tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3491558305072455182024-03-04T23:58:07.216-08:00New Cities ProjectVision Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06031287871423684528noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-19447654000485011182014-01-01T07:46:00.002-08:002014-01-01T07:48:10.111-08:00Jane Drew: Plain speaking from Croydon to Chandigarh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">The following is an interview with Jane Drew, first published in The Independent on March 7th, 1990. In it Drew discusses Chandigarh and LeCorbusier, her early-career achievements, the wayward path of Modern architecture, and the early-days of the ICA. Her insistent integrity, intelligence and attention to detail is made clear, as well as a continued faith and optimism for the future of planning and architecture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Thanks to Emily Green (<a href="http://chanceofrain.com/about/" target="_blank">Chanceofrain.com</a>) for making the interview available on her website.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSx8RIvOfmdNia54lFEv5PKTPSPayW0eHYd6GIaNuIz1K9-l1v9LhKRpbi2ksrUBEmb_MXeY87sxwK7gy8XagzqiLLqmUxKW2K8CUC7gqgxb_RdB18b1WNKrcka4PgMFG5_ZwAf0HHUck/s1600/jane-drew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSx8RIvOfmdNia54lFEv5PKTPSPayW0eHYd6GIaNuIz1K9-l1v9LhKRpbi2ksrUBEmb_MXeY87sxwK7gy8XagzqiLLqmUxKW2K8CUC7gqgxb_RdB18b1WNKrcka4PgMFG5_ZwAf0HHUck/s320/jane-drew.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><b>Plain speaking from Croydon to Chandigarh</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Jane Drew,
Britain's foremost woman architect, gave a functional style to
kitchens and aircraft factories in the Thirties and Forties. She took
Modern houses to West Africa and helped to build a new city in the
Punjab. Now, at 80, she has turned her attention to problems closer to
home. She talks to Emily Green.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Jane Drew,
now in her eightieth year, is not a well-known figure outside
the architectural profession. Yet she is one of the most important
British architects of this century. She set up the first all-woman
practice on completing her training in the early 1930s, and after a spell
designing kitchens, took Modern architecture out into the British
colonies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">She persuaded
Nehru's Indian government to commission the most radical of all Modern
architects, Le Corbusier, to design the new capital of
Punjab, Chandigarh, for which she designed practical, low-cost housing
working with her architect husband, Maxwell Fry. Fry was one of Britain's
pioneering Modern Movement architects and teamed up with Walter Gropius,
the founder of the Bauhaus school, when he left Nazi Germany as a
refugee. He and Jane Drew were married in 1942. In West Africa she
designed universities, hospitals, housing complexes and dams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Her greatest
legacies in Britain are the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London,and
the Open University, Milton Keynes. The ICA had no more committed
advocate than Miss Drew, who lobbied furiously for it and designed its
premises.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">She now
lives in Cotherstone, County Durham, her attentions divided between
local village issues and what could only appeal to an Attlee-era pioneer:
homelessness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><b>Architectural Association, women and kitchens</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Emily Johns: As a girl, when did you first start thinking about architecture?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Jane Drew:
I lived in the lowest suburb of Croydon. There was a lot of housing done
after the First World War. I got terribly intrigued by the building
works. And I had enough sense to realise that the whole place was the
dreariest surrounding that you could imagine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: How did you become an architect?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: When
I left the Architectural Association in 1934 , I had difficulty
getting into an office. Most of them - I think Max's was one - said they
didn't take women, though they all seemed to have female secretaries. So
when I formed my first practice, Jane B. Drew, founded in 1939 , I tried
to employ all women. In the end I had to employ some men. We thought we
were terribly important. We were doing aircraft factories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: What sort of other war-time work did an all-woman firm get?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: Designing
kitchens. I was doing research for the gas industry. I think
they thought women and kitchens would have an appeal. If you remember,
there were a lot of pre-fabs being put up at that time. There was also
the question of what the aircraft industry would turn its factories to
when peace came.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">I
was horribly thorough with these kitchens. I got statistics about
women's heights and found that the average height of the British woman
had increased, and that the standard counter height should be raised. I
remember going to Poynton Taylor, at the Ministry of Housing, and
pointing out they could make everything complete, include a washing
machine, which nobody had then. He said, "MissDrew, saving women's
labour in the home doesn't help the economy."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><b>LeCorbusier and Chandigarh</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: Did you consider yourself a Modern architect early on?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD:
My great interest in Modernism came when I knew Max. I joined the Mars
Group, which was the English part of the Les Congres Internationaux
d'ArchitectureModerne CIAM; and there of course one met people like Le
Corbusier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: LeCorbusier, unfashionable now, was hugely influential. How did he affect you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD:
I was enormously impressed by his logic and his creative approach. And I
felt he had a great understanding of the principles of town planning -
even though I thought his scheme for Paris was absolutely mad, his Ville
Radieuse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">He made
mistakes; a lot of them. When he did Marseille the 1948-52 housing
block Unite d'Habitation, he put shops in, and actually there wasn't
enough trade. And his idea that the building should be lifted off the
ground so the landscape should be seen right through was a
beautiful one, but all the dust and dirt accumulated. But if you don't
try something out, you don't discover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: You and Maxwell Fry worked with LeCorbusier in India. How did the team come together?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD:
The Indians arrived at our house in Gloucester Place for tea. I hadn't
any idea why they were coming. And they asked whether we would take on
this job of doing the architecture at Chandigarh. They said that Nehru
wanted to do it free of the shackles of the past and to incorporate all
the ideas that we had been fighting for. And it seemed a wonderful
opportunity, but we couldn't both go immediately. To start with, we were
still working on the university of Ibadan, Nigeria. I was doing the
Festival of Britain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Then I
had the idea of saying couldn't Corbusier be brought in? Corb drew up
the plans very quickly, because a lot of work had been done already, and
because he'd been thinking about town planning all his life. Certain
corrections were made by Max. Corb did a straight line grid to start and
Max pointed out that it ought to be slightly curved in an east-west
direction, because of the sun, and because it wasn't leading to any great
vistas. And Corb corrected that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Now, the
whole thing was ideal in a way, because it was on a very gentle
slope, which made drainage possible. The difficulty was water, so we had
to do a very bold thing, which was to dam the river, and get the water
down to the lake,which would then flow down through all the sectors. I
discovered early on in Chandigarh that the murders in the cold season
were all about women and in the hot season they were all about water. I
also had the job of doing the by-laws,which I made visual because a lot
of people couldn't read. To get law and order going is very important.
There had been murders between the Muslims and the Hindus and it was
still going on. The high court had to be dramatic and impressive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">And we
had to give people pride. The secretariat and the assembly -
being magnificent buildings, which they are, and frightfully expensive -
were completely justified, because they had lost their capital, Lahore.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">What Corb
did was to look ahead. The roads could all be doubled in time once
the traffic justified it. And the fast roads were relatively free of
entrances, so that no fast traffic could injure people. Punch came out
with terribly funny cartoons which showed cows walking on our fast roads,
which was roughly true because motoring in India is rather like motoring
in the zoo. Instead of having all these awful notices we have, like 30
mph, which nobody obeys, the small roads were curved so that you couldn't
speed along them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: LeCorbusier did the city centre, the Capitol and the Law Courts. What did you do?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: One
of my jobs was to do the lowest cost housing. We incorporated
services within the structure. The electric lighting for the streets came
off the houses. All the pipes went together. It was very much cheaper.
This combining of services and structure is one of the big economies that
one could make. But you could only make it if those things were under
public control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Where we
had the cheapest housing, we tried to give the most open area, because
they would have very small gardens. And we had managed to give even the
very poorest people two rooms. We did without a lot of things, of course.
We had plain brick inside and we did without doors inside sometimes. We
had latches instead of handles. Much cheaper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ:Have you returned to Chandigarh?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD:
I think it was two years ago - I was horrified to see that all we had
done by way of green belt had been destroyed. And our ideas that they
were not to build on the main road from Chandigarh to Delhi was
completely gone. There were little shanty towns all the way along.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><b>Politicians,princes and planning</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: You saw Nehru as a great visionary. How did our politicians compare?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: None
of our ministers seem to be well-read on planning. The accent now is
on the green business. But it's bad planning which was the cause of most
of the pollution. Today town planning and architecture are one.
