I just wanted to let everyone know that I will not be updating my blog for a couple days due to Friday being my first "review." We have been working on the Dining Room Project for a while now and before we can wrap it up we need to have a review. This type of event happens every now and then in architecture school and is comprised of us bringing down statements, pictures, sketches, final drawing and model to Sibley where we present our idea to a jury (not kidding, it is literally called a jury) of other faculty and staff members, who then proceed to rip the project, and our lives, to shreds.
Legend goes that one notoriously dramatic architect, while teaching at Harvard, asked a girl who was giving a presentation to go and get a glass of water. While she was gone he set her model on fire. The water was to put out the flames.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that but even if does I would just laugh. Bullies.
So it goes.
Anyways I will post my drawing and model for everyone to see what I have been doing. I finished the drawing but now have to complete the model. I just passed my shop test and am ready for "go time."
Funny story, the last three weeks we have been having orientation and training in the shop. We had a big list of vocab and shop procedures to study and take a final test, demonstrating our competency. We heard this test was cake so four of us guys strolled into the shop last Friday, beaming with confidence. Two had studied and two were relying on memory, I was one of the latter. Well, the test was A LOT harder than we all thought and there were a couple of things covered in the paperwork and not in the sessions. We needed an 80% to pass. I got a 78.5%.
One and half points is way to close of a margin and I quickly scanned the test, found an ambiguous question worth 2 points. He had to give it to me, 80.5%! The shop manager just laughed and called me a little bastard.
Tuesday, September 29
Sunday, September 27
GTBKI: Noyes Recreation Center
In these weeks of insanity, I like to reminisce on simpler times. For instance, in Ithaca, before classes began, life was simple. It was in those days that I thought it would be a good investment to purchase a pass to the Cornell fitness centers. After all, there is a newly constructed fitness center about half a mile from my apartment called Noyes Recreation Center.
This was before I knew that to survive, I would have to sacrifice at least twelve hours a day to architecture.
Anyways, yesterday was Saturday and I had some free time so I thought I would go and throw some weights around. I had been to Noyes a couple times before and the first thing I always notice is its size. It is small. Brand new equipment in a tiny space.
The second thing is that it is crowded. Every time I go I chose a different time and arrive to find the same situation. The half that contains the treadmills, elliptical machines, etc. is packed with sorority girls and the half with the free weights and machines is full of steroid-popping undergrads who are all about 5'10 and weigh just as much as me. I call these guys the Muscles.
Muscles are fairly easily identified. For instance, a Muscle cannot work out without adequate access to a mirror. They say it is to watch their form, which would be true if they didn't mean it as the motion of the barbells. Most of the Muscles have cut-off t-shirts with acronyms that are meaningless to me (UFC, WWF, NFL, etc) and the rest have on Underarmor. Muscles come in pairs. At any given point one of the pair is screaming encouragement at the other. Muscles generally smell pretty bad. They think the smell is their testosterone, I think it is a deficient application of deodorant.
I am going to just have to keep trying different times and hope one works out. The thing is that my schedule is pretty limited right now and there are only so many options.
Thursday, September 24
5 Things that make me happy
I have noticed that there is a theme to my recent updates and I want to take some time to talk about the good things in my life. I do try to enjoy life and despite all my troubles I am managing pretty well.
Today I sat down in the Green Dragon and made a list, "Things that make me happy." Note that this is a pragmatic list and omitted are the true sources of joy in my life.
1. The Big 3 Beverages:
Tea, Coffee, Beer. Depending on the time of day the careful supply of one of these liquids can completely change my mood. This is not solely due to their chemical effects. The taste, smell, and sensation of each is what really gets me. My coffee I like with half-n-half and sugar. My tea, well I like that just as it is. Beer, I'll take anything amber in color.
2. The smell of toasting bagels:
Oh and I like eating bagels too but this is about the quotidian experiences that really have the power to change my day. Walking into Collegetown bagels, flooded with that warmth, it is a good thing.
