time[space]

2011-10-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

In the introductory lecture to the seminar series time[space] this video encapulates an idea of time and space by inferring a real time narrative whilst traversing the city. It also suggests dual time zones with a split screen and the rhythms of the city are also present.
Phaseone - Sugar

PHASEONE - SUGAR from Vadim Gershman on Vimeo.
Directors: Vadim Gershman & Ryan Powell
Writers: Vadim Gershman & Lea Sorrentino
Editor: Ryan Powell
Music: Phaseone
Track: Sugar
Produced by Vadim Gershman, Ryan Powell & Andrew Jernigan
http://phaseonenofun.tumblr.com/
http://vadimgershman.info
http://dmndtv.com

CONSTRUCTION SITE

2011-04-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my appearance while my administrator executes some essential maintenance and renovations. The site will be changing over the next few months and will be extending the research on Space and Place to ideas of Space and the Temporal. In the meantime, while you are waiting why not check out this neat block tetris game...

Horrid music too much for this site so here's the link:
http://www.mylostgames.com/play/block_tetris

The Love Police

2011-01-27T06:58:00.000-08:00

I wanted to show this in the lecture but the technology wouldn't let me:

...and here's the website:

http://www.cveitch.org/

Daihei Shibata: Shinkansen ver.2

2010-12-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

Like the Gondry video for Star Guitar and Tal Rosner, [both links are in this blog]. Just love this sideways journeying. Traveling in the Japanese high-speed train Shinkansen from Shinosaka to Tokyo. The video sequence was shot by OLYMPUS EP-1(PEN).

Music: VanShe "So High"

Shinkansen ver.2 from daihei shibata on Vimeo.

London Futures

2010-12-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

An exhibition of digitally enhanced images of London landmarks created to promote further awareness of climate change. The images are presented as postcards from the future, with the aim of 'bringing home the full impact of global warming, food scarcity, rising sea levels and how all Londoners will need to innovate and adapt to survive.' These images are impressive, disturbing, but complete fantasy. They show dystopia referring to a futuristic society that is purely fictional whilst applying symbols of real prejudice that is happening in the present and elsewhere in the world. They remind me of the last lecture, '...Other Destinations' where commonly known symbols and ideas are appropriated to a fake environment to stimulate viewers and evoke particular emotions.

The exhibition is currently on show at the Museum of London until the 6th March 2011. There are plenty of other images through the link - - Buckingham Palace surrounded by shanty towns, Parliament Square as a rice paddy and ice skaters on the Thames.

how our house resembles us as a person

2010-12-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

This is my house. It's a 6 bedroom shared student house. I think that our houses do reflect who we are as a person. for example, what things we choose to have on display and what things we choose to keep out of view, how tidy we are and the things that se have. It reflects a bit on our own individual personality to how we style the house and our bedrooms.

Dystopia

2010-12-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

the game shows life in and around vegas in a dystopian future after nuclear war. it has a cheery optomistic 50s feel to it which is in stark contrast to the ruins all around.

電気グルーブ Denki Groove / モノノケダンス

2010-12-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

An emergent dystopian scene, or just a rave, and maybe even a type of reversioning or reinterpretation of the Hieronymus Bosch painting, Garden of Earthly Delights, which we discussed in the lecture. The film's disruptive unravelling of the animation process, its shoddiness, particularly at the end is presented as the ultimate horror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymIn5pqRH94&feature=related

Park Hill

2010-12-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

In 1957 construction began on Park Hill, a council housing estate located in Sheffield. The construction was finished in 1961 and was received positively by the local community. What made Park Hill different from a lot of the large housing estates of the time was not just the architecture but also the sense of community.

When rehoming entire communities into a new building it wasn’t uncommon at the time for the people in charge to spilt entire communities up. However Park Hill was different as not only were neighbours able to be re-homed next to one another but the old street names from the previous area were also re-used, thus keeping the sense of community.

Although the building was initially seen as modern and offered better facilities than the current alternative at the time, decades later the building started to show its age and was in need of re-development. The building was listed in 1998 and is now being renovated by Urban Splash.

Its so common for people to quickly dismiss the future possibilities of just about any building made post-war. If its showing its age, best just to knock it down yeah? Eventually there will be a void in history when it comes to looking back at post-war buildings - particularly when it comes to social housing. Whilst some buildings can not be renovated because they are structurally unsound, the ones that aren’t should be preserved.

Although still in development, Park Hill is a great example of what can happen to architecture if people were willing to see beyond the surface and think. Although demolishing is often cheaper/easier - Plymouth Hoe Centre?

Michael

utopia?

2010-12-02T04:10:00.000-08:00

"...the difference between a Utopia and a Dystopia can often lie in the visitor's point of view: one person's heaven can be another's hell."

My 'In-Between' Space

2010-12-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

Within my home i find spaces that are unoccupied and used for 'passing through' most interesting. The way that they aren't dwelled in appeals to me, like they are a passage through time or a gateway between two spaces or dimensions. They have a function but are vital, necessary spaces rather than places to settle and exist in.
This particular space represents the meaning of the house in general as it isn't a permament home for me and where I move to next is unknown. In essence I am only passing through, I am in between two lives; my life as a student and the progression into my future self and my chosen career. My home now is therefor an 'in-between' place and will always have significance and will occupy a space in my memory but it is a place that I am passing through and will stay in a certain place in time. Just as I will change and move on, so will the place when someone else occupies it.

My Home

2010-12-01T02:14:00.000-08:00

I've spent my whole life living under the same roof, and although the interior and exterior has changed slightly throughout the years it is my home. A place I feel secure and safe in my surroundings, with my family I share the space with.
My home is a place I enjoy being in, an escape from the outside world into my own world where I can relax in comfort. It is a place I have grown up in and have lots of memories from both the outside, in. This makes it a special dwelling for me to spend my time within. Although there are some empty rooms in my house, and unfurnished rooms it still to me is a space I look forward to entering and shutting the door behind me to relax with the ones close to me where everywhere I go theres a personal touch from my family to comfort me.
My room is a seperate area just for me, my own retreat thats personal to myself. Although I've spent 20 years/ all my life in this house, I've had various different bedrooms however I've alwats made it into my space. My newly decorated bedroom is a comfort zone for me, everything situated in my bedroom is what I have chosen for myself, striking wallpaper and bold black wardrobes reflects my interior interest and has created statemement pieces.
Not only is the interior of my home important to me but also the exterior garden creating a sense of place and freedom where I can also enjoy my time, weather permitting! Living behind a cricket field it brings a lot of activity during the summer months and then during the winter months I can view the snow on the moors from a window upstairs, all this together creates a beautiful surrounding to call home.