Unfortunately we have two separate institutes: one, the Royal Town
Planning Institute, and the other the Royal Institute of British
Architects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ:What do you think of Prince Charles's criticisms?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD:
He treats architecture as if it were theatrical scenery. I think
he's well-intentioned. A lot of what he said I don't dispute, because
there has been no coherent policy at all about where high buildings
should go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">As far
as post-war housing went, there were all sorts of theories. For
instance,that you could get more people near town without long journeys
by building high and putting the amenities with it. What happened was
that they built high, but they didn't put the amenities with it. A lot of
ideas were bastardised by councils cutting costs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: The reaction to post-war housing failures has been to build in past styles.What do you make of this step backwards?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: The
most important ingredient for any architecture - aside from proportion -
is that it has got to give hope for the future. However, moving back
into stereotype gives you a feeling of being respectable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><b>Fostering the future</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ:The ICA was all about the future. How did it happen?.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: The
idea of the ICA was to encourage the avant-garde, and to have
exhibitions of important people's work alongside that of the young
unknowns. Picasso came in; all sorts of people who were affecting art.
There were discussions and meetings. It wasn't a place where people went
to buy things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ: What do you say to young architects today when Modern is a dirty word?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD: I recently attended a workshop for at the winter school in Liverpool. I set a project of designing housing for the homeless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">EJ:What were their solutions?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">JD:All
sorts: low-rise, high-rise, cubicle arrangements . . . all
entirely different. This gives me an awful lot of hope for the young.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-34998827832127383072013-07-24T04:36:00.002-07:002013-07-24T04:36:59.645-07:00The Influence of Fry and Drew Conference Participation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Claire Louise Staunton and James Price will present <a href="http://inheritanceprojects.org/">Inheritance Projects</a> research at the <a href="http://transnationalarchitecturegroup.wordpress.com/2013-conference/">Transnational Architecture Group</a>'s <a href="http://transnationalarchitecturegroup.wordpress.com/2013-conference/">2013 Conference</a> 'The Influence of Fry and Drew'. Convened by Jessica Holland and Iain Jackson, the conference aims are set out as follows:<br />
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"For over fifty years, E. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Fry">Maxwell Fry</a> (1899–1987) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Drew">Jane B. Drew</a> (1911–96) were integral members of the English architectural avant-garde. The Fry and Drew partnership – in its various incarnations – was a magnet for architects and architectural students from all over the world, giving the practice a distinctly international outlook. Their built works, from the 1920s to the 1980s, cross the globe from Europe to South-east Asia.<br />
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This conference seeks to investigate the themes and movements of twentieth century architecture and town planning that have been influenced by the work of Fry and Drew, and vice versa. What is the context of Fry and Drew’s architecture? Is it possible to identify a FryDrew strand of Modernism or a house style? What is their architectural legacy?"<br />
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Claire Louise Staunton will present new research on Chandigarh, developed as part of the New Cities Project, under the working title 'Subverting Modernism through autonomous urbanism'. Alongside this presentation there will be a screening of <a href="http://www.field-studies.co.uk/">James Price</a>' short film <i>Corrections and Omissions </i>(2013) produced during our research trip to India at the end of 2012.<br />
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<a href="http://transnationalarchitecturegroup.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/fd-draft-programme.pdf">A draft programme for the conference is available here</a><br />
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LEGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17250180562282050897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-51145532072758112282013-07-23T03:44:00.001-07:002013-07-23T03:51:37.533-07:00Jane Drew (and IHP) in Harlow <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOM4rnVa7P7k6VEjhbmkYR8YKNbUIjQLYyTJml28I8o68eNBvbEipJb99RjKZ7owkhUJpgcvMhbAEZ0xWApNpLBPYqTygMEf4zs3dOtXQLx3R6uT81sJcBcMMOCx74859alZR3UqA2qacA/s1600/900x720_2049_2380.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOM4rnVa7P7k6VEjhbmkYR8YKNbUIjQLYyTJml28I8o68eNBvbEipJb99RjKZ7owkhUJpgcvMhbAEZ0xWApNpLBPYqTygMEf4zs3dOtXQLx3R6uT81sJcBcMMOCx74859alZR3UqA2qacA/s400/900x720_2049_2380.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le Corbusier, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry in Chandigarh. Image from <a href="http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sysId=13&IrisObjectId=6836&sysLanguage=en-en&itemPos=194&itemCount=300&sysParentId=15">Fondation Le Corbusier.</a></td></tr>
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Continuing research began in Chandigarh late last year, Inheritance Projects headed to Harlow to visit two connecting housing estates designed by Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Drew and Fry, who collaborated on many architectural projects throughout their careers, were instrumental in the development of the Chandigarh. As Charles Correa wrote in a testimonial on the occasion of Drew's 75th birthday: 'if it hadn't been for [Drew], there would not have been Chandigarh. There would have been a city of that name but not the heroic venture - the venture which became a catalyst of such crucial importance to all of us'.<sup>1</sup><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8XyiNCdBRqVsn8-vzIQxu2qENAXN5T8ymakkTlXciTbIJRzfsOPb1P1tZmWfBZyhD18o2f6PT_HSAd0mnwamS_Am7lkgHk51rxLyycZsIlPUFtyTIn3IOjCSmxqyGP2UKR4IM7ygVYjp3/s1600/IMG_6054.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8XyiNCdBRqVsn8-vzIQxu2qENAXN5T8ymakkTlXciTbIJRzfsOPb1P1tZmWfBZyhD18o2f6PT_HSAd0mnwamS_Am7lkgHk51rxLyycZsIlPUFtyTIn3IOjCSmxqyGP2UKR4IM7ygVYjp3/s400/IMG_6054.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inheritance Projects in Harlow: Photograph shows housing by Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Image by James Price.</td></tr>
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<sup>1</sup>Charles Correa in Jane B Drew Architect: A Tribute from Colleagues and Friends for her 75th Birthday 24th March 1986 (Bristol: Bristol Centre for the Advancement of Architecture, 1986).<br />
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LEGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17250180562282050897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-59960342389067025642013-07-02T05:39:00.002-07:002013-07-02T05:39:47.573-07:00Model Town - Lahore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Model Town - Lahore</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1nXemaHcMyZUJcsqr1sr7bSbQBgQ2c-cPaOawGgc4eY2gZUt8AneIqX2R8CKuaZg-fR632zCYHueDNCMsgACsQ43Q4HzSbLcJDBg8NnVWog4_x83lL_mlmK918d_2yzSsyOsjvjx64RHd/s640/lahore+model+town.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1nXemaHcMyZUJcsqr1sr7bSbQBgQ2c-cPaOawGgc4eY2gZUt8AneIqX2R8CKuaZg-fR632zCYHueDNCMsgACsQ43Q4HzSbLcJDBg8NnVWog4_x83lL_mlmK918d_2yzSsyOsjvjx64RHd/s320/lahore+model+town.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Model Town, established in 1921, was the fruition of Dewan Khem Chand’s lifelong dream to see the establishment of a “Garden Town”. Advocate Khem Chand’s unshakeable belief in the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity are the values of cooperation upon which the principles of co-operative societies are founded and also the reason why Model Town was established as and still is a co-operative society (from Wikipedia of course)</div>
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Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-67925192164188757442013-05-22T15:55:00.001-07:002013-06-04T13:36:23.221-07:00Vers Une Architecture: From the Bildungsroman to the Manifesto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYdueiDp83Aq8dP41qtULIiN4hhG9YM32sEW0yGlt8fNM3SlEMU5x39c1dvOyTLhL3zwCGr-KAvdSZYEFHkgr0XSepfqLTG32rVA6TgvZQfA7T3nLHqNGanNpuKL6_czzPDuTO0-5X9s/s1600/fa20110225b1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYdueiDp83Aq8dP41qtULIiN4hhG9YM32sEW0yGlt8fNM3SlEMU5x39c1dvOyTLhL3zwCGr-KAvdSZYEFHkgr0XSepfqLTG32rVA6TgvZQfA7T3nLHqNGanNpuKL6_czzPDuTO0-5X9s/s320/fa20110225b1a.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">A pallid sky,
above the world that ends from decrepitude, will perhaps depart with the
clouds: the tatters of the worn-out purple of sunsets fade in a river sleeping
to the horizon submerged in rays and water. The trees are bored and, under
their whited leaves (from the dust of time rather than of roadways), rises the
canvas house of the Showman of Things Past.</span></span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">So begin<span style="font-size: small;">s Ste<span style="font-size: small;">phane Mallar<span style="font-size: small;">mé's prose poem <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>The Future Phenomenon', where </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">crowds have gathered in this post-apocalyptic scene</span>, </span></span></span></span></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">confronted with some anonymous
female figure of the past:</span>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;">When
all have contemplated the noble creature, vestige of some epoch already
accursed, some indifferent, for they have not had the strength to comprehend,
but others broken and their eyelids moist with resigned tears will look at each
other; while the poets of those times, feeling rekindled, their extinguished
eyes, will head for their lamp, their brains drunk a moment with a confused
glory, haunted <span style="font-size: small;">by</span> a <span style="font-size: small;">r</span>hythm and in forgetfulness of existing in an epoch that
