cycles

So as I continue to move through my ideas I often stop to think, build a chair sculpture and scribble down a few ideas.

Last night I did just that. 

Starting with one failed attempt at making the same old chair sculpture, I simply stacked one chair after another in a rhythmic form that began to create a threshold around the main door of our studio space. By the time I had stacked all 85 chairs, I had come to a realization; it is not the sculpture that is important to me, it is the act of using my hands and my mind to solve spatial/geometrical/compositional/social-behavioral/architectural problems that is indefinitely fascinating to me. From this point onward, I was able to sit down and produce the following abstract.

A brief description[for the above image] 

1. In trying to find a UNIVERSAL SYMBOL that has the same meaning in every culture and every geographic location, I realized that the DIAGRAM is a capable of bearing this very idea within the design world. 

2. I begin to break down the diagram as a representation of the process of ANALYZING DATA. In today's age of information, all of our data is stored DIGITALLY. 

3. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines DIGITAL |ˈdijitl| of or relating to a finger or fingers. 

4. Fingers, or digits are attached to these things [HANDS] that are at the root of all forms of creation or design known to man. 

(please see below diagram for more info)

DIAGRAMING diagrams

As I continue to narrow down my thesis topic, the process of design is striking a note loudly within my architectural playlist. I am further becoming infatuated with the relevance of data analysis as we all move further into this age of information. Data is very much a large part of the everyday [American] life, whether one acknowledges it or not. We are all interacting with and communicating various forms of data from text messages to Google searches, GPS tracking systems and big brother monitoring are all being stored in databases waiting to be discovered as the new medium for creative exploration.

My New Challenge:  

How can I diagram the diagram as a strong design tool?

My first attempt takes a literal approach where the website ffffound.com was used to discover relevant/stimulating infographics that were applicable to my topic. I then simply made a bank of images that make an effort to diagram the diagram. Successful? Not so sure.

 

The second attempt  at expressing the power of the diagram looks at information from a slightly more abstracted vantage point. By showing the various ways in which one could define a space to a wide spectrum of people, I communicate to you [the designer] a common technique for explaining spatial qualities.

Ideas [of Simultaneity] Revisited Again and Again.

Attempting to Break Apart My Ideas

JIBJAB:

I am quickly discovering the importance of data driven ideas in all forms of design. The value of research as it applies to a specific culture or geographic location is pivotal in the success of any architecture, built or theorized. To bear consciousness to the intensities of the New England climate is also to understand the importance of public fountains as they relate to urban infrastructure and the civic obligations of the urban planner. As it is through such given amenities that the general public is entitled to enjoy a quality of life that is pertinent to all human beings. That no such space should be denied to any group or individual regardless of social class or social contribution. What the simple gesture of running water offers to a people is a psychological escape, from an unquantifiable number of stresses that are normalized by anatomically modern humans. 

[post]JIBJAB:
In lieu of practical research that could help me to expand on my ideas, I have been referred to a website: informationisbeautiful.net, more importantly a specific TEDtalk in which Information Design is explained through various diagrams that simplify the complexity of data which exist within our age of information.

Assignment Two : "Things I Can't Live Without"

1.     In my day to day activities, there is one thing that is inevitably present at all times; music. From the moment I wake up to the final conscious hours of the day, noise between thoughts plays like a constant melody that flows through me. One musician in particular lingers like benign growth nearly everyday for close to two years. I can't explain why John Lennon has become such an important figure in my daily life. 

Rolling Stone Magazine : John & Yoko, this image has significance to me in two ways. First, this photo was taken hours before the assassination of John Lennon. Second, the above image is intended as a symbol of human nature and the simplicity of the NEEDS of people compared to the DESIRES of a culture. 

In the above four images, I am interested in the quality of the space and the ways in which performance arts and architecture combine to stimulate emotion.

The above two images simply express the ways in which music has can affect the subconscious.

