A Night of Universal Design

I would say that Halloween typically doesn't bring out the best in society. However, it is a safe, justified way of expressing oneself... which allows many people's creative talents to come out. I am one of the people who are less-inspired this time of year, but I give props to those who put in excessive amounts of effort!

My Halloween costume story of the night: I was cleaning my room about an hour before I was going to go to a party. I looked up on my desk from my position on the floor, when I saw it. A role of packing tape. So, naturally, and out of my indifference for the holiday, I made myself another arm. I like Christmas better anyway, with all it's gifts and glory. So I gave myself a drafting arm, you know, so I can work faster. I wish it would actually work! 

*sigh*

Cheese!

I just bought a camera. 

After losing my beloved canon of four years (I think it was stolen, actually), I finally caved-in and replaced it... of course, not until there was the sufficient two-month mourning period! After researching, and drooling, and then researching some more, I finally went to the store with two cameras in mind. I was waiting for the salesman to tell me which one to buy at this point. It turned out this man knew even less about cameras than I. 

Nevertheless, I walked away with a camera that put a smile on my face. I was thinking to myself "Great! Now I can post pictures of my projects and bikerides on my blog!" How could I have lived without the camera! And then it hit me. How could I have lived without the camera? I had no way to document all those moments of life, so how can I prove they actually existed? How can I say that I had a good time at that concert, if there are no pictures of me grinning in front of the stage? How will people believe any of my stories without the physical evidence of a digital photo? I might as well have not lived, it seemed to me. 

Ok, so maybe that was a little overdramatic. But I wonder sometimes. Cameras seem to get thinner and lighter every year, to minimize the bulk and promote usability. But with this freedom, we have established a responsibility to carry that little camera with us EVERYWHERE. Like the cell phone, it has integrated into our lives imperceptibly to the point in which our view of life could easily be distorted. What if people start to look at their lives solely through the lens of a camera? 

I saw an interview of Stan Brackhage once, addressing his movies on his first child's birth, and the experimental movies of the Vietnam War. When asked how he was able to carry out such intense topics through this medium, he explained that the video camera was a sort-of filter that allowed him to translate what was going on. The moment itself was too intense for him experience alone, but with the camera he was able to remove himself and then replace himself into the scene. He felt that he was not actually 'removed' from the event, but rather given the opportunity to abstract the actual event. 

Another Massage... Please?

I recently came across an interesting concept in my Urban Design class... a concept brought to the world by Archigram, an "avant-garde" architectural group formed in the 1960's. Archigram was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, working mostly in hypothetical drawings. These projects dealt with the new possibilities that technology had to offer. I'm not entirely clear as to who was influenced first by technology and its new role in our lives, but Archigram closely follows the same theories of McLuhan in "The Medium is the Massage."

My favorite project is that of the walking city. 

Like the internet (or television, as McLuhan and Archigram were no doubt thinking of), one can just "plug in" the city in any random geological site! It's brilliant really, aside from the fact that civilization would perpetuate the idea of Disposable. On the bright side, it could eliminate the need for travel by plane! Think of all the fossil fuel you would save!

Actually, I suppose on a smaller scale, trailer homes are a lot like this. Maybe trailer homes are cooler than I thought.........

*some of the drawings from Archigram might look familiar; they make an appearance on the opening clips of Monty Python's Flying Circus

Recycled Design

This summer I moved to Portland, leaving behind all of my non-inspiring and somewhat decrepit Eugene furnishings. After perusing craigslist for a couple days, I found it; a clawfoot tub for practically free! Since my bathtub in the apartment wasn't clawfooted, I decided to use it for seating. It was quite the adventure, and it took much longer than expected to complete, but here it is!

Turns out this isn't an entirely original idea, however. 

When showing it off for the first time, my friend said something like "How 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' of you!" I thought I'd seen the movie before... it was funny though, to see how influenced I am, even if it is at a subconscious level. Curious to see if there were others out there, I 'googled' it, and here's what I found:

The best part is that the sofa above is sold for about $4000. Yikes. This site had lots of other neat 'recycled' designs. Check it out at reestore.com

...the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.

My friend earlier this summer was explaining to me how the Architecture program she was in is considered more "phenomenological" than that of the University of Oregon's. Because architect's are notorious for making up words, I had to look it up... aaaand it's a real word. 

The idea fascinates me... "an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience." I suppose that this reminds me of the issues of reality; how we distinguish our individual realities, perceptions. Which brings me to the article, "Seeing is Forgetting," by Lawrence Weschler. Here are some quotes that I feel best express this idea:

"All art is experience, yet all experience is not art."

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

We move through the world with a certain degree of expectation. We see what we want or know we will see. So, what is it that I see?