survives beauty.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This<span style="font-size: small;"> pro<span style="font-size: small;">se poem</span>, according <span style="font-size: small;">to the renowned Le Corbu<span style="font-size: small;">sier scholar Jean<span style="font-size: small;">-Louis C<span style="font-size: small;">ohen</span></span>, <span style="font-size: small;">was the inspiration for<span style="font-size: small;"> one</span> of the more oblique references in the Swiss art<span style="font-size: small;">ist/ architect<span style="font-size: small;">'s iconic publication<span style="font-size: small;"> <i>Vers Une Architecture</i> <span style="font-size: small;">– </span>a <span style="font-size: small;">title <span style="font-size: small;">t</span>hat would later be trans<span style="font-size: small;">lated, to <span style="font-size: small;">the</span> detriment <span style="font-size: small;">of the ori<span style="font-size: small;">ginal, as <i>Towards a N</i><span style="font-size: small;"><i>ew Architecture</i><span style="font-size: small;"> (</span>An earlier<span style="font-size: small;"> title that Le Corbusier<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> later<span style="font-size: small;"> rejected,</span></span></span> was</span> <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>Architecture <span style="font-size: small;">o</span>r Revolution<span style="font-size: small;">'</span>).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">In a lecture given at the Getty Rese<span style="font-size: small;">arch I<span style="font-size: small;">nstitute <span style="font-size: small;">in 2008<span style="font-size: small;"> (entitled 'Vers Une Architecture: From the Bildungsroman to the Manifesto')</span> </span></span></span>Cohen<span style="font-size: small;"> explain<span style="font-size: small;">s how the <span style="font-size: small;">motif </span>of the a<span style="font-size: small;">ero</span>plane, that appears <span style="font-size: small;">in</span> the book with the mysterious ca<span style="font-size: small;">pt<span style="font-size: small;">ion <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>Eyes t<span style="font-size: small;">hat <span style="font-size: small;">d</span>o not see<span style="font-size: small;">...air</span>planes<span style="font-size: small;">'</span>, w<span style="font-size: small;">as inspired by Mallarm<span style="font-size: small;">é's prose poem, and</span> seems to grasp at the sensation of an old world be<span style="font-size: small;">ing confronted with the new. <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">T</span>his would <span style="font-size: small;">seem to be an inverse of <span style="font-size: small;">Mallarmé's prose poe<span style="font-size: small;">m, where the sig<span style="font-size: small;">hting o<span style="font-size: small;">f <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>things past<span style="font-size: small;">'</span> enduces a drunkenness of <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>confused glory<span style="font-size: small;">'</span> in the poets of <span style="font-size: small;">from</span> a time that has seem<span style="font-size: small;">ingly </span>outli<span style="font-size: small;">ved beauty. <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">What </span>Le Corbuiser is in fact celebrating here is the r<span style="font-size: small;">ole of the engineer, as <span style="font-size: small;">designer and artist<span style="font-size: small;">.<span style="font-size: small;"> Perhaps the Mallarm<span style="font-size: small;">é quote also <span style="font-size: small;">reflects the <span style="font-size: small;">writer's own feelings at the ti<span style="font-size: small;">me, </span>whilst studying the buildings of ancient Rome. <span style="font-size: small;">Did he too feel like he was looking back<span style="font-size: small;"> at th<span style="font-size: small;">e past </span>from a distant present; from a <span style="font-size: small;">time that had outlived b<span style="font-size: small;">eau<span style="font-size: small;">t</span></span>y?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Vers Une Arc</i><span style="font-size: small;"><i>hitecture</i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>was an op<span style="font-size: small;">portunity <span style="font-size: small;">for Le Corbusier to legitimate his<span style="font-size: small;"> own position as aspiring archite<span style="font-size: small;">c</span>t by grounding his thoughts in historical narrative. To understand what architecture is, he believed, one<span style="font-size: small;"> mu<span style="font-size: small;">s</span>t learn from the l<span style="font-size: small;">essons of Rome (<span style="font-size: small;">the young Le Corbusier's i<span style="font-size: small;">dentification with Michelan<span style="font-size: small;">gelo was profound).<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>All these details and much more a<span style="font-size: small;">re discussed by Jean<span style="font-size: small;">-L<span style="font-size: small;">ouis Cohen in this lecture.<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>P<span style="font-size: small;">erhaps most inter<span style="font-size: small;">esting <span style="font-size: small;">and impressive</span> is Cohen's description <span style="font-size: small;">of <i>Vers </i><span style="font-size: small;"><i>un</i><span style="font-size: small;"><i>e Architecture</i> as a 'complex printed object'<span style="font-size: small;">, and his page-by-page explanation of Le C<span style="font-size: small;">orbusier's visual and r<span style="font-size: small;">hetorical strategies; his choice of images, his manipulation of them (<span style="font-size: small;">using </span>pro<span style="font-size: small;">to Photoshop techniques), and his sophis<span style="font-size: small;">ticated understanding of page l<span style="font-size: small;">ayouts to commuicate ideas. <i>V<span style="font-size: small;">ers une Archi<span style="font-size: small;">tecture </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">i<span style="font-size: small;">s <span style="font-size: small;">a fine example of what Paul Va<span style="font-size: small;">lery<span style="font-size: small;"> referred to in</span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="st"><i>Le Physique</i> <i>du</i> <i>livre<span style="font-size: small;">.</span></i> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another prolif<span style="font-size: small;">ic commentator on Le Corbusier<span style="font-size: small;">, Charles Correa (<span style="font-size: small;">who I will return to in a<span style="font-size: small;"> later</span> post) has reflected on the architect's legacy, particu<span style="font-size: small;">larly in India</span><span style="font-size: small;">. <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>Especially in his buildings in I<span style="font-size: small;">ndia<span style="font-size: small;">'</span>, writes Correa, <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>C<span style="font-size: small;">orb has become more <span style="font-size: small;">an<span style="font-size: small;">d more absorbed in his visual language; and however masterful this l<span style="font-size: small;">anguage may become, <span style="font-size: small;">it is still only on<span style="font-size: small;">e aspect of any <span style="font-size: small;">great architecture.<span style="font-size: small;">'</span> A<span style="font-size: small;">f<span style="font-size: small;">ter referring to the Secretariat in Chandigarh as <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>a magnificent </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;">f</span>açade, like a stage set,<span style="font-size: small;">'</span> <span style="font-size: small;">Correa</span> asks, <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>Did not the earlier Corb promise something less skin-deep, <span style="font-size: small;">something more conceptual?<span style="font-size: small;">'</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cohen's presentation <span style="font-size: small;">at the Getty Institute (itself a summary of his introduction to the new 2007 translation published by Getty, w<span style="font-size: small;">ith the <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>New<span style="font-size: small;">'</span> erased from the title</span>) <span style="font-size: small;">reveals how<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>C<span style="font-size: small;">orb<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">' wa</span>s <span style="font-size: small;">in fact a<span style="font-size: small;">bsor<span style="font-size: small;">bed in the formulation of his own visual <span style="font-size: small;">lang<span style="font-size: small;">uage <span style="font-size: small;">even in these early formative years of his career. <i>Vers </i><span style="font-size: small;"><i>une Architecture</i> is, Cohen explains, e<span style="font-size: small;">ven<span style="font-size: small;"> something of a ru<span style="font-size: small;">mination on his insecurities and failures as an architect and businessman <span style="font-size: small;">up until this point. The publication of th<span style="font-size: small;">is collection of essays would change Le Corbusier's circumstances dramatically<span style="font-size: small;">;</span> in effect <span style="font-size: small;">it would prove to be</span> a u<span style="font-size: small;">nique marketing tool<span style="font-size: small;"> fo<span style="font-size: small;">r him.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cohen con<span style="font-size: small;">c</span>ludes with some comments on the book's legacy and the <span style="font-size: small;">problems of translation. He refers to Edwin Lu<span style="font-size: small;">tyen's response to <i><span style="font-size: small;">Towards a New Architecture</span></i> (another <span style="font-size: small;">European ar<span style="font-size: small;">chitect prolific in India's cities, having been responsible for the development of New Delhi). In <span style="font-size: small;">w</span>hat was published as <span style="font-size: small;">'The Robotism of Architect<span style="font-size: small;">ure<span style="font-size: small;">'</span>, Lutyens remarks that the buildings seemin<span style="font-size: small;">gly </span>promised by Le Corbusier here can<span style="font-size: small;"> only be made for <span style="font-size: small;">robots<span style="font-size: small;">: '</span>robots without eyes <span style="font-size: small;">– for eyes that have no vision <span style="font-size: small;">cannot be educated to see.