tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61114962894254601582024-03-13T18:47:09.572+01:00Check-in ArchitectureCheck In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-2919744361898188622008-10-02T10:11:00.009+02:002008-10-03T12:17:18.216+02:00CHECK-IN ARCHITECTURE THE EXHIBITION<span style="font-weight:bold;">Arsenale Novissimo<br />Tese di San Cristoforo<br />Sept 12th - Nov 23rd<br />Mon - Sun / 10:00 - 18:00<br />Free entrance<br /></span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Check-in Architecture is a participative research project. We invited students of art, architecture, design and sociology from more than 20 universities in Europe, to tell stories about our cities in the form of 3 minute long documentaries. </span><br /><br />Featuring works by: <br />Claudio Sinatti / Invernomuto <br />Ecosistema Urbano / Metrogramma / Ma0 / NLArchitects / Cherubino Gambardella.<br /><br /><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111840614185439147688.00045315a244bae3a23ef&z=14">click here for the map</a> <br /><br /><span id="fullpost">The spaces of representation on the web are changing their shape. As the shapeshift, many questions arise: how are they transforming the way we look? How much of these representations change how we perceive urban spaces? In their own audiovisual research, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Claudio Sinatti</span> and <span style="font-weight:bold;">Invernomuto</span> have always paid a special attention, almost an obsession, to urban and suburban space. Their obsession led us to invite them to dig into the overflowing audiovisual archive we collected in a span of four months, and to fill with their aesthetic practice a sizable exhibition. They've created a visionary space, where movements, postures, behaviors and the perception of space itself could be questioned and interrogated. <span style="font-style:italic;">Mission Church</span> – a visual wall made of all the videos posted on YouTube – and <span style="font-style:italic;">Perspectives on Archive</span> – an erratic and restless cinematic ballad – were born with this in mind. The former focuses on visual language, and the latter on the subjects and the places shot. Both challenge low-resolution stereotypes in order to exalt them. At the same time, conceiving the exhibition as a contemporary media space, we asked several European architecture studios - <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ecosistema Urbano, Cherubino Gambardella, Ma0, Metrogramma</span> and <span style="font-weight:bold;">NL Architects</span> - to shape, only using words and sounds, original remarks committed to key words, which attempt to read the modern city in its continuous metamorphosis.<br />The artists and architects answered our questions with a clear statement. Their responses encapsulated the notion that research about the imaginary forces doubtful pauses and mysterious reflections to arise. But it can also give rise to challenges, invent new standards and re-invent media. And, above all else, stimulate the process of designing new and more adventurous projects.<br /><br />checkinarchitecture.com<br />youtube.com/checkinarchitecture<br />picasaweb.com/checkinarchitecture<br /> </span>Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-41003026713517211242008-09-09T09:59:00.007+02:002008-09-09T12:01:49.603+02:00Check-in Architecture - The ExhibitionSee you in Venice at <A href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=111840614185439147688.00045315a244bae3a23ef&ie=UTF8&ll=45.435954,12.341037&spn=0.023248,0.055618&z=15">Arsenale Novissimo</A> on Friday 12th, for Check-in Architecture final exhibition.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SMYtkplS8JI/AAAAAAAAHiU/GcSLKY0bIRc/s1600-h/flyer+esecutivo+EXHIB.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SMYtkplS8JI/AAAAAAAAHiU/GcSLKY0bIRc/s320/flyer+esecutivo+EXHIB.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243928923780346002" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SMYt0xwryHI/AAAAAAAAHic/wfwQL3a1saI/s1600-h/flyer+esecutivo+EXHIB2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SMYt0xwryHI/AAAAAAAAHic/wfwQL3a1saI/s320/flyer+esecutivo+EXHIB2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243929200853502066" /></a><br /><br /><span id="fullpost"> Here, what remains of the post.<br />REMOVE SPAN TAG IF YOU DON'T USE THIS FEATURE! :-)<br /> </span>Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-83508724286241125952008-08-01T10:59:00.001+02:002008-08-01T11:02:43.878+02:00We (really) love magazines<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X88cZyNff0o"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X88cZyNff0o" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pOdUSpCfYoM"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pOdUSpCfYoM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />Magazines are not only the best way to keep yourself informed in these postmodern times - actually, the Internet is probably better - but they're also both a physical and a cultural fetish, providing a sensual experience along with a brain tickle. The feel of the leafing paper - or plastic, or tissue, or whatever material you can reach with your hand - is something mag-aficionados can hardly do without. Back in May we spoke with the zine-obsessed author of <span style="font-style: italic;">We Love Magazines</span>, Andrew Losowsky, when he came to our very home for another round of <a href="http://www.metaflow.it/">Metaflow</a>'s <a href="http://www.signjam.it/">Signjam</a>. We've already shown you some <a href="http://www.checkinarchitecture.com/mission/132">here</a>, but we've got more in store for you magazine-lovers out there. This two-part videoblog features Losowsky as he goes on and on about his mag collection, talking about every piece as a newborn child softly rocked in his arms. How moving, huh?Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-75272233078079542832008-07-29T16:14:00.004+02:002008-07-30T15:15:06.587+02:00Groping Nature<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CLorzivzrD8"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CLorzivzrD8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />We've already explored a less-known side of Ibiza in this mission <a href="http://www.checkinarchitecture.com/mission/181">here</a>, but some of the guys appearing in that video deserved some more of our video-blessing. Talk about loving nature: this two absolute chiefs here represent the two sides of the alternative Ibiza. One is an old time hippie living life as it comes, happy to be given each day and to live it in harmony with the universe, the other is a tourist's best friend, providing the eccentric and informal kind of human material people expect to find on the island and the loving material women long for when leaving the city for vacation. You girls can't but quiver in excitement, you guys can't but learn how to live.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-29264401398241974532008-07-29T15:46:00.007+02:002008-07-29T18:00:43.486+02:00Fuorisalone's baraonda - Interview with Gilda Bojardi<object height="350" width="425"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZFM14qWn8Zo"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZFM14qWn8Zo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"></embed> </object><br /><br />We've been covering the Fuorisalone in Milan a lot when it was time back in April, but we still have something more to show you guys, even in the sweaty hot days of late-July. Our own Fabio Falzone interviewed the <a href="http://www.internimagazine.it/Site/">Interni</a> magazine director Gilda Bojardi, one of the key figures who made Zona Tortona what it is today, putting it on the Design Week map. She visited our headquarters in Via Oslavia and, after we showed her how CIA works, she told us some of her precious share of Salone history. Enjoy.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-772364798229905782008-07-29T13:20:00.009+02:002008-07-31T14:56:44.005+02:00Pearls Before Swine - CIA goes jury<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/abQVldObFfs"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/abQVldObFfs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.fattoriadeglianimali.net/">Perle ai Porci</a> - italian for Pearls to Swine - is a music festival where you pay no entrance fee and, apart from the bands playing anything from ska to rock, you can enjoy a 4-day pork meat fair. Groupies should know it's no place for rockstars, but a few days of fun and a music contest make up for it.<br />CIA has been there, documenting some of the guys playing and the atmosphere at the sport center in Casale Corte Cerro, where the festival was. And, more importantly, we were also proudly represented by our very own Andrea Lissoni, Luca Martinazzoli and Luca Legnani Jr., all in the contest jury.<br />Check out this video for a taste of what they've seen.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-77875958247557864002008-07-25T13:30:00.004+02:002008-12-13T07:10:55.982+01:00"The Most Photographed Barn In America" from Delillo's White Noise<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SIm61DqXJRI/AAAAAAAAG6Q/6Y_ZOUKWeyE/s1600-h/whitenoise_first_ed.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SIm61DqXJRI/AAAAAAAAG6Q/6Y_ZOUKWeyE/s320/whitenoise_first_ed.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5226914263218988306" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Though we're concentrating on Europe here at Check-in ARchitecture, we couldn't pass up this excerpt from Don Delillo's <span style="font-style: italic;">White Noise</span>. We'll give a good European example of this peculiar phenomenon tomorrow.<br /><br />Excerpt from Don Delillio's <span style="font-style: italic;">White Noise:</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /> Several days later Murray asked me about a tourist attraction known as the most photographed barn in America. We drove 22 miles into the country around Farmington. There were meadows and apple orchards. White fences trailed through the rolling fields. Soon the signs started appearing. THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. We counted five signs before we reached the site. There were 40 cars and a tour bus in the makeshift lot. We walked along a cowpath to the slightly elevated spot set aside for viewing and photographing. All the people had cameras; some had tripods, telephoto lenses, filter kits. A man in a booth sold postcards and slides -- pictures of the barn taken from the elevated spot. We stood near a grove of trees and watched the photographers. Murray maintained a prolonged silence, occasionally scrawling some notes in a little book.<br /><br /> "No one sees the barn," he said finally.<br /><br /> A long silence followed.<br /><br /> "Once you've seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn."<br /><br /> He fell silent once more. People with cameras left the elevated site, replaced by others.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">We're not here to capture an image, we're here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies."<br /> <br /> There was an extended silence. The man in the booth sold postcards and slides.