Aladdin and Cruella
Aladdin and Cruella
Originally uploaded by brunelleschi.
Disney theme Halloween. Thanks Clair. We had a great time. "Darling"
Discovering Perspective
Monday, October 31, 2005
Aladdin and Cruella
Originally uploaded by brunelleschi.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Yes Mekki, I'm Procrastinating
I prefer to call it holding on with all my strength to last shreds of sanity left.
It's been a killer of a weekend to be followed by an even worse week. Exam, paper and crit. All in one week. Yuck. The exam is a load of work because, as with every other tech course, it is seen as secondary in importance and so little if any work/attention is given to it the rest of the term. So far for this course, the only work I or anyone have done is show up for class and take notes, maybe one or two of the readings. This isn't slacking. There just simply isn't the time to deal with it. There isn't any more time now but I don't have a choice. That means studio is put on the backburner for a weekend which leads to the dreaded Monday chat with my studio prof where I have to fess up to not having worked on my project over the weekend (or more likely trying to make one hour of work look like it took fifteen). It's not completely true. A lot of studio work isn't done in studio. A lot of it is contemplation and just letting your subconscious stew.
But back to tech class. I decided that it is immature at this point of our education to be "testing" us with exams, not to mention unproductive. Luckily we get a study sheet but at the same time that just ups the ridiculous factor by meaning this exam is about how good you are at making study sheets than knowing the material, though I do appreciate that this removes rote memorization which is even further down the educational ladder. I hate the stress of exams.
Studio is another stress all together. It's been strange and disorienting this semester. I'm not the only one either. I think we're at a point where we've learn to critically analyze our work we just don't know how to move beyond that. When everything can be seen as arbitrary it's hard to put your foot down and say because I say so. But at some point you need to do it. You need to say these are the boundaries I am imposing, they could be otherwise but not this time. Expectations are high, self-expectations that is. There is a pressure to perform that is stumping us. I recognize it. I just don't know what to do about it. I need a Eureka and soon or as Thomas Mical's lecture stated, I'm waiting for that kick from my intuition.
Anyways, I'm highly productive when avoiding the work I should be doing because the only way I can convince myself to do anything else is if it is something productive. Lucky me! I take a break from studying to do the dishes, clean up, go grocery shopping, write a paper, do readings for another class, work on graphic design projects for clients, teach myself a new computer program for studio...
And yes, I am happy to be back in school. I take this to working anyday!
It's been a killer of a weekend to be followed by an even worse week. Exam, paper and crit. All in one week. Yuck. The exam is a load of work because, as with every other tech course, it is seen as secondary in importance and so little if any work/attention is given to it the rest of the term. So far for this course, the only work I or anyone have done is show up for class and take notes, maybe one or two of the readings. This isn't slacking. There just simply isn't the time to deal with it. There isn't any more time now but I don't have a choice. That means studio is put on the backburner for a weekend which leads to the dreaded Monday chat with my studio prof where I have to fess up to not having worked on my project over the weekend (or more likely trying to make one hour of work look like it took fifteen). It's not completely true. A lot of studio work isn't done in studio. A lot of it is contemplation and just letting your subconscious stew.
But back to tech class. I decided that it is immature at this point of our education to be "testing" us with exams, not to mention unproductive. Luckily we get a study sheet but at the same time that just ups the ridiculous factor by meaning this exam is about how good you are at making study sheets than knowing the material, though I do appreciate that this removes rote memorization which is even further down the educational ladder. I hate the stress of exams.
Studio is another stress all together. It's been strange and disorienting this semester. I'm not the only one either. I think we're at a point where we've learn to critically analyze our work we just don't know how to move beyond that. When everything can be seen as arbitrary it's hard to put your foot down and say because I say so. But at some point you need to do it. You need to say these are the boundaries I am imposing, they could be otherwise but not this time. Expectations are high, self-expectations that is. There is a pressure to perform that is stumping us. I recognize it. I just don't know what to do about it. I need a Eureka and soon or as Thomas Mical's lecture stated, I'm waiting for that kick from my intuition.
Anyways, I'm highly productive when avoiding the work I should be doing because the only way I can convince myself to do anything else is if it is something productive. Lucky me! I take a break from studying to do the dishes, clean up, go grocery shopping, write a paper, do readings for another class, work on graphic design projects for clients, teach myself a new computer program for studio...
And yes, I am happy to be back in school. I take this to working anyday!
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I think I'm better now
Why do I always get sick the week of crit?