James's Home

2010-11-30T06:40:00.000-08:00

To me home is where I enter into my space, A space that I share with my family, where we can shut the front door and step into our own world. My home is a place where I am happy to return to everyday, it conjures up the words,comfort,warth,friendship and family. My room is an area just for me; it is full of things that I have chosen and things and things that have a meaning or a purpose. For example, My 'A' level art piece has been framed in oak and hangs on a white wall which shows off the natural green and brown colours-I look at this piece of work and automatically think of all the hard work went towards it and the differnt techniques used.
My house is centred in a very natural environment; it is built on the side of a cliff over looking the Looe river; and is surrounded by woodland. This environment enables me to have a sense of space and freedom. I have obtained alot of inspiration for my artwork from my beautiful surroundings, such as the river and numerous trees and the wildlife. I have also drawn alot of inspration from certain colours during different seasons; such as the reds and golds during autumn and shades of green during the spring. For all of the reasons above, I feel part of my environment and can identify with its surroundings and how they enhance my life and indentity.

..and why not?...

2010-11-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

Technology, Politics and Culture:

2010-11-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

The link connects to a blog post listing earlier concepts and attitudes to advertising standards in the media c. 1950s/60s. Warning, some of them quite shocking and not all related to the lecture today. Representation of gender and identity being referred to here, but there are other examples from a range of contexts...

2010-11-25T03:15:00.000-08:00

This is home to me, although this is more of the house/building that I grew up in. My home, a place of refuge/ a place where I can rest, is more the image below, which is the view outside of Number 4, and I think of home as the flavor of the air when I return to Plympton, the taste of Plympton water, the freedom to do whatever I want. The wood itself still has similar attributes to a home, a roof - "shelter" (the canopy of leaves, branches etc), walls - "defence" (the trunks, bushes, ivy etc), and windows and doors - "seeing" & "entrance" (areas of the wood which is less dense which you can gain entrance through and look out from).

Transitory Living

2010-11-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

I currently live in rented accommodation. This is a room in a house occupied by my landlord who is away at work for weeks at a time. I haven’t ‘rented a room’ for over 15 years now so this feels very odd. I am used to putting my self onto the walls, establishing my clutter and having all my things to hand. At the present I am living out of my travel bag. With nothing in a specific place in this inpersonal non place I am continuously trying to find my things. They are all contained within my room but they all occupy a cardboard box. I have been made to feel very welcome in this house but I can’t yet live outside this temporary confinement. My pictures do not yet adorn the walls. My stuff has not ventured far from my room. My toothbrush is the only thing that has got far and that is just down the hall in the bathroom. I only have one piece of clutter and that is the small pile of paperwork living unmanaged on my desk.

Bedroom/Office/Lounge

2010-11-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

Currently living out of a bedroom, every aspect of my life is compiled into one space. On one side of the room, my bed. The other side, everything else.

Theres an unused 4:3 LCD TV which is slightly obscured from view due to the build up of paint brushes, boxes, paper, mail - still to be sorted. These objects sit upon a vivarium for a lizard.

On the wall a clock which displays the incorrect time - must replace the batteries soon. The notice board to the left of the clock is full of ideas for photographs, blog posts and reminders - the usual lists reminding me to write ‘to do lists’ are also present.

Below a desk, a computer - which is home to more notes. Film scanner. More paper. Above the canvas boards on the floor is a red shelving unit. This holds CDs, DVDs, pens, change, cameras, electrical tape, undeveloped film shot decades ago.

Ideally I’d have a minimalistic room with neatly framed prints hung upon the wall. A distinct lack of notes stuck to things. The floor wouldn’t be used as a make-do storage device however, this space is functional, not an idealist one. Whilst this room does show an element of myself, my personality, it is not perhaps the one I’d choose to publicly display (but now have).

Michael

Home

2010-11-24T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home for me is much like having a split personality, mainly due to the fact that I see myself as having two homes. There is my 6 bedroom student house which holds my temporary lifestyle where I socialise, drink and fend for myself as I venture through my uni life. Whereas 20 minutes away there is my childhood household where I have grown up feeling safe, well looked after and knowing I have a sheltered life to fall back on.

Yanko Tsvetkov: Mapping Stereotpyes

2010-11-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

This links to the work of an illustrator/designer who maps the world in accordance with their stereotypical perceptions. Nobody is really left out, so it shouldn't be too insulting, although the Americans come out quite badly in a few of these examples as 'perpetrators' or maybe this is also a further stereotype? The image below is:

The World According to USA (Fearmonger Special XXL Edition)

I love my home

2010-11-18T02:18:00.001-08:00

My house says a lot about me, there are cracks in the walls, it could do with a coat of paint and some repair. The inside looks a bit in need of TLC, but it reliably keeps the rain out and the foundations are good.

My home

2010-11-18T02:01:00.000-08:00

Home is important part of life for me. Because I spend most of the time in my home and that's why I choosed my department "Spatial Design". I am living in a small but new flat. It has 2 bedrooms and a living room with open plan kitchen.
The living room was decoreted modest anf familiar. It has beige walls and lignt brown carpet, a green sofabed and a blue recliner sofa, a plasma tv. I don't want to live with too much furniture because, they restricts my living area. I always want to be free, easy to rich something, ready for any unusual things. I should see my all around. The seaters were located as to be able to see tv. It shows that tv is one of part of our life. I like to watch film and documentery and I like to hear a voice in my environment. I feel safer like that.
One of my its wall full of my families photos. I enjoy to see my daughter photos from birth to present. Thus, I don't forget all her ages. I like to spent time with my family.
I like to be busy and in rush. There are too much things to do in the life. Spending time with familiy, friends, travelling all around the word, having hobies like designing something new, playing an ensturment, reading magazine or book, surfing on the net, improving ideas for new jobs, cooking etc...
I think my home simple and comfortable. It is enough to live in comfy, tidy, warm and familiar.

