Architecture Part II :
1o1
My Incredible Journey From Place to Space
by Stathoula Palivou
Week 1: History of Place / History of Space
Week 1: History of Place / History of Space
“We all shine on, like the Moon and the stars and the Sun” John Lennon
What will I do today? You will spend some time looking for moving images of Stonehenge. Imagine you go there for a trip and need to take one picture. Find the appropriate video and take a screenshot of the appropriate view. In your “screenshot” image, add a pictogram or icon of a person (to give a scale to the whole thing). Basically, capture what you like and make it yours (adding a little man - or woman)
#WeAllShineOn this stony surrounding couldn't be complete, without love.. all the love of all the centuries.. all the love that the world includes. Cupid (Ε=Eros) and Psyche (Π=που = where) are two elements of just one nature , called “Love”.. Those two elements are forcing nature to witness this love in their “where” in their “place”.. Greek letter E and Π are depicted in the stony remaining's of Stonehenge.
Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone. Jorge Luis Borges What will I do today? Today, the task is to choose an image (from the video or from the images of Stonehenge) and to add an existing diagram to it. The diagram should refer to the sun and / or stars. Source one: image (or still from the video) Source two: a diagram (found somewhere)
#NothingIsBuilt Stonehenge floor plan and a Nostradamus diagram of how he conceived the world as a whole of stars, planets, sun and moon. His macrocosm is the universe at large, depicted in the Renaissance as a series of concentric circles surrounding the earth marking the orbits of the moon, sun, planets, and stars. The imprint of these concentric cycles matches the imprint of Stonehenge..
Det 채r ingen ko p책 isen. (There is no cow on the ice.) Swedish idiom What will I do today? A three dimensional model of Stonehenge. On Monday, you took a screenshot and added a little man (or woman). Yesterday, you added a diagram to an image. Today, we are getting a little bit more ambitious. We would like you to make a conceptual (physical) model of Stonehenge and share a picture of it. Try to grasp the spirit of the place.
#NoCowOnTheIce My 3d Stonehenge, made of Pez candies pieces of rubber, carton and stevia sweetener candies. The structure lies on a sand tile I had made in the past from Santorinian volcano lava sand found in Santorini island in Greece. the yellow imprint symbolizes the circular set up.
You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That‟s the only secret. Philip Glass What will I do today? Today, we go out. Find a place. Make sure that this “place” you‟ve found is one without any direct human intervention (no benches, little houses, huts, bridges, etc). Only natural elements. Trees, bushes, the land... Take a picture of it. Add an existing diagram to your picture to express why this specific location looked as a “place” to you. #YouGetUp I couldn‟t decide on this one.. so I made a place and a dystopia or else a non-place. and Obviously I couldnt choose :( First picture is a place where the sun path diagram defines the shades,thus the “shelters” and this illustration of shades is only temporary as the sun keeps moving. The second picture is my dystopia/the non-place. The wind/nature changes my “place” according to its will and the little inhabitants (little cloudy penguin) never really have a shelter.. These inhabitants can never “root” in that „dystopia‟. The diagram is an existing diagram for forecasting and shows heavy rains.. First picture
second picture
Now, eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right? Ian Malcolm What will I do today? Go back to the “place” you discovered yesterday and define it as “your place” using little or big (if you are ambitious) stones. You found a place in nature. Now, enhance its “placeness” using stones.
#ThereIsNothing well the dilemma continued. :D the first picture : my pebbles/stones are creating a path, a pond.. Now I can walk anywhere I want within “myplace” Second picture: My pebbles/stones are creating a „shelter‟ for my “cloudy”penguin and for all small or little creatures which will be formed by natures will. An apparent contradiction between Temporary - and - Permanent.nIn a dystopia you cannot have a shelter.. in a non-place a shelter cannot be constructed.. The dialogue between Shelters pebbles and the wind will prove the shelter weak.. it will be blown in the 4 winds.. will follow the fate of the non-existing penguin.. First picture
second picture
Week 2: Proportions
The primary factor is proportions. Arne Jacobsen
What will I do today? We have a special “place”. This place is called Zabriskie Point. Explore the area with your eyes..with your mind. What is there? What is there not? Now, choose (carefully) a way to reproduce yourself. It can be a cutout of a picture of yourself. Whatever you want / like, as long as it is cool. The point is to give us an idea of the relationship and proportion between yourself and the world around.
