This is for all of my friends everywhere. It has nothing to do with triangles and everything to do with looking with wonder and impatience at statues, standing there with your friend.
30.3.09
SHINY PROGRESS
The good news is that it's coming
along, and it was built at a remarkable pace. It's in pieces still in
an empty mini-warehouse. I am staying with
Addi's family, all of whom have been engaged in this endless and
very physical labor of love as well. Old dad up till 2 am riveting
metal triangles! It's quite a beautiful thing. But at this moment Addi
is upstairs sulking, in boxers. He's watching football. We didn't make
our deadline for being a part of the design event, but I really don't
care. Next weekend is our new deadline and hopefully the hours will be
less brutal. A lot of corrections. Patience.
Last night Addi and I finally ate something besides Subway sandwiches. We had some nice lamb at the dinner table, with potatoes and salad. We had a long discussion about the availability of Icelandic lamb at Whole Foods, and Addi was indignant over the price of it- $6 per pound, cheaper than any other meat and, well, clearly superior due to its Icelandicness. I asked him why, and he observed that it was probably due to the need to compete with New Zealand lamb. Sock puppets came to mind. We then discussed Skyr, Iceland's signature yoghurt, and his dad asked me if I noticed that it tasted differently than it used to, as it is now made by another dairy farm. It was pretty funny, I could not imagine having such a conversation in America. No one I know in the States has the foggiest notion where food comes from.
We talked about the process as we polished off some ice cream, and all of the botched triangles that Addi's dad had taken to the recycling center. I moaned in humilation; many of them were due to mistakes I had made in the long mornings in front of the computer. Just that morning, I had fallen asleep in the lobby furniture of the office building we were working at to complete the digital production. Addi assured me that a lot of the errors were just due to the imperfect process of production. "It's not just that I'm retarded?" I asked. Biggi, his dad, laughed. "No, it's because you are redheaded. We must be kind to redheaded people."
I remember a few weeks ago in New York walking over the Manhattan bridge with a very talented trumpet player. He talked about his constant awareness of his shortcomings musically, and how technique is judged in his specific realm. I expressed my shock at this, since I find his band to be totally awesome. He dismissed my praise, saying that as a non- musician I perhaps was not trained to notice these things. "You'd better be glad of that," I retorted. He went on to say that he constantly felt like a baby in a new environment, bewildered by the depth of music. This I feel a very deep affinity for on this particular project; I think that a sense of being in over your head is one of the most important indications of going in the right direction. So much effort has been put in already by all these people, and so many mistakes made, there is no turning back.
26.3.09
On Blogging
Keeping a blog sounds like something a mugwump would do. Can't you just imagine the entire buzzing internet hive being crowded with rows of laptops and slimy, emaciated beings connected to these glowing screens via thick strands of mucous?
If you've read Naked Lunch, you'll remember fondly the repulsive creatures who spurt jizz out of their heads. If you didn't read that fine book, maybe it's because you were never an aspiring teenaged beatnik.
I would suspect William S. Burroughs would barely raise a wild eyebrow at the blog as a career model. Of course there are creatures wishing to enslave themselves to a form of collective thought.
Architecture and blogging share a similarly intense behavioral pattern; so much so that I have little to say about the last few days of labor. I have been sitting in front of a computer working as fast as I can to process the 1,000 triangles of glory needed to erect our monument. The assembly is crawling along and there are apparently pieces wrong and/or missing. But we soldier on, and what happens happens. I hope that such uneasy and self- evident statements will become less frequent over the weekend. I hope "it is what it is" is not our mantra. I'd prefer our mantra to be more along the lines of "fuck yeah."
If you've read Naked Lunch, you'll remember fondly the repulsive creatures who spurt jizz out of their heads. If you didn't read that fine book, maybe it's because you were never an aspiring teenaged beatnik.I would suspect William S. Burroughs would barely raise a wild eyebrow at the blog as a career model. Of course there are creatures wishing to enslave themselves to a form of collective thought.
Architecture and blogging share a similarly intense behavioral pattern; so much so that I have little to say about the last few days of labor. I have been sitting in front of a computer working as fast as I can to process the 1,000 triangles of glory needed to erect our monument. The assembly is crawling along and there are apparently pieces wrong and/or missing. But we soldier on, and what happens happens. I hope that such uneasy and self- evident statements will become less frequent over the weekend. I hope "it is what it is" is not our mantra. I'd prefer our mantra to be more along the lines of "fuck yeah."
24.3.09
WHY I AM HERE.