3. Collegetown Bagels:
Not just because of the smell. The shop closest to campus has a very urban, carefully crafted bohemian feel. As unlikely as this is, I like to imagine Vonnegut and Pynchon crafting their dismay of humanity while sitting on the patio. (Vonnegut dropped out of Cornell but they still hold on to the fact that he did attend, for a while)
4. The Cornell Daily Sun:
This irreverent paper is so full of cynicism and sex, news and comedy that when I have time to sit in the Dragon and acclimatize myself to university life, it is absolute bliss.
5. Good things on the calender:
This is one I owe to my lovely girlfriend. She learned a while ago that people who have things on the calendar to look forward to, are happier. For that reason I try to include the good things among my assignments. The "good things" make me happy too, but having them on my calendar is like having half the experience.
Today I sat down in the Green Dragon and made a list, "Things that make me happy." Note that this is a pragmatic list and omitted are the true sources of joy in my life.
1. The Big 3 Beverages:
Tea, Coffee, Beer. Depending on the time of day the careful supply of one of these liquids can completely change my mood. This is not solely due to their chemical effects. The taste, smell, and sensation of each is what really gets me. My coffee I like with half-n-half and sugar. My tea, well I like that just as it is. Beer, I'll take anything amber in color.
2. The smell of toasting bagels:
Oh and I like eating bagels too but this is about the quotidian experiences that really have the power to change my day. Walking into Collegetown bagels, flooded with that warmth, it is a good thing.
3. Collegetown Bagels:
Not just because of the smell. The shop closest to campus has a very urban, carefully crafted bohemian feel. As unlikely as this is, I like to imagine Vonnegut and Pynchon crafting their dismay of humanity while sitting on the patio. (Vonnegut dropped out of Cornell but they still hold on to the fact that he did attend, for a while)
4. The Cornell Daily Sun:
This irreverent paper is so full of cynicism and sex, news and comedy that when I have time to sit in the Dragon and acclimatize myself to university life, it is absolute bliss.
5. Good things on the calender:
This is one I owe to my lovely girlfriend. She learned a while ago that people who have things on the calendar to look forward to, are happier. For that reason I try to include the good things among my assignments. The "good things" make me happy too, but having them on my calendar is like having half the experience.
Wednesday, September 23
Wednesday
I was doing some calculating on my way home today and this is what I come up with.
Say I have 24 hours in my average weekday. Now let's say on average, I have to spend 6 hours in class. Now let's pretend that for every hour of class, I have an hour and a half of work: 9 hours work. Ok 15 hours of my day dedicated solely to architecture, that is not too bad... but I forgot the commute. Ok a generous half an hour on either end of the day and another, for all of the walking between classes.
But no one can really work for 15 strait hours. I need some breaks in there and lucky for me, I have yet to include meals, a moderately important part of my day. An hour and a half should take care of that. Add another half an hour for all things hygiene related and we should be good...
Until I start to take into account things that the average architect might deem superfluous. Human relationships for one. I happen to be in a serious one of the romantic nature and couldn't get by without at least half an hour of her talking me down off the cliff. Religion is another. I am one of those superstitious folks who like to read the bible and pray. Fifteen minute quiet time and another fifteen minutes pleading with God to send the plagues of Egypt to all architects, he obviously hardened their hearts a while ago.
Ok we are getting close to the complete day. Add another half an hour for errands, there is always something to do. Add another half hour for time to decompression / entertainment... I'll let you guess which category updating my blog falls into. And finally we arrive at a number
20.5 hours! I made it with room to spare... what am I going to do with those extra three and a half hours!
Whats that? I forgot sleeping... crap.
The picture gets really bleak when I start doing more accurate measurements based on a week.
Say I have 24 hours in my average weekday. Now let's say on average, I have to spend 6 hours in class. Now let's pretend that for every hour of class, I have an hour and a half of work: 9 hours work. Ok 15 hours of my day dedicated solely to architecture, that is not too bad... but I forgot the commute. Ok a generous half an hour on either end of the day and another, for all of the walking between classes.