Gabrielle Hoad:

2010-10-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

Artist who represents space and the phenomenon of bird flight paths, they draw/we draw: inside/outside

'What we observe is not nature itself, but nature
exposed to our method of questioning.'
Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy 1963

I address the gap between the world and our representations of it, often making use of methods that promise objectivity but ultimately highlight the human presence.

JR Carpenter: Cityfish [Click here]

2010-10-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Brilliant web space narrative by JR Carpenter, a digital mapping idea that makes an online narrative space come alive:

Paving Slab Animation

2010-10-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

A Situationist's Tangram

Tangram sidewalk SMIBE from Nino Heirbaut on Vimeo.

YAK Films: Turf Dancing in California 'R.I.P. 211'

2010-10-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

YAK Films: Turf Dancing in California

2010-10-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Tuomas Toivonen: U is for UTOPIA

2010-10-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

This is SOOOOO going into one of my lectures....but... which one and which year...hmmm?

'NOW made a track for NEWLY DRAWN. It's a lecture about the history of urbanism and systemic change:'

NOW from Antti Seppänen on Vimeo.

Eva Weber: The Solitary Life of Cranes

2010-10-05T15:23:00.001-07:00

Scanner: Recreating Architectural Experience Through Film

2010-10-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

'Scanner collaborated with British artist @Thomas Lock whilst Visiting Professor at Le Fresnoy art school in France. For the opening of Panorama 12: Soft Machine exhibition, Scanner performed a concert with Thomas and other artists. Here is one film that resulted.'

Recreating Architectural Experience Through Film (sound by Robin Rimbaud/Scanner) from Bunker Bunker on Vimeo.

Kirsten Lapore: Bottle

2010-09-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle.

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Keiichi Matsuda: Augmented Reality - Winner of Visionary Cities Competition 2010

2010-09-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Augmented City 3D from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Scanner: Cipher

2010-08-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

'Cipher’ was shot at Wilton’s music Hall in Whitechapel, east London. Wilton’s was built in 1858 and was the first popular music hall to open in the east-end. After about 10 years of prosperity it went into decline and has been semi-derelict for many years. The building has never been altered or restored, and in its present state retains a fragile, evocative beauty.

The film registers the interior of Wilton’s in a series of tracking shots, leading you through the building before revealing an impossible snowfall. The snow was created digitally, confounding the presumed indexicality of the medium while offering a contrast to the dark, 19th century interior, and a parallel to the early days of film practice and the historical period of transition from Magician’s stage illusions, as popularised in venues like Wilton’s, to ‘magic’ films such as those of Georges Melies.'

Cipher from Neil Wissink on Vimeo.

He calls himself mustardcuffins....I don't know why

2010-06-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Home from mustardcuffins on Vimeo.

Pay and Sit: The Private Bench

2010-06-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

PAY & SIT: the private bench (HD) from Fabian Brunsing on Vimeo.

Heidi Elva: Simple Pleasures by Dan Crossley

2010-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Heidi Elva - Simple Pleasures from Dan Crossley on Vimeo.

Michel Gondry: Star Guitar (The Chemical Brothers) 2003

2010-05-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

This video - horrible quality - but lovely, recursive, seamless journey through urban, topographical space. Reminds me of another video, wait...

Embed Code is disabled, so here's the Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBgf2ZxIDZk&feature=related

Yaohua Yang: Latent City

2010-05-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Source: Boiteaoutils

'Our friend Yaohua Wang (see his Carbon tower and his interview of Wes Jones, his thesis tutor) from Sci-Arc sent me his thesis project he just presented in a room apparently fully packed !
The production of work is simply amazing and the ingenuity of the project is being proven in every rendering. However, a very important part of what makes his Latent City such an amazing projects is embedded in its narration and in this regard I HIGHLY recommend to take the time of watching the 15 min long movie below that explains very didactically why this city is called latent.

The narration implies the architect Foral (aka Yaohua !) finding an agreement with the State in order to build a new city for almost no money. The agreement has to remain secret because it implies a manipulation of big industrial corporations that will own the land for twenty years, build an industrial city according to Foral's plans and therefore providing an important infrastructure. When the city is built, local economic policies forces industries to relocalize their factories outside the city which is abandoned. The state can thus build a new city on the other using the already built infrastructure that has been designed planning on this scenario to occur.

The latent city is thus a palimpsest city whose transformation has been planned since the beginning.'

Latent City by Yaohua Wang from Foral on Vimeo.

Martha Rosler: Semiotics of the Kitchen

2010-04-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Gosh! ... really wish I'd found this in time for the lecture on Phenomenology and Semiotics of the House...oh, well...maybe next year...

Martha Rosler's Semiotics of the Kitchen - 1975

From A to Z, Rosler "shows and tells" the ingredients of the housewife's day, giving us a tour that names and mimics the ordinary with movements more samurai than suburban. Rosler's slashing gesture as she forms the letters of the alphabet in the air with a knife and fork, is a rebel gesture, punching through the "system of harnessed subjectivity" from the inside out. "I was concerned with something like the notion of Ôlanguage speaking the subject,' and with the transformation of the woman herself into a sign in a system of signs that represent a system of food production, a system of harnessed subjectivity."

—Martha Rosler

...and Semiotics of the Art Student

'This film is a new twist on the classic pice of video art, "Semiotics of the Kitchen" by Martha Rosler. This film pokes fun at life as an art student, and all that is expected from us.'

[This and other videos that are not specifically related to my place/space seminars can be found on my new Youtube Channel Fathomspace. I set this up so that I could 'store' other videos for various lectures to other groups.]

Two Videos by Tal Rosner: Doppelganger and Without You

2010-04-17T02:53:00.000-07:00

Doppelganger

Without You

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse Room

2010-04-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Gil Scott Heron: Me And The Devil

2010-04-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

Living in NYC I lost count of how many times this particular city was, and still is, a 'character' in the music business and entertainment industry. We lived in DUMBO [meaning: Down Under Manhattan Bridge] an underpopulated and 'artsy' area at the time - many, many rap vids were filmed there down my street. In spite of that and the persistence of Manhattan as film backdrop: the subway/graffiti/homelessness and disaffected youth - all cliches really - this video from GSH is startling in representing these concepts of urban realism in a monochrome, graphic language, replete with Shepard Fairey imagery and skull/Day of the Dead iconography - it's pure genius. The album is also stunning.