A few months ago, Addi Schram and I were sitting at Pepe Verde in Chelsea discussing the state of the economy and its connection to Game Theory. The mechinations of the people responsible for the worldwide collapse can definitely be considered horrible and unethical, but certainly has its own diabolical logic. (I´m totally ignorant on such matters but follow them with interest; Paddy Hirsch of Marketplace is doing a great job explaining things.)
The same can be said, I argued, of what occurred in Iceland. Addi dismissed this, saying that the robber barons of Iceland were criminals. Everyone in Iceland, he said, was paying the price for their greed. While it´s true that what occurred was catastrophic, it follows a particularly extreme and inventive strategy, and as far as I know, was not actually illegal.
This, for me, is what´s so fascinating about it. I told him about a series I had been watching on BBC called The Trap, by Adam Curtis.
The most interesting concept I learned about is the central rule of game theory as posited by John Nash. You remember him, right? This is that people are only predictable inasfar as they are acting out of self- interest. This applies to individuals and crowds.
The aftermath of profiteering that Iceland is currently dealing with is precisely such a scenario: the core principle of the free market stretched and warped beyond its limits.
I think we are in a new age. Sounds corny, right? But no one can deny that the concept of economic predictability based on self- interest is kind of outdated at this point.
So I know it sounds far out, but I got involved in getting this monument built because I think it´s a physical manifestation of something beyond self interest, all the materials are donated, all the labor is volunteer, and we designers have worked night and day on it.
The same can be said, I argued, of what occurred in Iceland. Addi dismissed this, saying that the robber barons of Iceland were criminals. Everyone in Iceland, he said, was paying the price for their greed. While it´s true that what occurred was catastrophic, it follows a particularly extreme and inventive strategy, and as far as I know, was not actually illegal.
This, for me, is what´s so fascinating about it. I told him about a series I had been watching on BBC called The Trap, by Adam Curtis.
The most interesting concept I learned about is the central rule of game theory as posited by John Nash. You remember him, right? This is that people are only predictable inasfar as they are acting out of self- interest. This applies to individuals and crowds.
The aftermath of profiteering that Iceland is currently dealing with is precisely such a scenario: the core principle of the free market stretched and warped beyond its limits.
I think we are in a new age. Sounds corny, right? But no one can deny that the concept of economic predictability based on self- interest is kind of outdated at this point.
So I know it sounds far out, but I got involved in getting this monument built because I think it´s a physical manifestation of something beyond self interest, all the materials are donated, all the labor is volunteer, and we designers have worked night and day on it.
I LAND, YOU LAND, WE ALL LAND FOR ICELAND
I got into Iceland at 6 this morning, with sunglasses on, my loves. I´m too important to make eye contact! I shall ignore the riffraff in wide legged jeans by donning a time honored combo of sunglasses, headphones, and a hoodie ! I really know how to work a mood while pondering the duty free selection of spirits. Of course I missed the bus to Reykjavik.
I´m thrilled to be here, but will have to hold off on seeing my friends or even going downtown till we get the bulk of our work done. The glorious Reykjavik party patrol will take my hand and never let go.
I´m thrilled to be here, but will have to hold off on seeing my friends or even going downtown till we get the bulk of our work done. The glorious Reykjavik party patrol will take my hand and never let go.
ELEMENTARY, DEAR WATSON. A PROCESS OF ELIMINATION.
So here is a screen shot of our joyful, festive colliding geometry
for all you freaky PoMo- retro ironic archinerds out there.
for all you freaky PoMo- retro ironic archinerds out there.
See, the triangle is a single cell of the structure, and the rings and
choppy lines are what we subtract for drill holes through the
triangle, and the wavy surfaces cut the piece of sheet metal.
It´s my dream that someone out there in the internets is desperately
looking for a way to make a cellular structure happen from sheet
material, and have just had their prayers answered.
This fiesta is the product of untold hours of research.
22.3.09
OUR BAD NEWS BEARS MOMENT
Friday was such a nightmare. Simon and I were shaky and brain dead in the "New York office", aka my apartment, and just at the moment when we discovered a flaw in our system of flattening these pieces to be cut, it was suggested to Simon and I that we were being totally bass- ackwards in the way we were executing this process, which is basically doing it by hand. We were stunned at this notion that we had been dumbly doing the work any computer could do, and too tired to argue about it. We were chided that this sort of process it what parametric modeling is designed to do, and that we were slaving away for no reason, and we'd never get it done. Simon and I felt like fools: we had wasted weeks working night and day, it wasn't gonna get built, and I was about to go to Iceland and sit on my hands because there was no way we'd solve this problem.
