tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52395645415545157112024-02-08T07:16:20.853-05:00of this we are surebryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-7763621214741005902008-10-16T11:31:00.000-04:002008-10-16T11:32:00.441-04:00Broadsheet Uploaded & A New SiteJust a note that I've <a href="http://www.ofthiswearesure.com/capitol/paper_viewer">posted Shadows & Straws</a>, the broadsheet newspaper I used this blog as a development platform for. You can see it in its entirety via a pan & scan interface thanks to <a href="http://mike.teczno.com/">Mike's handiwork</a>.<br />
<br />
Since this blog was project specific I've moved my regular writing to a new home where you are happy to <a href="http://etc.ofthiswearesure.com/">follow along</a> if you like.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-36086854983222763622008-06-24T04:14:00.001-04:002008-06-24T04:15:14.136-04:00Our Pursuit of Mega Lincoln Continues<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/5a8fbc16ee39ef5d303ba244be329f6b7b989a22_m.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/5a8fbc16ee39ef5d303ba244be329f6b7b989a22_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://ffffound.com/image/5a8fbc16ee39ef5d303ba244be329f6b7b989a22">FFFFOUND!</a>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-57582112344494918642008-06-15T19:12:00.001-04:002008-06-15T19:12:56.467-04:00Bryan's thesis helps me pack.<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/spenceke/2570878677/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2570878677_ac3bc88500.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/spenceke/2570878677/">Bryan's thesis helps me pack.</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/spenceke/">Katie Spence</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> </p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-82144680599304186412008-05-21T22:39:00.001-04:002008-05-21T22:39:33.427-04:00Braw<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcus_e/2500947800/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2170/2500947800_c34c9c9a7e.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcus_e/2500947800/">Braw</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/marcus_e/">--Marcus--</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> This may be relevant.</p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-37770781211476689102008-05-14T05:23:00.000-04:002008-05-14T05:24:18.593-04:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/SCqvvUqLztI/AAAAAAAAALs/jE2Boq0xhPM/s1600-h/50billcollage.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/SCqvvUqLztI/AAAAAAAAALs/jE2Boq0xhPM/s400/50billcollage.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5200161947287015122" border="0" /></a>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-39542611081553713762008-05-12T23:07:00.001-04:002008-05-12T23:08:47.907-04:00Thesis JuryThis Thursday:<br /><br />Diana Agrest &<br />Wes Jones &<br />Joe MacDonald &<br />John McMorrough &<br />Peter Rose &<br />Robert Somol &<br />Sarah Whiting<br /><br />Should be fun.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-13497169965830583952008-05-11T17:07:00.001-04:002008-05-11T17:07:43.784-04:00nyda.1000.001.00106.jpeg<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmograd/2126305675/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2375/2126305675_842159e030.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmograd/2126305675/">nyda.1000.001.00106.jpeg</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/kosmograd/">Kosmograd</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> </p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-38418758625875697842008-05-08T18:01:00.002-04:002008-05-08T18:11:55.594-04:00AB gives presentation advice<blockquote>i woke up one morning with the perfect defense of the triangles<br />and if i can come up with that, you can definitely rock totalitarianism<br /></blockquote>In these last days of thesis preparation your greatest enemy is yourself. The argument that you've carefully crafted all semester and the design moves that are evidence of those ideas become blurry, distant. It's as if time and clarity are mapped as an inverse function that pushes these simple necessities ever further from your grasp until a cocktail of anxiety and adrenaline shoots you forward to that horizon at the last possible minute. As a best case scenario, at least.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-27456357082095034192008-05-08T07:43:00.000-04:002008-05-08T07:43:01.871-04:00Providence in the FAIL of a Sparrow � Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird<a href="http://mike.teczno.com/">Mike Migurski</a> makes a very important, if tangential, comment on one of AG's <a href="http://speedbird.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/providence-in-the-fail-of-a-sparrow/#comments">posts</a>: <blockquote>"Even as I plug jumper wires into my breadboard, I’m aware of how much more powerful and easy it is to do things in software, and how much more reach you get through a web browser. Olinda has physical slots for six “friends” on its hardware social unit - revolutionary for a radio, but a meh replacement for an iChat buddy list that *scrolls*."<br /></blockquote><br />Since software people always look at me as if I've uttered some terrible faux-pas when I reply "it's not that easy" to their questions of why people who build buildings can't just do things the same way as people who build software, I'm saving this quote from one of their own titans.