Diller + Scofidio: The Blur Building

2010-03-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

Source: Intelligent Agent 5.2

'The Blur Building by Diller + Scofidio whirling above Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland. Computers regulate the spray of tiny drops of lake water from 31400 jets according to climactic changes of humidity, temperature, wind speed and direction. Liquid architecture that synchronizes its form to the environment and the human body. As visitors enter the Blur Building, they take on a "braincoat". Besides as protection from the misty environment the coat stores personality data for communication with the building's computer network.'

Above is the Blur Building by Diller + Scofidio whirling above Lake Neuchatel , Switzerland and Below is an interesting interview of Brian Massumi by Thomas Markussen. Follow the link:

http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol5_No2_massumi_markussen+birch.htm

great video from the world of youtube!

2010-03-24T10:44:00.001-07:00

Cool video about the Civic Centre- yes that dreaded listed building in town :-)

is this real..?

2010-03-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

wow, what is this? a massive sculpture, photoshop image...? don't know yet. it seems other-worldly, futuristic, awesome...

BERGENOBLIQUSAML by NICOLAS MOULIN, 2008

Marilena Skavara: Adaptive Fa[CA]de

2010-03-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

A type of '[Un]Walling' is possibly happening here:
Source: Interactive Architecture.

'Here’s a great project that came out of the Adapative Architecture and Computation programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture. ‘Adaptive Fa[ca]de’ by Marilena Skavara explores the functional possibilities and performative characteristics of cellular automata (CA). In addition to the unique emergent behaviour of CA, a neural network enables a further computational layer to evolve CA behaviour to the context of its surrounding environment.'

Adaptive fa[CA]de from marilena on Vimeo.

Marilena Skavara's Adaptive fa[CA]de at Digital Hinterlands exhibition, London from marilena on Vimeo.

'Building upon the early work of Conway’s ‘Game of life’ and Stephen Wolfram’s extensive research on the wider implementation of CA, ‘Adaptive Fa[ca]de’ becomes a living adapting skin, constantly training itself from the history of its own errors and achievements. For a more detailed description of the project, read Marilena’s article for Vague Terrain.'

Firekites Video

2010-03-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

Moment: Yukihiro Taguchi

2010-03-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

Performing Space: Floor becomes wall becomes obstacle becomes seating becomes art object becomes function..... Taguchi spontaneously shifts and documents the contexts of space over time. There is an accompanying text if you follow the link.

Malcolm Sutherland: Birdcalls

2010-03-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

I'm becoming more interested in short films that express urban/rural spaces through sound and film. This one from Malcolm Sutherland in 2006. I really love the way in which the birdseye view city flyover just appears toward the end of the film:

The text by Ian Lumsden: 'I confess the concept behind Malcolm Sutherland’s 2006 animation Birdcalls was not immediately enthralling though more fool me because it is such a distinctive, quirky and very enjoyable movie. Using stop motion of pen on paper, it commences with a telephone recording device and note pad on which, after a period of rapid rewinding, the unknown recipient of the calls commences writing down the calls received. On foolscap the language of birdsong is faithfully denoted in algebraic and symbolic form. However it accords perfectly with the birdsong used as soundtrack. The calls gather a life of their own and we are treated to a variety of charming voices, appearing on the bare pad as animated symbols that for all I know are the symbols used to record birds by those experienced in such things. As night falls the pad darkens and the symbols are illuminated. It is only in the closing and opening credits that we are treated to the actual physical presence of the birds as perfectly drawn illustrations. Before that, to provide perspective, in the gloom of night we travel above an urban scene and the noise of the birds is replaced by traffic noise and the hustle and bustle of the city. It reminds us of what we have lost. The cast, other than Malcolm himself, is the nightingale, yellow billed cuckoo and bluethroat. A charming cast and delightful movie. The link above is to YouTube though a better quality version is to be found at AWNtv - Birdcalls or, even more helpfully, via his website [http://www.animalcolm.com/index.html]. I will write on another of Malcolm's animations in the next day or so together with a little biographical detail.'

Skateboarding, Space & The City: Architecture & The Body

2010-03-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

This is a highly regarded text by a writer who is also a skateboarder and contemporary, counter-culture flaneur, one might say. Has insight into the urban jungle as we experience through the body/space/world of the skateboarder.

Jake Dobkin: Abandoned New York

2010-03-08T14:39:00.001-08:00

Images are from boiteaoutils blog spot, 'Abandoned New York" by Jake Dobkin. These images are interesting as they reveal layers of materials, deterioration and the decay of media over years and by many seem to have created a place of curiosity. What was there before? Raises questions of use of a space from their original purpose to total abandonment.

Parkour Motion Reel

2010-03-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

Graphic Design Undergraduate Work:

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

More on Unwalling

2010-02-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

Source: Boiteaoutils
Baptiste Debombourg

"In this installation series, the wall seems to come into the room, to attack the observer. The deformation of the surface is creating a tension between the solid and the void, and it blurs the limit of the the inner space envelope. The broken surface gives a very strong materiality to the traditional clean walls of the "white cube" and the pieces of wood appearing under the white coating are like scars."

More On Unwalling

2010-02-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Source: Boiteaoutils
Erika Hock: http://www.erikahock.de/Seiten/Earb06.html

More On Unwalling

2010-02-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

Source: Boiteaoutils
Posting this as the blog seems to be thematically interested in the idea of walls and their un/walling which is a nice tie-in with house theme. However, some of these examples exist within the context of the gallery [as opposed to domestic context] and exists partly as a critique of the 'white cube' ideology.

More On Matta Clark and Walls

2010-02-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

Source: Boiteaoutils

Yeah...couldn't have said it better myself....

