The Anti-Bell-um

So after an almost full day of sleep, two hot pockets and a cup of coffee I can slowly feel sanity returning.

The Project One critique went very well I think, not without it's hurdles but as far as crits go, pretty well. On the plus side they thought the roofscape was poetic, on the negative end, the delivery spaces were not practical. ( something I naturally disagree with, but am probably wrong about.) I tell myself every year that I'm not going to pull an all-nighter, but it happens at least one a semester. This year I stayed up not working on the drawings or the model, but the graphics.

 For whatever reason there is a need to fight with and against Adobe Illustraitor to come up with a presentable layout. It just goes to show that ideas always need a pitch. During the class critique I was realising that for the most part it wasn't the ideas jurors had problems with, it was presentations. It makes one wonder, can a good idea stand on it's own as a good idea? Unfortunately, I think probably not.

Maybe it's the enviornment i'm in but it seems that a medium level project with enough pizazz can win out against a superior idea. Architects can be people of vision, trapped by visuals. It might actually be their greatest flaw. Everyone probably has it to some extent, if something looks cool you want it, but Architects seem to carry those blinders with them everywhere they go.

They always tell us, especially as children, that it's the inside that counts. Sometimes I question that; how many times have you been passed over by somebody good looking? Yeah, it's the inner beauty that's important, but it's outer beauty that gets the most foots in the most doors. People like pretty things,  if it doesnt have the graphics or the sharpest renderings, it's not readable, it's not a good project.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-beauty as a matter of fact, I'm just as guilty as the jurors. I just wish it could be different sometimes. But the point of inner beauty is that it's past the outer beauty, so for the most part, we're never going to get passed the facade in a five min. presentation.

 We're not going to get a buzzer that says "HEY HEY YOU YOU> THIS IS A GREAT PROJECT". So I guess the moral, even if it's not too moral is that when it comes to ideas, yeah it's shallow, but you gotta make it pretty even if it should'nt need to be.

I think that's probably why I love theroy, it's just ideas, very few graphics. Yeah thery'res that pesky rheotric aspect, but at least you're not distracted with bangs, pops and zooms of the optical kind.

It all presents the question, do you fight the system, or fight with the system? Good reasons to do both. I like to hope you can do both.


"if you're not cheating the system, you're cheating yourself"
-Kyle Hazleton

As a side note, i also have completed another concept drawing for dro:

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Monk-for-Dro-79908261

goodnight and goodluck.

Spring Project #1

basically the building is a fabric in construction. and then you walk through it

it's pretty sweet, unfortunately this rendering is a jpeg so you don't get the clarity. but I figured i'd give you an idea.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-1-79901197

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-2-79901645

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-3-79902415

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Textile-Museum-interior-79903127

Madness? THIS IS THESIS!

ok so thesis proposal due March 10th. Here is the rough *ROUGH* draft. 

Destiny Manifests: The Search for a Frontier

 

 

In the caramel colors of the cowboy clichés, in the dark heart of Africa, in frozen deserts, in rainy mountains, in the forbidden and the foreboding, in the uncharted islands of our own minds, in graduating college. In a word: frontiers.

What is it about the calling of a destiny manifested that stirs in the human soul to leave comfort and convenience for the unfamiliar and the unexplored? In a world that is carelessly pulling down its barriers, are frontiers still physical places or have they all become psychological spaces? Is the “final frontier” the last great wilderness or are there frontiers that have yet to be dreamed of, let alone seen.

Are frontiers always brutal, lonely or brutally lonesome? How much do you give up obtaining real freedom and is it worth the price? How do you conquer a frontier, or is it a wild horse you simply run beside? Subsequently, how do frontiers die and how do we mourn them? Frontiers never collapse into a blinding supernova; instead they wither and fade into the banal and the expected.

            For my thesis project I propose a study of the frontier as it relates to the contemporary scope. Whether the frontier is real or not, or is it, as it has often been, the romantic marketing of promises.

What initially intrigued me about this concept was with all the vast advancements in technology, we are seeing a connectiveness that the world has never known. However in gaining all this interaction we are losing the places of mystery and enchantment to have them replaced by a two page essay on Wikipedia.

