Æsthe/tech:Tonik
Building | Beauty | Consuming | ImageArchive for Visual Arts
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
Visual Acoustics
A new film about the life and efficacy of Julius Shulman.
http://www.juliusshulmanfilm.com/
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Noriko Ambe
I was looking at the work of Noriko Ambe the other day, and am completely fascinated with the meticulous nature of her endeavors. What’s interesting to me is the dichotomy between what is expected and what is revealed in this process. Superficially, I don’t know if I am to believe that these are excavations of sorts, where the beauty lies within the sequential discovery of the formal nuances amidst each layer of Yupo paper as it is carved away, or if in fact, she knows what is coming next, and the mastery of the technique has led to a carefully planned additive method, where we only see what she intends, knowing how each layer will unfold.
I would guess it’s probably a little of both, which makes it all the more compelling.
MS
Universcale
An amazing website devoted to the scalar relationships of our known world. Think Eames Powers of Ten with a flash interface. Perhaps the most amazing thing is how small we have been able to create man-made objects (namely single electron transistors). A sobering testament to both our insignificance, and simultaneously our amazing ability to catalogue our environment.
MS
Kalyx
Engaging the right side of the brain is a liberating exercise, except most times it isn’t something we consciously do. Right-brained thinking is interesting in the sense that it is so unlike its counterpart, aka left-brained thinking, in that there isn’t necessarily work involved in getting from point A to point B. There isn’t an “I get it” or “I don’t get it”, but simply a range/depth of appreciation.
I think we would all be surprised at just how attune to visual phenomena we really are, and how much we can process simply by looking at an object, a space, a face, or an image.
I say that relevant to this project, only because I started with trying to indulge a right-brained urge, and ended up getting there in a pretty linear fashion.
Working on a project in Dubai, our project team found out that a good portion of the masonry in the city is actually cut and hewn coral deposits. Its combination of mass and porosity, as well as availability, had obvious benefits given the climate and region. Though the project pursued another direction, I kept finding new things relative to color, growth patterns, etc.
A project emerged simply by trying to follow the underlying geometric logic of a species of coral whose septa (walls) fuse together from polyp to polyp. Simplicity follows two tracks; a simple thing + complex technique, or a simple technique to get a complex thing.
This employs the latter.
I’ll probably post a more detailed description on my website shortly.
MS
Wing Suits for All
This has nothing to do with architecture or design for that matter, unless you’re counting the suit fabrication, but I thought it was amazing nonetheless. Besides the sheer insanity of it all, some of the video tracking the jumps in first person is incredible.
Get the fullscreen vimeo video here.
MS
This is not a political blog…
…but don’t tell me the careful visuals and graphic consistency of his campaign didn’t help him win in some way, shape or form.
The campaign might have been the best marketed brand of any presidential candidate to date, and one that exploited (in a good way) our current technological networking opportunities.
No small feat.
Tease me, Seymour
An image of a competition entry I have been working on tentatively titled Kalyx.
More to follow…
MS
Tropism: Commonwealth vs. Joshua Davis
Architecture and its subsequent production are entering a new phase in the processes of its making. It is nothing new that architecture is always a few steps behind the other related design fields, simply because of its cost and multiplicities of coordination, as well as its direct degree of physical influence. Although I don’t think we would have it any other way, other art forms can provide a window into oblique directions we may find ourselves confronting in the years to come.
Commonwealth is an upstart firm based in NYC whose principals, Zoë Coombes and F. David Boira, have recently found themselves extending their expertise gleaned from an architectural based background into the realm of product design-as-art. Having carved for themselves a distinct working studio in Williamsburg, they have begun staging exhibitions which explore the possibilities that occur at the intersection of different design fields. This ongoing investigation goes beyond simply implementing qualities from the respective fields, but rather takes the expertise and stylistic dispositions of the participants and fuses them into a singular project that creates an experience beyond the capacity of what either party might produce individually.
Tropism: Commonwealth vs. Joshua Davis is the most recent installment in these investigations. It is curated by Maxalot, and is currently on view at Espeis Gallery until July 22nd. A more in depth description of the show can be found here, but as an overview, Commonwealth contributed a vase design that moved from a 3D digital model in Maya, output and rapid-prototyped in SLA plastics to a positive resin form, and then cast and refined in porcelain. Graphic designer Joshua Davis, the shows second participant, wrote programs for generative graphics to uniquely conform to the vase’s topology. Moving from a vector file to a paint sheet, Davis’s graphics were output as ceramic paint and fired onto the digital-porcelain vases. Davis also generated new print work to serve as a backdrop for the vase installation.
The beauty in these works is partly a product of their process. Commonwealth has used the strides in digital manufacturing beyond just making possible the impossible, but have absorbed the inherencies within the media (specifically MEL scripts and Stereolithography) to make art which exploits those potentials. The result is truly a craftsmanship that exudes a degree of control and precision that I think we as designers are constantly searching for. It is a testament to what rigorous process can bring to form, style and material.
Have a gander.
Product Design | www.commonwealth.nu
Graphic Design | www.joshuadavis.com
Curation | www.maxalot.com
Gallery | www.espeis.nu
Flickr Sets | Commonwealth
Flickr Sets | Joshua Davis
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