2.     Peeling back more layers of my normal activities, the importance of documentation has been revealed. More specifically, the value of a photograph [or newly video footage] ranks high within my necessity meter. I know I am capable of surviving without the specific technology of a camera, but I cannot however live without the tools to capture my observations, i.e. sketchbook, pens, pencils, cameras, paint brushes etc... 

     To me, these tools all fall under the same functional category. 

3.     After thoughtful consideration of my final "can't live without" necessity of life, I found solitude to be the most important part of my daily existence. Even though my social life is very active and I thoroughly enjoy engaging with each of my friends and family, having time to stop, breathe and reflect on my day has become a ritual.  

The above two images are a non-architecture; a familiar site growing up in the Adirondacks. These are symbols of solitude to me. 

Another representation of solitude.

More examples of solitude, now dealing with built space rather than nature.

Slightly provocative and very unpractical, this image made me rethink the relationship between artistic expression and practical thinking. 

so you say you want to create a thesis?

Where do you start to write an architectural thesis? I ask.

Incidentally our THESIS PREP I class is reading theory papers routed in history and experience with a mild peppering of socialism. In our THESIS PREP II "studio" as we have declared it, a new battle is beginning to unfold between the idea, the student and the collage. In other words, we are constructing a series of images rooted in our ideas through the use of single term spatial syntax.  I.E. INFINITE SPACE and SIMULTANEITY 

Truth.

 Normal Security

It is Thursday and by this point I am beginning to understand that all of the warnings regarding travel and all of the hype in the States regarding safety in Haiti is a bunch of bullshit.

Yes the country in a horrible state and yes it is not an ideal situation for a vacation, but let's be realistic here. This is a nation that already had very little regulation of any kind (building or judicial), the people are in the midst of a political shift and the land just experienced the most devastating earthquake that the world has ever seen. Of course visiting Haiti doesn't meet the comfort criteria of the fattest, laziest most spoiled country in the world. But how many countries actually fall under the under the wing of the U.S.' "happy to visit" list? It is after all, a system based on leaders who are expected to lie, people who are afraid to speak their mind and a youth that is learning the world through screens and applications rather than personal experiences and inherited craft.

I came to Haiti to free myself of the American filter and I think that I am on my way to fulfilling my goal.

Where I left off, I was coming to terms with how the people on the streets are dealing with recovering from January 12. Today I was able to see what is going on behind the closed doors of the people who are planning a recovery. Everything keeps going back to the "Train The Trainers"; the people I knew so little about in Boston. The people that Dave played soccer with, the people that Alex and I escorted around Boston have turned out to be very important figures here in Haiti. Somehow (I'm still in shock), our friends arranged for us to visit the National Palace today, or at least what is left of the national palace. Click here to see what I am talking about. A meeting was arranged with various cabinet members to discuss the nature of our travels and the agenda of our committee.

Am I really here?

It is Wednesday and well... today was very heavy to say the least. We have just returned from Titayen, a village thirty minutes north of Port au Prince. Again more members of "Train The Trainers" as well as a new member of our entourage escorted Alex, Stéphane and myself to the site where the Haitian government has permitted the "disposal" of earthquake debris and the bodies of close to 230,000 victims of January 12th.

Originally, Titayen was proposed as the site for our memorial competition. All along, the committee members have felt that this location is much too far from the city for a memorial to effectively commemorate such a historical event for Haiti, especially given that it is very typical of the culture here to carry an out-of-site-out-of-mind attitude. For us, today was supposed to be our time to visit and respect the victims of the quake, as well as eliminate the site from our list of possible memorial locations.

In Haiti, there is one arterial road that moves North-South from Port au Prince. The road is called "National 1" and on this two-lane road (pretend there are lines painted down the center and we might be able to call it a highway) one can experience busted gravel, smooth pavement and dust bowl style dirt road  surfaces that seems to destroy more forms of transportation than it sustains.