<br /><br />When I try to tell my inquisitors that architecture and information "architecture" are not the same thing, that physicality is a bitch, that 1:1 prototyping with real matter (!) tends to be prohibitively expensive given the way architectural practice is set up their eyes glaze over. Look, I'm as optimistic as anyone else, I love the web, I love software, I've been through those trenches. But if you want to start talking about some serious cross-disciplinary pollination then you better take both sides of that disciplinary divide seriously. When your <span style="font-style: italic;">ubi</span> runs into my building with its boring HVAC, mundane load paths, typical finished floors, plain old foundations, etc etc the transformative powers of <span style="font-style: italic;">comp</span> are bracketed pretty seriously by the realities of the physical world.<br /><br />Lest I come off as being totally reactionary, I should note that the work of people like <a href="http://mystudio.us/">MY Studio</a>, and the thinking of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neb/">Neb</a>, <a href="http://www.activesocialplastic.com/">Molly</a>, <a href="http://speedbird.wordpress.com/">Adam</a>, et al is very exciting and something I look forward to seeing more of. Just please, follow Mike's advice and give both sides of the physical/digital equal weight. For better or for worse, they're both inescapable.<br /><br />* insert standard, obnoxious blog claimer about writing more about this later. After thesis... which is just 8 short days away.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-82746871290787098982008-05-01T01:43:00.001-04:002008-05-01T01:43:10.170-04:00Mighty Morphin' Power Lincoln<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joefxd/2377554863/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2377554863_4650179c8b.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joefxd/2377554863/">Mighty Morphin' Power Lincoln</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/joefxd/">Joe D!</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> </p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-44783356200720534482008-04-14T21:26:00.001-04:002008-04-14T21:26:12.180-04:00Not Mega Enough<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silenceworld/2397547526/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/2397547526_100bebd249.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silenceworld/2397547526/">kill th moonlight</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/silenceworld/">[lígia.matos.ribeiro]</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> These dudes would only go up to Mega Lincoln's thigh.</p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-22888466993790166732008-04-12T08:07:00.002-04:002008-04-12T08:10:51.026-04:00Whiskey is the American Drink<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryan/2406691567/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2344/2406691567_a85bd48bdd.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryan/2406691567/">photo.jpg</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/bryan/">bryanboyer</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"><br /> </p><p class="flickr-yourcomment">This week both Tim D. and Dorf reminded me that I have a blog. This blog. With about 32 days left until my thesis presentation I am, as they say, underwater. Or, perhaps more appropriately, under whiskey. Today I <i>finally</i> received a shipment of illegal* whiskey. One bottle of an old favorite and a bottle of something new that I've never tried before.<br /><br />The Anchor Distillery pretty much had me at hello given that they're from San Francisco and they are committed to producing no-nonsense, stout alcohol. Their Junipero Gin is the juniper-lover's robust alternative to Hendrick's smoothness. Strong and herbal, this is no wallflower's gin. Whether you love or hate this gin will tell you if you actually like gin or if perhaps you should be drinking vodka instead.<br /><br />Having enjoyed Junipero for a couple months, I was absolutely elated to find that the same shop makes a whiskey. <a href="http://www.anchorbrewing.com/about_us/oldpotrero_18th.htm">The Old Potrero</a>, pictured here, clearly comes from the same mind as Junipero: it's one of the stronger whiskies I've enjoyed, with a firey kick that falls into a burnt caramel descent. It's good on ice, it's nice alone, and it's great in an Old Fashioned.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tuthilltown.com/">The Hudson</a> is a new drink for me but first tastings are positive, extremely so. Having these two show up on the same day is appropriate considering that the Hudson is perhaps as different as possible from Old Potrero. Where The latter is strong, even explosive, the Hudson is smooth and thin. It evolves from familiar shades of wood and earth to a surprising, tenuous ringing finish in notes of cherry. Usually I trade amber liquors for clear during the summer months, but with a whiskey like this I may have to revise my plans.<br /><br />As this project comes to a close I am continually reminded that one of the things I set out to do was spend some time thinking about what makes up "american-ness." If there is to be an American Capitol, what makes it so? If there is to be an America that holds at its core some notion of resolved-difference, what are those things which bridge this difference to provide a common ground? The impetus for the project was an essential observation that rather than a resolved-difference we have slipped into a mode of differentiated resolve. The notion of "agreeing to disagree," which seems to be amongst the core of American political values (at least in the longterm sense of the word), is not possible in an environment where deliberation is replaced by defamation or <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/05/sprj.irq.powell.transcript/">deception</a>. The exhaustion resulting from the staking and re-staking of claims that is central to both compromise and an agreement to disagree is absent in a political culture that forsakes rebuttal in favor of unilateral attack. With no effort expended to actually calibrate an ongoing dialog (D v. R, Clinton v. Obama, etc) the various parties at war with one another are able to continually lob new attacks over the wall without suffering setbacks or slowing down. Like launching a cruise missile at some geo-located target, one-sided attacks require none of the apparent effort that actually rebutting an existing assertion entails. These are not battles so much as a strong of isolated strikes.