<span style="font-size: small;">'</span></span></span></span> </span>Cohen chalks this scathing review up to the <span style="font-size: small;">English trans<span style="font-size: small;">lation, which was a <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">'</span>complete betrayal of Le Corbusier's intent<span style="font-size: small;">ions<span style="font-size: small;">.' But Lutyen's remarks seem to <span style="font-size: small;">be also pu<span style="font-size: small;">nning on Le Corbus<span style="font-size: small;">ier's description in the book (after Mallarmé) of <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">'</span>eyes that do not see ... airpla<span style="font-size: small;">nes'</span>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">There appear to be t<span style="font-size: small;">wo arguments: o</span>n the one hand<span style="font-size: small;"> (with Lutyens) <span style="font-size: small;">the new architecture has<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">lumbered us with</span></span></span> eyes that have no vision, whereas <span style="font-size: small;">on the other (Le Corbusier)<span style="font-size: small;"> our</span> eyes<span style="font-size: small;"> are simply <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>not yet able to discern<span style="font-size: small;">'</span> th<span style="font-size: small;">e <span style="font-size: small;">style of an era as such that is so fixed in the <span style="font-size: small;">present moment.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> 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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-21164933785635704542013-04-15T12:24:00.001-07:002013-05-21T15:20:29.716-07:00New Old Town<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
During World War II, German forces razed more than 80% of Warsaw. After Soviet troops took over, much of the city was rebuilt. The Soviets built apartment blocks; this was communist ideology in architectural form. Roman Mars' <i>99% Invisible</i>, a unique podcast dedicated to design, recently presented <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/post/42381553110/episode-72-new-old-town" target="_blank">this feature on the New Old Town in Warsaw. </a>In it <a href="http://amydrozdowska.com/" target="_blank">Amy Drozdowska</a> and <a href="http://d-mcg.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Dave McGuire</a>, speak with Warsaw-born anthropologist <a href="https://twitter.com/murawski_michal" target="_blank">Michał Murawski</a> about Warsaw’s complicated post-war history. They explain how the New Old Town in Warsaw is a replica; a carefully constructed re-imagining of what the city was. It is believed that Stalin thought a new, communist Poland would be more easily achieved if the former capital city was completely obliterated. What's more the<i> idea</i> of the Old Town was to be more valuable to the new Soviet powers than the former town itself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtxijbdIox7hSD_uCVie8hW03WDL02gUJ05-CCt9Z-69inskl6HdSXXL_0udnv74196t6lXU83sH5t_dPO3CsGGrulbY2Hd5GGSg0af27UBXbVfnouREKiJJ7ykPVAsXR2ZH0FVriA6IY/s1600/oldtown-650_zps9be8b8e6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtxijbdIox7hSD_uCVie8hW03WDL02gUJ05-CCt9Z-69inskl6HdSXXL_0udnv74196t6lXU83sH5t_dPO3CsGGrulbY2Hd5GGSg0af27UBXbVfnouREKiJJ7ykPVAsXR2ZH0FVriA6IY/s320/oldtown-650_zps9be8b8e6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The New Old Town is in effect a facade, a stage-set intended to create a certain ideological atmosphere. This was built by Stalin's forces to mask the reality that Poland was being taken over by foreign powers, and to ward off public nostalgia for a pre-Communist Poland, by manipulating the public into believing that they have not lost their past, their traditions, their former identities (not just through architecture but "history paintings"—the major
inspiration for the rebuilding of the city were the paintings
of an 18th Century Italian artist named Bernardo Bellotto). In doing this the new powers gave the impression that they had respect for the "old" ways of life.<br />
<br />
Nostalgia has been considered a melancholy disease that produces erroneous representations of something that is lost (see Svetlana Boym's <i>The Future of Nostalgia</i>). In this case, the old town needed to be rebuilt, in order to be forgotten. If not, the public might long for what they were missing (or at least what they thought they were missing) and therefore make enemies of the new communist powers that brought in the new buildings and ideologies.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-57182910109749617462013-01-25T05:44:00.001-08:002013-01-25T05:46:33.641-08:00Le Corbusier's Peace Hand Drawings, Chandigarh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://visionforummiltonkeynes.blogspot.fr/2012/07/open-hand.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoA92Z32b27NRoK-UUbeM2rFl_K0fvezZWlwaGWCXZw5xMxymlAWDgMsywlDcc_GSTpjFrH4xnK6PwKTo0t8OQ-xpjr9gpZD9rDZVQlobE4bp5-th5l-G7zn9bYILDj9X3mensHxGuC5E/s320/397427_472592446137959_508561837_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://visionforummiltonkeynes.blogspot.fr/2012/07/open-hand.html" target="_blank">The Peace Hand in Chandigarh</a> was based on drawings and observations that Le Corbusier made of his own hand. This drawing hangs in the architect's old office building in the city. The building is now a museum for his contribution to the conception of Chandigarh. After many years of being out of bounds to the public, the Peace Hand is now accessible to all who visit, passing the sandbags and armed guards on their way.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzs0cV8p1hDXNYPDVc3ozIvYLxOUI8vQLSNI7gCfPaGKyxzGt2r6Stmsa4zKXONYVy_CGZ6WGkj4ct7vwbOrO4JqNjk-o1aZZildbNAHVteZjJvcENdnlLQ15BN5R5mqr-aEO7R4lqRM/s1600/406122_10151181736710423_1517936863_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzs0cV8p1hDXNYPDVc3ozIvYLxOUI8vQLSNI7gCfPaGKyxzGt2r6Stmsa4zKXONYVy_CGZ6WGkj4ct7vwbOrO4JqNjk-o1aZZildbNAHVteZjJvcENdnlLQ15BN5R5mqr-aEO7R4lqRM/s320/406122_10151181736710423_1517936863_n.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Upon our visit the 'contemplation pit' was starkly empty, and the hand, as ever, towered over it, swaying in the breeze. We stayed for a while, talked, sat and experimented with the acoustics in the pit that had been designed for public discussion and debate. Throughout this the hand still felt a rather imposing presence. What was this hand presiding over?<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-18129607630670224442012-09-04T05:40:00.002-07:002012-09-04T05:44:33.563-07:00Space for Engagement: The Indian Artplace and a Habitational Approach to Architecture by Himanshu Burte<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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'Adorno said that architecture worthy of human beings thinks better of them than they actually are. For far too long, in modern India, our place-makers have tended to think worse of us than we are.'<br />
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'Values that have emerged in one place and situation. . .
may be translated in toto to another very different situation—say
Chandigarh—in ways at odds with local cultures of habitation.'<br />
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<b>On the Capitol Complex, Chandigarh: </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqwu3rofJ0Cq1hBwBBow04i_FtP0Er86doCl2yN3VihPyvTq2R6BJs9vvtbIE-oysfKltJ7mrXVNUbII9u6ddQNiLEt6JS-dJV6GyEKD45QlHxDHCkYRQi9q5GCFrDkeAEEh2ETBzJCI/s1600/13377_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqwu3rofJ0Cq1hBwBBow04i_FtP0Er86doCl2yN3VihPyvTq2R6BJs9vvtbIE-oysfKltJ7mrXVNUbII9u6ddQNiLEt6JS-dJV6GyEKD45QlHxDHCkYRQi9q5GCFrDkeAEEh2ETBzJCI/s320/13377_l.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
'Scale and emptiness can sometimes suppress the bonds that join us, and having weakened that solidarity, render each more vulnerable to those seen to be in control of that space. . . exaggerated scale constantly invokes an exalted conception of 'freedom' even as it denies any foothold for habitation. Ironically then, instead of exhilaration in this monument to spaciousness, the dweller realizes the impotence of his/ her own humanity faced with the majesty of the space itself. . . The architect glories. poetically, in the tragic irrelevance of the individual to the larger order of the universe.'<br />
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<b>On Habitational Poetics (After Gaston Bachelard):</b><br />
'To dwell successfully in a place is often to be able to forget it and inhabit instead the feelings, possibilities and actions that the space enables . . . Habitational poetics [is the] possibility of being distracted away from the autonomous qualities of architecture. . . It is impossible to be part of the everyday life of a space as well as concentrate exclusively on its intrinsic qualities. . . Through the gaps of perception, memory and habit falls the unique qualities of our habitats.'<br />
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— Himanshu Burte is an architect and writer, based in Goa, presently engaged in promoting a critique of present-day architecture
in India by means of constructing a domain of public opinion concerned
with public space in the country's cities. Offering a critique of contemporary architectural and institutional
approaches to 'place-making', <i>Space for Engagement</i> (Seagull Books, 2008) proposes an alternative
approach to thinking about architecture, centred on our experience of
inhabiting spaces, inspired by Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-5120893706823944612012-07-26T11:13:00.002-07:002012-07-26T11:14:07.116-07:00The Secret City<style>
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In 1958 a government official employed by the
Public Works Department as a roads inspector, began construction on what is now
known as the Rock Garden of Chandigarh. Over the course of fourteen years Nek
Chand Saini (b. 1924) gathered stones, scrap metal, bicycle parts, tires,
tissue, glass, ceramic and wire, to realise a small kingdom populated by
pottery elephants, horses, monkeys, gods, goddesses and thousands of human
figures. Located in a publically owned forest reserve and structured around a
series of bridges, gorges, passageways, courtyards, streams and waterfalls, the
vast garden remained undiscovered until 1972. </div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;"> Figures in Nek Chand's Rock Garden. Image: Carol Mitchell</span></div>
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The Rock Garden was constructed in the shadow
of and in tandem with Le Corbusier’s modernist new town: Chand collected recyclables
and discarded material from villages demolished to make way for the city, he
chose a site designated a land conservatory for the new capital and even
convinced government employed workers to labour on his parallel building site.
