Sermon on the train

Question: how 'public' is public, actually? Especially, how 'public' are 'public lectures'?

Many universities go out of their way to organize lectures that are accessible to anyone who's interested. This means, however, only that an institute choses to liberate only a small part of the information available, at a carefully picked place and time. Generally, the effect is that only visitors from a small circle will attend, not the general public. Most of the time, this isn't out of a lack of interest. It could be that the institute is, despite the open entrance, not easily accessible. Or that people outside the confined universe of the institute don't know when or where the public lecture is. Or think about the psychological barrier someone who's not accustomed to a university might have.
All in all, it's pretty safe to argue that, however good the intentions might be, public lectures are, in fact, not completely public.

The logical next question could be to think about how to increase the public character of those lectures. Think about the biblical public sermons, for instance. Jesus preached on the mount and on the plain, he went towards the public to share his view. If that idea is converted to our times, "Sermon on the Train" isn't that far-fetched.

Here, well known academics, as well as artists, go out into the public realm to share their ideas. Or, more precisely, they hold a lecture on a train in South-Africa. The lecture is announced beforehand by means of posters and such, meaning that people who want to hear the lecture mingle with the normal traveling public.
The difference is that the commuting public didn't choose to listen to the lecture, they are immersed into it, simply because they cannot get out of the train. In that essence, it's a bit like preaching in public - hence the term "sermon". One could ask whether this is more public as the traditional form, what the relation between lecturer and audience is, and who can access (or owns?) the information.


The idea behind the sermons stems from the artists "Made You Look". That means Nare Mokgotho and Molemo Moiloa.
"The works of Made You look are, as the name suggests, tongue-in-cheek interventions that encourage a re-observation of and de-familiarization with the ordinary." as they say themselves.

people or no people, that's the question...

Recently, I saw some images of the completed "La Llotja" project by Mecanoo. I'm not going into details about what I think about this project, because it triggered a whole different subject: I recalled seeing renderings that looked pretty similar to the final result not that long ago. But something was different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, until I checked the renderings again. Then, the difference became quite clear...


Look at this image (the render), and look at the image above (the photograph), and think about the role people play in the images. It's not just about this example by Mecanoo, but it happens in virtually every project lately: the renderings are filled to the brim with smiling, happy people, whilst the final photographs are completely devoid of any people. It makes me think what the reasoning behind this logic would be.

Is it because the target audience is different? A rendering is aimed at a laymens' audience, whom architects try to sell an "atmosphere". But for the final photos, the target audience are the architectural magazines, for whom people are mere annoying clutter. Or is there something else at play? I'd be curious to know the reasoning behind this selective (re)presentation of people in architectural imagery...

The complex history of sustainability

After all is said and done, a lot has been said about sustainability. Almost every single designer claims to be "sustainable" - even though it doesn't extend beyond the "green" image in many pieces of architecture. Exactly the complex matter of sustainability, the many face it entails, the rich history of ideologies - this all seems to be swept away in a storm of sexy wind turbines, spectacular photovoltaic cells and a strategically placed comment about the cradle to cradle principles inherent in the design process.

But there's so much more than this contemporary - relatively superficial - approach to sustainability. This inspired Amir Djalali, with Piet Vollaard, to compile "The complex history of sustainability". Originally, it was intended for a publication in "Volume #18 - After Zero" only, but the timeline has been transformed into an interactive website, based on a mash-up of the google earth software by CASA.

On this web-interface, on can browse through the history of sustainability. Sure, one might doubt some of the -isms as used. And the selective nature of the people captured in this timeline. And the speculative connections between peoples and issues.
But all in all, it gives a nice insight in the complexities and contradictions within the single term "sustainability". From the 18th century romantics, the eco-anarchists and the global warming denialists to bio-mimicry, cybernetics and nazi eugenetics, all is portrayed in this timeline. Linked to the key figures on every stage. As a nice bonus, books, movies, games and architectural projects are added on the time-line.
It might not all be 100% accurate and complete, but at least it doesn't simplify the true meaning(s) of sustainability.

Highway to ASCII

I'm probably a bit late with this, since I've just discovered a new thing from... 3 months ago. Well, still: for their latest video for the song "Rock Train", AC/DC did something that is really fitting to the band itself: it's something that's old, but still pretty cool. And it's nothing new, but something old in a refreshing way.

Simply: the did a wonderfully oldschool (but newly interpreted) thing: they released their video in ASCII-art! The coolest thing is: you can watch the video in microsoft excel. I think that's the first time that somebody could actually claim to "rock out with excel". It's so awesomely cool, that I don't know what to say about it. You can download the videoclip - or better yet: the spreadsheet with the video in it - from "Rock Train" from AC/DCRocks.com. If you don't have excel, you can watch it on youtube, via the image above.

Pixorama

A classic theme in painting is the so-called Panoramic painting, an all-compassing view of a subject. It might seem a rather traditional form, but it inspired Eboy to create something similar for a recent exhibition in Barcelona: he came up with the Pixorama.

