Category Archives: silva rerum

tangled

by andreweason


Tanpit Woods 2, originally uploaded by aesop.

Today is going to be all about setting down some of my ideas into the structures already in place for the progression exam writing I’m doing. There are plenty of ideas and sufficient theoretical framework in the background, even though the more I see of it, the better I would like to delve into it more fully. In particular the theoretical articulation of how studio parctice is a form of research. I’m reading Graeme Sullivan’s book on this just now, which is ever-so-slowly peeling away layers of theoretical grounding: I’m waiting for the chapter where he begins his exposition of the theoretical heuristics that allow the richness of research within artistic practice to be examined critically. As I say, I’d rather know more about my application of this at the moment. Beyond a certain hermeneutic program of interrogating and instigatingmy work through the selfsame questioning matrix that I will be bringing to my case-study data, I’m not too specific about how cog ‘a’ will mesh with gear ‘c’. I suspect it’s something that by definition will work itself out in the hermeneutic process.

Be that as it may, I’m now writing so as to have a locus to edit, to add ideas to. At the moment, I’m conscious of having many different vectors of thought on and around my research interests and in tandem with several interpretations of the web of theoretical and other ‘outside’ references.

The Amber Room

by andreweason

A question on, of all things, University Challenge, last night, was about The Amber Room, the famously lost treasure-room made of gilt-backed amber. It was a present to the Russians from the Prussians, and disappeared following WWII during which it was looted by the invading Germans. Various theories exist claiming that the work does or does not any longer exist.

It seemed to me that it might make a fine starting point for a book. Given my recent reading on hermeneutic analysis and the ways in which hermeneutics approaches objectivity, I thought something examining the history and possible continued existence of an object seemingly ‘lost in time’ (a thing I see in a lot of Stephen Poliakoff‘s films) would be an interesting way of exploring issues of being in an artwork. I propose not to produce something documentary so much as a poetic exploration. This would sit alongside my current projects; the ‘windmill’ project, ‘Whistling Copse’ and the version of ‘The Three Ravens"

Great website

by andreweason

Dino Felluga’s Introductory Guide to Critical Theory does an outstanding job of presenting material on various linked critical disciplines (Gender & Sex, Marxism, Narratology, New Historicism, Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis) and covers lots of ground on many of the most significant figures in the various fields, whilst making explicit links between them. Each field has a taxonomy, and the occurrences of the words therein are all linked back to their explanation.

I’ve yet to see another public-accessible website that does such a good job of expounding these fields, and while it claims to be introductory, I learned a lot in my first couple of visits, which certainly won’t be my last.

David Byrne on Architecture

by andreweason

Link: David Byrne’s Journal

In my opinion there is nothing inherently wrong with tall buildings. A limited number of anything is like genetic diversity; it’s of value to the species as a whole. I can, however, see that these residences are definitely top-down design — there is no room for the evolution and mutation of function, form, use — it’s all planned in advance. The creators all assume the inevitable victory of science, reason and logic over messy instinct, intuition and impulse.

David Byrne is writing about the riots which have been going on in France, and points out part of the problem is that same one that affects doldrum housing projects everywhere. I think the text highlighted above is the heart of his argument, and also the caveat that saves it from being just another blunt critique of Modern architecture: it’s not the architecture that’s the problem, it’s the fact that it’s designed as part of an all-encompassing system. Byrne is critical of architects and city planners who think they can see everything that needs to be seen (I’m sure those people would understandably wring their hands andreply that they never thought they could see everything- they just did their best). At the same time, Byrne opens his piece like this:

A quote from Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961):

“To see complex systems of functional order as order, and not as chaos, takes understanding. The leaves dropping from the trees in autumn, the interior of an airplane engine, the entrails of a dissected rabbit, the city desk of a newspaper, all appear to be chaos if they are seen without comprehension. Once they are understood as systems of order, they actually look different.”

I think that the new understanding that informs his suggestions is of the same order. Aren’t we potentially trying to plan freedom again by trying to contrive solutions like ‘build more heterogenous cities’ , or ‘implement project xyz to integrate immigrant populations’? Not to cast stones on his suggestions though- they seem- at least in the present time, like good ideas. indeed they seem like needs and principles I wouldn’t want to try to run any kind of city without. Isn’t there a risk that making the architectural answer something along the lines of ‘heterogeneity’ is just making the problems and their effects more complex, more heterogenous, and thereby defering and componding their solution? Or, conversely, does it offer a chance to make responses and identities much more fine-grained on the scale of the city, with much smaller solutions happening much more frequently?

                               

Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

by andreweason

Link: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines.

In depth news webzine. This should be worth regular perusal. I never know who the hell to believe about anything anyway. Yesterday I had the radio on whilst having a bath as the story about torture planes was growing. Made me feel like just sinking in and never getting out again. It’s a tough time to try and create a balanced opinion. I just feel like railing against the destruction of values this represents. It’s an old story, I know, and I suppose we know more now than ever about what goes on in the structures of power. (Making it SEEM like we are more systematically deceived than ever. Maybe we are both more informed and more deceived.) Anyway, here’s a forkload more analysis and opinion to heave onto the teetering pile. Good luck.

the garden of eden

by andreweason

Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don’t know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either,or; it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.

From Giovanni’s Room
by James Baldwin

planning saturday

by andreweason

It’s going to be the first Saturday in a while at home for me, and I’m looking forward to a day’s farting around the place. Laundry will get done, tidying will happen, and all within reach of a never-cooling kettle.

I’m also going to treat myself to a job I’ve wanted to do for some time: drawing up my own diagram-guides for my guerilla bookbinding class. I’ve appropriated stuff from all over before, but I’m planning a sort of folksy handlettered booklet feel. I’ll be able to devise it as a booklet in itself, too, which will be satisfying and give my students a nifty way to keep some record of the bedlam that might possibly be referred to. The least I can do after benfitting from other’s work is to offer my own material for others: I’ll post versions for download when I get them finished.

Lindy’s invited me over for dinner on Saturday night, too, which will be cool.

Bristl Flickrmeet

by andreweason

Link: Bristol Flickr Meet

It’s time to have a beer or two and meet some of the other people currently viewing the visual world as a series of photo opportunities. speaking for myself, I’m in a sort of exhausted, post-jaded state where I seem to have taken all the photographs I know how to take. I’m now approaching some sort of other-state where I take the photograph because it wants me to take it, rather than the other way around. I think my recent pictures are unexciting, really, but they exist now, and I’m waiting for one of them to tell me something, so I keep taking them.

Maybe I’ll learn something tonight?