"By undoing a building there are many aspects of the social conditions against which I am gesturing: first, to open a state of enclosure which had been preconditioned not only by physical necessity but by the industry that profligates suburban and urban boxes as a context for insuring a passive, isolated consumer-a virtually captive audience. The fact that some of the buildings I have dealt with are in Black ghettos reinforces some of this thinking, although I would not make a total distinction between the imprisonment of the poor and the remarkably subtle self-containerization of higher socio-economic neighborhoods. The question is a reaction to an ever less viable state of privacy, private property, and isolation."

Gordon Matta Clark. Interview by Donald Wall for Arts Magazine. May 1976

As I have been observing before on boiteaoutils, a wall is at first nothing more than a line drawn on a piece of paper. This line then acquires a materiality and thus own a violence that prevents bodies a freedom of movement (the climax of this violence is obviously achieved in prisons where four walls surround the body). A wall here is not necessarily to be understood only as a vertical panel but also every kind of built surface that prevents the body from a freedom of movement (floors, walls, fences etc.) Any process of “unwallization” is therefore a resistance to this violence. It is difficult to find architecture that succeeds in applying these kinds of processes; nevertheless, several artists did work on that issue and produced various propositions in that regard. Gordon Matta Clark’s work is both the precursor and the quintessence of them, piercing, sawing, digging, rending, rotating, splitting, tearing apart, Matta Clark mistreats the wall as much as he can and the latter almost loses the totality of its violence in this way.

The wall is a separation device but not necessarily as a surface needing more energy to be penetrated than a human owns, can also be seen in the example of rows of sheets on clothes lines. The wall thus looses its violent status while conserving most of its other characteristics.

All the following pictures come from the book. Gordon Matta Clark. Phaidon 2003.

[Please note: I have two copies of Matta-Clark's books if anyone would like to look at them - Sally]

Kowloon Walled City Animation

2010-02-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

Source: Boiteaoutils
Here is a short animation film by Generic Life that I found interesting because it happens to take place in the Kowloon Walled City (see previous post). There are extremely few graffiti artists in Hong Kong and making them operate in the Walled City here symbolizes the free zone - and on the contrary of what the authorities were saying, apparently not so dangerous - that represented this incredible densest area in the world (50000 people were living in it).

Kowloon Walled City can obviously not be literally considered as self-constructed. However, this Hong Kong district acquired a kind of autonomy for years and could not stop densifying itself until it was demolished by Authorities in 1993 (See Ryuji Miyamoto's photographs of the empty Walled City, ready to be torn down). The Walled City tackles an interesting problem about the connection such autonomous districts could have with legality. In fact, there has been a strong phantasm of insecurity about it, probably encouraged by the authorities when neutral reporters Greg Girard and Ian Lambot ("City of Darkness") from where almost all remaining photographs are from) affirmed that the district was the shelter of drug addicts but not criminals. Before it was demolished, the Walled City was the home of 50 000 inhabitants reaching an incredible density of 1 920 000 inhabitants per square kilometre.

As far as self-construction is concerned, let's quote City of Darkness:

"With lifts in just two of the City's 350 or so buildings, access to the upper floors of the 10 to 14 storey apartment blocks was nearly always by stairs, necessitating considerable climbs for those who lived near the top. This was partly alleviated by an extraordinary system of interconnecting stairways and bridges at different levels within the City which took shape -somewhat organically- during the construction boom of the 1960's and early 1970's. It was possible for example, to travel across the City from north to south without once coming down to street level." Let's add to this description, the one of this grid placed over the district's temple (right in the center of the Walled City) on which inhabitants having their windows on the courtyards throw away their garbage, transforming the temple's environment into a shadowy underworld.

Game Studies

2010-02-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

Click here for online journal Game Studies with full text articles.

Splitting The Atom: Massive Attack Video

2010-02-09T02:20:00.000-08:00

Source: Boiteaoutils

Massive Attack-Splitting the Atom-directed by Edouard Salier from edouard salier on Vimeo.

The Solid and The Ephemeral

2010-02-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

This post has nothing to do with any of the lectures I have covered but more of my own emerging interest in built form and images/ideas/concepts of the ephemeral or temporality in solid, metaphysical and structural symbols.

The Museum of Modern Art describes Empire as follows:

Empire consists of a single stationary shot of the Empire State Building filmed from 8:06 p.m. to 2:42 a.m., July 25–26, 1964. The eight-hour, five-minute film, which is typically shown in a theater, lacks a traditional narrative or characters. The passage from daylight to darkness becomes the film’s narrative, while the protagonist is the iconic building that was (and is again) the tallest in New York City. Warhol lengthened Empire's running time by projecting the film at a speed of sixteen frames per second, slower than its shooting speed of twenty-four frames per second, thus making the progression to darkness almost imperceptible. Non-events such as a blinking light at the top of a neighboring building mark the passage of time. According to Warhol, the point of this film—perhaps his most famous and influential cinematic work—is to "see time go by."

Oasis - Morning Glory

2010-01-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

A video which shows the mundaneness and difficulties of living in a Tower Block.

Four Yorkshire Men

2010-01-30T14:17:00.000-08:00

Following on from Wednesday’s lecture and how we regard the home and it’s meaning. Have a look at the video below to see what these four Yorkshire men regard as being home.

Homefront Dissolve

2010-01-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

Source: BLDGBLOG

Keiichi Matsuda, a student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, produced this fantastic short video in the final year of his M.Arch. It was, he writes, "part of a larger project about the social and architectural consequences of new media and augmented reality." The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it. The bewildering groundlessness of surfaces within surfaces is beautifully captured by this video, and its portrayal of drop-down menus and the future hand gestures needed to access them is also pretty great. Augmented-reality drop-down menus are the Gothic ornamentation of tomorrow. Now how do we use all that home-jamming ad space for something other than Coke and Tesco? What other subscription-content feeds can be plugged into this vertiginous interface?

Take a look—and you can find more thoughts, and another video, on Matsuda's own blog. http://keiichimatsuda.tumblr.com/

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Music Video With Animated Brutalism

2010-01-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

Visual Music - Amon Tobin music video from 12FRAMES on Vimeo.
Making Of: http://12frames.de/motion.html
This short was selected by ONEDOTZERO and will be screened as a part of "terrain" 08/09.

My graduation film. It´s a music video about a man trapped in a dream. His world, consisting of "plattenbauten" (buildings made with precast concrete slabs) begins to fall apart...

