, Spanish, and English and some lovely French music in the background. The dinner party was fabulous...I took notes. Here's a bundle of some moments from the afternoon, before the real fun started. (music, Mathieu Boogaerts.)
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31.1.10
new years raw material
raw material part one.
here are my videos from new years. part I. post yours so we can make a memory film. Continue
here are my videos from new years. part I. post yours so we can make a memory film. Continue
30.1.10
this mix will help you breath in/breath out fire.
this is a survey of my favorites of everything i've been listening to lately. it might sum up the sound of working in studio, trying to be cheery in a barren, snowy landscape, but mostly things that just won't get old. (not the actual sound, just what they remind me of because that's what i've been doing while listening) i think these artists are all doing incredible things.
download here
i think there's a wide range of things happening musically, so i've tried to group them so things don't sound too schizo.
with that said, try to experience the songs in that order, i labored a little over it. i might challenge you not to skip around, or skip songs. i believe they are all really well composed, and a couple really transform by the end. don't write them off until you've heard them all the way through.
have fun! let the music swallow you! (sorry the file is so big!)::gargle gargle gargle::
Continue
download here
i think there's a wide range of things happening musically, so i've tried to group them so things don't sound too schizo.
with that said, try to experience the songs in that order, i labored a little over it. i might challenge you not to skip around, or skip songs. i believe they are all really well composed, and a couple really transform by the end. don't write them off until you've heard them all the way through.
have fun! let the music swallow you! (sorry the file is so big!)::gargle gargle gargle::
Continue
29.1.10
Videographer volunteer?
This video made me happy. Really, really happy. Next Collective reunion, we have to make a movie. Slash move to Portland.
http://meganmcisaac.tumblr.com/post/355636962/the-lovely-hannah-hughes-made-this-beautiful-video
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http://meganmcisaac.tumblr.com/post/355636962/the-lovely-hannah-hughes-made-this-beautiful-video
.
Continue
an emotional post.
so you know those days when you pin up all your work across studios and one studio is always decisively superior? yeah. i'm on the wrong end of that today.
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Continue
28.1.10
27.1.10
sitting on the carpet on the floor in [january] mixtape
1 [the xx] basic space
2 [discovery] swing tree
3 [of montreal] heimdalsgate like a promenthian curse
4 [crystal castles] untrust us
5 [passion pit] moths wings
6 [cocorosie] noah's ark
7 [jens lekman] a sweet summer's night on hammer hill
8 [thieves like us] lady
9 [david bowie] all the young dudes
10 [edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros] home
11 [magnetic fields] swinging london
12 [sufjan stevens] to be alone with you
26.1.10
Facebook maps it.#2
Non-Collective stuff faded out, as suggested. The asterisks indicate directionality when needed. Also, the black-white background makes the lines easier to see, but is too much character in the pictures being lost w/out color? Or does b.&w. actually clean the whole thing up a bit? The version with color is below. Most importantly, is this interesting enough for me to go ahead and keep doing them? It could be neat as a series later, but only if it's interesting to other people. Thoughts?
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25.1.10
24.1.10
Syncramental
Rhubarb Pies y'all!
One week project with Martha.
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Combining Lori's hand skills with my computer skills for a new vision of Detroit.
23.1.10
The Night I Realize I am in Love with You
I close my eyes and imagine a flowered urn.
I imagine holding you, broken-necked
dying. I will tell you not to be afraid.
I will tell you to breathe slowly.
You are sticky with blood, your tongue
swelling, but I will not turn away.
I will press my face to yours, tell you
there is nowhere else for me to go but with you.
I want to sleep. I want to eat dead stars.
I will say your name like an animal. I will kiss you.
I will tell you that mine is a melting,
unmerciful love, that there is no such thing
as disregard. You will taste like iron, like body,
like earth. Your hair, matted, thick with blood
will smell like you, like sprouting trees.
But there is only so long I can watch
until I will start to shake, until I will want
to be washed away. I am unwilling
to let you become a trick of light, one
afternoon, a heavy body. I will curl up
beside you, will the gunman to return.
I will kiss his face to hear his phrases,
to feel his dirty hands drain me, to set the barn
on fire and let me burn away beside you.
I will have the stillest kind of sadness.
But if he never comes, I will not give up.
We will be on our backs, left in the ground.
If I can drag you, I will.
The lake is deep enough,
the fence charged.
.Continue
Sharing time.
A little selection of my screen-saver folder, which has basically functioned as the dumping spot for all the things I find and like. One photo was taken by a friend, one is a scan from BCN, and the rest are from NOTCOT. Of course.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ieoqs0
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http://www.sendspace.com/file/ieoqs0
Continue
sharing time II
I was watching a movie earlier today (okay, it was Rachel Getting Married) and was really struck by...well, its fantastic use of music. Not in the sense of a score, because there isn't one: in the sense that people in the movie are always playing music, and it really does have a different structural feel than a score does. Sort of...well, real.
This inspired me to make you a mix.
For me, making a mix tape is often weighed down by the burden of trying to get across a message and the politics of what is actually appropriate to say to someone else via music (think "High Fidelity". Seriously...), but I wanted this to be something a little different. I wanted this to be like...if you were at my apartment this January and we were drinking coffee/eating carryout, these would be the songs that you would have been most likely to hear. There is no design to their order; some of them are songs that leaked this month, some of them are songs that have been around for a long time, and some of them have definitely lost their luster for me (I'm looking at you, Hot Chip) already. Still, here they are:
hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?wk5ntmvwd2d
(Many of you are probably familiar with the idea: change the "xx" to "tt", go, download.)
