I recently had a chat with a friend when canvassing topics for an essay on postmodernism in design. My thoughts led me to Jerde, and so for my own benifit, and anyone who cares to hear it... I thought I would post my thoughts here for all to absorb or critique or both.
To get to postmodernism I thought that I had to first address it's context as it followed from a Romantic period and then Modernism. The decision to use Jerde as an icon of postmodernism is based upon his dominance of the retail architecture market in the US. In this fashion, both the art movements during and preceeding postmodernism can be clarified against the political and economic developments (evident in trade and commerce) which occured during the same period of time. This will lead to a comprehensive insight into the context and character of the postmodernism of Jerde, and assist in the identification of postmodern characteristics in the creative outputs of others.
You can track romanticism and modernism through consumer culture and cultural imperialism over the last 200 years. Romaniticism and the ethnographic diversification of commodities occured significantly in the 19 and 20th centuries (refer the British Empire in India and China) due to imperial expansion.
As two World Wars ravaged the globe, the old Imperial Nationalist sentiments began to fade, grow guilty, and they began to relinquish their protectorates and colonies back to the people.
Modernism came with the adjustments needed to accomodate homogenity of political correctness removed from the once burgeoning reliance on ethnographic cultural commodies. It also accomodated the slow down of the industrial revolution and the developments of the technlogical age of new homogenous products of international (and politically/ethnically neutral) standard.
Modernism itself had to split into various tertiary camps to cope with the melee of dichotomy it found itself wading through; once that the vanguard of Imperial Nationalism and assosciated decrees of 'superior creative endeavour' were removed. The world was suddenly a smaller place with no sense of proprietary or 'standard'.
Then... after a few decades of modernism striving to find a new, ethically and politically neutral pure standard which could save the world from it's differences and woes (refer internationalism and the veiled internationalism farce that was old regionalism), Postmodernism poked it;s head into the mix and decided to cause some havoc.
Enter Jerde.
Jerde's postmodern retail architecture is almost a bridge between modernism and the romanticism of forgotten imperialist ethnic commodification. Jerde is (in my opinion) unafraid to recourse to the commodofied ethnographic pallette of the cultural imperialist romanticism era, whilst preaching the ethical and artistic purity (or corporate compliance) of modernism, embodying the conflict for us all to see.
Sometimes the juxtaposition between ethnic romaticism and modernism is delineated by the interior/architectural boundary (by allowing by each tenant through interior design to ethnically romaticise their shop for the sake of marketing their product [for example, Batavia coffee next to Sushi train next to the IMAX on Grey Street]. This is all in the structure and coprporate compliance of an essentially compliant and 'pure' architectural statement.
[add photoes *Grey Street*Paxton's Crystal Palace*Jerde's MOA]
Sometimes this postmodern juxtaposition occurs within the architecture itself by the mashing together of conflicting architectural 'elements'... a roman column here, a curtain wall with sexy stainless steel door furniture there, a spraycrete rendered neolithic cave entrance here, a fibreglass pirate ship mast there... et alia...
[add photoes of Jerde's Horton Plaza*Dreamworld*etc etc etc...]
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
On Mapping... Minard and Weizman
The Minard Map of 1861 showing the advance and retreat of Napoleanic forces against Russia in the 1830's is considered seminal tactical battlefield mapping. It very clearly compounds the data from divergent contexts such as time, temperature, geography, mass etc...
Another Map which i recently stumbled upon was Weizman's 2002 map [link to notbored.org] of Jewish Settlements in the West bank. This data brings clarity to the "black spot" which google earth seems to have.
Systems Theory in Architecture???
Ever get the feeling like you are beating a dead horse, driving a lame donkey? My searching for a new Thesis topic may have recently been given a new lease of life.
I love getting the time to share ideas about community with both of my parents. My mother has been working as a professional in social community services and counselling and my father is a well respected town planner. Both have been practicing their respective crafts for over 25 years.
In talking with my father today a discussion began which centered around sustainable community and development evolution, both in the built environment, economy and community. For the first time I realised how closely my personal views about 'progress' had similar values as to those of my father. Little surprise there as I used to constantly raid his library whilst in High School, discovering titles such as "A pattern Language" at the age of 14.
Excitedly, i was able to get some refferences from my father for further reading again today. One is a book by Senge about the use of systems thinking in professional development called "The Fifth Discipline", the other is by a woman named Donella Meadows in an article called Dancing with the System [I highly recommend reading this article] . Both articles seem great introductions to applications of systems thinking... a kind of gestalt view of the interpolation and connective complexity in the world around us.
I find myself drawn to the Systems Thinking method; not to naively try and determine an increadibly complex future or design path or social panacea. But rather to find a more effective, efficient, sustainable and organic practice method.
It will be interesting to see how this ties in to my thoughts and deliberations on the sustainable grass roots methods of sub-cultures and community organisations; both illicit, malevolent, and benevolent.
For a taste of Systems Thinking: here is an excerpt from Senge's book. It hails from Chapter 21 of The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge. entitled "THE INDIVISIBLE WHOLE". Pages 370 and 371. Random House Australia. 1992. Milsons Point. NSW. Herein he describes the way Russell_Schweickart (a US astronaut) discovered the reality, benevolence and pertinent nature of "Systems Thinking"
"Floating in space, Rusty discovered the first principles of systems thinking. But he discovered them in a way that few of us ever do- not at a rational or intellectual level, but at a level of direct experience. The earth is an indivisible whole, just as each of us is an indivisble whole. Nature (and that includes us) is not made up of parts within wholes. It is made up of wholes within wholes. All boundaries, national boundaries included, are fundamentally arbitrary. We invent them"and then, ironically, we find ourselves trapped within them.
