Architecture

Architecture is the material actualization of a preferred system. It articulates how we feel the world ought to be. That it expresses a preference is a necessary consequence of its form: an architected form is a space transformed, a space replaced.

Orientation around Covent Garden and the West End

Another coursework motivated post. The task was to explore around the Covent Garden and West End areas of London, trying to visit as many key locations as possible, while producing written, photographic and drawn records. As well I was to find and collect things of interest from the environment. This exercise essentially familiarised me with a general research approach for exploring and documenting an area.

A lot of the places I was tasked with documenting were locations that would be relevant to illustration (art supply shops, galleries). Being plopped in the middle of Covent Garden I didn't exactly hit the ground running. When I first arrive in a place I find I'm not really ready to start seeking things out and constructing a mental model, rather first I aim to get a feel for things, to listen and let the place speak to me and then gradually build up a set of associations. This approach came crashing against my time constraint and instead I found myself rushing from spot to spot, hurriedly jotting down the most immediate of impressions like some twisted impersonation of a tourist. In any event, here follows what I managed to scrape together.

Chords of Canada

Another coursework-motivated post. The task is to find three examples each of Design, Illustration, and Art from my country of origin - Canada. These should be interesting and relevant to me and to Canada. Being not particularly well tuned in to art - especially that which might be considered culturally relevant - nor being in touch necessarily with Canadian culture, I found the task a bit of a challenge. In any event, here follows my attempt.

Pick 10: Images of Interest

The following post is rather simply motivated. It is part of my required pre-course work - a school assignment. The goal is simply to pick 10 images that I find interesting and to explain my picks. What follow are simply what happens to interest me at the moment of this posting.

A Geometric Offering: GEB-EGB Trip-let

Having come to the end (finally!) of the voluminous tome that is Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter, I decided to try my hand at reproducing the GEB-EGB trip-let that forms the cover image (at least on the copy of the book that I was reading). This self-imposed exercise came as a welcome change of pace from the mathematical-typographical exercises that Hofstadter presents (punishes?) his readers with. Hofstadter describes the cover image thus:

Cover: A "GEB" and an "EGB" trip-let suspended in space, casting their symbolic shadows on three planes that meet at the corner of a room. ("Trip-let" is the name which I have given to blocks shaped in such a way that their shadows in three orthogonal directions are three different letters. The trip-let idea came to me in a flash one evening as I was trying to think how best to symbolize the unity of Gödel, Escher, and Bach by somehow fusing their names in a striking design. The two trip-lets shown on the cover were designed and made by me, using mainly a band saw, with an end mill for the holes; they are redwood, and are just under 4 inches on a side.)

GEB-EGB trip-let as depicted on the cover of my copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach

Don't Ignore The Origin of the Species

If you haven't read Charles Darwin's seminal work then that is really something you need to correct. Perhaps you think that you know all about evolution and natural selection and see little value in going back to such an old book that must surely be outdated by now. Or perhaps you feel intimidated by the science of evolution, see it as encroaching too much on your worldview or simply dealing with ideas beyond the prowess of your feeble intellect. Both such positions are indefensible. Some 158 years on from its initial publication, Darwin's Origin remains essential reading for those who aspire to understand the world around them. It is accessible to any educated person regardless of one's lack of technical knowledge in biology, geology, taxonomy, etc. But you don't have to see reading Origin as a chore, something to be endured so that you can maintain your small modicum of credibility among the intelligentsia. Rather, reading Origin should be seen as a delight, akin to watching a new season of Planet Earth as narrated by David Attenborough.

Game Pitch: Rectifier

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."

The above quote from The Terminator is spoken by the character of Kyle Reese to Sarah Connor. It has in a way become iconic, the perfect descriptor for the terminator, the titular killing machine. In Rectifier, this quote describes not your enemy, but you.