Cage

I was struck by inspiration this morning just as I was about to leave the computer for sunnier things (this just after the end of Daylight Savings after all). John Cage and his "Mushroom Book" of 1972 is a collection of drawings and poetry in a folio format. What caught my attention aside from the realistic renderings of fungi was his lithograph prints.

It's as if the mind and its ponderings fell onto a piece of paper, but as a print, these thoughts and manuscripts were purposely prepared then pressured into the paper. Sometimes there would be a map-like drawing to accompany it.

My journals have always been very text based - it's how I process things. Sure there are visual elements, but I'm keen to try this much less ordered (or ordered chaos) approach as a reflection of my own thought process - sometimes muddled, overlapping and reiterative.

For more on the exhibition in New York City, see Hyperallergic.

AW2013

It's right in the middle of Architecture Week 2013 and numerous events have been happening in Auckland and, I understand, across the country. The main event is the exhibition at Silo Park (open 9am to 6pm all week and weekend), and the fun opening night that went with it. Even though the weather has been Civil Defence warning worthy in some places, there was a great turnout to the lunchtime panel discussions and last night's discussion at Jasmax.

The exhibition shows a wide range of work including non-architectural work by architectural graduates. As good as Urbis Design Day.

Is Architecture Week merely an inward-looking industry event? It happens every year and is open to all. Yet you don't see the public engaging with architecture and more specifically, architectural design. It doesn't get the attention that other creative industries receive - the international film festivals, art exhibitions, music events and even Taste (I learned today it involves 18 countries worldwide). What is it about Kiwi culture that seems to disregard architecture as a creative profession that is worth getting to know?

Anyone can say this is a pretty model of a building, but very few in the public audience could point out what's good and bad about the design.

Having been to Open House in London and Dublin, I can see how great architectural design can be appreciated by the public who come in swarms to see different buildings and hear about their conception. Open House is an international programme that allows the public to visit buildings that are usually not open to the public. Our version of this? The budding AAA tours that happen on a sporadic basis. If you're not in the architecture industry, you probably didn't even know we have an Auckland Architecture Association. Or not to mention the elusive New Zealand Institute of Architects.

The Longroom at Trinity College Dublin. A huge line of people waiting to be toured around the immaculately designed educational facility. It is completely free. No such large scale event like this in New Zealand.

There are many architects who believe the public do not need to understand or engage with architecture. In some way, people cannot avoid architecture so are already 'engaging', however, there is a lot more that needs to be done in terms of education and a shift in ideology toward architecture to ensure the survival of the profession and good design in our city.

Architecture Week is open for all - this year it is themed Architecture + Women and touch on issues of equality and equity. Do check out their programme and visit some of the events. Next weekend I will be helping with a workshop at Silo Park that lets the public get hands on with discussing housing issues. 

I managed to get onto on of the panels through Kathy Waghorn's Fluid City project, community-engaging architectural installations.

Brake

Brake House by Ron Sang

Yesterday I had the rare chance to tour the famous Brake House in Titirangi thanks to the Auckland Architecture Association. Designed by architect Ron Sang, a prominent Chinese New Zealander, the house was completed in 1976, before leaky building syndromes and building regulation reforms. The elegance of the house in Titirangi's signature wild naturesque landscape reminded many of American designs like Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House.

Immediately upon entering the house, you felt the sense of attention to detail that encompassed the architecture of that period. The platform leading into the house had a precarious edginess to it. Eventually we figured it out - a lack of our standardised contemporary handrails. Any such feature (your usual 1m high, grabbable railing) would have destroyed the elegance of the design entirely.

Originally designed for Brian Brake, one of New Zealand's most famous photographers, the house includes a studio, dark room, cinema downstairs as well as plenty of glazing and platforms. As a Japanophile, Brake requested a tatami room (this is the glass box floating out into the bushes, shown above).

Incredible reflections all throughout the house, merging nature and architecture.

The architect Ron Sang came and gave us an intimate insight to the making of this house.

Visiting this house is such an inspiration, but as Ron Sang said, there is no way such a house can be built as it is now because of the many regulatory constraints. Back in the 70s, this building only needed 20 A1 sheets to document it - these days you would need at least 100 sheets marking the incredible change that the architectural profession has had over the years. The fusion of Asian and American design in the woodiness of Titirangi is an incredible feat though and, for those who afford it, it is currently up for sale.