I've been ready to pass out/throw up since Monday. Mekki was a sweety and convinced me to stay home Monday so that he could make me some chicken soup and tuck me into bed.
Hopefully it's over with and I can get on with my life.
Oh, and crit went well. As usual, I got picked on for having too much of the building figured out. And apparently "Google is wrong" about the orientation of the streets in Montreal. Do you realize that the North-South roads are more East-West than the East-West ones. No one would believe me because almost every map of Montreal "corrects this" and pretends that the roads are perfectly aligned to the cardinals. Which, I agree, is all arbitrary anyways except when I'm being told that I need to be more careful about where I will be casting shadows on the site.
I've been ready to pass out/throw up since Monday. Mekki was a sweety and convinced me to stay home Monday so that he could make me some chicken soup and tuck me into bed.
Hopefully it's over with and I can get on with my life.
Oh, and crit went well. As usual, I got picked on for having too much of the building figured out. And apparently "Google is wrong" about the orientation of the streets in Montreal. Do you realize that the North-South roads are more East-West than the East-West ones. No one would believe me because almost every map of Montreal "corrects this" and pretends that the roads are perfectly aligned to the cardinals. Which, I agree, is all arbitrary anyways except when I'm being told that I need to be more careful about where I will be casting shadows on the site.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Studio Project Progress
CULTURAL HUBS
Identifying the three sites on Boulevard Saint-Laurent as potential urban cultural hubs carries with it the implications of the network they are connected to, the information being transmitted and its origin and destination. Of further importance is an understanding of scale and growth from the linear/local, to geometric/regional, to exponential/universal. Each scale requires a specific infrastructure which from a top level design must be able to support and contribute to all scales simultaneously.
Hubs are mechanisms of centripetal and centrifugal phenomena, points of convergence and divergence, collecting and redistributing data streams. They are not responsible for monitoring or mediating the data, only the connectors which physically permit (or deny) movement through space and time towards a destination. However, at any point of connection, exists the possibility to slow, divert or stop traffic, intentionally or otherwise.
In a seamless network, the entire process is rendered invisible to the end user who is unaware of the spanning of space and time in connecting to their final destination, allowing for simultaneous and instantaneous access across the network. It is only when there is a break or bottleneck in the system that the user becomes aware of the intermediate time and space between himself and his destination.
In order for architecture to assume this role in the urban fabric, it must address these issues. When is its role to remain anonymous and seamless and when can it force the user to take note of his surroundings?
METRO STATION
The experiential quality of the metro is inherently one of the collapsing of space and time. The moment of departure becomes the moment of arrival, in between is no-time and no-space. One traverses Montreal and is made aware of the displacement only through the unique character of each of its metro stations as one is deposited from one to the next. This places the demand on the architecture of these spaces to reorient the travelers, giving reference to their location in relation to the rest of the city and to the new district they are about to enter. The transition does not exist between the stations and must therefor be experienced in the ascent back to street level and into the city.
The metro station is an artificial destination. It is not the intended destination of the traveler but one that he must pass through to continue on towards his goal. The metro station is the hub that connects the underground network to the urban network and directs the flow between the two, the termination of one and beginning of the next. The characteristic of any junction is one of potential collision, overlap and failure, however, these conflict present opportunities for the architecture, otherwise anonymous and invisible, to express itself.
Identifying the three sites on Boulevard Saint-Laurent as potential urban cultural hubs carries with it the implications of the network they are connected to, the information being transmitted and its origin and destination. Of further importance is an understanding of scale and growth from the linear/local, to geometric/regional, to exponential/universal. Each scale requires a specific infrastructure which from a top level design must be able to support and contribute to all scales simultaneously.
Hubs are mechanisms of centripetal and centrifugal phenomena, points of convergence and divergence, collecting and redistributing data streams. They are not responsible for monitoring or mediating the data, only the connectors which physically permit (or deny) movement through space and time towards a destination. However, at any point of connection, exists the possibility to slow, divert or stop traffic, intentionally or otherwise.
In a seamless network, the entire process is rendered invisible to the end user who is unaware of the spanning of space and time in connecting to their final destination, allowing for simultaneous and instantaneous access across the network. It is only when there is a break or bottleneck in the system that the user becomes aware of the intermediate time and space between himself and his destination.
In order for architecture to assume this role in the urban fabric, it must address these issues. When is its role to remain anonymous and seamless and when can it force the user to take note of his surroundings?