<br /><br />What's an architect to do? Short answer: nothing. This is not our bag, it's a big issue. Long answer: everything. The playing out of politics is intensely spatial, as anyone can tell by looking at the daily reports of the <a href="http://www.mapthecandidates.com/">candidates' positions</a>. But beyond this fashionable catch-all term "spatial," political acts are directly influenced by the buildings that they play out in. The architecture that serves our government (oh, and <i>us</i>) has immense implications in terms of the meta-organization of the groups they house. To trot out a dead horse on this blog, the architecture of the Capitol Building-- yes, its walls, windows, and doors-- directly <a href="http://ofthiswearesure.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-it-is-we-are-doing-here-short.html">contributed to reversing the Constitution</a> and limiting the representative efficacy of our House of Representatives. To test this idea another way, try asking your boss to trade offices with you.<br /><br />What's this architect to do? My (naive) response to these larger political issues and the direct architectural issues that have been my preoccupation over the last 8 months is to think about the contest as a default mode of operation. What does it mean for something to be deliberated upon, to be argued over rather than simply mashed together in a state of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Delirious-New-York-Retroactive-Manifesto/dp/1885254008/">congestion</a>? More specifically, how can basic tasks of judgement about architecture be insisted upon as the price of entry to working on more important political issues? If <a href="http://ofthiswearesure.blogspot.com/2007/11/carpenters-hall.html">the first question of our Congress</a> was whether their meeting chamber was good enough to meet in, I am reinstating and highlighting that question as a fundamental prerequisite for the daily function of the institution.<br /><br />This leads very quickly away from contemporary architectural predilections for generic spaces (shroud in spectacular skins as if they are embarrassed of their monotony) and towards a condition of differentiated interiors. This is an architecture that has winners and losers, that demands to be evaluated before it can be used, that is always adding its spatial metadata to the proceedings it houses. We must insist that however much a building like the Capitol will likely act as an outward symbol of the American nation, this symbolic chain should be able to be followed backwards, down into the building, and transformed into an instrument that may become useful in measuring (and thus judging!) the success and failures of the body that inhabits this shell.<br /><br />To return to the whiskey before I drift off into an early morning nap, it seems especially American of me to have received not only whiskey, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_whiskey">rye</a> and not only a bottle of rye, but two. With this apparent embarrassment of riches comes an essential necessity that Americans have always been addicted to: choice. So pick a side, pour a drink, and get to arguing.<br /><br />* Puritans still run MA, apparently. Another reason to hate on New England.</p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-38361368746104098492008-03-06T02:06:00.006-05:002008-03-06T02:35:59.291-05:00On Data & StandardsMy desk is lodged between two bookshelves so, as you may imagine, the books that are close at hand tend to matter to me a bit more than the ones that stray to the outer limits of the shelf. It's this immediate access that brought to my attention the curious name of a book that I frequently refer to, <b>Neufert Architects' Data.</b> I've preferred it over Architectural Graphic Standards, the more common book here in the US, for some time but was never quite sure why.<br /><p>In its own right this name is interesting for the fact that the architects are plural; this is a book for the use of a discipline. It's not an <i>architect's book</i>, it belongs to the whole lot of them. Can the simple title of a book bind a profession? But it's also revealing to compare this, the European standard for typical dimensions and other fundamentals of building design, to the North American equivalent, <b>Architectural Graphic Standards</b>.<br /></p><p>By name alone<sup>1</sup> it would seem that the two contain vastly different information. While AGS claims an authority on convention, specifically to define the conventions of architectural drawing (and thus the specification of making), Neufert has decidedly more modest goals. Rather than proclaiming weighty standards, Neufert seeks to arm the reader with data, that most essential precondition for forming an opinion. This difference is borne out in the contents as well. Whereas AGS provides tables of standard dimensions, typical drawings for a number of generic conditions, and abstract guidelines, Neufert bookends the abstract and the typical with the microscopic and the built.