Thursday, December 30, 2010

Cotton and Being


The culmination of (and perhaps even the justification for) a mind towards the Arts is the commission for a T-shirt design.

I once knew a man who owned 2 beach homes, earned 6 professional degrees, and had 8 arms… but he was no one, because he had never been asked to design a T-shirt.

The client in want of a T-shirt (A local, short-lived band, an esoteric activist group, a charity event no one has ever heard of) is the sole source of meaning and longevity to the talents of the Purveyor of Design (The graphic artist, the photographer, the second cousin who will work for $20 and a sense of value).

Jackson Pollock was never asked to design a T-shirt, and he was shit. Probably because of this.

I, of course, have never felt the cold hand of existential artistic nothingness, as I have always been asked to design T-shirts -if my memory is correct- since the dawn of anthropological being.


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Prouns and Proun-ies

“Prouns” with apologies to El Lissitzky, “Proun-ies” with apologies to verbicide and God.

Presented here (the time has come to explain myself): Efforts to bring, or at least express, architectural motivations and the seeds of vernacular through two-dimensional painterly space. Acts of Modernism, and by certain modalities of extension, acts of Constructivism and Suprematism, from which the work concerned here derives its inspiration from, are acts of top-down grid management. The Prouns and Proun-ies are markedly different in this sense, as they suggest without defining; not agents of narrowing solutions, but figures of broadening potential, in whatever mediums they may be concerned with, at face value or otherwise.

 
 

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Future Archeologies

Build to Fall...



Our contribution to the undigested mass of the earth, our not-yet ruins pedagogical to some future archeology student (as suggested in the cartoon above, most likely named Clavius) may be the ubiquitous curtain wall. As the stone column was once simultaneously ubiquitous and endlessly varied, the aluminum and glass storefronts stand as a fixture of our age and as a fixture yet to be rediscovered. Perhaps they will be classified by universities- not ‘Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian’, but ‘Discount Fashion, Casual Dining, Highway Truckstop’.

There will be exhibits at the Smithsonian titled “When Extruded Aluminum Ruled the Earth” and children will gaze in wonderment as the poor modulus of elasticity of the non-ferrous beasts is demonstrated by an elderly volunteer, complete with a themed cafĂ© and gift shop.

Whole colleges with specified areas of study will pop up and doctorate students will devote years of their lives writing esoteric discourses with titles like “A Didactic Inquiry into the Tertiary Symbolism in Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits’ Vestibule Systems” and “Serenity Through Thin Brick: A Buddhists’ Analysis of Non- Glazing Infill Solutions.”

Perhaps, in the vein of the early paleontologists or like the Brontosaurus, the curtain walls will be incorrectly reconstructed and impossible stereotomic monsters will be rebuilt in workshops: Homages to a kind of past, as misrepresentational as they are beautiful.

The symbolic capacity of the inane will be explosive with time.

Friday, December 10, 2010

On Occasion

Occasionally, in the banality of stairwells, between lost keys, we will clear our throat and we will gain glimpses: not as a transgression of moment, but as an affirmation of movement.



Friday, December 3, 2010

Past-y Blast-y 2: Electric Boogaloo (Or, Old Architectural Renderings Transformed Into Pepper Mill Catalog Entries for the Holidays.)

Non threatening sniplets from the past, offered up for free viewership, playfully annotated, and best enjoyed in the comfort of your domicile with unwashed dishes in your kitchen sink.





You see, the problem is, is that I think that I’m funny.

Friday, November 26, 2010

DOA Discourse

1) (10:03 am) So you read somewhere that knowledge is simply patterns at intersections,

2) (10:26 am) And, of course, you already know that ‘intersection’ implies two or more non- parallel processes or discourses, and

3) (11:30 am) Naturally the greater number of non-parallel discourses , especially open-loop recursive ones in a complex system, will both increase the quality and quantity of said intersections

4) (12:04 pm) And, as any fuck-wit will tell you, any attempt to quantify or even verify the nature of this complexity will inherently limit the very complexity that you are observing as this would be an action of input control and…

5) (12:30 pm) Lunch time. Chicken and rice today.

6) (1:01 pm) …may inadvertently emphasize or de-emphasize (or completely ignore) crucial facets of the system which may or may not be producing the patterns and discourses you wish to verify.

7) (3:27 pm) Then you draw a picture to better explain this to your imaginary readers, lest you confound non-existent people and look like an enormous dick-splash, when you realize that you are not getting paid to be here anymore and should just go home and watch reruns of “Wings” on Netflix and allow yourself to be absorbed with the topical humor while explaining to your girlfriend the obvious facets in which the program is inferior to both “Cheers” and “Frasier”.


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Histories in Decontextualization

While any element of an antecedent, (or ‘souvenir’) retains the history of substance in its decontextualized state, it also retains a parallel history of the process of decontextualization, as any open-ended recursive system also processes interference, which ultimately becomes inseparable from the representative agent itself. This not only modifies the agent, but also the collective antecedent, in its full context, as a resultant of its constituents. The agent, then, destroys the meaning of the antecedent, and replaces it with itself, as a sort of self- referential iconoclast. So, dear God, what has your souvenir done???