It is my suspicion that the frontier still exists, that it may be in Outer Space or it may be somewhere here on earth that we have simply forgotten and need to rediscover. Also far more problematic and conjectural are the everyday frontiers in our own lives, the things we fear and the things that intrigue us.

There is also a duality in the Architecture of the frontier. The excitement of wilderness is that it is often unrestrained, so what happens when structure and regularity try to control it? Does the wilderness fight back? Who will win the battle of wills?

As for researching this topic I feel it would be prudent to explore many different kinds of frontiers, because as our world connects more and more, the concepts start to melt together, the undiscovered is no exception.

 A frontier can be explored by taking a road trip across the path of Lewis and Clark, or by looking at the possibilities of Space Life and Travel or by reliving Jeff Chapman’s Urban Exploration and discovering the developed and forgotten.

Journal writing and first person narratives are going to be crucial in understanding the emotional and physical tolls that frontiers can take. As well as discovering the appropriate architectural response to these emotions. Does the Architecture enhance these emotions or mollify them?

In conclusion, it is my proposal that we rediscover and explore that danger and that drama, the romance and the lonely love songs that first brought people out of their homes and into the wide wild world. The life, death and rebirth of those things that first struck us with fear and admiration of our own existences. In a word: Frontiers.

 

colors and concepts

Because I am so cool, I present this on a saturday night. But to be fair, last night was a wine-a-bration that led me to almost stain not only one, but two pairs of pants. However neither pair of pants were permanently harmed and were released back into their respective natural habitats.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/Concept-Art-for-Dro-75690496

so, Alejandro and I were talking and he asked me to do some concept art for this idea he has about an old school martial arts wielding monk who finds himself in New York in the 1980's. And then I thought what if Ziggy Stardust was done in an Edo Print.

http://chillicheesefries.deviantart.com/art/hotties-in-space-75705649

Vasodilation on a raver....in space....maybe.

look for more sticky bug soon


....bed

Winter in Washington

This past weekend was the National Gallery Extravaganza so super museum time = super now. 


The Corcoran Gallery:

   
    Annie Leibovitz : A Photographer's Life

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_03/queenALMS0505_468x453.jpg

http://www.pfendlers.com/blog/AnnieLeibovitzTheWhiteStrip.jpg

These are great, however Leibovitz dosent figure out color until 2003, so a lot of her early color work leave something to be desired. Also her landscapes are out of focus and waaay too large.

    Ansel Adams : The Collective Works

http://www.corcoran.org/adams/images/Freeway.jpg

http://www.corcoran.org/adams/images/Monolith.jpg

Adams however is the destroyer of landscapes, nobody can touch him when you put him in a heavily wooded area or next to a mountains...totally sick.

Annie Leibovitz is also doing a whole bunch of pictures for Disney

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/index?name=Gallery&bhcp=1

And on that note the following Disney things are awesome:

Enchanted

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/enchantedpic.jpg

They are also making a Rapunzel Movie

http://gallery.awn.com/data/521/Rapunzel-Unbraided.jpg

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/rupunzel_swing.jpg (AND YES!!!!!!!! IT DOES LOOKS LIKE FRAGONARD'S THE SWING)

And the Disney Princesses just got a little Jazzier

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17524865/

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/arts/photos/2007/03/09/black-princess-cp-2633827.jpg

The National Galleries



Edward Hopper (1882-1967)

http://members.aol.com/ondinemonet/images/automat%20edward%20hopper.jpg

http://newcritics.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/hopper.ny-movie.jpg

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/hopper/hopperinfo_fs.shtm

The only American Surrealist, the lonely dreamer of New England, The Lighthouse of the Soul on the Sea of Desolation

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/turner/turnerinfo_fs.shtm

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/tinternabbey.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/images/multimedia/turner/horse.jpg

The Dark Horse of the Empire, A loyal servent turned dangerous traitor, the Darth Vader of the Royal Academy

Simon Schama Power of Art

is amazing. Finally, a documentery that shows Paul Gauguin in his true light:

http://www.booksplendour.com.au/gallery/classics/Gaugin/gauguin_piano.jpg

Merry Post-Christmas everyone and a happy impending New Year.