</p><p>In addition to typical layouts for a dining room (p. 255) you will find seemingly superfluous drawings of four different place setting types and a guide to cutlery, all properly dimensioned. The very rawness, the exact quality that makes it seem extraneous, is what also makes it a powerful resource because it avoids assumptions about the problems its readers are trying to solve. Opposite these minutiae, one also finds examples from built work that serve to demonstrate the application of this data. With great efficiency, Neufert compresses abstract ideals, typical conditions, minutiae, and the messy contingencies of reality all into one volume.</p><p>I guess that's why I favor Neufert. It's a resource in the truest sense: stuffed full of data waiting to be resolved into answers rather than static solutions shopped from its pages.<br /></p><p><small>1. In reality the contents are more similar than the names would imply, save the two notable qualitative exceptions mentioned above.<br /><br />2. On a whim I decided to <a href="http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=72251_0_39_0_C">cross post this to Archinect</a>. My apologies to all 3 people out there who read both this website and Archinect school blogs.<br /></small><br /></p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-12428016260594943152008-03-05T23:12:00.001-05:002008-03-05T23:13:37.332-05:00Duck BillsFrom an otherwise somewhat misplaced lecture, this perfect line by Dave Hickey about the lack of joy in public American architecture:<br /><blockquote>I'd rather pay my parking tickets in the bill of a giant duck.<br /></blockquote>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-36897318992678114602008-03-05T23:07:00.003-05:002008-03-05T23:12:05.139-05:00Deign EnvelopesThis was an <a href="http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i26/26b01401.htm">excellent competition</a> and the entries, just a few shown here, are fascinating.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope7.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope8.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope11.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope16.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://chronicle.com/photos/v54/i26/envelope16.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-14615816660083188342008-02-25T22:12:00.010-05:002008-02-25T23:18:07.090-05:00Of Plates, Ornaments, Nick Nacks, &c.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R8ODkB9njQI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/DBWoqnnOfo0/s1600-h/23mrsdc1.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R8ODkB9njQI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/DBWoqnnOfo0/s400/23mrsdc1.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171121452176870658" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="margin: auto; width: 300px;">"Susan is one of the most talented legislative directors on Capitol Hill and a very hard worker," Wicker said. "Of course, none of us knew she was competing in the pageant, but we were not surprised by <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/nov/23/double-duty/">her success</a>."</div><br />I've been obsessed with the mechanisms through which symbolic buildings become possible- the way that we accept the specific, idiosyncratic details of a particular building into our lives as a thing that is imbued with the iconic power to represent abstract ideas. Why do we let the Capitol stand for American democracy? Why a dome and not a spire, a column, a pyramid?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/us.capitol/ninety.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: left; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 144px;" src="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/us.capitol/ninety.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Propaganda, basically.<br /><br />While Washington, DC was still mostly a mix of forest and swamp and before the Capitol was even completed, maps of the fully developed city were being printed in the major cities of America and Europe replete with views of the Capitol-to-be. These multiplying images of the burgeoning capital & Capitol served to develop a certain understanding of the dome as symbol for the nation. And this was before the much larger, current dome was even built.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R8OQDR9njRI/AAAAAAAAAKY/RpvJA67rycc/s1600-h/capitols.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R8OQDR9njRI/AAAAAAAAAKY/RpvJA67rycc/s400/capitols.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171135183187315986" border="0" /></a><br />The dome is now a ubiquitous image in the United States as it can be found on most of our state capitols. As the second dome ever built in the US (the first was the MA Statehouse) and the first to be of significant scale, the US Capitol became a symbolic stub. Sufficient volume of printed matter depicting the Capitol helped satisfy a cultural need for a representative symbol of the new nation. These flat representations of the Capitol allowed it to ascend from a thing (building) to a representative thing (building that stands for America). But it wasn't until the typology of the US Capitol was replicated in numerous state capitols that its basic form was catapulted from a representative thing into a <span style="font-style: italic;">symbol </span>and thus it gained the ability to survive much more significant physical alterations without losing its symbolic recognition. In other words, the state capitols' participation in wide-building-with-dome-cap-ness promoted their model, the US Capitol, to a sort of prototype status retroactively. This, we must accept, is the power of the image economy.<br /><br />Lessons learned:<br /><br />Step 1: produce as many 2d representations of your building as possible. Step 2: convince other people that your building is actually a prototype that they should copy blatantly. Step 3: world domination.