fresh flower / exhibtion road

It's moving all around London over the next few weeks, but today it'll be on Exhibition road (part of sites and sounds) with lots of people talking inside its petals:

12: 00 CJ Lim, Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture and founder of Studio 8 Architects speaks about his contribution to the China Design Now exhibition 'Guangming Smartcity, China'

12:20 Alistair Lenczner, partner at Foster + Partners tells the story behind the structure to be built in a day that is being created on Exhibition Road as part of Explore Sites & Sounds

12:35 Sunand Prasad, President of the Royal Institute of British Architecture and co-founder of Penoyre-Prasad presents his proposal the Crystal Palace Reappears installation.

12:50 Toby Davey gives us an insight into the Vocal Eyes tours, providing detailed audio descriptions of well known buildings around London.

13:05 Jeremy Dixon from Dixon Jones describes their vision for shared space on Exhibition Road redressing the balance between cars and the pedestrian.

13:20 6a architects speak about their Brompton Stoops installation, a series of cardboard stair-like structures where a programme of events will be taking place.

13:35 James Miles from Liftschutz Davidson Sandilands gives us an overview of their contribution to the Festival with the help of a model made from card and string.

13: 50 Nigel Coates, Professor at the Royal College of Art, gives us the low-down on the RCA Routemasters installation on Exhibition Road.

and then at 3, a talk with Tonkin Liu (makers of the installation) presenting their work.

YMO - Computer Games

I wish they'd played this tonight. Apart from that, I was very happy.

atoms to patterns

I was so inspired by this exhibition I made my own print based on the quasicrystal structure.

The exhibition is a story set in the Festival of Britain (the film they show is surreal. I wish the South Bank hadn't changed a dot.) Dr. Helen Magaw got lots of scientists to show their work to designers, and stunning collaborations ensued. The Festival Pattern Group had 28 manufacturers involved, and made 80 designs. These are some personal faves:


crystal structure of nylon



Haemoglobin 8.26


Beryl 8.9 lace


Insulin 8.25

It's quite odd being surrounded by all these dated, beautiful images, and know that the structure of DNA had not yet been discovered. If current exhibitions (those ones that are most definitely "of our time") could be stored away in the V&A and unearthed after 50 years, I wonder what would have been discovered in the next few years, that is severely, obviously missing from our present. Also, on that note, what are the exhibitions of our time? Grand statements seem to be curated out of the picture. Or perhaps exhibitions have forsaken that role, and are now too specific. Actually, maybe it's just all about CERN.

(Here's more about the exhibition at the Wellcome Collection.)

icarus.

A great tale about Sébastien and the Eurovision.

high places // telepathe

High Places // Telepathe





“Oh-oh-oh ohh-oh.” That’s what I sing out loud sometimes when I’m walking down the street, and it’s because of Telepathe. I’ve been listening to “Chrome’s On It” for days now, the oh’s are unstoppable. It’s too hooky. They’re hookers, I read that somewhere. They want to be the ultimate pop band, an extravaganza; they told me that. I wish Cafe OTO were more suited to a pop outfit, tonight. With a stage and a bolder sound system, that could make you swoon with its sheer intensity. Or with a crowd that like to dance with more lust, focus and loose limbs. That’s what Telepathe require.

Not that it’s not nice; it’s really nice, everyone will tell you so. This place is tucked around the corner from Dalston Junction, and it’s quiet. Quite serene. It feels like it is the shape of a square, and has large windows letting all the light inside that it can. This is how it could be an art gallery - all that light, after so many basements. The light and the fashion in which people are milling around, drinking from a range of organic beers. It’s quite new, and OTOprojects is something they’ve set up; an international residency programme with some Japanese musicians are coming over soon. Perhaps it’s more suited for the quiet stuff. It’s frustrating, because ordinarily Telepathe should sound huge, and yet they do, in a way. So casual is this trio, transforming their ableton-live-electronic-drone-pop into a live set so smoothly. I guess this is the 19th time they’ve done it in as many days. What makes me happy, is the drifty sexiness of their songs. It’s the passive-aggressive hip-hop and bassy instrumentals mixed with Khaela-ish vocals and a certain dramatic darkness that lends itself to a girl gang mentality raised on Kate Bush. That is a sort of perfection.