The Roman Conclusion

Molly McCormick’s Hits List of Rome: 

Top 20 Architectural Sites in Rome:

1. Pantheon
2. The Vatican City (Notably Bernini’s Piazza)
3. The Church of Al Quatri Fontani
4. Parco Della Musica
5. The Roman Forum
6. Castle Sant’Angelo
7. Villa Adriana
8. Catacombs of San Callisto
9. Montemartini Museum
10. Jubilee Church
11. Cerveteri
12. EUR
13. Via Leone XIII (Take the 870 Bus, to get the best view of the city)
14. Sant’ Agnes a Agone
15. Largo Argentina
16. Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale
17. Sant’ Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio
18. Villa Pamphili
19. Grand Mosque
20. Capitoline Museum (Especially the Tabulareum) 

Top 10 Museums in Rome:

1. Villa Borghese
2. Capitoline Museum
3. Vatican Museum
4. Palazzo Della Expositione
5. Montemartini Museum
6. Barberini Museum
7. Museum at Castle Sant Angelo
8. Capuchin Crypts
9. Museo Nationale
10. Girabaldi Museum (Currently in the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II) 

Top 10 Food Joints in Rome:

1. Carlo Mentha Trattoria
2. Ostia Pucci Restorante
3. Super Pizza E…
4. Vocipelli
5. Café Quirino
6. Pizza Simone
7. Ristorante Chinoisese a Largo Argentina
8. La Cisterna
9. Botticelli’s Bar
10. Rosso Bar
    

Top 10 Sculptures in Rome:

1. Apollo and Daphne (Bernini)
2. La Pieta (Michelangelo)
3. Pluto and Persephone (Bernini)
4. David ( Michelangelo)
5. Laocoon (Unknown)
6. David (Bernini)
7. Venus Victrix (Canova)
8. Sleeping Hermaphrodite (Unknown, Not the Canova one…that one sucks. Sorry.)
9. The Boxer (Ancient Greek)
10. St. Cecelia (Maderno)
    

Top 10 Paintings in Rome:

1. Judith Slaying Holofernes (Caravaggio)
2. The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
3. The Sistine Chapel…All of It ( mostly attributed to Michelangelo)
4. The School of Athens (Raphael)
5. La Fornarina (Raphael)
6. The Glorification of The Reign of Urban VIII (Cortona)
7. The Calling of St Matthew ( Caravaggio)
8. The Conversion of Saul (Caravaggio)
9. Triumph of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Pozzo)  
10. Maroon on Black (Mark Rothko, on loan from the Tate Modern, London) 

Cities (Both Italian and Abroad)

1. Rome
2. Paris/Versailles
3. Edinburgh
4. Venice
5. Glasgow
6. London
7. Munich
8. Florence
9. Cerveteri / Pompeii
10. Tivoli

So right now I’m on the plane heading back home, well at least I was when I wrote this, but let’s not get into technicalities. I’m not going to lie, I cried a little bit on the bus this morning leaving from AUR heading to the airport. But it’s not my fault, the sun was coming up over the mountains and the morning fog was clearing over the city and part of me was crushed in the wake of its beauty.

 I love Rome; I love every rock and every crevasse of that city. It can be so loud and so dirty, but it’s also the most amazing place in the world. I was one time reading a guidebook and it said, “Italy: probably the easiest place to fall in love with and the hardest to leave.” Completely true.

 Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be going home, but part of me will always live in Italy. Whether it’s walking in the footsteps of the emperors at the Villa Adriana or getting chided by a nun on the #8 tram, Seeing Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne in person or eating a fried rice ball with mozzarella cheese in the middle, Rome has something for everything, and meant everything to me

The lists aforementioned and aforeseen were really really hard to make. There was so much that I loved that making a list, while fun and interesting for me personally, was completely pointless.
If you haven’t been to Rome, go. If you already been, go again. Now it’s time for me to fill out my customs card and eat this sandwich that has been staring me down for a good 15 minuets. 

With my sincere regards,

Margaret “Molly” Elizabeth-Brendan-Joan McCormick