<br /><br /><div style="margin: auto; width: 500px; text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R8OSCh9njSI/AAAAAAAAAKg/Mmmz9-5PIdA/s1600-h/capitolz.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R8OSCh9njSI/AAAAAAAAAKg/Mmmz9-5PIdA/s400/capitolz.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171137369325669666" border="0" /></a><br />Which one is your Capitol?</div>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-56858148593222266322008-02-22T15:03:00.002-05:002008-02-22T15:19:16.960-05:00Latour: What does an Aesthetics of Matters of Concern Look Like?Last night the Barker Center at Harvard hosted a lecture by Bruno Latour entitled Mapping Controversies: A Political Architecture of Knowledge. Previously Latour has fought ardently for the place of objects, things, in our discussions of politics and this lecture is an extension of those thoughts.<br /><br /><blockquote>"If you can, with a straight face, maintain that hitting a nail with and without a hammer, boiling water with and without a kettle, fetching provisions with or without a basket, walking in the street with or without clothes... are exactly the same activities, that the introduction of these mundane implements change 'nothing important' to the realization of tasks, then you are ready to transmigrate to the Far Land of the Social and disappear from this lonely one."<br /></blockquote><br />The discussion last night focused to the tools needed to make the parliament of things more possible. A central part of Latour's argument is that up until very recently we have existed primarily in a world that centers on quantitative <i>matters of fact</i>. Lately, however, facts are becoming more and more contested. The realm of facts is being blurred by matters of concern. In the US this is something that we are all too familiar with in the form of the creationism vs. evolution debates. Evolution was considered a fact until the concerted efforts of religious extremists developed a body of "scientific evidence" contesting its factuality and this issue is now up for grabs, currently the object of heated rhetorical battles. Concerns have worked their way ever deeper into our lives to the point that even the primal act of eating is a matter of concern. Is this beef creating excess methane, is this fish over-fished, is my coffee fair trade? Indeed, coffee is no longer simply coffee and fish are not just fish, the things of our world are now bound into a much longer chain of issues.<br /><br />Latour suggested very eloquently that arguments of facts are simply the "residue of statistics" and the way that those statistics are visualized. Here the designer is called to action. What we do, how we represent the world, shapes the discussions we have about it. So here's the question: if we are used to a world of facts how can we begin to cope with these matters of concern as they become the default? As Latour put it last night, "<b>what does an aesthetics of matters of concern look like?</b>"<br /><br />Michael Hays, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Theory-since-1968-Michael/dp/0262581884/">noted architectural historian</a>, chimed in to suggest that the 20th century was largely an era of collage, both politically and aesthetically. This seems like an apt description: in the palatable pluralism of contemporary politics when we "<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/21/debate.main/">agree to disagree</a>" and always resolve conflicts of interest in a binary way, there are always just winners and losers. But what of contemporary politics and current-day image making? Hayes further suggested zooming, that critical ability of visualizations as diverse as Google Earth, video games, Photoshop, CAD and others, would become the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08games.html">defining factor of our contemporary aesthetics</a>. In a zooming environment you enter into discussions of scale and resolution, highlighting the thresholds between various zoom levels as key sites of decision.<br /><br />Latour claims to be unhappy with smoothness but I think this stems from the fact that smooth zooming is a relatively new phenomena and we are still grappling with its implications. Smoothly zooming between one view of a map and another, I argue, is primarily a user interface shortcut and a way to help link two things cognitively rather than a thing in itself. The zoom levels are the data and the smoothness the metadata.<br /><br />But for this argument to hold water we have to already acknowledge that two different zoom levels of a map are actually two different maps. At every level of zoom a chain of decisions about what to show and what to leave out must be made. The tools that we use to zoom in and out of data, be it maps or CAD drawings or whatever, make specific decisions about what to show and how to depict it at each zoom level because it's not feasible (or productive) to represent all levels of detail all the time. Testing this assertion is simple: what does the street level view of Google Maps do for you? What does the global view do for you? The latter will certainly not help you navigate a vehicular path from A to B and the former will not do a very good job of articulating your position relative to the entire planet.<br /><br />In other words, perhaps the problem is not smooth navigation between states but the lack of statefulness that many smooth interfaces suffer from. In architecture we name these various levels of zoom: urban plan, site plan, floor plan, detail. Although each of those drawings is ostensibly representing the same bundle of ideas, a particular building, they are each the result of very specific decisions about what to show and what to withhold. As a profession architects benefit by being able to teach each other what details are appropriate to a site plan and what may be more appropriate to a floor plan. The discourse of architecture is built upon this kind of basic knowledge and so it's not necessary to explicitly state what has been excluded or included in any particular drawing and why because that comes with your professional understanding.