"He began to involve himself in activities that seemed congruent with his new understandings.
"One that had a special impact was learning about the "Gaia" hypothesis - the theory that the biosphere, all life on earth, is itself a living organism. This idea, which has deep roots in many preindustrial cultures such as Amednican Indian cultures, "struck a deep chord in me,"says Rusty.
"For the first time it gave the scientist in me a way to talk about aspects of my experience in space that I couldn't even articulate myself. I had experienced the earth in a way that I coldn;t even articulate to myself. I had experienced the earth in a wat that I had npo way to descrinbe. I had experienced the ALIVENESS of it - of it all."At the conclusion of the leaderrship workshop, someone asked spontaneously, "rusty, tell us what it was like up there?
"He paused for a long time. When he finally spoke, he said only one thing.
"It was like seeing a baby about to be born".
"Something new is happening. And it has to do with it all - the whole"
I hope this all turns out with legible syntax. It is rather late (or early morning) as I write this. Food for thought none-the-less.. and some new leads.
I love getting the time to share ideas about community with both of my parents. My mother has been working as a professional in social community services and counselling and my father is a well respected town planner. Both have been practicing their respective crafts for over 25 years.
In talking with my father today a discussion began which centered around sustainable community and development evolution, both in the built environment, economy and community. For the first time I realised how closely my personal views about 'progress' had similar values as to those of my father. Little surprise there as I used to constantly raid his library whilst in High School, discovering titles such as "A pattern Language" at the age of 14.
Excitedly, i was able to get some refferences from my father for further reading again today. One is a book by Senge about the use of systems thinking in professional development called "The Fifth Discipline", the other is by a woman named Donella Meadows in an article called Dancing with the System [I highly recommend reading this article] . Both articles seem great introductions to applications of systems thinking... a kind of gestalt view of the interpolation and connective complexity in the world around us.
I find myself drawn to the Systems Thinking method; not to naively try and determine an increadibly complex future or design path or social panacea. But rather to find a more effective, efficient, sustainable and organic practice method.
It will be interesting to see how this ties in to my thoughts and deliberations on the sustainable grass roots methods of sub-cultures and community organisations; both illicit, malevolent, and benevolent.
For a taste of Systems Thinking: here is an excerpt from Senge's book. It hails from Chapter 21 of The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge. entitled "THE INDIVISIBLE WHOLE". Pages 370 and 371. Random House Australia. 1992. Milsons Point. NSW. Herein he describes the way Russell_Schweickart (a US astronaut) discovered the reality, benevolence and pertinent nature of "Systems Thinking"
"Floating in space, Rusty discovered the first principles of systems thinking. But he discovered them in a way that few of us ever do- not at a rational or intellectual level, but at a level of direct experience. The earth is an indivisible whole, just as each of us is an indivisble whole. Nature (and that includes us) is not made up of parts within wholes. It is made up of wholes within wholes. All boundaries, national boundaries included, are fundamentally arbitrary. We invent them"and then, ironically, we find ourselves trapped within them.
"He began to involve himself in activities that seemed congruent with his new understandings.
"One that had a special impact was learning about the "Gaia" hypothesis - the theory that the biosphere, all life on earth, is itself a living organism. This idea, which has deep roots in many preindustrial cultures such as Amednican Indian cultures, "struck a deep chord in me,"says Rusty.
"For the first time it gave the scientist in me a way to talk about aspects of my experience in space that I couldn't even articulate myself. I had experienced the earth in a way that I coldn;t even articulate to myself. I had experienced the earth in a wat that I had npo way to descrinbe. I had experienced the ALIVENESS of it - of it all."At the conclusion of the leaderrship workshop, someone asked spontaneously, "rusty, tell us what it was like up there?
"He paused for a long time. When he finally spoke, he said only one thing.
"It was like seeing a baby about to be born".
"Something new is happening. And it has to do with it all - the whole"
I hope this all turns out with legible syntax. It is rather late (or early morning) as I write this. Food for thought none-the-less.. and some new leads.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Design and Advocacy in Action
[online]
[facebook]
I discovered this through a friend; Adriana Yoto. You may know her from her socio-economic experiments with the "live-in-mall" et alia.
The CUP's activities are a beautiful way of contributing greatly to communities by empowering them with knowledge. Some times I find myself wondering how I can place a beam, or a column or a flashing or a concealed fixing in order to save the world, searching for something that will justify my existance beyond money....and then i realise i am being a post-justified wanker... and every time i just have to settle for having made either a) money, or b) something pretty or c) a powerful or rich person happy... and at the very least... d) complied with legislation.
May it never be only D....
Sometimes instead you just crave to a) give away money... b)remind something pretty that it is falliable... c)annoy the rich and powerful... d) challenge legislation.... yet in a seeming contradiction... e) ... Give unto others a real act of justice.
For now I will just wish you HIS Peace...
[online]
[facebook]
I discovered this through a friend; Adriana Yoto. You may know her from her socio-economic experiments with the "live-in-mall" et alia.
The CUP's activities are a beautiful way of contributing greatly to communities by empowering them with knowledge. Some times I find myself wondering how I can place a beam, or a column or a flashing or a concealed fixing in order to save the world, searching for something that will justify my existance beyond money....and then i realise i am being a post-justified wanker... and every time i just have to settle for having made either a) money, or b) something pretty or c) a powerful or rich person happy... and at the very least... d) complied with legislation.
May it never be only D....
Sometimes instead you just crave to a) give away money... b)remind something pretty that it is falliable... c)annoy the rich and powerful... d) challenge legislation.... yet in a seeming contradiction... e) ... Give unto others a real act of justice.
For now I will just wish you HIS Peace...
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