Bach

Baches are a staple of New Zealand architecture and it is where NZ architects get a lot of space (in every sense of the word) to experiment and work with our natural landscape. This bach by Min Hall frames the sea element with generous glazing and large deck spaces. What I like most about this bach is how it is split up into modules to fit around the trees. It's not the only one to do that (the McCahon Artist Residence by Pete Bossley springs to mind) and you can imagine the architecture maturing as the trees grow up around it.

See HOME New Zealand's article - Outtakes: A beautiful beach getaway by Min Hall for more.

Post-it2

A tweet from New York Times reporter Hiroko Tabuchi caught my eye. It was about a creative process that her husband was going through and tweeting about. Makes me want to have a post-it wall thinking process, too!

Husband planning out his screenplay on our wall. I shd do this w/ my stories RT ‏@yuichitazawa Laying out my scenes twitter.com/YuichiTazawa/s…
— Hiroko Tabuchi (@HirokoTabuchi) June 12, 2013

See other posts about creative uses of post-its: one of a wall for Mother's Day and another left by a creative barista.

Transform

Last week I flew over to Melbourne to attend architecture conferences run by our Australian counterparts. I attended Transform, a fringe event to the national architecture conference Material. Underscored by 'Altering the Future of Architecture', it was a fitting title that reflected the day's programme.

One of the many panel discussions.

Initially the conference was pitched to me as an event about gender equality. The primary instigator was Parlour (women, equity, architecture), so naturally the increasingly discussed topic of women in the workplace was at the forefront of the participant's minds. On top of this important equality discussion, the event was about the profession in general and the themes discussed were applicable to all, not just women.

The crux of the workshops and talks was,

"If architecture was more inclusive would it also be in a stronger position?"

It was a lot to think about within the space of a day, especially with the perpetual dialogue between various practitioners, academics, students and foreigners. Listening to various positions on the subject, engaging in workshop discussions and taking part in frenzied networking (also known as tea breaks) certainly gave a full bodied experience around the issue of transforming the status quo of the profession. Undoubtedly, everyone left the day with a more open mind about what 'architecture' as a profession is in the 21st century.

A formidable project taken on by the team at Parlour was to create a set of guidelines for work equity, a list of pressing issues for the workplace: pay equity, leadership, recruitment, mentorship, negotiation, long hours, part-time work, flexibility, career break and registration. The 'equity guidelines' that are at a draft stage at the moment (and are open to feedback so do leave a comment for the Parlour team) are specifically tailored to women in architecture, but are weighty food for thought for anyone in the industry - male or female, student, graduate or established practitioner, alike.

Round table discussion.

Any industry undergoes constant change but during the last decade the architectural profession appears to be breaking the mould a bit. The diversity of the career path in architecture was elaborated on via panelists talking about their approach, whether it be by branching out to other disciplines, different funding models or reinventing architecture as we know it. It was so good to have the discussion at such a scale for Australia/New Zealand.

This discussion will come to NZ in the form of Architecture Week 2013 - Architecture + Women NZ (A+W NZ) is holding a similar event – A+W NZ's core team was there at the conference, seeing how a similar event could be run here. There will be keynote speakers along with an exhibition and possibly a designed pavilion erected for the week. The visibility of the architectural profession, equity issues and the role of women in architecture will be the focus of the event. I'll let you know more as it develops.

13

13 Rooms - the 27th Kaldor Public Art Project

13 Rooms is a collection of 'living sculpture', the 27th Kaldor Public Art Project. Is this performance art?  It has vibes of buskers on Queen St or Amanda Palmer's 8-foot bride but in the distilled gallery environment, these pieces confuse and confront. I love the ideas embedded in this variety of work.

Making a statement on the archetypal 'high art' plinth.

One of the curators, Klaus Biesenbach, talks about how you are compelled to think certain pieces are merely video installations, or a tricky projection, or perhaps a life-like model. Once you enter the room, you are faced with a live human. Art has too often taken the representation path. The realness of 13 Rooms is so much more engaging.

It is only on for 11 days so make sure you get in quick if you're in Sydney. It's free too! Probably only on for a week because of all the staffing - they really made the effort.

Transport

Auckland is going through an important phase of its planning development over the next few months with the consultation period for the Unitary Plan opening up to the public. Mayor Len Brown's Twitter account reports that the submission period has gotten off to a great start which is unsurprising with the long lead up and building tension in opinions.

