EXPERIENTIAL TYPOGRAPHY

The One Day Poem Pavilion by Jiyeon Song. Beautiful. More.

A "PROFESSIONAL" THESIS

You may have heard about Serero Architects' proposal for a pavilion at the top of the Eiffel Tower, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the tower. You may have also heard that the proposal was a "hoax", dropped onto the media as the supposed winner of a competition hosted by the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), the organization that runs and maintains the tower. And lastly, you may have heard Serero's denial that it ever claimed to win a competition - rather that the myth snowballed as a result of media mis-information, and perhaps even an erroneous, unauthorized interview with one of Serero's interns (described as a "foreign intern", which means that Serero thinks he is either unfamiliar with the SETE or just stupid - which most foreigners are).

Anyway, thanks to the handy combination of graphics tools, massive internet networkings and people with either too much analytical skill or time on their hands, someone finally organized the entire scenario and diagrammed it out for our comprehension.

Oddly enough, while some accuse Serero of self-inflating their image, shall we say "forging" their way to an international audience via an imaginary competition, others are hailing the stunt as a massively successful PR strategy, which did nothing more than expose an internal news-media breakdown as it devoured its own faulty information - like an internet version of the telephone game, information about went wrong at some point (either with the "foreign" intern or an early mis-informed news article), and this started a snowball of a myth that kept getting bigger and bigger.

Given our situation in developing an architectural thesis, however, I like to think of Serero's scheme as nothing other than an extremely convincing - and ideal - conjecture for architecture. So much so that everyone bought it, regardless of how it was being sold. It's good to see those in professional practice extend themselves into thesis-land every now and then, although I wonder how it can be financially viable. There's always family money, I guess, if you have access to such a thing. In any event, I don't have much of a thesis of my own to share here, other than the fact that I see a nice parallel between us and them. But to close, I also want to put out the question of how the rumor-mill's buzz will play out. The immediate effect is both praise and contempt - and all news is good news. But news dies fast, and it will be interesting to see how Serero channels their newfound celebrity, by either scamming the media once again (perhaps in cognito?) or taking the more conventional approach by adding the buzz to fire and gradually building its practice. I doubt my own thesis work could pull the same wool over the same eyes.

ONLYAMONTHLEFT!!

OWWWWWW!

Don't tase me, bro! Owwwww!

LONELY?

She'll smile for you.

EAT FOR TWO

A few weeks ago I posted an image on FLICKR showing some of my thesis research, manifest as a surface built and tessellated using a mathematical algorithm similar to the ones that generate the typical NURBS surface. When I posted this, several people confronted me in person about its grotesqueness, and one person in particular commented on flickr about its resemblance to "turtles that live in the amazon that can hatch eggs on their backs." After reading his comment, I knew that I must find these turtles, so I scoured the internet looking for them, but to no avail.

Well, alas and alak, just today I came across a video showing a specific species of toads (not turtles), that carry their eggs on their backs until they hatch. And when they hatch it's disgusting. I mean, to the point that I almost lost my M&M's and Twizlers. Still, it's worth looking into, and definitely worth watching the video. Most likely you're less squeamish than I am and can handle it like a real man - or toad. So here you are, the wikipedia ENTRY and the video (below).

TUBEAROO = GOLD

I had to put a cap in her shoulder...

BLAH

PULL UP THE PROGRAM, PULL UP THE POOR

Dear MEL Script,

You know I love you. You know I'd never do anything to hurt you. In fact, in just the few years we've known each other I've grown closer and closer to you. You infatuate me. And, I mean, yeah, I've seen other codes and they've been alright. But nothing compared to you, and who you really, really are.

I love you MEL, and this is really hard for me to say. I think we've gotten somewhere in our relationship, we've done some good things. And I'm really happy with where we are now. But I'm scared that if we keep this up, I'll miss so much else that's out there. I mean, think about it, there's program, site, and, you know, a building! As great as we are together, I need these things, I need to experience them, figure them out and keep moving ahead with things.

So as cruel as it sounds, I think I'm going to have to stop things between us. We can still be friends, and I can use you - over and over again - while I'm with program, context and site. But don't take offense. It's just a thesis. And no matter what happens between us - you'll always be my special MEL.

Forever,
Josh

TOPOWARE

link

DOOM'D

From Cynical-C.

WE HAVE ARRIVED

now if i only had a thesis...

TAKE THE WORK OUT OF YOUR WORKOUT

A FEW THINGS

JE VEUX TE VOIR

Have you ever wondered what would happen if star-chitects really were rockstars? I mean rockstars as in David Bowie, not the kind Toshiko thinks about ("at GSD, you too can be rockstar.")

Well, look at the image above. Rumor has it that Amale Andraos, the feminine side of WORK.AC actually is a rockstar. And who might her musical altar ego be? None other than the French Techno-pop phenom known as Yelle! That's right, YELLE! YELLE people! Ah, yelle, you had me at "Je veux te voir dans un film pornographique en action avec ta bite" (I want to see you in a porno in action with your...ummm.) But now, Yelle, you have to flip it all around on me and go design Villa Pup?! And win this year's PS1?? Oh! I think I'm in love! If only that Dan Wood wasn't in the way. Man, if it weren't for him I'd be all over them "forme patatoes ou bien frites".

And for all you other guys out there wanting to get on this - back off. She's mine. But I guess you can give it a LISTEN if you wanna be jealous. And stuff.

(Yelle?!)

YOU'VE BEEN ZAHA'D

I still think the authentic Zaha is the funniest.

U/POC (UGLY PROOF OF CONCEPT)

Not elegant...yet. But it is the first "thing" I've generated from my new bicubic script. Essentially, a multi-faceted polysurface is positioned according to NURBS math, nodes are shifted along the invisible math of the surface (with increasing proability of a shift towards the corners) - and then the entire polysurface is converted into a SUBD frame. And it's all full of parametricizationess-icality!

You want iterations? I'll GIVE you iterations. (And hopefully something nicer to look at next time...)

FIGURE, GROUND...AND WATER!

In searching for photos of Mies-ian "reification" (essentially the suggestion of space by the use of borders - furniture, carpeting, pkanar wall projections, etc. - rather than the bounding of the space itself), I came across some striking images of the Farnsworth House during the 2007 flooding of the Fox River near Plano, IL. Apparently, a similar flood in 1996 ruined much of the interiors and all the furniture. The house was quickly restored, but faced ruination again in 2007. Preservationists [including Brad Pitt, if you want to call him T.H.A.T.], rushed to the scene and salvaged the interior furnishings. But the floodwaters never made it to the upper terrace and the house was spared.

Thanks Brad.

ALL YOUR DEFORMERS ARE BELONG TO US

I caught you red-handed, Zaha. And there's more proof HERE. Try and pull a fast one on me, and look what happens...

CITY GENERATOR

"over 70,000 buildings generated in approximately one minute"



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