<br /><br />In the public arena, as scale becomes a more and more prevalent way to understand the world, we (the big we) need to do a better job of revealing the metadata with the data. Although metadata is always useful, it's particularly important to articulate this information in a zooming interface because the default appearance is one of full disclosure but in actuality a small portion is being articulated at any one time. One of the benefits of smooth zooming is to help articulate the thresholds between one particular zoom level and another as data fades in and out of the visual field or increases and decreases in resolution with the change of scale. Here the very act of fading, a visual effect, helps call attention to the change of state.<br /><br />Near the end of the discussion Latour claimed for himself the title of Compositionist, which I like quite a lot. He chose this word in contrast to a position of the multiplicity of post-modern hypertext where many and multiple views occupy the same plane. Can there be such a thing as informed relativism? Is it possible to be objective or even mostly objective without tethering oneself to absolutes? Like data selected revealed or hidden at each individual level of zoom, can we use composition as a tool that is neither deterministic or relativist?<br /><br />If we are indeed entering an era of concerns rather than facts we had better hope that resolving our conflicts in a careful, non binary way is possible. We had better hope that the various sides of a conflict may be composed in such a way as to resolve the conflict without simply bludgeoning one side out of the matter by default. It should be exciting for many readers of this blog to note that composition, the primary act of judgment executed by the designer, is gaining new currency outside the realm of points, lines, and planes.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-89633894707832672282008-02-18T21:32:00.003-05:002008-02-18T21:43:35.411-05:00Lulu reads the paper<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R7pA8R9njPI/AAAAAAAAAKI/yZ7KFHDMTdw/s1600-h/lulubill.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R7pA8R9njPI/AAAAAAAAAKI/yZ7KFHDMTdw/s400/lulubill.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168514926719241458" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reebob/2137993950/">Lulu Bodoni Pig</a> knows how a bill becomes a law, yes she does.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-62108275029836027412008-02-14T23:47:00.001-05:002008-02-15T04:43:28.586-05:00What it is we are doing here (short answer: we're redesigning the US Congress)It occurred to me recently that perhaps I owe you an explanation. I've been writing here about various topics ranging from foam to curtain walls to congress and never once stopped to state more explicitly where all of this is leading. I'm currently doing my thesis in architecture which is a two part project. I spent the fall preparing a body of research that would form the underpinnings of the actual design project (a building) that I am designing right now<sup>1</sup>. This blog was a pool of words, ideas, and images that I used to gather up and refine my thoughts in anticipation of producing the dreaded "thesis prep document." Traditionally, the GSD prep document should be as lengthy as possible, contain as many references as possible to post Deleuzian socio-economic mitigation translation fold factors, be chock full of provocative but vague images, and be bound in an elaborate fashion. For bonus points it's recommended that you apply a silver-leafed emboss to the cover. I turned in an <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryan/2227792386/?edited=1">eight page broadsheet newspaper</a>, a format I chose because because of its importance in the early history of this country and the general challenge<sup>2</sup> of designing for press.<br /><br />That document is finished, printed, turned in, and I now have a stack of <strike>500</strike> 450 or so sitting in my apartment (Want one? email me). But the newspaper was the prep, the work I did to set up a problem for myself that I could address this spring, now, as I design my thesis project. Based on some of my <a href="http://ofthiswearesure.blogspot.com/2007/12/take-me-to-your-leader.html">previous posts</a> to this site it may be obvious, but the design project I've chosen for myself is to redesign the US Capitol building.<br /><br />The short version of the pitch is that the Congress is broken, evidenced in recent years by the strident expansion of executive powers by the Bush II administration while the Congress fails to act as any substantial check or balance. That is to say, now matter how much we <a href="http://www.whitehouseredux.org/">dislike the current administration</a>, they're playing by the rules of the game, more or less. The American system of government is set up as a network of loosely defined powers and is designed to force its actors to continually refine, test, and reinforce their relationships to one another while defending their autonomy. When one branch, say the executive, becomes power hungry it's the job of the other branches to restrain them and maintain a Constitutional balance. As a matter of politics this could be argued ad nauseum so we'll simply take it as a given: we're redesigning the US Capitol.