It may now be too late to post any photos on this blog. I'm not sure how many views we will receive. However, if you would like to see a nice public photo album of the best of my photos taken during the week, you are more than welcome to pop through the following link.
Alisdair Gray's Photos
I think overall the week went very well despite the attendance being low. I personally really enjoyed taking all of the photos and helping with the video. I feel that through visiting everything, I managed to glean a little knowledge from each source which left me with a little more than a workshop's worth of quality experience.
Anyway, I hope you all got a lot out of the last week and enjoy reminiscing while you go through the photos.
Thanks
Alisdair
Monday, February 2, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
The exhibit! team would like to make a special recognition to the designer of the poster of the s.p.a.c.e. odissey event: Dr Sergio Altomonte.
Many thanks Sergio and look forward to your next creative contribution!
The exhibit team
Many thanks Sergio and look forward to your next creative contribution!
The exhibit team
Blueprint
In what proved to be a fascinating talk, Blueprint magazine’s Robin Wilson and Gian Luca Amadei came in to talk to the Journalism group, plus any interested parties, at lunchtime on Thursday. Wilson spoke first, followed by Amadei and both began by explaining their educational background and how they came to work in architectural journalism. Robin Wilson started as a Fine Art graduate, went on to do an MA in Art Criticism & Theory, and then worked as an art critic for a while, making contacts and writing reviews, meanwhile becoming increasingly interested in architecture and ultimately undertaking a PhD in Architectural Theory at the Bartlett where he now teaches when he is not writing for journals. Gian Luca Amadei’s background was different again, beginning as an accountant in Italy, but becoming interested in design and as a result, studying interior design. He found that his written work was doing better than his concept designs, and so decided to follow this path! He began as an intern at Blueprint, on a 5 week placement where he made tea, coffee and photocopies before moving on to working on preview pages, and three years later, is now Product Editor.
Robin Wilson talked through some of his own past work, including articles written for the great bastions of the architectural journal world, the AR and AJ. Along the way, he offered insights into the life of a freelance architectural journalist (often barely breaking even once a site visit to Norway has been taken into account, for example) and of the traditions upheld by many journals. He was critical of some of these traditions, such as the incessant use of the 'pun title' (‘Dante’s Drive-in’, ‘Making the Earth Move’, ‘Plant Life’... the list is virtually endless) which he feels banalise the content of the article before one even reads it, and the ubiquitous ‘blue-sky and corrected perspective’ architectural photojournalists who work strictly inside the box. He explained various types of piece he had written, such as The Building Report, The Exhibition Review and The Book Review and the depth of research required for each. He also spoke enthusiastically about the angle he writes from, involving looking at the urban landscape and thinking about how we can design for processes and territories rather than just the single object.
Next, Gian Luca Amadei spoke about the history of Blueprint magazine which celebrated its quarter century last October. Showing examples, and talking through different sections of the magazine, he shared his experiences of working as both editor and writer, explaining the main issues a person in those roles must face. The challenges of never having enough space or time were discussed, as was the problem of editing someone else’s work, be it text or photography, whilst trying at all times to keep the essence of what the author was trying to say. Word counts and the nerves of a writer submitting a piece to the editor were also discussed. Amadei spoke animatedly about the process of compiling a monthly magazine and also his personal resentment of the mass consumption of the Metro and London Lite by commuters! Both men talked about layouts in some detail, addressing the content of a page, how much space images are given, the positioning of advertisements and text and they illustrated their talks well.
I think plenty more students could have got a lot out of hearing these two speakers, but to take a more selfish view of it, I felt the compactness of the group in attendance gave the talk a more intimate atmosphere, and this certainly became apparent during the relaxed and informative discussion which unfolded afterward. A definite highlight of day four!
Robin Wilson talked through some of his own past work, including articles written for the great bastions of the architectural journal world, the AR and AJ. Along the way, he offered insights into the life of a freelance architectural journalist (often barely breaking even once a site visit to Norway has been taken into account, for example) and of the traditions upheld by many journals. He was critical of some of these traditions, such as the incessant use of the 'pun title' (‘Dante’s Drive-in’, ‘Making the Earth Move’, ‘Plant Life’... the list is virtually endless) which he feels banalise the content of the article before one even reads it, and the ubiquitous ‘blue-sky and corrected perspective’ architectural photojournalists who work strictly inside the box. He explained various types of piece he had written, such as The Building Report, The Exhibition Review and The Book Review and the depth of research required for each. He also spoke enthusiastically about the angle he writes from, involving looking at the urban landscape and thinking about how we can design for processes and territories rather than just the single object.
