Tuesday 9 November 2010

_Restoration


Man | tree | structure | observation | scaffold | waiting | tending.

_Building as desire

1. Building [verb] as the performance of a drawing.
0. Drawing as record of trajectory of movement.
-1. Movement as desire.
[Inspired by: McNorton, John, ‘Choreography of Drawing- the consciousness of the body in the space of a drawing’, PhD RCA (2003).


_Choreography as an Aesthetics of Change


CHOREOGRAPHY FOR BLACKBOARDS from Michael Klien on Vimeo.

“Choreography is not to constrain movement into a set pattern, it is to provide a cradle for movement to find its own patterns - over and over again – to prevent a body – whether bound by skin or habits from stagnation and enable lightness, a primal energy and possibilities only to be found once relations start dancing.” 
Michael Klien, Book of Recommendations

_Aesthetics of Transition


...traditional oral forms and practices outlast the advent of writing and even the culture of print...
...hybrid or collaborative forms often emerge during times of media transition.
...contemporary experiments in story-telling are crossing and combining several media, exploiting computer games or web-based environments that offer immersive and interactive experiences that mobilize our familiarity with traditional narrative genres drawn from books, movies and television.
...processes of imitation, self-discovery, remediation and transformation are recurring and inevitable, part of the way in which cultures define and renew themselves. Old media rarely die; their original functions are adapted and absorbed by newer media; and they themselves may mutate into new cultural niches and new purposes: The process of media transition is always a mix of tradition and innovation, always declaring for evolution, not revolution.
We citizens and scholars do well to recognize such continuity principles and to remain skeptical of apocalyptic projections of gloom or glory.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

_Material | Body | Space

Following a series of informal conversations last year, we have formed a collaborative working group between Architecture and Textiles at the RCA.  Through regular cross-disciplinary studio sessions, we hope to create space to explore the overlaps in our interests, possibly working towards a network of site-specific proposals in the New Year.  I am particularly interested in designing situations that encourage us to play more intuitively with our physical environment – very inspired this week by Pleated, Eva’s curtain-swing.









_Time | Framed

What does it mean to design the experience of the present moment?
I was gripped by a seemingly simple Dan Graham video and mirror work at the the MOVE exhibition, at the Hayward Gallery.


















In Dan Graham’s Present Continuous Past[s] [1974] the visitor becomes both performer and spectator simultaneously.  The installation consists of a room containing a two-way mirror, a video camera and a monitor.  The mirror reflects present time, the camera records the mirror’s continuous reflection, and the monitor plays back the recording after an 8-second delay.

‘A person viewing the monitor sees both the image of himself eight seconds ago, and what was reflected on the mirror from the monitor eight seconds ago of himself, which is sixteen seconds in the past … An infinite regress of time continuums within time continuum is created.’ Dan Graham
[Text from MOVE: CHOREOGRAPHING YOU, Hayward Gallery, London]

_ApprenticeRCA | JOIN US

ApprenticeRCA is hosting two community events at our sites in Crouch End and Seven Sisters, North London.  You are welcome to join us, to see the result of a week's focussed design thinking about the land, community, assets and vision for these two vibrant community sites.

05.11.10 | Dark Bonfire
6.30 pm Meet at Crouch Hill entrance to Parkland Walk

06.11.10 | Client Group Presentations
9.30 – 10.30 am Meet at Meadow Orchard, Park Road, N8
11.00 – 12.00 pm Meet in front of Wards Corner, Seven Sisters, N15

_Claimed land | Hornsey Police Station

Thank you to bctv and the newly formed Harold Road Community Garden group, for hosting a wonderful day of guerrilla gardening at the plot by Hornsey Police Station.  Benches were restored, a raised bed constructed, and many plants were donated and planted.  Fruit and vegetable areas were established, with a view to the plot becoming a productive and well-used community resource. [Photo courtesy Tam Neal].

_Incidental Painting


An area of rough new road surface attracts fallen leaves, whilst the smooth old road surface doesn’t.  Simple and seasonal. [Westbourne Park Road, Notting Hill, London, 29 October]

_ApprenticeRCA | JOIN US



















ApprenticeRCA is on Facebook

_Autumn Winter 2010 | Links and Interests



_Passages


...it is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today. Moreover, it may turn out that such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation, so that creativity can be liberated.

David Bohm

_ADM-HEA Creative Learning and Teaching Seminar

Department21 has been asked to speak at the Creative Learning and Teaching Seminar, arranged by ADM-HEA Subject Centre.  Polly Hunter [Design Historian], Yesomi Umolu [curator, On Errantry] and I will be traveling up to the National Glass Centre at the University of Sunderland on 25 and 26 November 2010.  The event aims to provide a forum for all those interested in creative art design and media education to come together and explore the issues and challenges faced by students, practitioners and educators.

_Publication in Networks, Issue 11, October 2010


Letting Go, in 'Department21: A student-led experiment in interdisciplinary learning', in Networks, Issue 11, published by ADM-HEA, October 2010

_REBOOT | envisioning NEW-LEARNING environments


Bianca Elzenbaumer, [Brave New Alps] and I led a workshop with degree students from University of the Arts London, as part of Dreams, a student-run collective exhibition, in Shoreditch Town Hall on 3rd September.  Titled Reboot, the workshop aimed to help students identify opportunities for creating new conditions of interchange, fresh working methods and collaborative communication within their college environment.













http://ourdreamslondon2010.com/blog/?p=253

_D21 Publication

Three texts [Awareness, Letting Go, and Practice] have been published in Department21 publication. Department21, The Book: 132 pages / paperback / 148mm x 105mm / 
ISBN: 1374-1283-23484 / 
June 2010
/ £7.00 / €8.70 incl. postage.






















_Breathing Buildings


As part of Haringey June Sustainability month we hosted Breathing Buildings, a hands-on workshop at Green Lens Studios, Harringay.  Aimed at bringing lateral thinking and creativity to the topic of energy waste, we worked in pairs to create schemes to re-use waste heat produced in our built environment, before combining our ideas into one proposal, which we then attempted to construct.