But no one can really work for 15 strait hours. I need some breaks in there and lucky for me, I have yet to include meals, a moderately important part of my day. An hour and a half should take care of that. Add another half an hour for all things hygiene related and we should be good...
Until I start to take into account things that the average architect might deem superfluous. Human relationships for one. I happen to be in a serious one of the romantic nature and couldn't get by without at least half an hour of her talking me down off the cliff. Religion is another. I am one of those superstitious folks who like to read the bible and pray. Fifteen minute quiet time and another fifteen minutes pleading with God to send the plagues of Egypt to all architects, he obviously hardened their hearts a while ago.
Ok we are getting close to the complete day. Add another half an hour for errands, there is always something to do. Add another half hour for time to decompression / entertainment... I'll let you guess which category updating my blog falls into. And finally we arrive at a number
20.5 hours! I made it with room to spare... what am I going to do with those extra three and a half hours!
Whats that? I forgot sleeping... crap.
The picture gets really bleak when I start doing more accurate measurements based on a week.
Sunday, September 20
The New Crew
I spent Saturday morning in the studio drawing, took a break for lunch to read up on transparency* in architecture, went back to studio and then broke for dinner. Two of the AP kids (advanced placement students are first years who start in on the second year of the program because they are coming from a non-professional arch. degree) are from Singapore and they invited everyone to "Makanmania 09," a Singapore Food Festival.
Here we all are out on the deck at Willard Straight Hall:
Oh and Cleo Koh was there... of course. Always stoked to see a familiar face.
Here is a picture of the sunset as viewed from the deck:
Afterward, most of the crew above retired to Collegetown Bagels. We hung there for a while until it was time to move on. Next was a dive bar / pizza restaurant called the Nines where we spent a couple hours hanging out and listening to first a jazz band and then a great female guitarist who played a couple amazing covers.
* "transparency" is one of the BIG terms in architecture. Back in the 50's as the postmodernists were doing everything they could do to establish that nothing could be established, two guys named Colin Rowe and Robert Slutsky published a seminal, counterrevolutionary work on "transparency." They sought to establish two types of transparency in art: literal and phenomenal. Literal transparency is easy enough to get a hold of but phenomenal transparency is as esoteric an idea as they come. Examples of the latter include most of James Joyce's work, Piet Mondrian's work and most buildings designed by Le Corbusier (abbreviated at "Le Corb" by all the cool architects).
Fun fact: Rowe and Slutsky both belong to a group of architects called the "Texas Rangers," because of the time they all spent at the University of Texas.
Here we all are out on the deck at Willard Straight Hall:
Oh and Cleo Koh was there... of course. Always stoked to see a familiar face.
Here is a picture of the sunset as viewed from the deck:
Afterward, most of the crew above retired to Collegetown Bagels. We hung there for a while until it was time to move on. Next was a dive bar / pizza restaurant called the Nines where we spent a couple hours hanging out and listening to first a jazz band and then a great female guitarist who played a couple amazing covers.
* "transparency" is one of the BIG terms in architecture. Back in the 50's as the postmodernists were doing everything they could do to establish that nothing could be established, two guys named Colin Rowe and Robert Slutsky published a seminal, counterrevolutionary work on "transparency." They sought to establish two types of transparency in art: literal and phenomenal. Literal transparency is easy enough to get a hold of but phenomenal transparency is as esoteric an idea as they come. Examples of the latter include most of James Joyce's work, Piet Mondrian's work and most buildings designed by Le Corbusier (abbreviated at "Le Corb" by all the cool architects).
Fun fact: Rowe and Slutsky both belong to a group of architects called the "Texas Rangers," because of the time they all spent at the University of Texas.
