Ok, so here we go,
Dear Ed
Spring model in-between info:
Sometime during last month, I typed my name in iASP and a blog of a friend came up; a picture of mine was linked to the Michel Serres text u gave us to read, the one which once I read I immediately posted on my blog blabla@Columbia. During the delay which occurred while downloading these links I found out about the wikimania’s 1st world conference that was to take place in
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Constant real-time defragment:
Several days later I was aiming to visit the location linked to the photo of mine mentioned above; the suggested space was inside
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Responsive interface:
A group of Columbia students are now coming towards my position carrying construction materials: 2 electronically bending plastics about 3m long, with adjusted USB inputs on them as well as photovoltaic units; 3 pieces of wire in order to connect their edges; an LCD skin; 4 speakers ; a smoke machine and several small projectors. They have just bought this pod and are about to impose it next to the existing one. Helping them out in order to compose it, they revealed to me that the first iASP was to be sited at a small park next to the corner of State Hwy & Rector Str.
PS After re-reading this text, I decided not to send it to you.
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ezio,
how are you planning to deal with the banal question of who will come out of their comfort zone of portraying themselves on the internet in their secluded spaces, in order to expose themselves outside? and also, what is the value of this installation? will the projection of superimposed images be enough to justify your cause? i know you've done a lot of research and reading on the projection of the self and the other, but i'm not sure all that is enough to justify the project.
i am interested in what you think about this because i have the same fear in my project, the fact that people might not want to come out of their comfort zone anymore....are we making up a problem in order to provide a solution?
ezio said...
People are only as free as they choose to be; I couldn't even think of trying to make descisions for others in my project, but that's my political point of view... (and u can understand that I'm not being exactly literal here.... ;) yet do I know the exact results of my mechanism? no, and maybe that's the beauty of it: the ability to (maybe) surprise me.... I hope that it could actually happen because I get very often suprised from the emerging conditions that are (the minute I'm writing this text here) happening through the net. Again, as I said to the presentation, I'm not trying to find the best solution to the problem; at the end of the day I believe things are already towards something better in the terms that I'm using at my project. All I'm trying to came up with is a set of starting rules and an infrastructure that are again editable to the extend that my whole process could eventually be reversed... Finally I believe that the open system that I'm about to present on Wednesday is the idea behind my project that justifies it. As for the projection of images, sounds etc, maybe something that u are not familiar with, yet is constantly in our discutions with Keller is the fact that I'm trying to translate, in a way, big amount of info into something that could be read with the senses (universality - not language) and that is where the pattern recognition cames into the discution.... that is what I'm interested in.
thanks for the quote
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i see. i wasn't able to hear your entire presentation.....and i know there is much more to your discourse than meets the eye. i guess i just almost feel like a cheater sometimes with the program in studio because i feel that i spent 3/4 of the semester trying to make a problem in order to solve it. as architects we are trained to solve a problem, and i guess that is how columbia is different from other schools, here we are actually offering a plateau in order to think of a different way for things to be (martin)....so in that sense your project is successful as is everyone's in the studio. but in any case, are you at all nervous of the results of your project and the possibility that it might die? i am asking this because i have that fear, and maybe the point is to just propose another 'fun palace' or superstudio in order to push for newness. then what? who builds? will others do that while we are busy creating the latest manifestos?
what are your thoughts on this?
ezio said...
nice... I can't agree more to the statement presented above; yes I can surely see the possibility of my project diing, yet I can also see architecture as some kind of super-value: then the question becomes what do u choose to superimpose with greater value... and that is a political decision; I guess from my point of view I choose to help a society that maybe is ready to give up some of their control to a greater number of people; help them in a way to stand out... to be part of the city (phisical space); I don't believe that manifestos are to come up from my project - I'm not using this kind of process - yet I don't see my intentions -nor noone else's- as somekind of "fun palace"' not that also a fun palace is an acceptable proposal-it depends on how u define it actually... ersela, try to see our projects as a kind of documentary that their goal is to swift a tiny bit the general perseption (that is a difficult and justified aim...) in order to get people to listen about themselves maybe u need to serve some fun ;)
best
ezio said...
mmmm, I think at the end of the day I'm 'doing almost nothing'... should I feel proud? ;)
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hell yeah!! you should feel proud!
i am so excited for our studio's final! we all have 'hesitations' to present and i think it's going to kick major butt!
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also, i think these thoughts are hapening because we are in ed's studio and due to our program. had we taken the others where there is a building to be produced our thoughts would have been contaminated too early....so this is an excellent start to think globally and politically then dive into other projects....
Nummer 5 said...
Forget about hesitation! Whatever you want to do, do it. I think the endless celebration of hesitation is one of columbias great weaknesses. Of course no one is served by headlong rushing to bad decisions and bad designs, but a decision should be reached at the end of every architectural process, however insufficient it may seem. It is always possible to change a design or an idea after further thoughts and discussion, but if you never start making decisions because you are afraid of making a statement that could be brought down by others you will end up by writing meaningless essays of many empty words and never build anything. This sounds pretty hard but I hope that you understand it as a general critique on the way of thinking that is taught at the moment at our school. This is not a critique on your projects or your studio! I would have liked to have done that studio but I just wanted to voice my thoughts on the course this discussion was taking as I find it symptomatic of what itches me at the moment at our school. So if anyone gets offended by this, please don't. This is after all just my personal opinion and that in short form. If anyone is interested in getting further into this debate you can find me in the Kipping studio in the row shared with the Kim studio or mail me at gawain@gmx.ch
Ciao
Daniel