<br /> <br />"Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We've agreed to be part of a collective perception. It literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism."<br /> <br /> Another silence ensued.<br /> <br />"They are taking pictures of taking pictures," he said.<br /><br />He did not speak for a while. We listened to the incessant clicking of shutter release buttons, the rustling crank of levers that advanced the film.<br /> <br />"What was the barn like before it was photographed?" he said. "What did it look like, how was it different from the other barns, how was it similar to other barns?"<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span id="fullpost"> </span>Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-12031536339477684832008-07-11T11:42:00.011+02:002008-07-25T13:20:36.826+02:00Octopification of urban spaces<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/oct-pied-20080709-143344.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/oct-pied-20080709-143344.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Forget the banlieues, precarious working and laissez-faire globalization: one of the plagues of our times is the octopification of European cities. As you can clearly see in this amateur snap, France has been conquered by shiny-green octopuses who don't really care whether that couch is yours or not, they'll slide their squishy, slimy bodies upon it and whip their tentacles out of your kitchen's window. Sarkozy already asked the NATO for help, but the guys there keep scratching their heads and so far they've only come up with a chowderizing ray project, but God knows when it's going to be ready.<br /><br />We survived Bin Laden, but this time we're doomed. No kidding.<br /><br />Well, I was actually kidding. Responsible for this ludicrous piece of public art are DeviantArt's <a href="http://filthyluker.deviantart.com/">FilthyLuker</a> and his pal Pedro Estrellas, who apparently "octo-pied" a building somewhere in France with inflatable tentacles, turning an average urban landscape in some sci-fi movie set.<br />Looking at the tentacles' color one can't help but wonder if the picture is real or just a great photoshop hoax. Our secret hope is someone is really dealing with a giant octopus lying on his sofa, but just an inflatable one would be cool too.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-64742450332820435992008-07-10T14:48:00.001+02:002008-07-10T14:48:51.108+02:00The Transmitting Architecture ReportWe're through with editing, delaying and working on the video material we collected back in Turin last week, and we're finally releasing a considerable amount of brand new stuff for you guys to enjoy.<br /><br />This video blog load features:<br /><br />- Aaron Betsky having a talk with us about language in architecture;<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VbdFOGIYeyA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VbdFOGIYeyA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />- Cino Zucchi and Mirko Zardini discussing about communication practices (they laugh when we ask them about communication in the congress);<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"> <param name="movie4" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Gasnh5d5DE"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Gasnh5d5DE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"></embed> </object><br /><br />- P.K. Das speaking out about social changes, equality and architecture;<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UUDzlXKqKUU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UUDzlXKqKUU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />- François Roche heavily critiquing the congress and preferring Guattari-style ecosophy to eco-sustainability;<br />- Mario Cucinella sharing some of his thoughts on human-scale architecture and the architecture star system.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RtN4Y5wPuZU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RtN4Y5wPuZU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />- Adam Greenfield telling us about buildings with moving walls, open source and the internet;<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7ahoMaFe1fs&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7ahoMaFe1fs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />It's a lot of stuff, so take your time to check it all out and come back here often for more CIA videos.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-51178502938243156962008-07-09T12:41:00.010+02:002008-07-10T20:53:45.410+02:00Antarctic Soundscape<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/data/media/22/antarctica-icebergs_4608.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/data/media/22/antarctica-icebergs_4608.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Antarctica was born as a negative, starting from its very name. <i>Antarktikos</i> merely means "opposite to the Arctic" in Greek, and today the continent is still opposing the 21st century frenzy possessing the rest of the world by featuring the only stripe of land nobody on Earth is claiming. If we are <i>yin</i>, Antarctica is <i>yang</i>. If we're full, Antarctica is empty.<br /><br />For being just a mass of ever-transforming ice and condensation, the South Pole has always been rather interesting to explorers and artists, who always went there to map its landscapes, both geographical and emotional.