Saturday, September 19
GTBKI: Johnson Art Museum
This is the Johnson Art Museum. It is located off the northwestern corner of the Art Quad. For orientation purposes, Sibley Hall is located on the northern end of the quad and if one were to go out of the Green Dragon, up the stairs, turn right, and walk for about 75 yards you will be looking at the view above.This alignment and the rest of the building was designed by I.M.Pei. It is said to have the best concrete in North America. If you are wondering why the best concrete in America is not the best in the world, well you must not have been to Japan. But don't worry I didn't know this till a week ago. We were talking about the museum in my drawing class and the teacher mentioned the concrete. Hyun leaned over to me and whispered, yeah but it is still nothing like they have in Japan. Since then I have heard it mentioned twice more, always with an envious, deferential tone.
Inside the Johnson, on the bottom floor is is cafe.
The two statues in the corner are the nude males from which the cafe derives its name.Both upstairs and down from the lobby are the galleries and a few of you might remember me recounting my first trip to Cornell. The tour guide took us to the top where there is a 360 degree view of Ithaca, it was a major selling point.
Thursday, September 17
Hardcore
Life hasn't exactly been easy these past couple of weeks but I just realized something. I am FREAKING hardcore.
Here are the top 14 reasons why:
14. I don't just pack a lunch, I pack dinner too.
13. When I have time to do laundry it is because I haven't had clean clothes for at least two days
12. To do laundry I throw on a backpack and lug two bags up a Lombard-like incline, except without the curves.
11. I typically get to campus before 8:00am and don't leave until after 8:00pm.
10. I walk home because the buses have stopped working. It is often raining.
9. My backpack utilizes all compartments and side holders for an umbrella, aluminum water bottle, travel mug, lunch, dinner, camera, computer and calculator. Not to mention any books and notebooks necessary for the day.
8. I am taking 19 credits as a graduate student.
7. I had a cold last week and CONQUERED it in two days.
6. I am surviving on cereal, coffee, turkey sandwiches, bananas, and wild rice RiceRoni.
5. Every week I double what I know about architecture (a pace I probably will not be able to keep)
4. When I take breaks, I read
3. I go to CORNELL
2. Which happens to be such a secular institution that their daily paper will include either the word "fuck" or articles too explicit for me to even name the subjects...
And the number one reason I am so hardcore:
1. The past two days have actually been enjoyable.
And I'm still in studio right now!!!!
Anyways, some other highlights from the past two days.
- I attended two lectures... just for fun. One was about new methods of fabrication and modular architecture. The other was more historical and focused on 20th century monastic architecture in Thailand.
- My favorite class right now is Theory and Analyses of Architecture I. I leave that class feeling intellectual. Quote from this week: "We have to hurry we only have an hour and a half left."
- I walked by one guy today who looked pretty normal. That is until, strait-faced, he pulls out a yo-yo and throws down.
- I walked by one girl today who looked anything but normal. She had bright pink hair, a flannel shirt, plaid shorts, white leggings, and bright yellow hightop sneakers.
Here are the top 14 reasons why:
14. I don't just pack a lunch, I pack dinner too.
13. When I have time to do laundry it is because I haven't had clean clothes for at least two days
12. To do laundry I throw on a backpack and lug two bags up a Lombard-like incline, except without the curves.
11. I typically get to campus before 8:00am and don't leave until after 8:00pm.
10. I walk home because the buses have stopped working. It is often raining.
9. My backpack utilizes all compartments and side holders for an umbrella, aluminum water bottle, travel mug, lunch, dinner, camera, computer and calculator. Not to mention any books and notebooks necessary for the day.
8. I am taking 19 credits as a graduate student.
7. I had a cold last week and CONQUERED it in two days.
6. I am surviving on cereal, coffee, turkey sandwiches, bananas, and wild rice RiceRoni.
5. Every week I double what I know about architecture (a pace I probably will not be able to keep)
4. When I take breaks, I read
3. I go to CORNELL
2. Which happens to be such a secular institution that their daily paper will include either the word "fuck" or articles too explicit for me to even name the subjects...
And the number one reason I am so hardcore:
1. The past two days have actually been enjoyable.
And I'm still in studio right now!!!!
Anyways, some other highlights from the past two days.