The Pixorama is a complex view of an urban scene, all built up out of pixels. Because of the style of projection (axonometric, stylized computer images), the objects can be re-used, and remodeled. This makes a pixorama more like a living city than panoramas could ever be: the pixorama changes constantly, and is thus not a reflection on the world, but a world in itself.

Pareidolia

In psychology, it's a common phenomenon: Pareidolia. It describes the instance in which a random stimulus is perceived as significant. For instance in hearing a hidden message (that's not really there) in a record played backwards (even though I am still really convinced that K3 sings about "grote massamoord - godverdomme leuk" if their song "Oma's aan the top" is played backwards - but that's a whole different story.)
The term could also signify interpreting clouds as animals or seeing faces in the moon. Even the famous Rorschach-test bases it's phychological analysis of someone's state of mind on Pareidolia.

Lately, I've come across two very distinct online-cases that are both working with the matter of Pareidolia.

The first one is the strange maps blog. I've already posted something about this blog earlier, but now they've coined the term "cartocacoethes" - which means as much as "the convulsion to see maps everywhere". And they have a small, but nice collection of just that: sh\tains shaped like the USA, a Milanesa in the shape of Africa, clouds shaped like Britain. And this remarkable puddle in the shape of Australia.


The second one is slightly less serious, but all the more hilarious. It's called "inanimate faces", if I'm correct. It's a term for objects that have a face - if you look at it the right way. Like with the one at the top of this post...

There's a nice collection up at boreme.com, and flickr.com has a huge collection of inanimate faces.
Thanks to this website, I've been eyeing my TV for the last couple of minutes, since it really resembles a face with a big smile...

Image is everything

Have you ever had the experience of buying something in the supermarket that just looked absolutely delicious, but turned out to be nothing short of appalling? Well, there's definitely a discrepancy between the image that we buy, and the actual product.

That lead the people behind pundo300.com to conceive their project "ads vs. reality", in which they compare 100 products with the image on the package. Some look more alike than others. It's not to rate a product or anything, just to get people thinking about the way the means and ends of the advertisement-industry is used...

I stumbled upon this via www.hard-c.com.

Architecture and fashion

I think that nobody will deny that there is a connection between architecture and fashion. The Guardian came up with a nice way to illustrate that: Hadley Freeman discussed nine architects, with a focus on the relation between the clothes they wear and the kind of buildings they design. As far as style goes: I really dig the casual, but decidous professor look that he's sporting. And he actually always looks like this...

It's all in the details...

I'm pretty sure that it isn't exactly what Mies v.d. Rohe was talking about when he said "God is in the detail", but this advertisements clearly show what a difference a detail can make. A detail in personal experience, that is. I found this advertisement for the Belgium optician Oogmerk via hardcopy, who got it, in turn, from what some would call lies.

The Spectacle of the Pool

Hotel Elan in Dallas, Texas, is a five star hotel. It will probably be really comfortable and all, but it's not quite spectacular, architecturally speaking. Except for the swimming pool. Almost every single trick in the book is used to make this pool the unique selling point of the hotel. Firstly, the outdoor pool is on the 10th floor of the building. Secondly, the pool is cantilevered about 2 metres off the edge of the building. And to even add to the experience: the cantilevered edge is made out of glass, so that you feel as if you are swimming over the edge of the building. And from the street, you can have a look into the pool. It's definitely a huge eye-catcher for the hotel: I'm pretty sure that every body in Dallas will be all like "the Elan Hotel? Dunno... Oh, the one with that crazy pool!" In case that's not clear: that's wonderful, in my book.

Museum Plaza Louisville - O.M.A. / REX

I'm not sure to whom this project officially belongs - since the split between OMA and REX. Well, all in all it doesn't matter, it doesn't make this video less convincing. In itself I have some questions and doubts considering the design itself (mostly formal onces - about the proportions - or stylistic ones -about the interior), but as a means of presentation, this is a brilliant video, I believe.

Freitag Flagship Store (Zürich)

The brand Freitag is well known as a brand of bags, produced from recycled materials, like truck tarpulins, car seatbelts, airbags, bicycle tires et cetera.
So when the question of a flagship store arose, it was quite logical that they decided to do something with the same industrial, recycled feel. For their flagship shop in Zürich, a tower was made from used containers, stacked near the road, making an iconic architecture - a landmark building that really displays the intrinsic qualities of the brand in its architecture.

LEGO towers - BIG

The famous Danish architects of BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) have made a design for a new kind of towers-cum-landscape in Copenhagen, with the name "Lego Towers". So it makes sense that, when they got to do an exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, they decided to build a model out of LEGO-blocks. I think every kid that ever used LEGO (and everybody who grew up with it) is dreaming of a chance to build something like this out of the brightly coloured blocks...

"does that not fit in with your plans?"

It's a classic beaut: the architects sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.