#ThePrimaryFactor Hair and hands in the landscape are spreading all over the area of Zabriskie Point, making the place mine. My hands are “feeling” the place in a vain advanture to map the Zabriskie Point to the detail and leave my human imprint on this perfect natural rippled surface. My fingers become part of the landscape, sharing the uniqueness of this “folded” place.My Hair spread like a waterfall on this sandy surface, carrying away masses of sand, as an attempt to alter the landscape as only nature knows.. I found the picture here http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zabriskie_Point.jpg
The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. John Maeda What will I do today? Today we (you) go to Nazca, in Peru. Imagine yourself as a prehistoric person, living peacefully in the Death Valley, way before Las Vegas and L.A. The task of today is to make your very own lines in your world. Once you have your “lines” drawn in the Zabriskie desert, find a way to add yourself (remember that this time, you should be seen from above), choose your specific and general proportions and there you go.
#TheSimplestWay Flying over Nasca in Peru.. I became a Nascian Mummy.. Carried out the most ancient Greek statue whic represents fertility.. I set up maps,in spiral shape, as an hymn to this strange curvy Greek Goddess.. My pray was depicted on a circular disk.. I called it “Phaistos Disc” and there I sang the greatness of Women.. I let my disks travel through the world and roll towards the rest of humanity, spreading the greatness of fertility..
I found the picture here through Google Maps https://www.google.gr/maps/place/Zabriskie+Point/@36.420004,-116.81218, 3a,90y,194.38h,81.09t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sJkQmemevAhQAAAQY_ D0L0Q!2e0!3e11!4m2!3m1!1s0x80c73e11d6f20157:0x51d545c842a919a0
The egg has a perfect shape, even if it‟s laid from the ass. Bruno Munari
What I will do today? From Zabriskie Point, to Nazca, let‟s fly (with your mind) to Lascaux. Find an empty spot in Lascaux and make it yours. Use an empty space and explain us about your “place”. You can work with collage, drawings , mixed techniques. A contemporary graffiti on rocks, about your place. The place in where you and your dear ones live. The key ingredient in your composition refers to the proportion between the different elements.
#TheEggHas During the most primitive years of my existence I found myself in a cave.. I had a man by my side. I let him know.. “Me the woman, I am sending a message to you the mighty hunter.. I am expecting to bloom, I will become round as I saw it happens around me It will grow bigger and bigger for almost 9 full moons.. During that time I will stay here because I wont be able to run and I will be slow. I need to stay in the shelter and be protected..” The picture is a still frame from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM75EcQVpbo
It is not how old you are but how you are old. Jules Renard
What will I do today? Choose a part of your body. We would suggest to work on your hand, but feel free to get more ambitious (working on your belly, legs or - with the help of some friends - your back). Now. There is your body. But it is not your body anymore: itâ€&#x;s a natural landscape. Are you there? Get an ink pen. Now, transform the natural landscape into a place. Mark it. Add signs to it. Shall we draw a line? Mark the position of a simple hut? Your body as a natural landscape. It looks easy, but it is actually extremely complex. Be careful
#ItIsNotHow My body is my temple.. My body will become someone elseâ€&#x;s shelter for the next months.. My creation is built on ancient ruins.. The ancient practice of mating, is as old as the world..The greatness of human reproduction is an amazing mystery.. My future is designed on these ruins.. on my feminine fate..On my mothers fertile fate.. on the mother of my mother.. on her mother.. on a mother.. Its a co-creation.. Man and woman.. My shelter will be the space for my unborn baby.. Wil be our space.. a common space.. a space which will be shared through a journey.. will provide food, comfort and security as these are the basic insticts of our existence.. may the journey be smooth and the shelter strong and vital..
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Francis Bacon What will I do today? Today using Google Satellite and/or Google Earth, you take us to the place of your choice. Then, using Bazaart app (or any other) you will overlay the landscape with an image of your body.