- I attended two lectures... just for fun. One was about new methods of fabrication and modular architecture. The other was more historical and focused on 20th century monastic architecture in Thailand.
- My favorite class right now is Theory and Analyses of Architecture I. I leave that class feeling intellectual. Quote from this week: "We have to hurry we only have an hour and a half left."
- I walked by one guy today who looked pretty normal. That is until, strait-faced, he pulls out a yo-yo and throws down.
- I walked by one girl today who looked anything but normal. She had bright pink hair, a flannel shirt, plaid shorts, white leggings, and bright yellow hightop sneakers.
Tuesday, September 15
Tuesday
I am exhausted! Eleven hours at school today and I might have to go back. Architecture is my life. I just got home and was puzzled at what need to address first: food, shower, water? These are difficult questions. I chose to sit on my bed. Moving fingers is preferable to moving limbs. I'll try to move again in a couple minutes.
It isn't all that bad. Last night I took a brake to go to a bible study for first year grad students put on by Cornell's Graduate Christian Fellowship. I was actually impressed and am excited to go back. We had a great time of worship with guitar and piano and then a fairly intellectual discussion of Nehemiah. It was also great to meet some other Christians in a similar position. One of the leaders even offered to bring me a meal in the event that I am not eating regularly, a fairly common disorder among graduate students.
Today was my big day and things cool off a bit until Thursday.
In other news, completely unrelated to my life, Congress apparently voted to officially "rebuke" Sen. Wilson. I wonder what it feels like to have group of elected officials who represent the entire United States, a group who has the power to declare war, VOTE to reprimand you. And what does an official rebuke entail?
It isn't all that bad. Last night I took a brake to go to a bible study for first year grad students put on by Cornell's Graduate Christian Fellowship. I was actually impressed and am excited to go back. We had a great time of worship with guitar and piano and then a fairly intellectual discussion of Nehemiah. It was also great to meet some other Christians in a similar position. One of the leaders even offered to bring me a meal in the event that I am not eating regularly, a fairly common disorder among graduate students.
Today was my big day and things cool off a bit until Thursday.
In other news, completely unrelated to my life, Congress apparently voted to officially "rebuke" Sen. Wilson. I wonder what it feels like to have group of elected officials who represent the entire United States, a group who has the power to declare war, VOTE to reprimand you. And what does an official rebuke entail?
Saturday, September 12
GTBKI: The Green Dragon
Located in the heart of Sibley Hall is the Fine Arts Library. Located in the belly, is the Green Dragon.
Descend a small staircase and you arrive at this brick laden intellectual haven. There are a line of windows along the south wall that testify to the fact that you are indeed beneath the ground level, yes you have descended into THE underground. The "can lights" are made from old coffee cans, the columns are a deep red and the walls are painted with cabalistic geometric murals.
The Green Dragon is a small cafe that renders its services to the art, architecture, and planning students. As you would expect, it is the campus hotbed of communism and self expression. Where most campus cafes close around 8:00pm, the Green Dragon is daily open at least until Midnight.
Friday, September 11
On the Origin of Ideas: Natural Selection of Thought
Thursdays are by far, the hardest day of my week. Classes start at 8:30 and end at 4:30. I also have a weeks worth of drawing homework to catch up on and need to prepare for the scrutiny of Friday's studio.
Fridays are therefore mostly filled with the aftermath. It takes all of my logistical capabilities to comprehend that the week is over and that I should be happy. That is why I am pleased to report that today things went in such a way that made it much easier.
I had two classes, my analog (hand) drawing class and studio. In drawing class I was paid a great compliment. I was "successful" in attempting to convey the phenomenal and literal transparency of the spaces I chose. This is a great compliment because a majority of the time she finds at least something that is "unsuccessful," as in "I see what you were trying to do, but I think you were, um, unsuccessful."
In studio we met collectively to hear each other's ideas for drawing the dinner party. We each elaborated on our methods for documenting the party and our ideas for conveying that into a drawing. All I have to say is that part of Cornell's ticket price is definitely the caliber of your peers.