Next, Gian Luca Amadei spoke about the history of Blueprint magazine which celebrated its quarter century last October. Showing examples, and talking through different sections of the magazine, he shared his experiences of working as both editor and writer, explaining the main issues a person in those roles must face. The challenges of never having enough space or time were discussed, as was the problem of editing someone else’s work, be it text or photography, whilst trying at all times to keep the essence of what the author was trying to say. Word counts and the nerves of a writer submitting a piece to the editor were also discussed. Amadei spoke animatedly about the process of compiling a monthly magazine and also his personal resentment of the mass consumption of the Metro and London Lite by commuters! Both men talked about layouts in some detail, addressing the content of a page, how much space images are given, the positioning of advertisements and text and they illustrated their talks well.
I think plenty more students could have got a lot out of hearing these two speakers, but to take a more selfish view of it, I felt the compactness of the group in attendance gave the talk a more intimate atmosphere, and this certainly became apparent during the relaxed and informative discussion which unfolded afterward. A definite highlight of day four!
the thin line...
After the presentation about "Architecture and Media" I was left with a mixed feeling...In one hand, you get a clear message that life has to be lived intensely and passionately... on the other, you wonder how much you have to give up to pursue your aspirations...
The answer to a final question to the audience was revealing: Would the reputation of Architects be improved by getting involved in light TV programs?
The audience was divided, and this is quite worrying...
The TV is a powerful weapon...
Our profession is not a position of privilege but a responsibility!
There's a lot to think about, considering recent events happening in our society...
There's a lot to do...
NOW!!!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
George Clarke Architecture and the Media
It has taken me a while to get my thoughts together on the Geroge Clarke 'Architecture and the Media' debate yesterday afternoon. It had a very different style to the debate between Dean Hawkes and Ted Cullinan.
The format was totally different. George Clarke gave a brief introduction to himself and how he bacme involved in Television. He talked passionately about Architecture and building and his early experiences of both. He also shared his own misgiving about his involvement in these TV shows and his worries about the depict, or lack of in the popular media.
This lead to an interesting, if slightly disjointed discussion of Architecture and the media. In fact, the whole talk would probably have been a bit more insightful if there was a little more focus. However, whilst this was not a heated debate as such, it was a very inclusive and critical discussion.
Mr Clarke really encouraged the audience to be critical of the subject and even of him. I think this and the more relaxed atmosphere of the debate lead to a more successful debate than Mondays event.
The format was totally different. George Clarke gave a brief introduction to himself and how he bacme involved in Television. He talked passionately about Architecture and building and his early experiences of both. He also shared his own misgiving about his involvement in these TV shows and his worries about the depict, or lack of in the popular media.
This lead to an interesting, if slightly disjointed discussion of Architecture and the media. In fact, the whole talk would probably have been a bit more insightful if there was a little more focus. However, whilst this was not a heated debate as such, it was a very inclusive and critical discussion.
Mr Clarke really encouraged the audience to be critical of the subject and even of him. I think this and the more relaxed atmosphere of the debate lead to a more successful debate than Mondays event.
Point of view
I caught up with Liz Bromley Smith on wednesday evening, and we talked about her overall feeling regarding the success of the 2009 S.P.A.C.E Odyssey week so far. What really came across was that her feelings were mixed, on the one hand she empathised with some students who had not signed up for events due to either still having semester 1 deadlines to complete, or simply those feeling the effects of autumn semester exhaustion, but, understandably, she was also incredibly frustrated by low turnouts after all the effort that went into the organisation of this special week. It was the students who had signed up to workshops and then simply failed to turn up who had caused the greatest disappointment.
In order to summarise the points Liz raised without hopefully being too verbose or downbeat, I thought I would attempt to communicate them through a more interesting medium, in the tradition of the many 'webcomics' out there in cyberspace. So here goes...
Click on the image to see a larger version
Update: If you're getting a window that only displays the filename when you click on the image (as I do) then try right clicking on the filename and selecting view image, and you should then be able to see it and click to zoom in and zoom out...
In order to summarise the points Liz raised without hopefully being too verbose or downbeat, I thought I would attempt to communicate them through a more interesting medium, in the tradition of the many 'webcomics' out there in cyberspace. So here goes...
Click on the image to see a larger versionUpdate: If you're getting a window that only displays the filename when you click on the image (as I do) then try right clicking on the filename and selecting view image, and you should then be able to see it and click to zoom in and zoom out...
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