If you're an Aucklander, particularly if you are a building practitioner or one with a vested interest and expertise in the Unitary Plan issues, make sure you make a submission as it is the first step to reforming a plan for wider Auckland (under the new 'Supercity' where several councils are now a single council).

Click the image to visit the site ~

A cool little site that is going in parallel to all this is the Alternative Transport Funding project that advises Auckland Council on long term transport issues. Aptly named Keep Auckland Moving, the site is partly a moving infographic with a neat first person birds-eye view of a car going down a road. The 'drive' takes you on many common Auckland driving scenarios, culminating in a forsaken traffic jam where you are invited to take part in a survey.

Along the way, bits of the drivers' thoughts (which many of us will be able to relate to) and some information bites pop up too. It's a much more interactive form of connecting with the survey audience - definitely better than reams of policy text. Have fun and make a submission - transport is one of the largest issues in this city.

Cheesefest

Last evening I went to the Cuisine Magazine's Cheesefest at the Langham's Great Room which was, as the location may give away, rather fancy and well run. A surprisingly large throng of people went to this event, well placed as a mid-week wind down. Here are a few highlights:

Over the Moon Dairy Company was a standout among the many cheese brands showing at Cheesefest. A quirky label with a creative spirit - look at how many different types of cheese they have on display! Their casual but striking branding helps express their joy of cheese making with carefree graphite swirls and rows of text used as texture. Presented on black ceramic tiles, there was a real finish to their look. 

As for the cheese, the black truffle brie was delish as was the goats cheese marinating in some oil with sundried tomato and herbs.

The award winning cheeses laid out on a centre piece. Thankfully the Cheesefest wasn't only cheese - there were other products too: sauces, ice creams, cordials, chorizo, etc. In particular the ginger lime kaffir ice cream and mascarpone date orange ice cream by Pure New Zealand ice cream was very well balanced - often such flavours are too overpowering. Keep an eye out for the other Cuisine Artisan Award winners.

The New Zealand Natural Cheese Company paired their award winning cheese with pineapple pieces with many people saying it was a fad in the 70s. So retro, but I wouldn't know it. Either way it was a great combo. They were also giving away snack size packets of their cheese too - you might see them on air planes.

Other notable mentions:

• - Puhoi Valley Fiddler's Hill fresh goats cheese was a rich salty feta-like cheese which looked like a block of dried coconut, flaky and snow white.
• - Puhoi Valley's rind cheese was a brilliant orange with the texture of the cheese coming through as white negative. Brilliant flavour too.
• - One of the first things we ate (which kind of set the bar) was the cranberry fruit pâté by Lowry Peaks on a cracker with a piece of soft white cheese. Age old combination is a classic. The fruit pâté is like a jam but more concentrated and solid so it requires less and delivers the fruity flavour more than sheer sweetness.
• - Kapiti Artisan Bakehouse completely convinced us with their garlic butter ciabatta - we went home with several.

Seems like Auckland has gotten real classy and cultural in recent years with more and more of these events showering the calendar. It's a real developing scene that tries to get the public more involved with the less accessible side of cuisine. Similar to the way NZ Fashion Week is now doing a 50/50 industry/public event. Looking forward to it!

Humans

Over the last while a controversy over street photos taken by Humans of New York came to light where the renown fashion label DKNY used the a bunch of photos in their Thailand shop front without credit or payment for the right to use the photos. You can read a good article about it on the Wall Street Journal.

Retaliating with a Facebook post demanding DKNY to own up to its mistake and donate the proceeds to a local Brooklyn charity, DKNY did eventually own up, saying it was a mistake and that they will go ahead with paying the charity. I thought it was all done and dusted - a pretty good outcome to a pretty bad situation on all sides. A global label like DKNY having a lapse in communication with an Asian branch? Understandable.

But it didn't stop. A stinging vindictiveness from the supporters of Humans of New York and from those standing up for intellectual property rights for creative products (which in itself is a terribly controversial issue with fuzzy boundaries and awkward skirmishes in price battles such as the one in this example). Humans of New York happened to take the initiative this time and got a compromise but still DKNY is still getting trashed post-apology. Perhaps it's the easiness of just pressing a 'like' button, the epitome of a 21st century cliché, or the convenience of reading half a sentence on a very long (partially hidden) post and sharing a scathing comment.

In the creative industries, it's not always clear cut but more importantly, the field is malleable and open to new collaborations. There are many ways to go about crediting/PR and I think this example is a particularly creative example of standing up for one's creative property rights. But let's remember that we are also human and prone to mistakes.