Designated a ‘garden’, it is arguably also a differently imagined city.
Constructed from the detritus of former habitations, labyrinthine in form and
crammed with brightly coloured constructions, Chand’s hidden world exists in
stark and seemingly diametric opposition to the aesthetic ideals explicit in
the architecture of Chandigarh. </div>
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More illuminating perhaps is to consider the
possible contact points between these two architectural projects: one carried
out the public eye and marking an attempt to realise a particular vision of
India’s future, the other undertaken in secret but similarly guided by a desire
to in some way reflect the identity of a newly-partitioned nation. </div>
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Elsa Richardson</div>
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Further reading: </div>
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<a href="http://www.liv.ac.uk/lsa/research/iwrc/nek_chand/index.htm%20">Nek Chand's Rock Garden: Collection, Ruin, Theatre </a></div>
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<a href="http://www.nekchand.com/about-nek-chand-2">Nek Chand Foundation </a></div>LEGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17250180562282050897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-85492612003520451662012-07-16T10:36:00.001-07:002012-07-16T10:36:44.468-07:00The Front of a Department Store<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWMaQiTDy2nzIy4NDLZIRqZg0et5dP4Zz3VikSqT6qfabEVl1NGoN24Qtqr2loFEE8x0XdgGc6ItYl02opDHj7HD6GrGMZOL-rRHKJA0zG-vg4ugyWts4rJsCYgCARcTznflrnGl1wn4/s1600/1905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWMaQiTDy2nzIy4NDLZIRqZg0et5dP4Zz3VikSqT6qfabEVl1NGoN24Qtqr2loFEE8x0XdgGc6ItYl02opDHj7HD6GrGMZOL-rRHKJA0zG-vg4ugyWts4rJsCYgCARcTznflrnGl1wn4/s400/1905.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Warenhaus Tietz 1905</div>
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Warenhaus Tietz 1933</div>
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Kaufhaus Hertie 1934</div>
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Kaufhaus Hertie 1941</div>
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Kaufhaus Hertie 1945</div>
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HO Centrum-Warenhaus 1970</div>
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HO Centrum-Warenhaus 1989</div>
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Galeria Kaufhof 1990</div>
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Galeria Kaufhof 2005</div>
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Galeria Kaufhof 2007</div>
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<br />James Pricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761983311643004657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-39393697232984048762012-07-16T07:39:00.000-07:002012-07-16T07:48:22.413-07:00Dreams of Presidents: 1. The Atlantic Dubai<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Take the R30 road west from Kébémer, Senegal, and some 25 miles of scrub and desert later you reach the atlantic coast and the tiny village of Lampoul. In 2007 the President, Abdoulaye Wade, born in the area when it was still part of colonial French Sudan, announced his vision of a new capital to be placed in this wild spot - a "Dubai on the Atlantic".</div>
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By 2010 the Government was to be transferred to the new city - by 2015 the population would be 2 million. Minister Ahmed Niasse spoke proudly that "We think this new Dubai can be more attractive than the Dubai in the Gulf," basing his hopes on a Paul Romer style tax free model.</div>
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The idea had some rationale to it. The existing capital, Dakar, has its growth strangled due to its position on a peninsular, and there are other recent West African precedents. The city had a price tag of $30 billion and memorandums of understanding were signed with Dubai World, the state owned Emirati company that grew a city from nothing once before. Wade was notorious for spending huge sums on "prestige projects". Work began making a hill for Wade's conception of an "African Renaissance Monument" in 2006. To be built by a North Korean construction company, when completed it would be the tallest statue in Africa.</div>
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After that the internet goes silent, as remain the dunes of Lampoul. There's no word of what scuppered the deal. In 2008, of course, the global economic crisis struck - a year later Dubai World asked creditors for a six-month ‘standstill’ on its debt repayments, which has since extended to 9 years. Add to that the fact that Sudan never had the oil capital that the Emirati's expansion was based upon and it hardly seems surprising the plan came to nothing.</div>
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Wade lost power in March 2012. He was praised by Hilary Clinton for accepting the result magnanimously. The new President's birthplace is to the south of Dakar, far from the small fishing village that was to become a global city. However, at least Wade got his statue.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span>James Pricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761983311643004657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-85548610446379824582012-07-13T09:33:00.000-07:002012-07-13T09:33:01.113-07:00Yodaville: The Fake City In The Arizona Desert<br />
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Yodaville is a fake city in the Arizona desert used for bombing runs by the U.S. Air Force. Writing for <a href="http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/Welcome-to-Yodaville.html"><i>Air & Space Magazine</i></a>
back in 2009, Ed Darack wrote that, while tagging along on a training
mission, he noticed "a small town in the distance—which, as we got
closer, proved to have some pretty big buildings, some of them four
stories high." <br />
<blockquote>
As towns go, this one is relatively new,
having sprung up in 1999. But nobody lives there. And the buildings are
all made of stacked shipping containers. Formally known as Urban Target
Complex (R-2301-West), the Marines know it as “Yodaville” (named after
the call sign of Major Floyd Usry, who first envisioned the complex).</blockquote>
As
one instructor tells Darack, "The urban layout is actually very similar
to the terrain in many villages in Iraq and Afghanistan."<br />
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Read more: <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/urban-target-complex-national-monument.html%20">BLDBLG</a><br />Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-32121070167987334742012-07-13T07:00:00.001-07:002012-07-13T07:00:49.047-07:00I found one!<br />
<span class="b_text"> </span><img src="http://www.sternberg-press.com/files/book/258/cybermohalla_cover_364.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(85, 85, 85);" /><br />
<span class="b_titlea">Nikolaus Hirsch, Shveta Sarda (Eds.)</span><span class="b_titleb">Cybermohalla Hub</span><br /><br /><span class="b_meta">Contributions
by Can Altay, Cybermohalla Ensemble, Rana Dasgupta, Hu Fang, Naeem
Mohaiemen, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jacques Rancière, Raqs Media Collective,
Superflex, et al.</span><br /><br /><span class="b_text">The Cybermohalla project takes on the meaning of the Hindi word <i>mohalla</i>
(neighborhood) in its sense of alleys and corners, relatedness and
concreteness, as a means for talking about one’s “place” in the city.
Initiated by the Delhi-based research institute Sarai/CSDS and Ankur,
Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller developed a project that involves
approximately seventy young practitioners, the Cybermohalla Ensemble,
who engage with their urban contexts through various media. Cybermohalla
Hub, a hybrid of studio, school, archive, community center, library,
and gallery is a structure that moves between Delhi and diverse art
contexts including Manifesta 7 and, most recently, the Louisiana Museum
of Modern Art in Denmark. <br /><br />The Cybermohalla experiment has been
engaged in rethinking urban life, and reimagining and reanimating the
infrastructure of cultural and intellectual life in contemporary cities.