#ThereIsNoExcellent I had created a fake trauma on my neck while experimenting on materials long time ago.. It is supposed to be a rotten trauma.. where bacteria and microbes live.. possibly other little “things”.. I digested its shape.. I felt it with my hands, I sank my fingers in these holes.. not just on its illusion.. I followed the trails.. I found a hidden perfection.. A whole place which hosts other „creatures‟, feeding its parasite existence.. giving them shelter for their needs.. I used google satellite.. I found Lake Eyre in Australia.. I found myself..I have found parts of me.. I was there or it was on me! I found the pisture here https://alldownstream.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/top-ten-largest-endorheic-lakes-of-the-world-by-area/
Week 3: Taking Measurements
There is no need to build a labyrinth when the entire universe is one. Jorge Luis Borges
What will I do today? Get on your phone or tablet. Choose a labyrinth / maze game. There are several of them. Android, iPhone, free games or games you have to pay for it. Anyways, explore some games and find your own labyrinth / maze. Play and get lost. Once you become slightly knowledgeable of this labyrinth of yours, take a picture (screenshot) of it. Then, using some collage app, add a “measuring� element to it (you can choose a ruler or anything else you want), to give us some dimensional information. Add it in a cool way... #ThereIsNoNeed App : Echo maze
“Adversity is the first path to truth." L. Byron. What will I do today? You will go to some kind of maze / labyrinth generator on-line. There are several. Here below a very simple one. http://www.mazegenerator.net/ Generate your own maze. Then, overlap your maze (very simple and basic) to a picture of a given place. The picture of the given place it‟s important to give us the specific features / mood of your spatial device (maze). If you want to tell us that your maze is built out of wood, then the picture should represent wood.If it is about a fluid or liquid... Let‟s see what kind of qualities you‟ll be conveying to all of us. Add your measuring tool to the whole and there we are!! I used all possible formations in maze generator, keeping the same absolutes namely : 60x4 and 100x100 from bottom to centre. #AdversityIs
Our life is full of empty space". Umberto Eco What will I do today? Today, we explore one very specific online resource. Go to this website Quite a world, isn‟t it? Explore. Go around. Then, go to the layout section here ..Today, the challenge is to lay out a Cretan maze for an ant. Draw your Cretan maze. You can find an already existing one but it is better to make one of your own. Take a proper picture of it to use as a background (it should give us the mood of the place). Then, add an ant (or several ants) somewhere (in order to give us of measure of the whole thing).. an understanding in terms Finally, add your measuring tool to the whole.
#OurLifeIs I draw my own follwing the instructions.. I got lost in our Greek mythology.. tried to find my way out.. I was missing my ball of yarn..Then I remember that it was Ariadne that was holding it.. things got perplexed.. I got comfused.. I stayed there forever.. the ants were following a weird formation pattern going in and out.. I followed ... no luck... It took me a while to understand that Ariadne.. the one I, like modern Theseus, betrayed was hurt.. she was “knitting” and “unknitting” the maze I was a part of.. I was lost...
What will I do today? You will explore your house. Then, once you find a view that looks like a labyrinth, take a picture of it. You are allowed to work on your image a little bit to enhance the “labyrinth” feeling. If your home isn‟t appropriate for this exercise, you may choose another place (as long as it is an interior: no outside pics).Start from this image of yours (of an existing place) and overlap a diagram to it representing the whole labyrinth. Then, add your measuring tool
#NotAllThose I took a wild look downstairs.. OMG there I was .. within a giant, spiral concrete mouth.. its spirals almost swallowed me.. There I was, like another Alice in Wonderland.. wondering step by step, closer to the Minotaure.. waiting for a ball of yarn to wake me up from my dizziness and lead me out of this Limbo..! in vain.. I was in the heart of the Minotaure.. I was lost..!