To see the raging comments about the issue (which toss between different views), see the Facebook post that started it all.

Dream

A short film of Ian Ruhter's photographic process reveals a practice of inspiration. Often a camera is used as a mere tool for capturing images, but Ruhter's 'camera', which is held in a baby blue truck, exposes the lives of others (pun intended), or more accurately, their way of life.

Whether intentionally or otherwise, Ruhter's practice brutally disassembles the 'American dream' - that it is not for everyone, nor is it essential for a happy existence. Finding your own happiness is in your own hands and no one else's. The truck travels around documenting the American existence. Certainly he can't document ALL of it (most of it would be pretty banal anyway) but he sure has a knack of finding the more interesting characters around.

"The LA skyline photo is so important to me. That fence symbolises every fear, every doubt. Once we went over that fence, our trip to America began." 

Using a full plate film technique, crisp details can be blown up. He can inhabit the camera - in the film you can see the world in reverse around him like being in a giant pinhole camera (some spaces are made for this purpose). Doing both portraiture and landscape/cityscape photos, it links the peculiarities of the city with those inhabiting it with their particular stories. The technique reminds me of the chemigram, the imperfections mirror the imperfections of humans.

Blogger's note: I need to stop talking about photography for a while... this blog is becoming a photo blog or something!

Cover

What's in a cover? Do you judge a book by its cover? Interestingly Penguin has republished a series of age old classics by George Orwell with some fresh cover design. A great break from the usual staunch classics covers by Penguin, provided by designer David Pearson.

Each is stylistically different, a distilled reflection of the content of the book. A tongue-in-cheek cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four shows the title and author blacked out, a visual reminder of the censorship featured in the dystopic novel. As the designer, Pearson must have had to really understand the book's content as the subject matter.

Animal Farm (read my review of Animal Farm from ages ago) has a blood red background slashed with the title, divorced from the cartoony cover of animals (which was ironic considering the content within) on the first edition of the book I ever read.

What strikes me about these new covers is that you can judge these books by its cover because they are a cheeky static image of the novel. Sure, there's a lot more to the writing than the image, but better than having no feathers on a peacock.

You can see the other covers in this article by Creative Review. And do check out David Pearson's other work - he seems to have quite a connection with Penguin. Thanks again to Alice for providing inspiration.

Tiny

Three great examples of tiny homes.

A while back I saw the video about Gary Chang's apartment in Hong Kong, curiosity piqued by the YouTube title "A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms". Seduced by the idea I watched the entire video (along with Chang's jolting Hong Kong English) and was mesmerised by the permutations that the shifting modules can create, apparently, 24 different spaces.

A more recent example is the New York apartment of Treehugger's founder. With an eco-efficiency mindset, the design of his home was crowd-sourced and ideas selected. The final solution makes use of some really excellent product design to supplement a much simpler sliding spaces arrangement.

It highlights the move away from 'rooms' at all, but space and how we use it. Micro-houses are already a huge thing in Japanese architecture due to tiny sites. These apartments economise space even further by thinking about the specific programmes of the space with a bit of human intervention. Rather than sprawling houses on huge pieces of land (and a lot of lawn maintenance), the inner-city lifestyle has increasing appeal and design is making it all the better.

Whether it's the constraint of a tiny site or just a compact way of life, this sort of design is never short of innovation. Even garages have been converted into stylish small homes, a touch of architecture and a boatload of thought lets just enjoy the smaller side of life. Gems surrounded by stone.

Thanks to Nico and Alice for the great examples behind this post - love it when people feed me ideas and awesome creative things! I, for one, can't wait to design such cool little environments someday when I become an architect.

Devoid

Fashion photography is an intense portrayal of finely detailed creative products. With so much happening behind the scenes - stylists, hair, make up, the model - it can often seem overworked or devoid of any meaningful content (usually with an overdose of narcissism or airy commercialism).

Which is what I found amazing about the stylised photography of Formento & Formento. Cinematic images try to tell a story and feel almost surreal, as if something from a Dali painting might wistfully appear. I like how F&F don't mind having underexposed areas - too often is an image ruined by even exposure which can be informatively boring. It is with these sets, combined with the clothes and styling, that the photos tell a story, often not from our present.

The photos are another sort of 'devoid', settings that could equally be bustling with people are stripped down to the one expressionate model. These buildings, the decor, the emptiness sits there, mingling with the subject.