The book not only documents the architecture of the project, which
functions as an attempt to “build knowledge,” but also publishes
insights that have emerged from the project as a whole.</span><br />Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-57025836040758300722012-07-04T08:15:00.000-07:002012-07-04T08:15:43.383-07:00The Open HandText to follow...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />LEGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17250180562282050897noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-41904331517836795402012-06-25T22:00:00.001-07:002012-06-25T22:10:22.220-07:00Witnesses in Stone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
'Every structure left to us by history expresses the spirit of it's builder.<br />
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<i><span style="color: black;">Brutaliat in Stein: Die Ewigkeit von Gestern (1960) [Brutality in Stone: Yesterday Goes on for Ever] </span>is
an experimental film by Alexander Kluge (b.1932). It depicts the abandoned Nazi architecture, strikingly void of human life and disturbingly illustrates the utilization of inhuman and super-human scale that attempted to bolster the political regime of the same. Shots of huge neo-classical architectural
structures from the Nazi period are confronted with equally anti-human
national-socialist language as a voice-over. Kluge intersperses the film
footage from the early 1960s with various
images dating from 1933 to 1945, including photographs of Adolf Hitler
drawing building plans, his personal sketches, and drawings of
reconceived German cities.</i><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=islUtYwOOx8&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=islUtYwOOx8&feature=player_embedded</a>'<i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><i><br /></i><br />
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<i><br /><br />Alexander Kluge is a German filmmaker and author, published in English by Seagull Books.</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-49558108170922467372012-06-23T02:12:00.002-07:002012-06-23T02:14:02.890-07:00My Body Lying in the Heather<i>One night when I had tasted bitterness in my mouth I went out on to the hill. Dark heather checked my feet…Two lights for guidance. First our little glowing atom of community, with all that it signifies. The second, the cold light of the stars, symbol of the hypercosmical reality, with its crystal ecstasy.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Duncan Marquiss, <i>Midday</i>, 2011. Courtesy of the artist. </span></div>
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Olaf Stapledon’s science fiction novel <i>Star Maker</i> (1937) begins with the mysterious freeing of the unnamed protagonist’s consciousness from the confines of his body. Newly unencumbered, our narrator departs suburbia for distant solar systems, sprawling galaxies and alien civilisations. As he journeys the narrator’s psyche is revealed as an endlessly malleable entity, dividing and expanding, merging with individual and group minds to eventually play its minute role in forming a vast cosmical consciousness. In this remarkable work Stapleton recounts the history of the universe as seen through the prism of an individual mind.<br />
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In the year 2000 a stone circle was erected in Milton Keynes. Titled ‘The Circle of Hearts Medicine Wheel’, it consists of two concentric circles of stones with longer stones positioned at each compass point. Situated on the energy line said to run through Midsummer Boulevard in the centre of Milton Keynes, this modern Neolithic structure accesses Pagan traditions and pre-Christian resonances. It is during the short period of Midsummer that this ancient ley line becomes visible, as the sun rises in precise alignment with Midsummer Boulevard, Avebury Boulevard and Silbury Boulevard. Built to mark the millennium and intended as a meeting place for the city’s residents, the monument brings the presence of deep time to an urban environment seemingly lacking an extended history of its own.<br />
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The summer solstice marks the day on which the axial tilt of the Earth, in a given hemisphere, is most inclined towards the Sun: an astronomical happening that signifies an extremity of light, a marker of time and movement through the seasons. These films have been bought together to coincide with this event. Each work has a complexity linked through the interplay of light and the self against, before and within the film/video medium. In Lucy Reynolds’s <i>Lake (Nocturne)</i> artificial light plays eerily across a landscape we cannot situate, the uncanny effect directing us to a world played for film and the world outside of it. Duncan Marquiss’s two videos, <i>Midday </i>and <i>Late Cinema</i>, flicker across the screen, drawing our bodies in as the oscillation of images strikes our nervous systems. Sarah Pucill’s <i>Blind Light </i>is rendered with great economoy, as the substance of film is so exceeded by light, touch and feeling. The work provokes the suspension of the everyday world, as image, as the body and psyche ceaselessly coalesce and break away. In Kim Coleman & Jenny Hogarth’s <i>If You Can’t See My Mirrors I Can’t See You</i> we are in turns suspended, as real and virtual spaces enmesh, encircling objects and subjectivities, in a feedback loop of the artists making.<br />
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We have a desire to begin to unpack the relations between imagined psychical space and our bodies in this place. On the lightest day we arrive weighed down with a projector, discs and neat spirals of film. Our lived experience is of body and image enfolded into the world. Film produces, through a unique combination of dichotomies (light/dark, visual/sound, past/present), a disjuncture between the two. As once began a lecture on film given by the ineffable Hollis Frampton, ‘we are, shall we say, comfortably seated. We may remove our shoes, if that will help us to remove our bodies’1.<br />
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1 Hollis Frampton, A Lecture. New York, 1968.<br />
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Laura Guy & Elsa Richardson, 2012LEGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17250180562282050897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-26497198725034027142012-06-22T10:08:00.002-07:002012-06-22T10:27:36.223-07:00ABIDJAN a thought on the naming of new towns...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6Ypz1YNWEZgcMYD93GB1f6_RYj68Dr1TqV29R6W2YCWbOXxMw0GsNicUQq8JBYlssWgazkcfqmUhB0ZcJDVs6aMAGAn59gnLLvG8Kz_Swjie_X8TpjldCOqXXbgWsNorc6hVajbZLFpe/s1600/44897334.AbidjanPanorama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6Ypz1YNWEZgcMYD93GB1f6_RYj68Dr1TqV29R6W2YCWbOXxMw0GsNicUQq8JBYlssWgazkcfqmUhB0ZcJDVs6aMAGAn59gnLLvG8Kz_Swjie_X8TpjldCOqXXbgWsNorc6hVajbZLFpe/s640/44897334.AbidjanPanorama.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Abidjan is the colonial capital of Côte
d'Ivoire and the country's largest city. In 1933 a port was built and the new
city grew.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">According to oral tradition of
the Ebrie as reported in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Côte
d'Ivoire, the name "Abidjan" results from a misunderstanding.
Legend states that an old man carrying branches to repair the roof of his house
met a European explorer who asked him the name of the nearest village. The old
man did not speak the language of the explorer, and thought that he was being
asked to justify his presence in that place. Terrified by this unexpected
meeting, he fled shouting "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>min-chan m'bidjan</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">", which means in
the Ébrié language: "I just cut the leaves." The explorer, thinking
that his question had been answered, recorded the name of the locale as</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Abidjan</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.
Wikipedia of course. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is this true, and what is involved in the
process of naming a New Town? In Milton Keynes, the name was that of the
smallest village surrounding the new town centre in order to avoid competition
between the largest dwellings in the region. Shenzhen means "deep
drains", a descriptive title of the cities geography which used to be a
delta with streams and rivers throughout - that was before the bulldozers
arrived and reclamation began. Thamesmead launched a competition in the Sunday
Times to suggest names for the new town. One of the suggestions, New
Wooabbeleri became the title of artist Stuart Whipp's project of 2011.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What does a name designate? How does a
population relate to the name of town in which they live? Does choosing the
name of the small hamlet that once stood in the new town's place offer some
kind of panacea to the lack of material heritage in a new city? </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnBgtNgfgeIBBB1Z9A6faP6zKd2HR9996oJeJ7JvZl7Ncc1Gyl6nqCMlAkVmP9KNn7ZgL2CIYbxWnSveA8tsqkAzz91mjq0JM6iQ57JOSlCT5SopuchUzuaYi1xRPM_Ts7aa7kbe7wmB7/s1600/EnteringAbidjan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnBgtNgfgeIBBB1Z9A6faP6zKd2HR9996oJeJ7JvZl7Ncc1Gyl6nqCMlAkVmP9KNn7ZgL2CIYbxWnSveA8tsqkAzz91mjq0JM6iQ57JOSlCT5SopuchUzuaYi1xRPM_Ts7aa7kbe7wmB7/s640/EnteringAbidjan.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXmbURA8-7yu0yG3b70OnEsE92yfQenPz7JAUST7FZ1VEky_Ga2xlrM_AFRhkl5aYd24u8cKt3-XUIqaQVkyKLzp6CrwJ3-Lew8M6ktVLSWnCgwxoc3Ww4flw-pgEN0jzCqBlUadbA3UA/s1600/abidhan+cathedral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXmbURA8-7yu0yG3b70OnEsE92yfQenPz7JAUST7FZ1VEky_Ga2xlrM_AFRhkl5aYd24u8cKt3-XUIqaQVkyKLzp6CrwJ3-Lew8M6ktVLSWnCgwxoc3Ww4flw-pgEN0jzCqBlUadbA3UA/s640/abidhan+cathedral.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGp6T0TVyeqgpy7VZBQ78aJNugotNd2nk1JWHyDhuIYqdm3fr1RF7tfaV-bwsab-VNHAqqjdmB2VFjpyv5ojxVRX7BvzmEcFdMJmTsg_8sudpcjO0LaspRzuBqE6NSeqs6nu6ThZPPXS8W/s1600/abidjan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGp6T0TVyeqgpy7VZBQ78aJNugotNd2nk1JWHyDhuIYqdm3fr1RF7tfaV-bwsab-VNHAqqjdmB2VFjpyv5ojxVRX7BvzmEcFdMJmTsg_8sudpcjO0LaspRzuBqE6NSeqs6nu6ThZPPXS8W/s640/abidjan.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span>Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-35622124724577850052011-12-30T12:46:00.000-08:002011-12-30T12:47:34.667-08:00The antithesis of Brazilia?Very close to Brasilia, a woman truck driver created <a href="http://principesmayas.blogspot.com/">this</a> alternative to the capital.Vision Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06031287871423684528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-66561838169757432992011-11-11T03:59:00.001-08:002011-11-11T04:20:19.371-08:00Community without Propinquity Closing Event - 26 November, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZQdK9coa-9Dw4B1LuZ9RpaxF2vqVYnb1g0UX2deVooZR32FbdEffC6dhN0L25F5owZHi9LDfFpm8saw-GxtFPBqsnxDxiwhoEN-TPkm9V5z8UyOllMaHGKDQTEt5Lyd4D8bBM36-PN7e/s1600/01Figure_05_12_replaced.