I am reminded that what we “know” from day to day is truly known only through a glass darkly. Despite the digital information revolution and the development of more forms of information delivery than we can shake a stick at, we are no more enlightened by what we read and watch today than we were when life and ideas moved at a slower pace. In fact, we may understand less. If there is an art to journalism (and I do believe there is) it is in probing more deeply into the stories and “facts” made available to us through live feeds, blogs, cell phones, digital images and audio recordings; then turning that informative into a coherent whole that we can use for better decision making and action. Information, without thoughtful interpretation, is worse than no information at all. We might as well get our news over our neighbor’s backyard fence.
Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category
Leave it to artists to bring us the news
Posted in Architecture, New Media, The News, tagged Beijing hutongs, information, invisible Chinese, journalism, Liu Bolin, Olympics, The Bird's Nest on January 16, 2009| 9 Comments »
It’s a jungle out there…
Posted in Architecture, Beyond Borders, border conflicts, Border Violations, Design, Installation, tagged barriers, Carolina Cisneros, construction, deconstruction, GRO Architects, public art, Tattfoo Tan, walls on May 1, 2008| 3 Comments »
I live on Staten Island in NYC. Although the borough is loaded with artists, galleries have a hard time surviving here. The ones that do generally fall into two categories: the typical frame-shop / retail gallery and the funky done-on-a-dime kind of place. Naturally I love the latter, though I’m content to have the former for the occasional frame job.
One of the best galleries ever to “have a go” here on Staten Island was Tattfoo Temple of Art and Design, established by artist and graphic designer Tattfoo Tan and his wife, Ensze Tan, in 2003, just three years after their arrival from Malaysia. The Temple was established in an old factory loft that they cleaned up and painted white. (more…)
Feeling small? There’s “The Man” with the movie camera.
Posted in Architecture, Exhibition, Installation, tagged creativity, Jeremy Mora, Joe Fig, Michael Peter Smith, miniatures, Ryan Boyle, scale models, shrinking dollar, small, tableaux on April 28, 2008| 2 Comments »
It’s little wonder we Americans are feeling small, despite our nation’s massive carbon footprint, enormous economy ($13.8 trillion GNP) and gargantuan military-industrial complex. There are still forces greater than we are. Consider the weather. Over the past five years California wild fires, severe droughts, Hurricane Katrina and regional floods have overpowered the government’s resources, decimated states and reduced vibrant neighborhoods to unlivable ruins.
That’s not all. Economic forces have sent us tumbling into a recession. Our homes are worth less than the mortgages we pay, our personal debt is rising, the price of oil has blown past $100 a barrel, job opportunities have diminished and the dollar has shrunk to half the size of the Euro. (more…)
The border between dream and reality…
Posted in Architecture, tagged Architecture, Bauhaus, Bilbao, Gehry, utopia on March 27, 2008| 2 Comments »
While cleaning my apartment I came across an old New York Times article, “Bilbao Ten Years Later,” by Denny Lee (Travel, Sept. 2, 2007). It was accompanied by a huge photo by Denis Doyle that revealed vertical streaks—presumably from dirt, pollution and rain—marring the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum’s titanium fish-scale surface. It reminded me that 20th and 21st century architectural dream spaces age poorly—and quickly. Traditional building materials—wood, stone, mud, iron, brick—tend to resonate as time passes. Weather and surface damage add patinas and dings that tell a story. Not so with glass, plastics, titanium, aluminum and fiberglass. They just get ugly. (more…)
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