<br /><br />In the course of my research I discovered an <a href="http://ofthiswearesure.blogspot.com/2007/11/geometrical-conclusion-of-capitol.html">interesting coincidence</a> in the history of the US House of Representatives. Intended to grow with each uptick of the census and maintain something of a parity with the population, the House of Representatives actually stopped growing in 1911. The date has no significance, but it's interesting to note that 435 is about as many people as can comfortably fit into the chamber of the house as it stands today (the current chamber was first occupied in 1858 with 262 desks). In other words, the House's membership stopped growing because of architecture, not politics. By interfering with the political process of the country, <span style="font-weight: bold;">in 1911 the US Capitol changed from monument to memorial</span>.<br /><br />The real issue is what architectural questions we can address with the Capitol as our vehicle. The primary issue at stake here is how one may develop a sense of monumentality without fixity. Perfect static environments, little capsules of space preserved for future generations, are memorials that purposefully mark a certain moment in time. They are designed to stay that way until eternity (or at least revolution). Monumentality, on the other hand, is a quality that we may seek to bestow upon even a living building. Is Grand Central Station monumental? Was it once? Are airports? What about MOMA? SFMOMA? Answering these questions is especially difficult because <a href="http://ofthiswearesure.blogspot.com/2008/02/from-mass-to-mess.html">constituency has been shattered</a>. What you consider monumental and important may not be so to your neighbor. In 9 Points on Monumentality, largely considered to be the last significant tract on architectural monumentality, Sert, Leger, and Gideon argued that only "periods in which a unifying consciousness and unifying culture" can produce monuments. We can easily say that there's little to unify our difference except difference itself; does this mean that monumentality is an extinct quality or did S&L&G have it wrong?<br /><br />As the preeminent symbol of the US government, the Capitol building provides an excellent opportunity to address the question of architectural monumentality, a subject which has been laying dead under a rock for the past 50 years (Sorry, <a href="http://www.cityofsound.com/">Dan</a>, I don't think too highly of Canberra's parliament bldg from 1988). What qualities does a building have to have to appear on money? How can a building be both monumental and alive, current with the times?<br /><br />My project is addressing these dual issues of the Capitol. The Congress is a space-hungry entity currently consuming some 7 million square feet of surface area spread out across about 10 buildings. Having grown relatively slowly into the behemoth that it is now, this expansion was never planned per se. What gains are to be had by considering the totality of the problem from the point of view of performance? Concurrently, can the Capitol building itself provide a home for this most important branch of government that is satisfyingly monumental while able to grow, even expand, without repeating the mistake of 1911?<br /><br />I'll let you know after May 15th.<br /><br /><small><br /><sup>1</sup> Yup, right now as I type this I am designing.<br /><br /><sup>2</sup> Underestimated that one a weensy bit. I am now pretty decent at copyfitting, however.<br /></small>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-51347988462734038512008-02-14T23:30:00.006-05:002008-02-14T23:36:04.678-05:00From Mass to MessIn 1978 the Claritas corporation introduced a market segmentation index called PRIZM that breaks down the country’s population into a total of now 66 codified character types. These types, given names like “Young Digerati” and “City Roots,” articulate the nation’s population as a collection of target demographics broken down by age, race, purchasing habits, media preferences, and income level all located in spatial concentrations pegged to zip codes.<br /><br />While Claritas was hard at work segmenting the population, credit card companies, consumer products manufacturers, and service industries began teaching consumers on an individual basis to demand customization on an increasingly personal level. From venti-soy-nonfat-double pump lattes to blue iMacs, choice is offered as market option but increasingly mobilized also as part of our individual identity.<br /><br />Whereas the immediate post-WWII market was dominated by relatively few corporations, thanks to the deregulation of key industries the competitive landscape is increasingly dense. Instead of accepting the inward flow of customers, contemporary companies must now actively seek out consumers. In something resembling an autocatalytic loop, the targeting of consumers has slowly allowed individuals to seek increasingly minute commercial differentiation, which eventually demands more refined targeting, which starts the loop all over again.<br /><br />Through this reciprocal mechanism the broad concerns of the population are specialized and compartmentalized, making an understanding of national unity on a basic level more and more difficult. Combined with advanced production capacity and expanded media markets, the PRIZM system has transformed “we the people” into “we the peoples” - no longer will a catchall collector suffice in a nation of consumers that stand divided.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b20000/3b24000/3b24400/3b24427r.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 0px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b20000/3b24000/3b24400/3b24427r.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br/><small style="text-align: center">Photograph by Arthur Mole of 30,000 soldiers standing in formation.