Phenomenology & Semiotics of House Video Clips

2010-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

This and the following posts relate to the lecture this morning and couldn't be shown, please check it out here:

Michael Landy on Breakdown

Tornado: The Solid and the Ephemeral

Jean Cocteau: La Belle et la Bette [Beauty and the Beast], 1946

MTV Cribs Episode: Akon
Can't embed this, so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7T7np6HetU&feature=related

space & identity

2010-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is a very moving movie! It highlights space in memory, utopian visions, identity, escapism. Restlessness in a space. Wanting to get somewhere better. For what?

Link to Blog Site 'Gameology'

2010-01-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

Video Game Blog has section with essays and bibliography

Anish Kapoor Video

2010-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys. Link to a recent programme about the work of Sculptor Anish Kapoor, who certainly breaks the Gallery. Hope you enjoy. Rich

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ex45vAUPU

"For Sally"

2010-01-21T12:20:00.001-08:00

Here is some background information regarding Brunel's statue at Pennycomequick Roundabout. I carried out some research for the City and Archive task last as it had puzzled me as to why the statue had been commissioned and also sited at the roundabout. Accompanying information and photographs (of it sited on the Hoe were kindly supplied by Brian Webber, Parks Services Technical Officer. Plymouth City Council. The one of it sited at the roundabout is my own photograph.)

Hi Richard
Thanks for your enquiry about the Brunel statue on Pennycomequick
Roundabout. The sculpture was commissioned in 2006 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of
Brunel's birth in 1806. The sculpture was carved by Lee Dickenson of 'Squashed Apple' who is based in Dorset.Parks Services celebrated Brunel's achievements in 2006 by placing the
sculpture in the Hoe Front Garden. In 2007 it was placed on the roundabout at Pennycomequick.

Also to celebrate the anniversary we had a flower bed planted out in the shape
of the Royal Albert Bridge.
Hope this has been of help
Brian

Little footnote, during my research I did try to contact Squashed Apple and never got beyond their website home page ???

http://www.squashedapplewoodcarving.co.uk/

J. Morgan Puett

2010-01-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

Another link from the lecture, as I don't think I put them in the presentation docs.

Richard Wilson: Turning The Place Over, 2008

2010-01-20T05:11:00.000-08:00

Turning the Place Over consists of an 8 metres diameter ovoid cut from the façade of a building in Liverpool city centre and made to oscillate in three dimensions. The revolving façade rests on a specially designed giant rotator, usually used in the shipping and nuclear industries, and acts as a huge opening and closing 'window', offering recurrent glimpses of the interior during its constant cycle during daylight hours.

Media responses are here:

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=city--8217-s-new-room-with-a-view----but-is-it-art-&method=full&objectid=19259774&siteid=50061-name_page.html

Matt Colishaw at the Freud Museum

2010-01-20T03:45:00.000-08:00

This short film was what I intended for the lecture... hope it works this time!

identity

2010-01-19T13:13:00.001-08:00

a sculpture/statue called "the meeting place" by Paul Day is at St.Pancras station. Representing lots of notions, amongst which was the idea of british reserve, part of our identity, because of the delicate departing embrace..?

Videos. Streets in the Sky. The City

2010-01-17T03:20:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys

Here is a link to some videos I have posted on youtube. Streets in the Sky documents some of the history and redevelopment of Park Hill Flats in Sheffield. Whilst The City focuses on the people of Bath's fight to stop the redevelopment of the city by Patrick Abercrombie after World War 2. Apologies for each video being in four parts, but youtube won't accept clips longer than 10 minutes. Hope you enjoy. Rich

www.youtube.com/user/richmellowyellow

Heterotopias in Cinema

2010-01-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

More on Utopia/Heterotopia: I've just been forwarded this link from a french blog site, not all the movies are mainstream but there are some very well known movies in the list, it does help with definitions of the term Heterotopia....

Andrei Tarkosvky: Stalker (1979)

Juhani Pallasmaa, The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema

2010-01-14T03:55:00.000-08:00

He's one of the most interesting writers on space, architecture and film but also the dominance of the 'scopic' [meaning the visual and the eye] in visual culture, [another book ref here: The Eyes of the Skin.] This would be great for those of you who are researching set design and spatial concepts in film and media, but also refers back to painting, which is quite an exotic mix, but he successfully synthesises interdisciplinarity. Please also note that the link takes you to a good synopsis of the book which is informative for your annotated bibliography.

Andrei Tarkovski: Solyaris

2010-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Solyaris (1972) is my personal choice for the 'film dystopia hell space' category, although I couldn't quite get the clip I was looking for, but this one of the famous highway scene will do - I think it was shot in Osaka, Japan. The story was also made into a film by Stephen Soderbergh, Solaris (2002) which fleshes out the narrative more or reinterprets differently? Both are from the book Solaris (1961), by Stanislaw Lem. It is one of the most engaging movies I have ever seen - but it takes a couple of viewings but also patience, because it's slow, quiet and, well, dreamy...

Michel Foucault: Of Other Spaces

2010-01-13T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here's the text by Foucault which is the basis of a lecture he gave in 1967 on the subject of Utopias and Heterotopias...

Brutalism Web Links

2010-01-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys

Found today's Lecture really interesting as Brutalism/Modernism is the area my essay is based around. I have added some web links on the subject that you may find interesting. Hope you enjoy. Rich

www.open2.net/modernity
www.open2.net/modernity/4_15.htm
www.riskybuildings.org.uk/index.html
www.sarahjduncan.com/index.html
www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.00100300200l003
www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/image_galleries/park_hill_gallery.shtm

Jacob's Lader - Vision of Hell Scene

2010-01-05T13:24:00.000-08:00

I have recently rediscovered a film i have be trying to track down for quite some time.
I first watched this film at a very young age and this scene in the film was the most memorable for me as it gave me nightmares for a very long time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXXbIOc9h4g&NR=1

just thought id share it with everyone ..