With that, Simon left the "office", dejected. We thought it was all over. We called it a day. I was so anxious and shaky and worried that it was somehow my fault, so I went to my friend Tiffany's restaurant and waited for her to get off work and meet up with another old friend visiting from Chicago, Lily Chumley. After I told Lily my troubles, she convinced me that the project would go ahead just fine, and that worst case scenario maybe 10% of the pieces were fucked up. It would stand, she promised. I was just delirious and confused. Tiffany poured me a glass of prosecco and smiled.
We then went to the bar next door and paid too much for delicious drinks. I stumbled home wasted and passed out while Lily worked on her course syllabus for her anthropology classes.
The next day, Addi skyped with some good news:
it was totally working.
Not only were we able to verify the normals on our side, but Addi talked to the Rhino expert and was told that there was no magic solution, and that we were doing this the most efficient way possible under the time constraints.
In your face, parametric modeling!!!!
God knows I wish there was a less boring and repetitive way to get this done, but we have no time to screw around trying to find it.
pretty cool huh? I hope all of Reykjavik loves the finished product. My feelings will be hurt if they don't, though this is mostly Addi's baby. It's our baby now!
IN THE PALACE OF NORMALS REVERSED
So I am waiting for the 7.5 mm red balls to split the corners of our vertices. This after spending a lovely spring afternoon indoors reversing the normals of our model. What the hell, you ask, am I talking about? And why must you suffer through it? Friends, I am talking about this:
This creature will actually be about the size of my apartment in Brooklyn. It's a model of the pavillion we are constructing in Iceland. The man on the podium is Reykjavk's first sheriff. Addi has been up for about 5 days, I think, pulling the model out of Maya over in Reykjavik and emailing chunks of it into our hot little hands here in New York.
My whole body is very, very sore from crouching at the monitor turning all those triangles you see making up this anenome shape into flat shop drawings for the laser cutter. Hence the red balls, the geometry is subtracted from the corners to keep people's eyes from getting poked out.
When I feel more coherent I'll run through the process with you. We were supposed to start cutting the aluminum (excuuuuuusssse me, aluminium) yesterday. Umm.... yeah. We didn't. Instead, we had a team mini- meltdown, questioning the veracity of our model, specifically whether the pieces were flipping orientation coming out of Maya or when we offset the surface in Rhino. It had been about three days since Simon and I had slept more than two hours, and Addi more than that.
There was a whole lot of grim Skype conversations back and forth, and pleas to parametric modeling expert dudes we had never met before to help us find a more automated way of executing the model, since we humans just weren't working fast enough. Considering we're supposed to be done on Thursday and accounting for sleep deprivation, I think we are being pretty civil to each other.
Happily, though, I got the copy of my favorite Fall album in the mail today, and a long night of sleep, like 9 hours! First time in a while. Listening to The Fall takes me back to long ago bedrooms, listening to headphones and rolling my adolescent eyes. It's one of those albums that linger in your sense memory years after you don't own it anymore.
This creature will actually be about the size of my apartment in Brooklyn. It's a model of the pavillion we are constructing in Iceland. The man on the podium is Reykjavk's first sheriff. Addi has been up for about 5 days, I think, pulling the model out of Maya over in Reykjavik and emailing chunks of it into our hot little hands here in New York.
My whole body is very, very sore from crouching at the monitor turning all those triangles you see making up this anenome shape into flat shop drawings for the laser cutter. Hence the red balls, the geometry is subtracted from the corners to keep people's eyes from getting poked out.
When I feel more coherent I'll run through the process with you. We were supposed to start cutting the aluminum (excuuuuuusssse me, aluminium) yesterday. Umm.... yeah. We didn't. Instead, we had a team mini- meltdown, questioning the veracity of our model, specifically whether the pieces were flipping orientation coming out of Maya or when we offset the surface in Rhino. It had been about three days since Simon and I had slept more than two hours, and Addi more than that.
There was a whole lot of grim Skype conversations back and forth, and pleas to parametric modeling expert dudes we had never met before to help us find a more automated way of executing the model, since we humans just weren't working fast enough. Considering we're supposed to be done on Thursday and accounting for sleep deprivation, I think we are being pretty civil to each other.Happily, though, I got the copy of my favorite Fall album in the mail today, and a long night of sleep, like 9 hours! First time in a while. Listening to The Fall takes me back to long ago bedrooms, listening to headphones and rolling my adolescent eyes. It's one of those albums that linger in your sense memory years after you don't own it anymore.
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