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 398px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZQdK9coa-9Dw4B1LuZ9RpaxF2vqVYnb1g0UX2deVooZR32FbdEffC6dhN0L25F5owZHi9LDfFpm8saw-GxtFPBqsnxDxiwhoEN-TPkm9V5z8UyOllMaHGKDQTEt5Lyd4D8bBM36-PN7e/s400/01Figure_05_12_replaced.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5673711979026535794" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJzsNYZPd95ih_NHI6LNOKXU-tNHnhI2Zw5rhzJr3W8ion3jTJ8zOx-Z54eZKHMBRMrBKfpYYXtvusmUZHMMkwMt-9MD2sLok2blRKKoSVK4o5Sq1O0dybwmSgms5EJT6MLL1CgBcNtRN/s1600/01Figure_05_12_replaced.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "></span></a><a href="http://t.ymlp227.net/mwuagaubwqadauhqadamwbw/click.php" style="font-size: 10pt; "><em style="font-size: 10pt; ">Community without Propinquity</em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10pt; font-size:85%;">*</span></a><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"> is a project exploring the role of contemporary art and understandings of community in New Towns across the globe. It includes an exhibition with work from Paulo Catrica, Nathan Coley, Jesal Kapadia, Wayne Lloyd, Vincent Meessen, Ishmael Randall Weeks, Pia Rönicke, Stuart Whipps, Bai Xiaoci and video programme including</span> <span style=" line-height: 15px; font-size:16px;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;">Amanda Beech, Cyprien Gaillard, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Minouk Lim, Corey McCorkle, Vincent Meessen, Pia Rönicke and Huang Xiaopeng.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica;"><div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;font-size:13px;">For October and November, the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;font-size:13px;"><span style="line-height: 15px; "><a href="http://t.ymlp227.net/mweaiaubwqafauhqanamwbw/click.php">The Project Space</a> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;font-size:13px;">at has been an active Research Laboratory and forum for public events and new artist commissions. The focus of the research has been on the meaning of "community" in New Towns. The closing event will frame this work and research within a panel discussion, the launch of a publication published by ANDPublic and And Endless Supply and the first chance to see new work by the six commissioned artists including Caroline Devine, Patrick Staff, Emma Smith, Kelly Large and Mark Aerial Waller.</span></div></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><b><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">14.00-15.00 FILM SCREENING (Video Space) Looped</span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Pierre Huyghe, Streamside Day Follies (2003) </span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><b><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">15.00-17.00 PANEL DISCUSSION (Events Room)</span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><span style="white-space: pre; ">Guest Panelists:</span> David Lock, Anthony Iles, Roman Vasseur</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Chair: Claire Louise Staunton</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">David Lock CBE has been an urban planner in MK since 1977, is a founder member of the MK Urban Studies Centre and, in 1987, became President of Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre. </span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Anthony Iles is a cultural engineer and writer researching and making experiments in the disappearing public sphere. He is Assistant Editor of Mute magazine.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Roman Vasseur is an artist and curator. In 2008 he was appointed ‘Lead Artist’ to Harlow, a post-war New Town in Essex, in the build up to the town’s second phase of regeneration. </span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><b><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">17.00 ARTISTS PRESENTATIONS/ACTIONS (Events Room)</span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Kelly Large, Emma Hedditch and Emma Smith</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><b><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">17:45 SCREENING & Q&A (Events Room)</span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Carry Gorney introduced by Mark Aerial Waller, followed by a screening of her work at MK Channel 40, <i>Sweet Sixteen</i> and <i>Things that mother never told us.</i></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Carry Gorney is a Systemic Psychotherapist and writer. She has worked with Inter-Action in London and Milton Keynes, developing the use of video for community participation. This became the basis for a series of television programmes broadcast on MK Channel 40 from 1977 to 1979. Mark Aerial Waller is an artist and has been commissioned to make a new work for the Research Lab, to be presented at the event.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><b><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">19:00 PERFORMANCE (Events Room)</span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Patrick Staff, Performance, <i>Growth, Forecasts</i> (2011)</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">A video and performance work by artist Patrick Staff with Milton Keynes' <a href="http://t.ymlp227.net/mwmaoaubwqalauhqaaamwbw/click.php">Madcap Performers</a>. The work has developed out of a period of research at the archive of the Milton Keynes Discovery Centre, involving a number of interviews with key planners and academic researchers and participatory workshops. The project explores urban design, growth developments, the history of the garden city and New Town movements with a particular focus on the role of the irrational, mystic and holistic in these plans and cities and how such knowledge is produced, circulated and understood by a community.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:13px;"><b><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">All Day<span style="white-space: pre; "> EXHIBITION (Project Space)</span></span></span></span></b></span></div><div><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;font-size:10pt;"><span style="line-height: 15px; "><b><br /></b></span></span></div></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', times;">Generously supported by Arts Council England, Vision Forum, Milton Keynes Community Foundation with assistance from the MK City Discovery Centre</span></span></span></span></div></div></span><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY4eFnU7oPIQB3uBr6pgRhHzb6z4h2nKhMoFiVxKbokL-MpfsnQNkOBYu8RI7jaGTaGdnD1Hxad25sFNaXfCklT5M34ll-6-4HU5W28xrgXUK0XpbFxEnItuqrH3AWXlHuI-lBvoCyzr1W/s320/03mother-still2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5673708789397193266" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 238px; " /></div><div><br /></div>Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-6108517189664950082011-09-13T10:55:00.001-07:002011-09-13T10:55:34.938-07:00Community without Propinquity in Milton KeynesCommunity without Propinquity is a project exploring the roles of contemporary art and communities in New Towns across the globe. The project includes an exhibition, a video programme, six new artist’s commissions, a research laboratory, publication and symposium.<br />The exhibition, in the Project Space, includes work related to Shenzhen (China), Chandigarh (India), Brasilia (Brazil) and UK New Towns, such as Harlow, Thamesmead, Runcorn and Stevenage, providing a context for cities built on land with no previous significant population.<br />The video programme, in the Events Room, explores the utopian social and architectural plans of New Towns, from Chinese replicas of a British seaside town to a German modernist estate, via a new city that exists entirely online.<br /><br />The Project Space also serves as a research laboratory and forum for public events and artists commissioned to make new work, exploring the social and cultural policies of early Milton Keynes with organisations such as The Open University, MK’s Channel 40 TV station from the 1970s and the communal housing communities. This evolving project will culminate in a final weekend of events, a public symposium where research is presented and a publication.<br /><br />The project is organised by independent curator Claire Louise Staunton with curatorial group Inheritance Projects, while the research lab and publication have been commissioned from An Endless Supply.<br /><br />Artists in the exhibition include:<br />Paulo Catrica, Nathan Coley, Cao Fei, Jesal Kapadia, Wayne Lloyd, Vincent Meessen, Paul Noble, Ishmael Randall Weeks, Pia Rönicke and Stuart Whipps.<br /><br />More info <a href="http://www.mkgallery.org/">here</a>.Vision Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06031287871423684528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-16420081360142353532011-04-13T13:26:00.001-07:002011-06-27T08:37:16.212-07:00Proposal: Community without Propinquity<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Proposal & Aims:</span></b></span></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">'Community without Propinquity' is a form of public research lab and mini-exhibition to take place at the MKArt Gallery from 7 October - 4 December 2011. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The title, a 1963 quote from urban planner Melvin Webber, suggests that future communities </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(specifically MK) would be formed through self directed, rational economic and social networks rather than </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">proximity. This will act as a broad theme, to investigate the existence and formation of community for public </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">activities. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1. Research Project</span></b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- This project is ongoing research-led project and the public programme is determined by the research. The first </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">month will be spent on site, open to the public, building and displaying the archive, to</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> plan the Public Programme and gather public histories. This will continue throughout.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Archiving New Towns: researching and collating artwork made specifically about New Towns in an attempt to </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">narrate, or propose a methodology for narrating an appropriate art history. The archive, and the video work will be </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">on public display e.g. The Otolith Group, Dominique Gonzales Forester, Christian Jankowski and many more UK </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">and international artists.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Public Histories: working with the MKAG education team (video or audio recording) we will work with visitors to </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">document their personal histories and experiences of MK, its unique art history. Stories gathered will provide </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">direction for other activities.