Music, like everything else, has a complicated underlying structure that isn't necessary to understand for an individual to appreciate the effect. The way that people relate to the music that other people make is kind of incredible, if you think about it: lullabies, Britney Spears, Bob Dylan, Beat Happening, hymns, dirges, you know. The whole damn thing. Songs kind of get to have it both ways: they are capable of having a permanent and and evolving structure that can exist simultaneously and unthreateningly. Totally derivative, terrible music can still bring people a lot of joy.
What are you guys listening to these days? Continue
This inspired me to make you a mix.
For me, making a mix tape is often weighed down by the burden of trying to get across a message and the politics of what is actually appropriate to say to someone else via music (think "High Fidelity". Seriously...), but I wanted this to be something a little different. I wanted this to be like...if you were at my apartment this January and we were drinking coffee/eating carryout, these would be the songs that you would have been most likely to hear. There is no design to their order; some of them are songs that leaked this month, some of them are songs that have been around for a long time, and some of them have definitely lost their luster for me (I'm looking at you, Hot Chip) already. Still, here they are:
hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?wk5ntmvwd2d
(Many of you are probably familiar with the idea: change the "xx" to "tt", go, download.)
Music, like everything else, has a complicated underlying structure that isn't necessary to understand for an individual to appreciate the effect. The way that people relate to the music that other people make is kind of incredible, if you think about it: lullabies, Britney Spears, Bob Dylan, Beat Happening, hymns, dirges, you know. The whole damn thing. Songs kind of get to have it both ways: they are capable of having a permanent and and evolving structure that can exist simultaneously and unthreateningly. Totally derivative, terrible music can still bring people a lot of joy.
What are you guys listening to these days? Continue
22.1.10
sharing time.
17.1.10
16.1.10
14.1.10
Haiti Project
In response to the recent events, we are focusing on Haiti in studio this semester. We are not sure how this is all going to develop, but we are super excited about what can develop! Right now we are searching for media, info, news anything to start mapping! The first part of the project will be collection and then solution/help for this and other similar situations. Im sure we are all familar with SEED and its capabilites, now we need to expand construct new ideas.
This is a call for all info and for suggestions!
Please feel free to contribute any ideas!
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p.s. http://www.chenarchitect.com/
looks like we've come a looooong way. kind of boring.
January 27, 2010 4:47 PM
...reeeeeally?
those renders look like they were made in google sketch up.
January 27, 2010 6:20 PM
omg, what happened to him?! What a blip on the proverbial radar.
January 27, 2010 6:43 PM
Also, all those projects are flat and lifeless. Has he heard of um...a person!!? let's not even talk about the lack of depth, texture, or any kind of spirit that makes you give enough of a damn to build it. Dead-eyed-renders.
January 27, 2010 6:49 PM
And just think: in a few years, most of you will have surpassed him in education, too. (All of you already surpass him in class and uh...interest. Hence the "too".)
January 27, 2010 8:39 PM
egh... it makes you wonder about education. I mean I never had him, so I can't comment on it too much and I do believe you can learn something from anyone. Maybe we are meant to surpass our educators. I would hope that is the ultimate intent...
January 27, 2010 9:47 PM
What does it make you wonder about education? Like...how can someone ever really be qualified to be a teacher? Or...that the level of education that someone obtains doesn't necessarily make him more or less capable as an instructor? This is something that comes up a lot in my field, since usually only people with about ten years of post-graduate work are permitted to hold academic positions. I'm not really sure how I feel about it.
Some academic fields tend to produce more people to fill the same position (English professors are good at generating more English professors, but statistically fail at producing things like literary critics, which you would think would be a given), while others are very open to different professions (I'm thinking about biochemistry, since, you know, that's what I did: it produces academics, professionals, high school teachers, etc., with academics making up a pretty small percentage of students).
I'm not really sure where architecture fits into this spectrum because you guys are my only touch point. Is academia a safe place for architects? Do most use it as a stepping stone to something else? Is it common for professors to have architecture firms, or to actively participate in architecture while teaching (whatever that means)?
One of the central difficulties to higher level science instruction is that what makes someone a good scientist (i.e., he can secure funding and conduct research) does not necessarily make him a good teacher, and vice versa. Is this something that comes up in architecture, too?
January 27, 2010 10:33 Pm
Sorry. I've been drinking a lot of coffee.
January 27, 2010 10:48 PM
Laws, that mini-speech is amazing. I feel like I've just been given a writing prompt; let me get back to you after I brainstorm.
January 27, 2010 10:57 PM
you just blew my mind. i feel like architecture school produces a pretty diverse range of paths. take us for example: architecture, film, theatre, writing, poetry, fine art etc. etc.
i truly believe architecture school is one of the few places which produces such an incredibly wide range of opportunities post-graduation.
although, i do feel that academia is a safe place for architects, and most places do want you to be currently active in your own practice.
on a side note at ucla, the professors are *required* to be active in their field.
January 29, 2010 3:56 PM
I think that Kaitlyn hit it pretty much on the head. Architecture's reach into academia is pretty broad. Think Thomas Jefferson, Eisenman (philosopher and architect), Tom Ford (fashion), etc.
Professional/ external practice is often required for architecture and design professors. It allows them to develop with the times that way they can add prestige to their name, the school, and deliver a better product... education. So, you would assume that the better teachers are the better architects/ designers; however, I would like to think that the better educator is the one that leaves a greater impression, not just the one with a greater prestige.
Also, architecture is based on both creative thought and production, so it is necessary to do both. I did hear how one professor confronted another to show his disapproval of how she was not an architect, had not practiced as much professionally, and has primarily been an academic. She is though pursuing her license and PhD... So, it is not safe to stay within the boundaries of education. There can be a prejudice if you are not contributing to the field in a more direct way. A balance needs to be had if you are going to participate in academia.
And don't apologize for curiosity. It's my favorite trait even if accelerated by warm legal stimulants.