anni's // books, body and spaces

We have just received the news that Anni Vestergaard will be joining the course with a two days 1:1 workshop at the end of February. You can ckeck her recent exhibition (with Mette Winckelmanns) in a review- in danish - clicking here, or check out Anni's homepage showcasing her work(s).

on point(s), comma(s), paranthesis, et.al

Last week, at the informal reviews we mentioned swedish concretist poetry from the sixties.Click HERE for a short piece of abstract (or is it concrete ?) geography. Or take a walk on the wild side of concrete prose by cliking here ( best for those that undertstand swedish, but great also for practising your general onomatopoetica)

after Dale visit, before charette

Thank you for a very inspiring trip to Dale this week. As you all probably have taken many pictures, it would be great to have these linked here on this post. Please follow the instrctions in the TO DO list, at bottom of blogpost. Late Sunday evening the task for the charette will be uploaded on the next blogpost. Expect intense work monday - thursday. Pictures from last week's work in studio prior to presentations with kalle and Hedvig on a link HERE.

Reminder for informal reviews Friday

On MA & space-time and more

Thank you for the inspiring and interactive discussions on  work in progress on Friday from those present. Pics from the day HERE (We missed the rest, and their work(s) on studio wall / tables). It was possible to discern some quite distinct topics, i.e liminalliminalityity / islands , "fargo" / forensic science, levels / POV, periphery / center…that one might want to explore further… We had many interesting side-way, oblique approaches to the topic of remote and habitation during the discussions … (Moomins, Las Vegas, Holl, emptiness, forensic science, scales, movements and much more)

Above are some illustrations to some topics discussed: The japanese (eastern) concept of MA - space time… Here is alink to the exhibition catalogue from Isozaki's exhibition in NY. Also, a short text from Calvino (OuLiPo) on how to observe, and an illustration from Steven Holl's Milano project…

On the next post tomorrow expect some more precise details as to the work to be produced for the review on Friday… Models from the general topography at Dale (pocket size or a bit larger are still missing! )

Otherwise: Remember the course expects continuous participation !  See the last two sentences in the document "Learning Outcome"

On maps and metaphors

Description(s) of the world(s) might always also bring about a map, and or some sort of metaphor, to relate the comprehention to something otherwise known. It is also a question of scale, and the comprehention(s) of scale(s)... In the BAS library you could find the following books: "City Metaphors" by O.M. Ungers and "The Manhattan Transcripts" by Bernard Tschumi. (you should try to get them up to the studio...) if not, here is alink to the introductory text from Ungers and a complete scann of the "transcripts" here.Download for further studies...

BTW: the blog also functions well on a smartphone... bookmark it on your's to follow... 'is handy should you want to show your ISSUU booklets i.e ...

On observing closely

"The Perfect Human" is a (now cult)short film by danish film director Jørgen Leth from 1967. It is a sublime demonstration of what simple observation can be, and how difficult it is to watch something apparently without "meaning" or "message"… It constitutes an intricate piece of condensed body-space morphology… Enjoy the aesthetic (is it just that ?) "distraction".

Phase 02 // DALE space(s) & reference collection

Fields of Indeterminacy: Toshi Ichiyanagi’s Fluxus Scores

OK. then.  again. now. to. phase.  two. 

Please read the brief below carefully and proceed accordingly. Remember to manufacture models of Dale spaces - i.e small precise, in scale, yet subjective models, (pocket models, and larger ones). But forst and foremost READ the brief below.. Also attached is the learning outcome for the semester and the course.... This is mostly a general reminder, if you are wondering what the course is about. (seems nitty-grytty and it is...) The workload is precisely dosaged, yet manageable: if you work each day with curiosity and playful, loving intererst, you will both learn new stuff (if you also read the texts from the reading list) and manufacture amazing personal projects. 

Here is the brief for phase 02 - click on image to enlarge then print or download.

Below is the course learning outcome description.

phase 01 // chilhood space(s) booklets finis

david harris : memory of collors cs ´16

OK. then. thanks: most delivered (some) revisions of the chilhood space(s) booklets with supplements on time. Remember to carefully read any brief comming during this semester. It helps knowing what to revise, and have conversations on work progress. Most (many)  are missing the models and photos of models.

Below are  links to the finished booklets on ISSUU. David, Nele, Yonghyan, Florian, Luise, Matyas, Aki,Mickey, Pål Henrik, Sondre, Ling, Stefanie , Nele, Preben, Kirsten, Lena, Mira,   .... (rest still missing) Click on name to assess the booklet.