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Public Programme</span></b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Film/Screenings: presenting art work made in/on Milton Keynes and other new towns. In discussion with the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">cinema next to the gallery to reach a broader audience.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Symposium & Workshops: appropriate speakers (urbanists, philosophers, architects, writers) who deal with </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">such themes</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Twinning/Networking: To actively network the other cities, through their art institutions</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Artists Projects: small scale commissioned works/performances in the public realm and project space.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">- Publication/Newspaper/Zine: working with the artists and writers above, edited by Inheritance Project </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">designed by Jon-Ross Le Haye distributed free at MKAG, other New Town </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">institutions, beyond.</span></span></p></div>Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-91888380431517877712011-04-03T02:45:00.000-07:002011-04-03T03:27:38.018-07:00Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-21850999210650030662011-01-05T02:25:00.000-08:002011-04-13T13:28:52.720-07:00Field Trip to Milton Keynes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJwujDHIjO4w-klMfyRIGjYj8PpZaQtAYWRIvE566TzgfkWu8ltfOUiiEMs99fTrWNbA6TQSy5oEXFb9MjfZswhnAZCyI8OORY2pPxWra3rBEhWbRtrdTvDXw-J7S55lUvYIoXUhfzmkON/s1600/g_01_milton+keynes.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 390px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJwujDHIjO4w-klMfyRIGjYj8PpZaQtAYWRIvE566TzgfkWu8ltfOUiiEMs99fTrWNbA6TQSy5oEXFb9MjfZswhnAZCyI8OORY2pPxWra3rBEhWbRtrdTvDXw-J7S55lUvYIoXUhfzmkON/s400/g_01_milton+keynes.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558646594587380034" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"><i><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Starting Point<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It is late morning when our small community draws into Milton Keynes (MK); the day is grey, the location is at once familiar and absurd. C hands out copies of Olaf Stapledon’s ‘Star Maker’. The cover of the book draws us into its miniature galaxy giving out starting point as Stapleson’s protagonist emerges into a world of pavements, streetlamps, damp foliage and brightly lit windows shut out by curtains. It is from this non-place suburbia that the linear narrative is blown open, and a connection made.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Observations on a flattened grid</span></i></p></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Driving through the city we fill up on boulevards and arcades, big grey sky, flat buildings (in planning--not one higher than the tallest tree), pedestrianised walkways and demarcated public space, routes for buses, for cars and for bikes. We’ve been researching the town for a few months now, pulling out those things we find to be of interest and trying to gather a comprehensive view of its early development. MK was built to accommodate vast overspill from London of the 1950s with its location deliberately equidistant to other major cities including Birmingham and Leicester so that it could maintain independence as a town in its own right. The town planning signalled a return to the ideals of the Garden City Movement. The movement, which was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard, aimed to create planned communities surrounded by greenbelts. Each community was to be self-contained, consisting a balance of residences, industry, and agriculture. Garden cities would act as satellites surrounding larger cities, with easy access by train and road. Towns were promoted for healthy living and represent ambitions of social welfare, creating space for a whole measure of social life. Representative of this model are the tree-lined boulevards of MK and its even spread extending from a central malls. Yet as we navigate MK we develop an unease seemingly derived from a sense of placelessness, for there seems to be no middle to MK, rather a set of unravelling strips always running parallel. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">MK Gallery</span></i></p></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Our first activity is a trip to MK Gallery where Black Dogs have facilitated the project MK2 Survival Kit. The MK2 Survival Kit proposes skills of, and activities for, ‘survival’, to help us get by, once we have left earth and landed on the planet ‘MK2’. The accumulated information has been gathered through participatory methods creating a body of knowledge that takes as its centre point the town of Milton Keynes. The work presents 21</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">st</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> century ‘techniques’ that have allowed humans to entertain themselves and cites a wide encyclopaedia of activities including finger puppets, the internet, fancy dress costumes and modern art. The exhibition aims to question whether such life-skills will prove indispensable to the future generations of the new planet. Within the exhibition the here and now becomes somehow ruptured from its future, which remains light-years away, and simultaneously a bizarre accumulation of senseless activity, a place of recycled meanings and ideas. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">…as is shopping centre as is hospital as is school as is business…</span></i></p></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We enter a hospital-like shopping centre, an enclosed street area with sh</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">rubs a</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nd glass. A small Christmas town has been set up in the centre, hyperreal, a fantasy place enclosed within another. Over lunch we hold a quick seminar. The conversation focuses on progress through a model of enplotment. A question is posed: ‘is progress ideological?’ And following this: ‘Have we stopped being able to imagine the future?’ The discussion is informed by the previous exhibition and our research prior to the visit. C poses two final questions: ‘how do we approach this place? What is our method?’</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Signs that stand</span></i></p></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We are interested in the relationship between the urban planning, architecture and use of public art in the development of new towns. Public artworks provide certain cultural signage as to social and economic conditions in a geographic area and embed certain historical meanings into the fabric of a place. At the same time public artworks can come to stand as though totemic signs, fulfilling iconographic and monumental functions that are no longer representative of a specific place but as though signs for any place. R hands out map that delineates a circular route, a public art track through the town that allows us to take in some of the many public artworks of Milton Keynes. So certain works act to as signage of public spaces, demarcating leisure time through various iconographies of a satisfactory shared experience. These are mapped out across a city that is without a centre for example in Andre Wallace’s ‘The Whisper’, Nicola Moreton’s ‘The Conversation’ and ‘The Meeting’ by Nicolas Moreton. Other works deal with a kind of collapsed time or perhaps a slippage between different times that eschews in some way continuity as in Boyd and Evans’ ‘Fiction, Non-Fiction and Reference’, a painting taken solely from other references and so full of signs that it becomes hollow, or Wendy Taylor’s Octo which forms a snaking mobius strip in the centre of a pool of water--the absolute zero sign that conversely represents affinity. Then there are those incidental sculptures that are integrated into the place as though punctuating the town through a linguistic iconography of ‘church’, ‘street’ ‘bank’ and ‘shops’. These integrated works include Alan Evan’s ‘Church Cross’ and Tim Minett and Peter Sis’s ‘Bollards’. Then there are those sculptures that work to give over time to Milton Keynes, a veritable archaeology of sculptures with an ancient time of their own including Tim Ward’s ‘Acorns and Leaves’ and Bill Woodrow’s ‘Sitting on History’. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Observations Upon the Late National Embarrassment</span></i></p></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Our tour ends, well nearly, with the concrete cows of MK. The cows, made by artist-in-residence Liz Leyh, became something of an unwanted icon for the town. The meaning was derived from a commonly shared misapprehension that the New Town would be built of concrete with minimal green spaces. In fact green space was integral to planning and developing the town. We briefly discuss how a mass experience of embarrassment creates a shared experience, creating through the negative a point where one can enter into a community?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">‘A city in scale’</span></i></p></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Alike to certain sculptures we experience in MK a slippage between times. A place that strangely eschews, through a lack of history and yet a combined mass of signifiers, chorological ‘order’ or forms of enplotment (as with another book from our reading list, Woolf’s ‘Orlando’). Here we are - referencing MK against our research, reading MK against itself, reading our method through the city, trying to find our way. As a planned whole MK was projected to true scale from models and as speed away from MK, the place as though in miniature as it falls away behind us; electric lights sparkling like so many distant stars in the darkening sky.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </i></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">LEG Dec 2010</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349155830507245518.post-51061339006068748622010-11-24T05:55:00.000-08:002011-01-05T02:38:11.093-08:00A Reading List<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 30px; "><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Orlando: A Biography </span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1928 Virginia Woolf (Hogarth Press, London)</span></a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 30px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography"></a></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 38px; font-family:sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starmaker"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Star Maker </span></span></a></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starmaker"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(1937) Olaf Stapeldon (Methuen, London)</span></span></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:sans-serif;"><div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 232px; height: 348px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/Starmaker_firstedition.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></div></span></div>Claire Louise Stauntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06996870104658799220noreply@blogger.com0