So, it’s sold out tonight; we can’t go outside with our organic beers. Why is everyone here? Perhaps these two Brooklyn bands are doing something new and exciting, but the atmosphere is underwhelming. When the bands come on, everyone squishes together so tight that you’re lucky if you’re at the front and can see, and even luckier if you can stand to hear the songs mulched through the sound system. All the layers are condensed into one, and my friend describes it as being like cotton wool.

But High Places are all about rhythms, and these emerge through the fluffiness; polynesian beats, steel drum beats, shaky stick beats. I heard them first on a mixtape made by YACHT, so in my mind they’re married to Dirty Projectors and Lucky Dragons and The Blow and all that. Their music wanders more than Telepathe; endless, light-hearded grooves that merge into each other. They use so many found sounds, in the sense that there are hints that they’ve travelled all over. They’re nostalgic for every trip, as if they have come back to sing around a campfire about their dalliances with the time machine, and we’re here to indulge them.

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The text above might be in Plan B, if they don't mind that I wrote it in a couple of hours very overdeadline.

"The old contextual model is not very relevant anymore"

Brilliant article by Nicolai Ouroussoff for the NYT on the New, new city. Part of their architecture issue (get in)

nude

chloe makes

All kinds of things!

This is part of a film, about Loveman fighting underwater crime:


Here's Bear in a boat:


And here is Miss Bell's blog with wonderful films I can't embed, which is sad.

Check out her stuff tomorrow at Free Range at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane with fellow Brighton lady Verity Keniger.

lfa screenings

H-BOX // Tate Modern / A roaming screening hall designed by the architect and artist Didier Fiuza Faustino / 3-31 July (free)
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The Fountainhead // East Wintergarden / "An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards." (IMDb) / 28 June, 12:45 (free)
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My Architect // East Wintergarden / Stunning documentary about Louis Kahn, by his son / 25 June, 18:30 (free)
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Garbage Warrior // Barbican / A documentary about rebel eco-architect Michael Reynolds builds sustainable housing in New Mexico using rubbish / 16 July, 20:15 (not free)
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Frank Lloyd Wright // U.S. Embassy / A film about the great architect / 26 June, 18:30 (free)
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Model For A Monument (The Anarcho-Sydicalist Town Hall) Debate // Russell Square / The lecture and film screening will present a series possible meanings that can be read in to the model and its proposed function as a political discussion space / 5 July, 21:00 (free)
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Elefest Screening // St. Mary's Churchyard / An outdoor cinema programme including a specially curated selection of short films and a feature related to and about the Elephant and its past / 12 July, 18:00 (free)
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Southwark Lido Film Club // Union Street / Open-air pool-side film nights every evening at the temporary lido! / 9 - 13 July (free)
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lfa2008

First things first: this post shouldn't be eyed with suspicion, even though I'm now working at the London Festival of Architecture 2008. I think this labyrinthe of events is aceness wrapped up in pink promotion, regardless of whether I'm in their office or not.

The site's a bit overwhelming though. In fact, the whole thing is. It's got themes and hubs, free things and non-free things. Exhibitions, installations, breakfasts, walks, cycles, screenings...

Hmm. Actually, I think I'll write separate posts, curated into bundles of things. Not themes or hubs. That's how my brain works anyway, categories of function. Clusters here we go.

open petitions

There's a lot of fun to be had perusing the open petitions.

Some of my favourites:

Ban the keeping of Goldfish in bowls or unfiltered containers.

Stop wasting taxpayers money by replacing ALL tyres on police vehicles just because 1 tyre has a puncture or fault.

Cut A & E waiting times

Actively encourage different communities living separate lives from other ethnicities

NOT encourage the U.K. to host the 2018 World Cup; however it is funded.

(Please note, some grammar used does not make much sense)

raster-noton turns 12

When I turned 12 I had a sleepover. R-N wisely decided to large it up in a similarish fashion. (I really like saying "larging it")

I also liked alva noto's colours and fuzzy bass, letting loose has merit.

Anyway, here is a condensed version of the night by Sheikh. Thanks Sheikh!