As you know, I sought to record motion in the room. I played around with how I was going to draw these time lapses and had come up with several compelling plans. Last night I spent some additional time in Photoshop to create a few photo collages and today, in between classes I had a breakthrough, from good idea to great idea.
The most important aspect of this project is to think of how our method of recording changes our perception of the room's architecture and how using a different method of drawing than orthogonal projection, we can convey this. My thought was to change the privileged view point, from a static to a dynamic one, what if instead of the person moving and room remaining constant the opposite were true.
Back to the presentations. There was one girl who had a method of recording similar to mine and as she presented Jim, through a series of observations and comments, came to suggest an idea akin to my revelation. At first I was a little dismayed, so much for originality. But then I thought, this is great news. In all of his experience and expertise he is putting forward exactly what I was thinking. He had not given anyone's idea a favorable review and I was almost assured success, he cannot disagree without countering his own idea.
I volunteered to go next.
I started with the evolution of my idea. This presentation was largely impromptu so luckily I had my laptop and could play a slide show of my collages. Jim was impressed and gave me another pat on the back. Ecstasy of approval. With soaring confidence I move forward. I express the bias of traditional drawing toward the static, I quote Einstein and move into philosophy, the truth of fixing the individual into a static position within a dynamic frame. I show my sketches.
Jim's response: "Now it is going to seem like I am contradicting myself but I'm really not..."
CRAP.
He is good. He is the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.
It isn't all that bad though. He was so moved by my collages that he saw my approach as moving away from the lyrical and fluid aspects in them and wanted me to pursue that instead.
Wow, I can get into story telling. Sorry about that.
Fridays are therefore mostly filled with the aftermath. It takes all of my logistical capabilities to comprehend that the week is over and that I should be happy. That is why I am pleased to report that today things went in such a way that made it much easier.
I had two classes, my analog (hand) drawing class and studio. In drawing class I was paid a great compliment. I was "successful" in attempting to convey the phenomenal and literal transparency of the spaces I chose. This is a great compliment because a majority of the time she finds at least something that is "unsuccessful," as in "I see what you were trying to do, but I think you were, um, unsuccessful."
In studio we met collectively to hear each other's ideas for drawing the dinner party. We each elaborated on our methods for documenting the party and our ideas for conveying that into a drawing. All I have to say is that part of Cornell's ticket price is definitely the caliber of your peers.
As you know, I sought to record motion in the room. I played around with how I was going to draw these time lapses and had come up with several compelling plans. Last night I spent some additional time in Photoshop to create a few photo collages and today, in between classes I had a breakthrough, from good idea to great idea.
The most important aspect of this project is to think of how our method of recording changes our perception of the room's architecture and how using a different method of drawing than orthogonal projection, we can convey this. My thought was to change the privileged view point, from a static to a dynamic one, what if instead of the person moving and room remaining constant the opposite were true.
Back to the presentations. There was one girl who had a method of recording similar to mine and as she presented Jim, through a series of observations and comments, came to suggest an idea akin to my revelation. At first I was a little dismayed, so much for originality. But then I thought, this is great news. In all of his experience and expertise he is putting forward exactly what I was thinking. He had not given anyone's idea a favorable review and I was almost assured success, he cannot disagree without countering his own idea.
I volunteered to go next.
I started with the evolution of my idea. This presentation was largely impromptu so luckily I had my laptop and could play a slide show of my collages. Jim was impressed and gave me another pat on the back. Ecstasy of approval. With soaring confidence I move forward. I express the bias of traditional drawing toward the static, I quote Einstein and move into philosophy, the truth of fixing the individual into a static position within a dynamic frame. I show my sketches.
Jim's response: "Now it is going to seem like I am contradicting myself but I'm really not..."
CRAP.
He is good. He is the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.
It isn't all that bad though. He was so moved by my collages that he saw my approach as moving away from the lyrical and fluid aspects in them and wanted me to pursue that instead.
Wow, I can get into story telling. Sorry about that.
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