it begins........

initial geometr[ies] installation.

Phase 1.0

Fleas and Surface Applicants phase 2

Fleas and Surface Applicants.
Progress study for new drawing exploration.... Surface Applicants and the progression of topography

development studies

Ghosting

Fleas and surface applicants

Progress study for new drawing exploration.... Surface Applicants and the progression of topography

bX-g90x6h- blog errors + pattern language[s]

test

test patterns

motley crew

 Jennifer Bonner, Volkan Alkanoglu,  Eric Kahn,  Bryan Cantley, 

Wes Jones, Tm Gratkowski, Christopher Mercier

Just came across this group photo of the bunch of us at the Opening @ Zask Gallery from earlier this year. 

Mechrucifix

the "Mechrucifix" plays with the allegory of the [tattoo] owner's religious background, using the imagery of the shrouded cross as a generator for mechanical tubing... both giving life and taking spiritual waste from the body...

the final generation of the TATTOO...

Limited edition signed prints available for both versions. Email me if you are interested.

Residue generator

Global mapper...index translator... seismic lines
quick sketch for  new drawing

[faculty meetings are fertile breeding grounds for new ideas to develop...]

BLOG ERrOR

It seems all of the images of my blog were deleted in in a google corruption. I will spend the next month os so trying to reload images... obviously this will be quite an undertaking an some posts/images will never return.

Thank you for your patience.

I am trying to deal with the emotional repercussions of such a destructive act.

RE:population always buries the dead and gives birth to new offspring... let's see how close i can get.

Indexical Scanning Inversion[s]

Hyperbolic Manifesto[s]. Combobulatory Dissonances.

The Duchess:
"I quite agree with you. And the moral of that is: Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."

CAPTCHA of architectural documentation

Experimenting with the mis- interpretive coding of architectural drawing/communication as a Captcha event. The 'challenge-response' test manifests the initial conceptual kernel of Mechudzu.

Distortion on [un]truths to prevent the 'bots' of architectural convention from accessing a singular reading.



or... CUPTCAS- Completely Underutilized Public interpretive Test to Confuse Architectural Standards, based on definition of CAPTCHAS- Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

Alice 2.0

Render Test with Joey Dhindsa and Katherine Hale.
Alice is getting close to full digital immersion.

Sur-Face Bores & Platonic Engagements

Drawing study-  Phase 4: Inform-ative Site insertion.

In:site > spatial riots

Fleshscapes

Study... I repeat study for a full back tattoo for a good friend... is going through revisions as we speak.

conditions that speak of tying the tattoo as a flat object into the topography of the flesh/back area...

crucifix machine language.... juxtaposition of sectional diagram of rear torso upon object that is simulataneously an object and a graphic of itself....

Comments from a post below... don't want them to get layered over.... 

"I really appreciate your work and find it one of the most provocative and inspiring. As i was reading your book and trying to get inside your 'world' more, i was curious about something : 'Do your machines work? or are they theoretical, urban insertions only talking about it? . 

Your words and drawings look fantastic and extraordinary to me anyway, the question is just my curiosity.



Thanks,


Stratis"

Stratis-

Thank you for your comments and kind words.

I’ll answer this stream of thought, to keep it in the flavor of the blog.

The short answer- yes and no.

Or to quote Bill Clinton, “It depends on what your definition of the word ‘is’ is”…

The longer version- it really depends on which specific project you are referring to, and as well [to reference the Clinton quote], what your definition of “work” happens to be.

Of course, this long version is incredibly stripped down in hopes that some will actually spend the time to read it. And yes, I am butchering the proper quotation usage. I prefer to use quotes in a conversation, not a manuscript. You can quote me on that.

*****

I’ll address the second part first [addressing the first part first would be too logical and clear…].

Architecturally, I think working can reference program, function, performance, and behavior. Certain machines/projects work on a functional level, meaning they perform the mechanical task that each component was engineered to do. They work. They work like my lawnmower or coffee maker work.. they perform a specific chore. Certain other projects have working parts, which are mixed in with components or rather assemblies that do not work in the sense that they are supportive suggestions, built around or upon a working component.