Google Book Links for Fine Art/Spatial Practices

2009-12-23T14:36:00.000-08:00

Space Invaders: Race, Gender, and Bodies Out of Place

Book overview: Women and minorities are increasingly entering fields where white male power is firmly entrenched. The spaces they come to occupy are not empty or neutral, but are imbued with history and meaning. This groundbreaking book interrogates the pernicious, subtle but nonetheless widely held view that certain bodies are naturally entitled to certain spaces, while others are not. How are positions of authority racialized and gendered? How do people manage their femininity and/or blackness while in a predominantly white male context? How do spaces become naturalized or normalized, and what does it mean when they are disrupted? Engaging with a range of material from a variety of institutions, Space Invaders is a timely contribution to wide-reaching debates on race, gender and space. It is the first book to articulate the full complexity of diversity in organizations.

Google Book Links for Games Design

2009-12-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

Click the Title for excerpts on Theory and Games Design

Google Book Links for Media, Film & Animation 2

2009-12-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

Google Books Link to a text on the Globalised Culture of Leisure and Entertainment, in particular regarding Architecture and Animation.

Google Book Links for Media, Film & Animation

2009-12-18T08:54:00.000-08:00

Click the Title to search links to books with texts on ideas and theory within Media and Animation

Very tasty spaces

2009-12-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

Carl Warner, British photographer love to play with a food, bulding up the real land of milk and honey. http://www.carlwarner.com/index_small.html ,
http://www.moillusions.com/2008/06/carl-warners-food-landscapes-or.html have fun :)

Guy Ben-ner 'Stealing Beauty'

2009-12-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

In response to Rob Bothma's post a few days ago the link above takes you to a review of video artist Guy Ben-ner whose work takes place, in this example, in an Ikea store. He regularly involves his family in his work, in this case using the various 'homey' displays of the superstore (with price tags) to stage his narrative: that of an ordinary family in familiar surroundings. However, the store is open to the public, as normal, and shoppers are seen traipsing through the set with their giant yellow shopping bags, wondering what the heck is going on: as do the management of Ikea as the artist never seeks permission to film there.

Twin Towns

2009-12-11T03:47:00.000-08:00

A friend from Swindon sent me this link with the title 'Oh dear.'

This is about the recent news that Walt Disney World has been twinned with Swindon, after a resident won the competition by sending in a video and writing a poem describing her hometown. An interesting quote from the article says, "It is the first time the "magic kingdom" has twinned with somewhere "in the real world". It seems strange that twinning towns is made to promote cultural and commercial ties when Swindon does not immediately suggest any links, at all, with Disney World, and now the two are connected. I can however appreciate the comparison between Swindon's roundabout with the tea cup ride, although the idea is most likely too abstract for other residents to identify with!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8402686.stm

"A Profound Weakness"

2009-12-09T03:51:00.000-08:00

"Some protestant churches are eleborate and contemporary such as crystal cathederal in Garden Grove, California. However, there is not always the money, or even the desire, to build buildings. This portable, blow up church is one alternative solution-though it does seem a bit impotent and gives a whole new meaning to accusations that church services are full of hot air."

(Quote from Christians & Kitsch chapter 13 Betty Spackman)

With this idea of compromising, of not creating this building but replacing it with an, essentially, bouncy castle it takes away the aesthetic of the tradional church building and loses any authenticity.

http://www.bestival.net/html/whatelse/theinflatablechurch

UK Rave Scene of the 1990s

2009-12-08T03:24:00.000-08:00

The United Kingdom was well known for rave music like hardcore, jungle and drum&bass in the 90s. It is argued that some of the best producers/ record labels/ and DJs came from the UK.
The Millenium Complex in Plymouth (formerly known as The Warehouse) was one of the UK's biggest rave venues in the early 90s and people traveled from all over the country to come to these huge raves.
Delta Video Productions documented many parties and rave nights and some of which were right here in Plymouth. This video is documenting a club night called 'Pure Energy' and was shot in September 1993 at The Warehouse.
Those familiar with plymouth may find this very 'surreal' as i have ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmplBTJuki8

Control

2009-12-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

Oh! How I wish it was Ctrl-Z (Edit Undo).

Although we all perceive ourselves as being free spirits, because we are at Art College. Do we realize how much we are controlled? We have to conform to timetables, being in for a particular time and of course the curse of all Art Students adhering to project briefs and the nightmare of nightmares, meeting those “DEADLINES“.

When does home become something else?

2009-12-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

When your Snoopy of course! and your home can become a World War 1 fighter plane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlf---13Q0g

Enjoy the Video

POLITICS AND CONTROL IN SPACES

2009-12-07T12:19:00.001-08:00

An example of political control and power in spaces.

Orgreave is a village in north Yorkshire.
It is usually a quiet picturesque village but in 1984, as a result of striking miners it was violated and taken control of by force. Police invaded the normally peaceful village when they forcefully dispersed the striking miners at the nearby coking plant.

The whole village became a battle ground when brutal riots occurred between police and picketing miners.

The politics of the time threatened the identity of the local enviroment, as well as importance of the place.

The village is now remembered for 'the battle of Orgreave'. The time when political issues controlled and ruled this piece of land.

To Support Theresa's inclusion the following is an excerpt from Jeremy Deller's and Mike Figgis's 'Battle of Orgreave' (2001) which illustrates the point:

In reponse to this highly 'politicised' space, artist Jeremy Deller produced a re-enactment which was directed by Mike Figgis in a film 'The Battle of Orgreave' which [in an ironic take on the staging or re-enactment of battles popular with history enthusiasts] simulates the conditions and events of that time and space, using original members of striking miners and police, many of whom have painful and haunting recollections of those events and still live in the area. A copy of Deller's Orgreave is in the LRC. There's also a Text if you click on the title of this blog entry (Response: Sally Hall)

Country Life Vs City Life

2009-12-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

Looking at spaces, I decided to express my feelings about my home town in comparison to Plymouth. In Dartmouth, nothing much changes, the scenery is wonderful and it’s full of life and magic. There is so much space which is representative of history, so the people who live there want to keep Dartmouth simple and elegant, and this is what brings the tourists in the summer.

In comparison, Plymouth’s buildings and scenery seem to change all the time, the history of the place is basically invisible now. Plymouth is very packed and the buildings very close together which people either like or dislike. What I’m trying to say is that although Plymouth is a much larger place than Dartmouth, it looks quite small because development is rapidly eating up all the empty lots of space around the city while, at the same time, obscuring sites of cultural interest and collective memory.