"Not all those who wander are lost." J. R. R. Tolkien
What will I do today? Find a special place in your city. One that can be “felt” as a labyrinth. Once you find it, take a picture. Work on your picture (collage?). Enhance its labyrinth features. Now, we want to see some kind of map-diagram to help us “fall”into your labyrinth. A scale, measuring tool and there we go! This is a view of Athens city centre.. Big solid concrete volumes in and out of my sight, are blending in.. so difficult to say where one starts and where it ends.. each one has its one character, but all together they mix up so well in a weird city camouflage.. Daedalean massive volumes penetrate violently in the sky, hurting the skyline. .I loose the scale of things.. no proportions are kept.. The concrete volumes seem enormous now.. OMG i feel I wont be able to get away.. I lost my love.. Let me find it.. Im walking, dazzled on a tight thin string.. I wont succeed.. where should I look? Where is he? where am I? How was I find my way back? I can‟t.. I am dressed in red.. Maybe he wil find me.. I doubt, I keep on looking A father lost his son.. Icarus lost his way.. his wings made of wax got burned by the hot Greek sun.. OMG the fall is endless.. I m lost..Daedalous is mourning.. an eternal grief that covered the whole city in grey tears.. ashes and fog.. a Son was lost.. my love is lost.. I was Lost.. there is no end in this eternal „‟fall‟‟.. His heart is bleeding.. This city absorbs and chokes its loves.. farewell.. my ball of yarn just dropped of my hands.. No way I can find my way back.. Daedalous will never find Icarous corps.. I never find my love..I am doomed to come back every morning with the dawn and leave every evening with the dask.. like a plague.. like a curse.. I am bleeding..
“I‟ll paint you moments of gold, I‟ll spin you Valentine evenings...” David Bowie
Week 4: Conceptual Models
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it” Thomas A. Edison
What will I do today? Get under your blankets / sheets (in your bed). Take a picture of this special place you are at. Convey the idea that it is some kind of incredible prehistoric cave. Suggestion: the tricky bit of today‟s task is to work with lights. How to get an appropriate lighting?
“Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads... “
What will I do today? Again, get under your bed sheets. Take a picture of this special place you are at to convey the idea that we are in some kind of incredible prehistoric cave. Yesterday you should have learned to deal with the lights. Now, you will add a second element: cave painting on the surface of your cave. The cave painting should represent the relationship between the sun, the moon and your cave.
Post production was done in Photoshop
Maybe the only thing each of us can see is our own shadow. Chuck Palahniuk
What will I do today? Once again, get in the bed, under your sheets. Take a picture of this special place you are at to convey the idea that you are in some kind of incredible prehistoric cave. Today, you will add people. How? What kind of people? This is up to you. Post production Photoshop
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“Yabba dabba doo”. Fred Flintstone
What will I do today? Today we get fancy. You will make a conceptual model of your cave. To be precise, you will make a conceptual model of a “cross section” of your cave. Your model has to be made out of cheese (you choose the cheese). Isn‟t it nice?
“Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe?� Leonardo da Vinci
What will I do today? Yesterday, you made a conceptual model of your cave using cheese. Today, you will use paper (not cardboard). Thin and white. Paper. Do whatever you want as long as you get a cool result. Fold, cut, crumple, glue... Add the information we need to know about using a diagram. If you wish, you may also add people (we would suggest you to do so).
Week 5: Papercut models
Through space the universe swallows me up like an atom. Blaise Pascal
What will I do today? Today, you will make your own papercut characters. Choose the “real” character you will work on. Take pictures, print your characters. Make a family of them. Let‟s say a couple. Modern Lovers. Do you have your couple? What‟s their name? When you print them, make sure these paper people are scaled 1 to 100.
..Luke Hurt and Claire enjoying their eternal love..
Before I make a mistake, I don‟t make that mistake. Johan Cruyff What will I do today? Today you will make your set of papercraft things. Yesterday, you started with your characters. Now, we need to make things to surround them. Things you need to make for our two lovers (for the time being, they live in an abstract universe). A wall (to separate them). A wall with a window (to separate them, but also give them the possibility to see each other). A wall with a door (to enable them to get in and get out). A tree (to give them a meeting place). Your walls and tree(s) can be small, big, high, low… ...this, you decide. Today, to keep our microworld consistent, we will continue to work with scale 1/100. You have your basic elements. Stage them into a very simple spatial condition and take a picture. Basically, it is all about the relationship between the tree and the wall (no people today). Easy to make it. Very difficult to make it “well”.
..The misery in Lukes Life.. Everything has
gone black and white without Claire.. . Without her.. The light in his life.. His whole life is full of contradictions. Claire fell for another man.. This man, Damien has stolen Lukes beauty.. Hes condemned now in an empty life without her.. Hes.. Alone..
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full. King Solomon
What will I do today? You have your people (two lovers). You have some basic elements (walls and trees). Now, stage them into a spatial scene inside an abstract world (a kitchen table? the floor in your room?).
