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Sang Cao Duong and Takuya Ito Project Recon, 2016 Recycled box board, various recycled materials, re-purposed scale figures 0.6 m Ă— 0.6 m Ă— 0.3 m Graduate Project by Sang Duong and Takuya Ito. We have looked into the discourse of public space and design to develop our own body of work based around disruption and sustainability. Our work "RECON" explores the potentials of the abandoned monorail stations in Sydney. The anti manifesto reflects on a world that is run by authority. They tell us what to do, how to act, how to think. This is the world we live in. Public domains hide behind a facade of signs and orders, lacking any direction or sustainability. So, design must act as an agent of change. [exhibited at The Black Box COFA - solo exhibition 2016]
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Sang Cao Duong and Takuya Ito Project Recon, 2016 Recycled box board, various recycled materials, re-purposed scale figures dimensions vary (0.4 m × 0.7 m × 0.3 m - 0.7 m × 1.2 m × 0.5 m) [exhibited at The Black Box COFA - solo exhibition - 2016]
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Notes on The Maquette: The role of a model as a device of architectural communication is constantly challenged by new and evolving practices in drawing, rendering, and virtual/augmented realities. In tandem to these advances we must question the purpose of an architectural model beyond its mere physicality in space, its imitation of drawings, and its pseudo-bonsai nature. I prefer the term maquette, in reference to an artist's creative aid or muse. A maquette is inherently a rough sketch as a demarcation of a process—beautiful in its own right. A maquette constantly bridges ideas within ones consciousness into physical space. It should not simply be another representation of what can be comprehended from a drawing, as the maquette can be a standalone piece. The dialogue should be between the viewer and the maquette, aside from (but not exclusive of) any other fundamental representations.
Sang Cao Duong and Takuya Ito Project Recon, 2016 Recycled box board, various recycled materials, re-purposed scale figures 0.3 m × 1.2 m × 0.3 m Hatched Exhibition Overview Gnas Sang and Takuya Ito (2016) [exhibited at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts for Hatched: National Graduate Show - 2017] Image credits: Hatched National Graduate Show 2017, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. Photos by Alessandro Bianchetti
It must inspire and generate discourse around a project for without such purpose it is nothing but a miniature building. What does the maquette represent or abstract? Why? What is the (im)materiality of a maquette? Why? What scale is a maquette—how does it relate to the viewer? Why?
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Sang Cao Duong and Rongwei Liu Theatre for the Lost Intention (In tension), 2017 Paper, cardstock, 3D printed PLA, lasercut acrylic, polycarbonate, print media, blue LED lighting, scale figures 4 × (0.8 m × 0.8 m × 0.2 m) [after Archigram] Sydney's nightlife thrived in a culture of drinking and entertainment. Today this identity is lost------ Current polemic forces put the city in tension. Violent acts induced by alcohol are being linked to entertainment venues, while the authority of the State Government further
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degrades Sydney’s identity through a lost vision for society’s place in the city. They are punishing the masses due to actions of the few. A public curfew that restricts what we do, what we drink, and who we are. Nightlife venues are bound by this tension, and becoming isolated through their inaction. The recurrence of prohibitions in history shows that society will always find a way to break away from the tension — such as with the brief banning of coffee-houses in 17th century England, the Speakeasies in New York during the 1930’s prohibition, and Caffe Cino in the 1960’s against the political licensing of venues in Manhattan. Even when they prohibit social activities,
the show must go on. Having a mix of social programs within a single venue, and through the way it can communicate to society a social agenda through theatre shows, indeed, it must be a theatre ... A theatre that will take action against what was lost! A type that can re-consolidate our bars, our culture, and our nightlife – combining social activities amongst live entertainment. This revolution will make us all realise the tension, so we may never lose our identity. We address the pervasive control of social spaces by authorities - using technologies such as cameras and screens to re-frame social activities. To hide and disguise the bars to
remind people of their rights - utilising the gantry grid in the ceiling to manoeuvre and transform platforms and programs within the space. The theatre for Sydney’s nightlife culture must break away from the tension and rebel against lost intentions. Drawing back the curtains of the isolated theatres for Sydney’s dead nightlife.
Notes on Performativity and The Model: The key factor that separates an architectural model from being merely miniature architecture is its performativity; in such a sense the model or maquette is not inert. The language of the model instigates an action or reaction from its viewer. Traditional model making techniques are neglecting their potential towards communicating architectural ideas beyond the domain of our discipline. Conventional means in model making lose their performativity when they simply re-present what is already shown in correlated drawings and renders. On Materiality & Medium: The complex of conventional architectural models straddle between being a replica and of being a reduction of the architecture it tries to represent. As such, it becomes evident that the role of the model is diminished within convention. The performativity of a selection of materials and medium can enhance the architectural message. In my work, it is a decision logically made when considering to use recycled materials in a model for a project about sustainability. The scuff marks and ad-hoc nature of my body of work Project Recon (2016) is a design decision. When requested by Clyde & Co. Lawyers to clean a piece from Project Recon they had loaned out, I simply said no, as to clean the work would inherently destroy the meaning. On Style & Taste: The presence of a model is pronounced through immaterial decisions made in the display. These decisions elevate how a viewer reads the model and must be considered. What scale is the model? Where does it sit in relation to the viewer? How is it illuminated within the space? What colour is it? What font is used in accompanying graphics? How does it smell or sound? Does it create a sense of unease, or excitement, or calm— On Culture & Semiotics: Moving beyond the post-contemporary world, it is no longer valid to deduce a reading from experimental, cultural, or symbolic works as being kitschy or un-intellectual. To frame culture and semiotics as reductive is to distance the presence of the architectural model in the real world, and subsequently distancing the viewer or client from the architecture. The overtly convoluted trappings of architectural abstraction defines a barrier between architecture and the greater domains, and inhibits the architectural model making culture.
Sang Cao Duong Temporal Bodies, 2018 Print media on tracing paper, light boxes, mirrors, polycarbonate sheets, shipping crate, nitrous oxide, test tube, capsules, syringe 2.0 m × 2.0 m × 2.0 m (~approx.) As an observation of today's advances in medicine, the possibilities and acceptance to body modifications is becoming prevalent. Through a future projection of this condition, it can be postulated that an amplification in the use of modifications will become more streamlined through biological manipulations rather than as prosthetics attached to the body. These biometric manipulations are genetic based changes that are implemented in much shorter
timeframes—in some cases almost instant. The production design of Ghost in the Shell (2017) acts as a visual guide, exploring these themes of future human biological changes. In the future where instantaneous biometric changes occur, the spaces that respond to the human presence are also adapted. Building systems that read human biometrics such as finger scanners and surveillance cameras become redundant as a form of add-on security. Instead, the organisation of spaces will deliver new modes of security, often deceiving. [exhibited at UTS Design and Architecture 2018]
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