</small><br /><br />As the early euphoria of nation building now wears off (after all, Hawaii was added to the union just a generation ago) the unifying power of abstract ideals is being put to the test by a nation of citizens which, from the start, have prided themselves on individuality. While participation in the project of the United States may still hold sway with some people, the definition of this project is slippery, as witnessed most recently by the great divide caused by the current presidency. The personalized consumer attention described above serves to further complicate regional and cultural differences in an already vast country by teaching the individual that choice, not compromise, is the primary act. Rather than receiving the masses which may be differentiated upon closer inspection, a public architecture that is specific to the United States accepts mess: the multiple, conflicted and conflicting citizenry of individuals from which it must seek to coalesce temporary forms of coherence.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-26704680368295396102008-02-14T17:06:00.002-05:002008-02-14T17:09:02.993-05:00Spotted Part 3<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R7S74B9njOI/AAAAAAAAAKA/do3RHnMAfs4/s1600-h/photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_6ur4R88Sm5I/R7S74B9njOI/AAAAAAAAAKA/do3RHnMAfs4/s400/photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166961243774749922" border="0" /></a><br />A small DIY student publication at the GSD called "Hey You" has borrowed some of my thesis research work and a tiny snip of my paper.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-1519939937782978032008-02-10T15:53:00.001-05:002008-02-10T15:53:51.601-05:00Curious, Indeed.<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sevensixfive/2255900970/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2255900970_738c333303.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sevensixfive/2255900970/">Curious</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/sevensixfive/">sevensixfive</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> More pet incidents with the paper, please. I'm still waiting for pictures of Ms. Lulu Bodoni Pig nesting in shredded Shadows & Straws.</p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-48398988831393125912008-02-05T14:55:00.001-05:002008-02-05T14:55:56.570-05:00Spotted<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996612733@N01/2244895108/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/2244895108_b68e6001a1.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996612733@N01/2244895108/">photo.jpg</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/37996612733@N01/">Erika Hall</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> Do you have a pic of the paper in action? send it to me!<br /><br />I'm especially excited to see the copies that Rena and Derek give to their pigs as bedding.</p>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-6883736337398422052008-01-28T20:50:00.000-05:002008-01-28T22:23:40.912-05:00State of the Union Live blogAfter such fun with <a href="http://ofthiswearesure.blogspot.com/2007/11/state-opening-of-parliment.html">the opening of Parliament</a>, how about a little live blog action on the State of the Union too?<br /><br />Where is it: House chamber, which is larger, but I still don't know exactly how many people it seats with the galleries full. Maybe 700?<br /><br />Who is in the room: Members of both houses of congress, the Washington diplomatic core, supreme court, cabinet minus one member (for continuity of gov't), and apparently after 2001 "key members of congressional leadership" are also offsite.<br /><br />An escort committee of some 30-40 people are elected to bring the President into the chamber. Split evenly between house and senate. They should have a theme song and burst through a taught American flag. That would be a great way for Bush to end his term.<br /><br />"Madame speaker, the dean of the diplomatic core!" is announced and then a few people walk in. Unclear what exactly this is.<br /><br />"Madame speaker, the chief justice and the associate justices of the supreme court!"<br /><br />The first lady and the daughters sit in the gallery. Laura is wearing a red pant suit. Whoa.<br /><br />"Madame speaker, the president's cabinet!"<br /><br />I wonder if there are rules about not upstaging the President's dress at an event like this, like the way women are not supposed to wear white to a wedding in case they upstage the bride. It looks like if you're a guy you have to wear a navy or gray suit and if you're a woman your choices are red or white pantsuit.<br /><br />"Madame speaker, the president of the united states!" He's five minutes late.<br /><br />Laura and the Bushettes look happy, a little bored. Nancy Pelosi looks like a rawbawt.<br /><br />Bush sports a cornflower blue tie. Maybe he got the Blue Iris memo?<br /><br />It looks like two rows of chairs have been added at the very front of the room. Condi & Co. are sitting on smaller, less formal chairs.<br /><br />Clapping is totally partisan. Split down the aisle.bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239564541554515711.post-83326350634352535482008-01-24T22:17:00.000-05:002008-01-24T22:18:28.129-05:00Surprising Few, Italy’s Government Collapses - New York Times<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/world/europe/25italy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin">Surprising Few, Italy’s Government Collapses - New York Times</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/25/world/25italy-span-600.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/25/world/25italy-span-600.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>How happy was that copy editor?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/world/europe/25italy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin"></a>bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13553935625407801057noreply@blogger.com