Luke Hurt (Look at me Im hurt) is watching Claire (light in french) dancing into another mans life.. Damien stole her from him.. Hes always watching her dancing into his life.. But no words can describe his sadness.. Luke wants to be Damien.. Wants to have what HE has.. What used to be his.. His eternal Claire.. Luke is in love.. Always has.. Always will. He would give his everything to be able to dance once more time with her..
Whatâ€&#x;s that screaming? A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming... Barbarella
What will I do today? You have your two lovers, you have your basic elements (walls and trees). Now, find some grass, some natural setting (soil, earth , asphalt, clay...) and dive into the real!
..Luke wants to be just him and her.. As it always was.. He was watching her.. Dazzled by her grace and she was out of this world.. Dancing for his eyes only.. This is how it should be..
If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted. Franz Kafka What will I do today? You will set up your paper scene into a digital world. You choose the world. It can be one of those great apps you experimented in the first part of the course. It can be a screenshot from a video game. It can be whatever you want as long as it is “clearly” digital. One thing: stay simple. Luke Hurt is always setting his eyes on her.. Her grace as she‟s dancing into his life.. She has given his life a meaning.. He‟s always there.. Looking at her.. Wanting desperately to be finally one with her..
Week 6: Building (digital) space
Marble is not alike in all countries. Vitruvius
What will I do today? Choose one of the above linked apps and build a wall. Once you have built your wall, open up a window. Then, open up a second window.Take a screenshot of your work, add one (or more) people to give us an idea of the scale and there you are.
App used throughout : LunaCraft for iOS My wall has two windows.. All this natures unravels upon my eyes.. Its structures, its materials, its habitants.. Its creatures..
Retain your memories but detourn them so that they correspond with your era. Asger Jorn What will I do today? You have to build a base. A flat base. A flat surface between the earth and the sky. By now you should have chosen the app / program you like best. Again, once you have finished your digital work, add people and other useful things for us to understand your intentions (people, animals, moons, zeppelins, whatever you think is appropriate). Donâ€&#x;t overdo it. Add the necessary things. Not too many. In my space there are weird astronauts living.. Weird animals with long necks.. I built a base.. A luminous one.. Take up its light from the moon..
I would rather have a cup of tea than sex. Boy George
What will I do today? Enter your building app and build 16 columns. Aligned, with the same distance between each other. Then, prepare a squared base and build 16 columns following a 4 x 4 grid. Don‟t you feel like Phidias? Here we are… To build columns is quite a nice activity, isn‟t it? Now, once again, add your little people, collage, this and that and there you are with your final image. Mix digital and analog. Overlaps, hybrids, short-circuits. Mix them up and there you are.
My columns seem to have attracted manys astronauts attention.. They climb up on them, going around them, coming close to me.. Always armed.. Always with their guard up in case anything becomes dangerous.. the surroundings are amazing.. Digital plants reflecting moonlight, lighting up the whole area..
The ego is not master in its own house. Sigmund Freud
What will I do today? A base, some columns and a roof. You understand where we are now? Almost. Not yet. This will be tomorrow. We are almost there‌Base + columns + roof. Add your people and things.
My roof is not a plain roof. Itâ€&#x;s a roof which wraps around anything that surrounds it. Wraps around the columns wraps around the light the stone.. Dives into the earth but not quite.. Inhales the moonlight, reflects is back.. Generously.. Lighting up a path which leads closer to the night sky. My astronauts have built another house up in the sky to monitor any activity around my weird construction..
If you want to gather honey, donâ€&#x;t kick over the beehive. Dale Carnegie
What will I do today? You learned to build a wall. You learned to build a base. Then, a colonnade. Finally, a roof... Today, we ask you to use these elements (you donâ€&#x;t have to use them all) and to build your little hut. A protected space for you to rest. Be simple, be lean and show us your space. Once again, if you feel like it, you can add some other things via collage and overlays.
My hat is a protected shelter.. A roof covers the walls below, protecting its residents.. The openings are wide but only in two sides of the structure.. From one side my hat is protected from natural cover such as earth and soil.. The roof protects from rain and sun..
That was my Incredible Journey From Place to Space
March – April 2015
by Stathoula Palivou