Other projects work in the sense that they perform their designated architectural program. A bathroom works as a receptacle/refresh location… a gathering space works as a collective device… a ramp works as a vertical/horizontal translation system. They work. Additionally in this sense, drawings work as graphic suggestions of otherness, representation, suggestiveness, and deception. They work as well.  

I think performance is actually a better term that could be used to describe a hybridized layer of the “working” with the “only talking about it”. One might perform a drawing [I certainly do], and the drawing may perform other tasks of communication. The “buildings” [I use the term loosely, as I will get into trouble with my own intended use of that concept] perform both a mechanical and architectural function, but additionally the function of ”talking about” larger architectural issues. They work as agents of change, discourse, and action. Of course, the term “architectural issues” in its own right open that wormcan in ways that I will not discuss here. But you get the picture. I like your term “theoretical urban insertions”. To open up the old debate, unless a “building” is constructed… they are ALL “theoretical… no?

But make no mistake, regardless of functionality, all the work is intended to talk about architecture. We once lectured at the Tulane School of Architecture, many moons ago, when Reed Kroloff was Dean . The local AIA was invited to the event [or were they perhaps even a co sponsor]. I remember an AIA person asking, at the end of the lecture, something along the lines [drawing] of “You reference your work… the work… what exactly are you referring to when you say ‘the work’?”. To be honest, part of me still does not understand the scope of that question…. Looking at it literally as a collective body of … stuff… or the collected work of an author… things produced.

But your question recalls a similarity of focus and understanding of the devices we use to communicate ideas… both words in that case… or my work in this case… drawings here… buildings there… models in-between?

I suppose there is also the condition of the collective body, probably more specific the drawings, of task inversion… of that the projects are working us a readers, occupants, observers, interact-ers, and users. In that sense, we become the field of operation. We become part of the machine… we work together to achieve an output of some type that is greater than either the work or the observer before the level of interaction. I won’t go into the history or philosophy of art and it’s relation to the user [mainly because that is not my expertise], but hopefully you can see where this might go.

*****

So, the first part- specific projects. I suppose the easy thing to do would be to graph this out and tell you which projects fall into which categories, but that’s no fun at all. And, I feel that, on some levels, it doesn’t really matter, not trying to be obtuse. Perhaps there is a filter of convention that might be placed over the entire collection [in the book anyway], which helps the reader to discern which projects are “mechanically functional” versus which projects “implant a discourse about machines, architecture, and performance”. I am purposefully avoiding any historical architectural references here… you can fill in the blanks as needed. Let’s just say, that for the projects in the book, convention might be the container of mechanical functionality… and as one moves from convention of forms- recognizable architectural artifacts [stairs, ramps, elevators, guide rails, articulators, screens, festoons, handrails, etc.]- one might move away from the mechanical crispness  to which you refer in your question.

I hope that helps. The question is a good one… and make me pause to give thought to the level of effectiveness of communication that we achieved in the book, and more importantly to the level and type of communication that I hope to achieve in a second book p[should anyone be interested]. Yes, I am working potential publishers/sponsors to help generate more of this madness.

All right, that’s enough of this... time to go back to work.

More Alice 2.0 test renders

She gets closer and closer to having her real skin applied.. just as we see her after her passage through the mirror. And wait until you see the animations......... with Joey Dhindsa

Artist/architect talks

I will be participating in an "Artists' Talk, this Sunday, June 3, from 5-7 pm, at the Zask Gallery in Palos Verdes. I have 5 pieces in this exhibit, "Breaking Conventions" [art by architects]

Peggy Zask:
"This coming Sunday, June 3 at 5:00 pm the Artists (Architects) in the current show will speak about their process, offering a rare glimpse into the richness of the artistic life of architecture. The presentation will include a discussion and show of images highlighting projects from past and present. We invite you to join us, meet the artists, ask questions and enjoy the evening."

