Æsthe/tech:Tonik
Building | Beauty | Consuming | ImageArchive for Visual Arts
Atelier Olschinsky
Some incredibly inspired work by Atelier Olschinsky. Sometimes visual, sometimes spatial, always mesmerizing. Enjoy.
“Founded in 2002 (Atelier Olschinsky) is a small creative studio based in Vienna, Austria. Peter Olschinsky and Verena Weiss are operating in various fields such as graphic design, illustration, photography and art direction.
In addition to their jobs for clients they also run several independent projects, always trying to develop and refine their work.”
MS
Amplified Representation
The question of representation for me has always been one of great interest in its relevance to architecture. This topic has been exhausted in most instances with methods and techniques of representation ranging from technical drawing, digital rendering, watercolor, photography, or all of the above. We can, however, draw a line in the sand between those works which use a representational technique simply as illustrative of an idea, and a means to communicate the dimension and material of the architecture, versus those works who employ representation as implicit in part or whole of the concept. In the former, the art form and craft of the representational technique is distinct from the idea conveyed in the architecture, whereas in the latter the two are synthetic.
Historically, projects and architects who engage in this discussion are too numerous name – some recent / not-so-recent standouts for me are representations of projects from Morphosis and Wes Jones, to Ali Rahim and Hernan Diaz Alonso. All have a common thread, and are able to create compelling and communicative representation while still maintaining the semblance of a larger message and atmosphere.
Most recently, as architecture always seems to be the slowest to adopt lessons from other media, there has been a surge in what could be called amplified representation. This technique, rather than use reality as an unattainable benchmark, uses reality as a backdrop to amplify the subject (or visa versa), and a way to ground the absurd in something familiar. In effect, this tends to heighten the affect of both – as one registers each one against the other.
Three examples that come to mind may be familiar. The Amazing World of Gumball on the Cartoon Network has to be one of the most visually compelling pieces of TV I have seen in a while – not because of the content (although cute), but because of the visuals, which for me, steal the show. Here, cartoon characters are not just overlaid onto real backdrops, they are embedded in them. Materials reflect and characters cast shadows. The visual mood of the scene is translated to the characters through light and camera effects, all of which creates a surreal and incredibly compelling environment. Even the characters themselves begin to take on a vintage visual undertone which I never tire of.
While I don’t fancy myself an expert on comic art (read: nerds don’t kill me), I have always had an incredible appreciation for the methods and conventions of the craft. What comics lack is motion, and as such, they rely on the distortion and amplification of the subjects through representation to convey movement, action and atmosphere. Again, artists use familiarity to underscore the exaggerated, super-human characteristics of the subjects.
For instance, we know what our own legs look like, and we also know that they don’t ever appear backlit, menacingly bent, with a superfluous amount of muscles. Put together these are illustrative the subject, but are also synthetic to the very core idea of the comic – making still pictures move.
300, a movie out for long while now, also employs a different technique to achieve a similar end. Having begun as a comic, the director made painstaking steps to recreate scenes in the comic. However, as the comic was rooted in reality, but did not adhere to it’s rules, we find that making that leap required significant shaping of atmosphere, mood, physique, and physical environment by Zack Snyder.
Here, color is altered, contrast is elevated, action is subject to time changes – all in service of elevating or amplifying the subject to convey the aggression and moodiness of the story. Interestingly enough, the movie actually tried to slow the action in scenes to capture the still imagery conveyed by the comic.
While just a few examples it will be interesting moving forward to see how this type of technique will continue to trickle into architecture more convincingly than a SketchUp model Photoshopped into a street photo, as a way to underscore an larger concept.
MS
Whale Tail
So I had a dumb-ass idea for a t-shirt and I decided to follow it through by submitting it to Threadless. Now I am shamelessly plugging it. Vote if you likey (or if you don’t) – Be nice:
Stay tuned for a post regarding architectural representation.
Happy Wednesday,
MS
Paper Cut
Are you a sucker for geometry? Me too. Check out some of these amazing still life photographs from Carl Kleiner. Compelling in a number of ways, these work at the compositional level, but are also incredibly well crafted – so much so, that they are barely discernable as photographs.
MS
GOLDEN RATIO & FRIENDS / ICOSAHEDRON V.1
THE BÆRTLING WANNABE (1&2)
Voxl
It is with great pleasure that I announce the (pseudo) launch of my new website, Voxl which will focus on documenting personal and professional works and investigations.
