just glass. that's it.

_i think many ideas communicate from this video are what i have been thinking of too...will that really be the future?

Post-Crit 22/02/11

_feedback & self-evaluation:

. design the space.

. what are you designing?

[i am designing a space which describes the hybrid environment that we are constantly living in. It isn't literally showing a reality, but uses a combination of multiple un-realities, which make up our reality, to express the statement - everything is blurred and mixed-up, especially in future to come (with more advanced technology), perception depends on relativity.]

. more effort to be put into designing spaces and i can't be stuck anymore!

_went to "Shrinking Cities - A critical reflection with lesons from Detroit" by Grahame Shane

some bits of it are quite interesting.

. a slide from Shrinking Cities .

some examples...

[not restricted to AR]


that's what i had thought of!!!

Mies's power

_ Mies's Collages _

currently digesting and learning from it.

_Con-fashion

_i was introducing this Japanese film "Confessions" to Katharina and she heard it as "con-fashion" :P
[probably because we talked about projects/Selfridges earlier]

Con-Fashion = With-Fashion

perhaps that could be the name of my film...lol

(well...)

!! SPACEs, i need you now. please come to me.

thank you for your cooporation.

_Phantasmagoria

The Dialectics of Seeing - Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project

p.39 "The covered shopping arcades of the 19th century were Benjamin's central image because they were the precise material replica of the internal consciousness, or rather, the unconsciousness of the dreaming collective. All of the errors of the bourgeois consciousness could be found there (commodity fetishism, reification, the world as "inwardness"), as well as (in fashion, prostitution, gambling) all of its utopian dreams. Moreover, the arcades were the first international style of modern architecture, hence part of the lived experience of a worldwide, metropolitan generation."

p.81 "Paris, a 'looking-glass city', dazzled the crowd, but at the same time deceived it. The City of Light, it erased night's darkness - first with gas lanterns, then with electricity, then neon lights - in the space of a century. The City of Mirrors - in which the crowd itself became a spectacle - it reflected the image of people as consumers rather than producers, keeping the class relations of production virtually invisible on the looking glass' other side. Benjamin described the spectacle of Paris as a 'phantasmagoria' - a magic-lantern show of optical illusions, rapidly changing size and blending into one another."

p.81 "Marx had used the term 'phantasmagoria' to refer to the deceptive appearances of commodities as 'fetishes' in the marketplace."

p.81-82 "For Benjamin, whose point of departure was a philosophy of historical experience rather than an economic analysis of capital, the key to the new urban phantasmagoria was not so much the commodity-in-the-market as the commodity-on-display, where exchange value no less than use value lost practical meaning, and purely representational value came to the fore."

Panoramas were a common attraction in the arcades, providing sweeping views that unrolled before the spectators, giving them the illusion of moving through the world at an accelerated rate. (p.82)

_if i could map out all my spaces in one big drawing like the panorama.

my map*

_this is a map which contains all the scenes in the film.
(i can't believe that this map actually took me a lot longer than i expected to make.)

i found Le Bon Marché!

First heard that name from Simon, I have been keeping it in mind when I do my reading. Now I, finally, came across it. It is the one of the first emporiums with goods arranged into different departments emerged in the 1850s in Paris. "Although a department store named after the Bon Marché was erected in Brixton in the mid-1870s, it was not until the 1880s and 1890s that such purpose-built department store buildings became the norm in London and even then few matched the splendour and theatricality of those in Paris." (Tara Draper-Stumm & Derek Kendall, London's Shops - the world's emporium, (London: English Heritage, 2002)

_excited libarians

_I went to the Reference Library the other day to look for some books about the history of Selfridges. One of the libarians asked me what I was doing with Selfridges...and I told her about my research area. She was so excited and told me that Selfridges is her favourite store in London. I went on asking her what did she think about Harrods and other shopping places. She told me that Harrods is incomparable and Selfridges makes her feel that she is living in a wonderful world. I could see that she really likes Selfridges from her eyes. :) Unfortunately, I felt bad to continue the chat with her as we were in the library and she was on duty. Otherwise, it is great to listen to others how they think about things. While I was there reading the book I wanted, another helpful libarian even came to me and showed me another book about the company's history. I felt so pleased that they were that helpful - or maybe talking about Selfridges is really exciting. :P

_my first try...

entering a short-film competition.

Name: Powers of .twenty.10

Description:

[1977] "Scale is the New Geography." made us wonder.
[2010] "Speed is the New Time." makes us think.

As a tribute to "Powers of Ten", "Powers of twenty 10" adopts a similar approach to express another dimension - "time". Living in a fast-paced city in the 21st century, we often forget to leave ourselves some time to think.

The sequence of the film takes the metaphor of rewinding our lives. By looking back, we recognise we might have changed from pursuing simple and straight-forward happiness when we were small to pursuing something we do not even know if that is what we actually want as we grow older.

_honestly, after i watched quite a few of other entries (especially those high-rated ones), i still rank mine better. XD (everyone knows i don't brag and i always appreciate humbleness.) well...i know mine is not a perfect one, but i think the idea tights with the theme - it is a simple yet could be very deep-in-meaning approach. i am not saying other entries are not interesting, but for many of them, sorry for my stupidity, i have no clue how they are relating to the theme. but anyway, rating is always about how many friends you have and could rate for you (because some even couldn't register an account there). at least, i tried and i have done my best in my tight schedule (hopefully my design & thesis are coming together soon).

_p.s. all in all, any of your support is still very much appreciated. thanks in advance, my dear, if you rate for me. :) <3