Other talkers include 
Volkan Alkanoglu and Jennifer Bonner
Andrew Atwood
Bryan Cantley
Tm Gratkowski
Wes Jones
Eric Kahn
Gary Paige
Elena Manferdini
Lorcan O/Herlihy
Christopher Mercier.


Please come and join the discussion. — at Zask Gallery.

Prototypes. 5x7, 6x6 studies, ink and acrylic on clapboard panels. Exploring the footnoting of architectural and graphic information. The initial 4 studies if what I hope to be a new series of art[i]facts that employ the personalization of scale within "finished" objects. 

[A]l[i]ce render test

Alice 2.0
Render study showing entry/exit drawbridges in "occupied"/reading position. w/ Joey Dhindsa. 

[C]S[U]sentinel

 [C]S[U]sentinel. Composite study for new Hybridrawing.
I hope to begin construction of this new drawing series in a few weeks. A daunting task, but I am quite excited about the outcome.

Old School Ink-On-Mylar still gets me going..... And I feel that it has a direct, if not conscious, relation to the act of breaking ground/impregnating site of architectural intention.

CSUF Sentinel

Sectional Study.

Viewport.
Mirror.
Oculus.

CosMo reloaded

Collision study

Exploring the confrontational nature of art and society.... benign and viral architecture... and the inability to experience projects in a static non-time based condition... i am beginning a series of drawings that attempt to speak to these issues.

test # 1

CSUF Sentinel Gate

The inside of the Mirror- or, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

Studies for the intake/exhaust porting and hoist mechanism for the Primary Drawbridge on Alice 2.0. Just as in the project, i am intrigued as much by what goes on behind the scenes as the final facade [of operations or interface].

Isomorphic Surface Structure 01

Surface variant study. Windows Paint. Coffee. [Con]fusion.

redrum

NSFW Diptych Panel 02- Saturation

I will be showing 5 pieces in the Breaking Conventions show at the Zask Gallery in LA, May 5- June 24, 2012.

This is Panel 02- Saturation of my Diptych. I will have 5 pieces in the exhibition, including a brand new collaborative piece with Kim Seieroe.


Please come see me at the opening if you can. This is an "art by architects" exhibit, including the work of Wes Jones, Hernan Diaz Alonso, Gary Paige, Lorcan O'Herlihy, and Eric Owen Moss among others. 

USC Lecture

You can just make out the one person still awake, two down and one over ;)

Alice 2.0 [not textured/rendered yet] makes her first public appearance... 

What's next:

Scanner mechanism- study of the invisible layer of scanning as a process document.

Panel intervention.

cosmology virus

Hello again... took a little "break. prepping for the USC lecture [4.2.12], as well as working on the Alice 2.0 design. I'll post some out our new shots of her soon, but wanted to get back in this forum with some new rendering studies for Cosmo. We have missed him.

Finally....

*** UPDATE***

Amazon.com is selling.. though they only have 5-10 [?] left in THEIR stock [get 'em whilst you can], though they are stating they are getting more next month. Actar, the distributor, only had 3 copies left as of last week.


It has finally arrived [in the US]. 

Amazon [US] has messed up its distribution with Springer, but should be on board sometime "soon".

In California, it is available at Hennessy & Ingalls, William Stout Books, and SFMOMA.

I thank all the readers who have expressed interest in the book, and hope that the product will indeed have been worth the wait.

B1 Article

Great 6 page feature article in B1 Magazine. Awesome image reproduction, some better than my book. Several images that were not included in book as well.

It's in Thai, so if you can help me translate... ;)

And the Beat goes on...

Authorship Device re-design- ALice Project [Enantiomorph Inversions].

Test massing.

Sentinel/Entry Gate panels

Presentation panels for Sentinel Project.

Model progress

kit of parts.... bit and pieces.... approaching model "site assembly"...

progress shots. Thanx to Kim Seieroe for the modeling help!