Work on monday // chilhood space(s)

Thank you for the work on your childhood space(s). As agreed on Friday at the reviews, we suggested that you could supplement the work(s) with more precise textual description(s) of the spaces involved. Below is the brief for work on Monday.

On Monday, the brief for work(s) until the reviews at the end of January will be posted. Remember also (some) of the "rules" from John Cage: make work enjoyable.

phase 01 // childhood space(s) reviews

Thank you for work during phase 01 and the presentations of your childhood space(s) on Friday. Inspiring and at times fine, thought provoking material to start discussions about the many, open and very varied, conditions for habitation(s) and ways to inhabit space(s).

Some pics from work during the week and the review, on the link here. 

More precise instructions on the nature of the supplementing work to be done on Monday (for all) on the childhood space(s) on the next blog post.

Activities thursday and friday

diagramatic plan , chilhood space, Xiaoyu Xu, 2014 BAS

Activities for thursday and friday are as follows :

studio cleaned, with new wall and cover for waste bins (hopefully);

All (or most) material produced hung up on studio walls - as thight as possible, does not need individual sections - mix stuff for new views. (remember A4 portrait, A3 landscape- always). use bluetack/elefant snot from tiger or similar. no tape.

models produced on display on tables or on one long table on 4th. floor. 

Thursday (start ca. 10:00) will be about staudio space, common topics for course/other activities/schedule ajustments(!), and individual tutorials. Friday reviews of chilhood spaces booklet (one hard copy for each, printed and bound/glued with the gray cover/back, and a running .pdf for each (two pages) collected on a common memory stick/laptop. and at end of day intro to next phase.

Something "old" and something "new"

In this post, two quite crutial short books or pamplets are introduced: Paul Klee's Pedagogical Sketchbook and Juhani Pallasmaa's The Eyes of the Skin. Both works are foundation knowledge in architectural studies, so if you have not yet been aquainted to them yet, this semester gives a possibility for re-viewing.

The Pedagogical Sketchbook by Paul Klee is an intuitive art investigation of dynamic principles in visual arts from his teaching at the Bauhaus Shool in the 1920's. Klee takes his students on an ‘adventure in seeing’ guiding them step-by-step through a challenging conceptual framework. Objects are rendered in a complex relation to physical and intellectual space concepts. It is an exercise in modern art thinking. In her introduction to the book, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy divides the book into 4 different parts corresponding to the 4 conceptual frameworks. Each framework is illustrated by intricate drawings (mixture of what looks like creative arithmetic or geometry sketches, scribbles and mental notes).

The Eyes of the Skin is the "gentle manifesto" that grew out of the Finnish architect, teacher, philosopher, and designer Juhani Pallasmaa's concern about the "dominance of vision and the suppression of other senses in the way architecture was taught, conceived and critiqued." Originally published in 1996, this influential pocket-sized book ( 12 x 21 cm, Pallasmaa's essay is only 60 pages). Pallasmaa's call for a non-ocular-centric architecture that responds to existential human questions—rather than one weighted down by discourse for its own sake—is timeless.

Both books are available at the BAS library. Otherwise below are two links to .pdf downloads, reachable here (Klee) and here (Pallasmaa)

Suggested readings for next week

From time to time, we will post links to some shorter texts. They are meant as inspirations as well as basic foundation and  general knowledge in an architectural education. Please take note and read them. 

The followings texts are: A short text by Heidegger on " Building, Dwelling and Thinking " HERE, a copy of Georges Perec's " Species of Spaces" HERE and a short text on Rachel Whiteread's monumental scuplture "House" and its contextualisation withing other related works HERE. 

Enjoy the "readings": it is also part of studio work and can serve as a fine activity while listeming to some music. (You might try some Cage on Spotify or other streaming)

Remember the Cage "rules"

" There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot." JC

First post // thank you for fine intro

Thank you for the fine pecha-kucha intros this week. Very inspiring and informative. As promised the blog starts with this post, and will be followed up on a regular basis with pictures from work in progress in studio, archive of asingments and various inspiring texts/other relevant material during the whole semester.

First day in studio. Enjoy the daily changes during the semester : it is such a fine space. Trust it for that while as John Cage suggested.

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Semester schedule and phase one, first task available above for print and download. Click on icon to enlearge.