Posted by Fiona Dayment

Experience as a tourist

2009-12-02T00:04:00.000-08:00

Ideas on representation. Whilst I`m personally not a lover of tacky theme parks prefer places with a sense of historical facts and interests, so I went to Scotland for one week. The beauty of the Scottish scenery was wonderful, the weather for November was great, made this part all worthwhile, but what got on my nerves was, the way that we were ushered around on set tours like animals being taken from a farm to the slaughters House. It was well organised, and you only had a certain amount of time at each destination before going to the next stop.You also had your fill of emit fodder ( tourist gifts) of Tartan and shortbread, you saw the same thing where ever you went.Surely there`s more to Scotland than this!.Finally glad to get back home for that Cornish Pasty.

Unreal Space

2009-12-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

Thinking back to last weeks lecture and unreal space. The thought which sprang to mind, was The Royal Family (not the TV show) and one of their past modes of Transport, The Royal Yacht Britannia. I have always envisaged a Yacht to be a either reasonably size craft, which is powered by sail, or motor, which people used for cruising of racing and maybe a bit lacking on creature comforts. As is usual, The Royal Family took this to the extreme with Britannia, possibly the only reason Britannia was regarded, as a Yacht was that, she had three masts, why? Because she was too large to be powered by sail, perhaps it was to fly all the flags and regalia required by the various members of The Family.
On the inside, she was certainly not lacking in any comfort, well maybe by The Royal Families standards she was. Something which has always puzzled me, it shouldn’t matter who or what you are, there should always be an acceptable standard for all, not just a chosen few.

Virtual Reality?

2009-12-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of video games, humans wanted to make games as realistic as possible to give the player the adrenaline, fun as well as experience of doing something that might not be possible for that person to do in the real world i.e. going into space or being a soldier at Second World War. Are the games really such a great and realistic experience? Well, sort of, some games are more realistic than others especially the simulation programmes made for training marines or pilots of choppers etc but then it's still not 100% real experience mainly because of the AI(Artificial Intelligence), computers are unable to think like humans, which means they're predictable and limited of their actions, so as long as other humans or machines thinking like humans are involved in the game being i.e. enemies, no game can achieve the real experience level. However, there are things that gives us something to think about: the virtual reality(a hypothetical three-dimensional visual world created by a computer), which leads us into a virtual world like i.e. in the Matrix. So far the development haven't reached a level near close to the one shown in the Matrix but it still requires lots of development and experiments and things like 3d goggles or special gloves allowing the user to fully control the arms in-game are only the foretaste of what the future can bring us.

The Cul De Sac

2009-12-01T02:52:00.000-08:00

A cul de sac (french for "dead end") is an arrangement of houses plotted around a dead end road that branches off a bigger or main road. This is the typical housing arrangement of a housing estate that consists of a main road connecting to many cul de sacs.

The overall purposes of this living system are the control of traffic around residential areas and the control of the residents through schemes such as Neighbourhood Watch.

My mother is part of the Neighbourhood Watch scheme and this entails keeping an eye out for criminal activity or general threats to the health and well being of the other residents. If there is anything that may pose threat or upset the utopian system of the sub-urban living arrangements of our cul de sac or neighbourhood, my mother is obliged to contact the local authorities for further action.

My mother is basically a voluntary, part time human CCTV camera.

-laptop battery is about to 'die' - part2 to come ..

2009-11-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

SHOPPING - A REAL EXPERIENCE?

‘Going shopping’ is not a straightforward event anymore.

Look at these shops. Yes they really are shops! Leave your ‘normal’ life and enter a new world. In fact it can be a fantasy experience.

This is the interior of Manderina Duck. A shop that specialises in upmarket travel luggage and classes itself as a 'destination shop'. The first thing that hits you when entering the shop is a giant yellow backside and pair of legs that also has a sound system!!

Do you enter the land of the giants? Are you meant to feel this is your start to plan your escape to your fantasy holiday? The design is actually meant to simulate Gullivers Travels and encourages the mind into a play situation. Whatever the reason for the design, reality is exaggerated and our minds can be distorted to adapt to a hyperreal situation.

A further example is the O2 shop which takes the hyperreality further with its futuristic space age look.

It is also redisigned throughout the year to simulate the season at that time. Here it has been designed to make the consumer feel a winter mood with cracks and splits on the center belt to represent an icy surface.
Does this simulation even trick the mind into feeling temperature?
pictures taken from DESIGN FOR SHOPPING by SARA MANUELLI

Ikea as a Hyperreal space

2009-11-26T08:33:00.000-08:00

When I begin to think of simulation spaces and elements of hyperreal I think of shops and especially shops with showrooms. Ikea is a brilliant example of this. When you walk around Ikea you become part of an elaborate portrayal of the ideal home that has been designed with great detail and attention (for example in some room sets there are pictures that show "family").

Even though we know and are aware that this is a shop we become oblivious to this marketing ploy. The room "sets" show a way of life and customers think that Ikea are not just selling things but a lifestyle. This abstract space however does feel strangely real although it is a staged representation we begin to use the space as if it was real. And Ikea generally use this to their adavantage, thus none of those "DO NOT SIT ON THE FURNITURE" signs. All this means that we the consumer do not think of this as a falsified environment, we think that it is real so this space becomes the hyperreal.

Thomas Demand

2009-11-26T05:55:00.000-08:00

This is a link about a Fine Art Photographer whose work is considered to touch on some of the ideas discussed in yesterday's lecture: Baudrillard's Simulation/Simulacra. Demand's life-size models construct simulations of real-life spaces derived from popular culture or mass media and, in particular, focus on sensational news media 'sites'. Think of the media shots of Josef Fritzl's house/bunker, the Oval Office etc. which are somehow ingrained into our memories through saturation broadcasts by the media. His work 'suggests a tension between the fabricated and the real' and in doing so questions the veracity of the medium of photography itself and the camera, as an instrument historically relied upon to convey the 'truth', is thrown into doubt.

Thomas Demand, Klause/Tavern 2, 2006,

Further information is available at:

http://www.cmoa.org/international/html/art/demand.htm