Lumas London will be featuring a show of Formento & Formento: on the Road Again from February 20 to March 10 so if you're around London, go check it out. Breathtaking drama in photography and fashion combined can make you really think beyond the simple frame that is presented.

Thanks Lucire's article for the heads up. They also have a brilliant F+F Tumblr account. Also see a previous post on drama in photography in Philip-Lorca diCorcia's work.

Record

A tweet from Mt Eden Dubstep recently caught my attention:

@MtEdenOfficial: We never had anything except the bare minimum equipment since we started... finally getting up to industry standards feels good

Despite not having a huge amount of equipment for a genre of music that requires quite a bit of specialised equipment to make, Mt Eden has done so well in the local and now global dubstep scene. As they move into their first studio in NYC (from their humble 'bedroom studio'), we'll see how their style of music develops.

Many big name bands started out of garage studios with limited equipment but it should never be the limitation on creativity. Big bands such as Linkin Park started with grungy garage demo tapes before eventually expanding the empire. Now they have a fantastic studio which I believe has also changed their style of music as they experiment to their heart's content. For one, audio editing has removed the grit of a lot of today's music.

How much does a studio environment affect the creative process and outputs? Is it fair for a creative practitioner to blame a lack of tools and resources? However we go about it, it's the creative thinking and approach to one's art that really counts.

Us

After a gruelling semester of architecture studies, I'm back on the blog (and Twitter) after my usual crit hiatus. Something that's been lingering on my bookmarks bar for a while is the Us cover of Rihanna's hit 'Where have you been'.

Very rarely do you find a cover as innovative as this. The husband wife duo, Carissa Rae and Michael Alvarado, created a fusion of genres for this very familiar pop song, with hints of classical influence, rock, jazz and a unique interpretation. Do enjoy and I'm looking forward to blogging over the summer, especially with an upcoming trip to China's villages!

Check out more from Us on their website HaveYouHeardOfUs.com. If you like their work, make sure you support them by purchasing their song or album.

Disparity

Murals have featured a few times on the blog, but none at the scale of Hendrik Beikirch's (aka ECB) latest mural in Busan, Korea. It's street art on steroids, transcending the street to become 'city art' with a scale that rivals Daniel Libeskind's gleaming skyscraper.

Placed on Busan's fisher union building, the 230-foot long mural is manually painted with no guide, relying only on instinct and the gesture of the hand. Depicting a wrinkly old fisherman, it is visual food for thought about the disparity of wealth in Korea (also applicable to many other countries in this day and age). Even the architecture performs the part in this commentary, with a staunch rectangular prism in Modernist white, next to the curve-topped, blue glass towers. The message is that the economic boom of recent times has not reached everyone, despite the hypothetical trickle down effect, and many still live in a harsh world where in old age one must don the protective fishermen gloves.

The mural reminds me of JR's street art, also of large portraits but with a different take. The common theme of using portraiture in highly public art is that it connects to every one of us. The eyes implore our own minds of the issues we do not see or would rather not see.

Score

Deadline looms and projects are firing up (not to mention a backlash from NZFW) so there hasn't been much time to blog lately. Here is a tweet I saw of Imogen Heap, showing the beginnings of a score she is working on for the documentary film The Happiest Place. I love how it is more of a doodle of ideas and impressions rather than formalistic notation at this stage.

@imogenheap: Beginnings of score writing process for @HappiestFilm :) http://instagr.am/p/PweI8VFEL0/ 

Mist

Cai Guo Qiang's Endless presents a poetic collision of culture. However, without the bang and boom of other cultural advents such as the symbolic collision of 911, this installation shows two types of traditional boats (Chinese and Middle Eastern) lost in a mist. The encounter is sombre and the inherent stillness of the mist infects the piece.

The ephemeral and anti-stability theme is explored by many Chinese artists. Just today, at the Auckland Art Gallery I saw a series of photographs by Song Dong which spoke a similar language. A Pot of Boiling Water contained elements of performance art, as Dong pours boiling water from a kettle onto an old street of Beijing - the steam is temporal and the words written fade to the stability of stone.

Thread

Yuriko Sakai's 'The Room of Kappa' rivals that of Chiharu Shiota's work in the way she uses thread in space. Unlike Shiota's relational lines of chaos, Sakai created a space of absolute orderliness. From the horizontal planes that frame the work to regularity of the angles and intersections, there is something zen about being in the presence of, or being in such a sculpture.

Thanks to Spoon and Tamago for the heads up.