Friday, November 12, 2010

Past-y Blast-y

The urban is a medium to digest and explode culture. The map is a design to codify this appropriation.



Thursday, November 4, 2010

Asymptotical Axons

A celebration of the Gap

resultant from process.

Written on scraps of paper in half-lucid states, pocketed, and later read and largely misinterpreted.

There are, of course, more blanks than presented here, although most of the ones here are intentional, if not purposeful.


Friday, October 29, 2010

That Rattling Under Your Hood

If Corbu was correct in assessing that a building is essentially a machine for living in, then we are tectonic mechanics and semiotical technicians, the combined diagnosticity of the cognitive rattling under your cultural hood with the transient vibrations throughout your required materiality. We will be informing you that A) It will not be ready by Monday, B) The parts are not under warranty (you should have got the extended service plan) and C) We wash our hands before we use the restroom. Fortunately, Corbu was not correct.

Friday, October 22, 2010

.125 (an eighth) Seconds of Fame

An eighth because a quarter of a second would be greedy and a sixteenth would be unfair to the quality of my work. Still, as the old Hollywood saying goes, "If you are asked to design and produce renderings of a fictitious condo/ mixed program facility for use in a newspaper prop on a fledgling detective show with mixed reviews and mediocre Nielsen ratings, you are on the fast track to acquiring a non-reoccurring supplementary income." Nice work if you can get it.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Stock Bicycle Table Experience

If you want one, you should call me. You can call me if you don't want one too, but then we would have to find something else to talk about. Perhaps other kinds of tables? Or, conversely, bicycles that have not been turned into tables?

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Greenock Opportunity

Beautiful aesthetics can be the product of simple design, exposed raw materials, and a functional program.

RURAL SUSTAINABLE

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

SITE AND EXPERIENCE

FUNCTIONAL AESTHETICS

It could still happen, perhaps.


Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A Brief Flirtation with Cartooning.

It probably won't happen again.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Because We Care/ Can

Of often asked, of often known. Home from home (zone)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

RE: Girlfriend Machine

Medium: All sorts of mixed.

Ingredients: 2 parts "Habeeb", + 1 part "Spree-Whipple" (May substitute w/ "Spree-Whumpus" if the latter is regionally unavailable). Serve w/ garnish of choice.

"On our wings, through case, shine our humble blessings and bring wake to still."


Thursday, June 10, 2010

A Note In the Key of D

Detroit (both because of and in spite of) its well publicized shortcomings, is a rich, culturally saturated entity, without pretensions, that is epic both in its obstacles and in its opportunities.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Playful Mechanics II

The microcosm of its precursor. Also known as "Sharbooski's Nightmare" and "Clyde's Cheeseburger Machine" for reasons which should be fairly obvious.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Lamp-Towne

Less of a towne and more of a collection of design studies positioned to emulate a school of contermporary luminare style popular in indoor public/ common areas. Still..... Lamp-Towne.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Improved Retail Reality

Why: Experience at the Reception Desk.
Client: Brain.

Why couldn't the retail experience be a bit more like this, instead of just a bunch of ugly people plooking each others' mouths?

I mean, it is just a lot of colors and lights anyway; explode it and embrace it.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Urban Infographics I

An Old Architecture Competition Entry.

Technological ruins amidst a sprawling city. Informing those on the municipality infrastructure while informing the infrastructure itself. A non-denominational alter to  the creed of pictures, numbers, and light; of global information systems.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A Few Trams

Efforts to bring architectural motivations to the brink of concept formation through a structurally limited disposition, etc., etc.... Sometimes, these things just happen, and its OK.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Guerilla Retail and Big Carcass Architecture

Adapting the Big Carcass in a post-wholesale climate. A variation of the "Pop-up Retail" paradigm, this is a practical effort to re-establish the boutique in the abandoned Best Buy/ Home Depot/ Walmart at the end of the cul-de-sac, in your planned community. Maybe not just retail- Cut it up and sell it off the space as studios, hostels, classrooms, a marketplace....

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Playful Mechanics I

In an effort to avoid designing an edifice that implicitly defines itself, this entity is intended to easily and readily respond to and  facilitate input/ output criterion. Such an edifice can adapt to a given task, mood, or disposition or aid to facilitate a desired atmosphere/ mood/ activity. The space becomes intelligent through a kinetic interface. The user can configure the installation into arrangements that take on unique connotations, figuratively and literally, both within the parameters of the object and beyond.

Graphics Nobody Liked

Someone probably did, but more people should have, if they did not. Actually, no one didn't like them, so the above title is a bit of a misnomer.

Monday, May 24, 2010

bau[wow]haus

The title is borderline illegal, however the design was for a charity event, so any and all asinine wordplays should be excused.

The doghouse, based on the popular De Stijl "three color box" print that is ubiquitous in contemporary/ modern dining rooms, doubles as an attractive lawn ornament or garden folly. It is loosely based on the Bauhaus design principles, so the product is targeted at dogs who subscribe to the tenants of Russian Constructivism and Supermatism and reject the hierarchical and structural inadequacies and political ambiguity of pre-Bolshevik era expressionism, although I suppose really any dog could use it.