Voxl is a creative outlet whose purpose is both to propose and test design ideas, as well as document and assess past and current design work. It will stay rooted in an architectural bias, but will also occasionally permeate into graphic design, and other visual arts.
It has been a long time in the making, and an even longer time on the GTD list. Although the project list is short at the moment, it will get longer in the coming weeks as I kick the tires, synthesize and format on-going pursuits. I hope you enjoy it, and welcome any comments you have!
Æsthe/tech:Tonik will continue to be a mainstay in its attempt to provide contemporary editorials on things that are purty. Thanks to those readers who agree.
mvsuriano [at] voxl [dot] us
All the best this 2011
MS
Rolls Royce Apparition Concept
Via Coroflot, a limousine concept for Rolls Royce by Jeremy Westerlund. I love the way that this is represented.
From the artist:
An ultra luxurious chauffeur driven limousine evoking the glamor and sophistication of chauffeur driven cars in the past that has since been lost. This vehicle is about being seen, but at the same time being invisible or an “Apparition” in the sense that you’re safely tucked away in its palatial and private interior.
Exterior model-milled foam from Alias data.
http://www.coroflot.com/jw_concept
MS
Tech v. Touch 01: Delinquent Vernacular
As it is easy to regularly be consumed by digital practice and technique, I would like to (re)introduce one of hopefully many discussions on Tech v. Touch, that is, techniques that are specific to digital proliferation compared to those who employ the analog as a primary vehicle for exploration.
The goal then, is not to pit one against the other, but simply to bring to light how valuable each can be in informing the other; notably through craft, narrative and methodology.
In that spirit Clark Thenhaus of Endemic Architecture has used drawing and the narrative of “Alien Marlboro” as a means to explore the possibilities in the ad hoc nature of the vernacular coupled with the non-conformity of delinquency, best described by the artist himself.
Delinquency in the city exists as one of many unintended outcomes from cultural, political, and economic (trade) conventions and regulations. Gangs, slums, criminal acts, hackers, protests, union strikes, and corruption proliferate along culturally elastic boundaries between localized populations and national policies and rules. When removed from the city, delinquency exists not as ‘problem’ populations seen somehow as non-conforming, but rather as rogue and transient micro-cultures that freely linger and migrate along the margins of agraria. Latent in these margins… the residues of culture, politics, economies, and ecologies…at the interstice between agrarianism and urbanism authenticities in tectonics, trade, migration, and ecologies emerge and over generations evolve geo-conditional patterns embedded with the ability to reprogram, or recode, accepted norms and conventions through the direct, and perhaps unknowing, undermining of established and deterministic, lobbied, and hierarchical codes.
The typical notion of ‘Vernacular’ assumes an internalized set of rules based primarily on utility. Utility, however, we recognize as ambiguous and largely inconsequential with regard to tectonic evolution when seen not from a standpoint of norms and conventions. Likewise assuming the vernacular is built from internalized and concentrated rule sets (totalities) is to assume the vernacular, both tectonically and socially, is introverted and without ability to emerge new models across social boundaries through the direct transience of feral populations. Rather, the vernacular is much more an open source network of transient persons mobilizing resources and initiating new rules through notions of exteriority (assemblages) tailored to specific geographic conditions. This is to say, that rogue agrarian cultures are transient, populated with nomadic persons who move at varying rates, bringing with them “foreign” materials, tools, and techniques that are re-deployed and transmitted across various ecologies, which over time instantiate new rules and tectonic coding not through introverted and closed-loop cycles, but through open-source networks and transient evolutions to and within ordering systems. These evolutions may be a temporary occurrence within a permanent system, or conversely a permanent evolution within a temporary system…such as harvesting versus a barn raising.
It is this migration of both delinquency and vernacular where Alien Marlboro existed. Alien Marlboro left behind many drawings, most found buried, that foster a new agrarian tectonic. His Spindle Houses were built on stems equal to the width of the modern furrow to eliminate the disconnect between production and homestead (governmentally promoted). Other drawings, such as Carthage Kansas were built high into the sky to launch TNT into the atmosphere. Science of the day claimed that “Air Blasting” created and brought together clouds and increased rainfall for increased agrarian production. Alien Marlboro imagined a free zone of agrarian production, roamed by grazing harvesters operating not under direct governmental quotas and tracking, but as a collective of nomadic infrastructures integrated within the larger transportation networks.
http://www.endemicarchitecture.com
MS
Wordle
Thought everyone would find this amusing. A website that turns your text into a data graphic, based on frequency of use.
MS