METRO STATION
The experiential quality of the metro is inherently one of the collapsing of space and time. The moment of departure becomes the moment of arrival, in between is no-time and no-space. One traverses Montreal and is made aware of the displacement only through the unique character of each of its metro stations as one is deposited from one to the next. This places the demand on the architecture of these spaces to reorient the travelers, giving reference to their location in relation to the rest of the city and to the new district they are about to enter. The transition does not exist between the stations and must therefor be experienced in the ascent back to street level and into the city.
The metro station is an artificial destination. It is not the intended destination of the traveler but one that he must pass through to continue on towards his goal. The metro station is the hub that connects the underground network to the urban network and directs the flow between the two, the termination of one and beginning of the next. The characteristic of any junction is one of potential collision, overlap and failure, however, these conflict present opportunities for the architecture, otherwise anonymous and invisible, to express itself.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Personalized Google
Have you seen this.
I love it.
Personalized google homepage where you can customize what you want on the page as far as news (sources and categories), weather, word of the day, quote of the day, etc. and searches that will rank google hits based on your usage history plus search history.
I love it.
Personalized google homepage where you can customize what you want on the page as far as news (sources and categories), weather, word of the day, quote of the day, etc. and searches that will rank google hits based on your usage history plus search history.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Your concern is appreciated but think about it first
There seems to be a recent surgeance in my inbox and in comments made to me about all the reasons to be afraid of the world and overly paranoid because I happen to be a girl. This trend repeats itself about twice a year. I don't know what brings it up but here it is again. It kind of annoys me.
All the horrible "true" stories of girls who get raped, drugged, abducted, murdered, assaulted, etc. means that everytime I go to walk home after dark (which in Ottawa during the winter means after 5pm) I get bombarded with concerns of "you can't walk home alone", "aren't you afraid you're going to get raped/mugged/abducted?" Not once has someone asked me "aren't you afraid of getting hit by a car?" Now I don't have specific numbers to go by, but I would wager my odds are probably at least 10:1 in favour of getting hit by a car.
I have a friend who insisted that his wife get a cell phone because he "wants to know if his wife is getting raped". Now let's think this through. Guy grabs her from behind and pushes her to the ground in a dark alley. She pulls out her cell phone and says "oh, do you mind waiting, I have to call my husband because he wants me to call him if I'm going to be raped." She'd be better off trying to wak him on the head with the darn thing or if it is a flip phone... (let's stop there)
It's not that I'm ignorant of the evil things that go on in the world. I make sure to watch my drink at clubs, I make sure there is traffic along the route I walk home, I don't let people talk me into things I don't want to do. I DO NOT let it stop me from doing things that are 99.9% safe. I've been walking home alone after dark probably 4 or 5 times per week for three years, and nothing has happened yet. That's better than 99.9%. What I don't appreciate is the seed of paranoia that gets planted everytime someone brings it up.
I have been in suspicious situations before (but that was in Italy and involved an old cathedral and the crypt keeper... don't ask) but that only makes me feel more secure. I was able to handle the situation then, I think I can handle similar situations again, though hopefully I won't have to.
I'm a smart cookie people, don't worry so much.
All the horrible "true" stories of girls who get raped, drugged, abducted, murdered, assaulted, etc. means that everytime I go to walk home after dark (which in Ottawa during the winter means after 5pm) I get bombarded with concerns of "you can't walk home alone", "aren't you afraid you're going to get raped/mugged/abducted?" Not once has someone asked me "aren't you afraid of getting hit by a car?" Now I don't have specific numbers to go by, but I would wager my odds are probably at least 10:1 in favour of getting hit by a car.
I have a friend who insisted that his wife get a cell phone because he "wants to know if his wife is getting raped". Now let's think this through. Guy grabs her from behind and pushes her to the ground in a dark alley. She pulls out her cell phone and says "oh, do you mind waiting, I have to call my husband because he wants me to call him if I'm going to be raped." She'd be better off trying to wak him on the head with the darn thing or if it is a flip phone... (let's stop there)
It's not that I'm ignorant of the evil things that go on in the world. I make sure to watch my drink at clubs, I make sure there is traffic along the route I walk home, I don't let people talk me into things I don't want to do. I DO NOT let it stop me from doing things that are 99.9% safe. I've been walking home alone after dark probably 4 or 5 times per week for three years, and nothing has happened yet. That's better than 99.9%. What I don't appreciate is the seed of paranoia that gets planted everytime someone brings it up.
I have been in suspicious situations before (but that was in Italy and involved an old cathedral and the crypt keeper... don't ask) but that only makes me feel more secure. I was able to handle the situation then, I think I can handle similar situations again, though hopefully I won't have to.
I'm a smart cookie people, don't worry so much.