<br /><br />Though maps are symbolic representations, and say what they need to say by cutting things out, thus huge gaps and ambiguities that artists can slip and play with as only artists can. Lately Antarctica's negativeness has been picked up by sound artists. Back in 1949, British composer Ralph Vaughn Williams created <i>Sinfonia Antarctica</i>, a metaphorical portrait of the continent, and today eclectic Dj Spooky - that subliminal kid - has come up with a crazy sound-oriented multimedia project titled <i>Terra Nova, The Antarctica Suite</i>.<br /><br /><i>The Antarctica Suite</i> is a 70-minute long performance, a sound map strictly featuring only Antarctica sounds, recorded by Dj Spooky himself on site. To back up the audio, the artist does also screen images from the places he visited. Although his piece has a much more technological approach to the continent's atmosphere than Vaughn Williams', the two works pair in terms of striking an important nerve: Antarctica's negativeness.<br />Sound is negative too, it's a dense void, an integration to our experience, an invisible depth shaking beings with their own strength. A soundscape traces the perfect depiction of a still life's most distinctively platonic potential. The crackling noises of ever-rearranging ice, the quiet whistle of blowing wind, the squeak of a penguin - all along with burning-white images of snowy landscapes - are probably not enough to make you <i>experience</i> Antarctica, but they're maybe closer to make you <i>feel</i> it.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-71657012663994080502008-07-04T11:01:00.006+02:002008-12-13T07:10:56.255+01:00The Transmitting Architecture Report (teaser)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SG44vKS7gtI/AAAAAAAAEXg/J_FgIh7-1TQ/s1600-h/zucchi-zardini.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SG44vKS7gtI/AAAAAAAAEXg/J_FgIh7-1TQ/s400/zucchi-zardini.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5219171401037742802" border="0" /></a><br />After these four days of <a href="http://www.uia2008torino.org/">Transmitting Architecture</a>, it's time for a little budget.<br />Although we managed to get some really good video interviews, the congress itself was pretty disappointing, and the many critiques and complaints we collected from the very architects we interviewed during our stay is a further proof to this. Ok, transmitting architecture is not easy, but it gets trickier if you lock yourself into a conference stronghold and only express yourself through slides, that most of the time don't show when they're supposed to. As a medium, the congress is not a very conductive one.<br />However, all of this doesn't mean our congress experience was fruitless. If you guys are patient enough to wait a couple of days, there's a lot of stuff coming up on our video blog, and some of it is pretty entertaining: our old acquaintance <a href="http://checkinarchitecture.com/mission/75.htm">Cino Zucchi</a> and CCA director Mirko Zardini - both with a wrestling mask on, at some point - discussing about media; François Roche and Mario Cucinella showing some contrasting views about sustainability and matching ones on the architecture star system; a super interesting interview with Aaron Betsky about architecture and building. We were also able to get a hold on P.K. Das and Adam Greenfield.<br />As we were collecting material for you guys, another crew was shooting a documentary about the congress, directed by Vittorio Badini Confalonieri. He's also a Mini DV master and saved our asses recovering a cassette that had fallen on the ground and that we thought was lost forever, with some magic expertise only a film pro could have. The documentary will feature lots of interviews and images from the city and the congress venues, but we'll give you more info about it as soon as we have them. For now, be sure to check the blog every day for new videos.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-22099667474698085872008-07-03T23:33:00.001+02:002008-12-13T07:10:56.415+01:00Mapping Lost Imaginaries: Telex From Cuba<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SHPe58nyK3I/AAAAAAAAEa8/VPo12TRnAJg/s1600-h/Cuba.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SHPe58nyK3I/AAAAAAAAEa8/VPo12TRnAJg/s400/Cuba.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220761480159439730" border="0" /></a><br />We've written here before how underwhelmed we can by sparky new technologies in the service of literature, more often than not they hide in their pyrotechnics a lack of content. The explosions masks a story as thoughtful as George W. Bush and as emotional as the clip on tie of a salesman selling Florida time shares.<br /><br />Technology hasn't often worked in the service of literature, weak attempts at hypertext bore us and Google has become the place people look for answers not Shakespeare. So it goes. We're no luddites, perhaps this blog is a testament to that.<br /><br />Two recent websites have sparked interest outside the author and their publicist, the first was indie darling Miranda July's simple site devoted to her book <a href="http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/00025"><span style="font-style: italic;">No One Belongs Here More than You</span></a>, which had July writing out her messages in dry-erase marker with the same kind of self-conscious, awkward cuteness that characterizes her book. Self-conscious awkward cuteness sounds pejorative (and maybe it is a little), but really, sometimes and in some ways, it's our bag; We always make passes at girls (or boys) who wear glasses and dig the naive simplicity of the <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dsIZg74mLt8">Beat Happening</a> as much as the next gang of cardigan-sporting, twee-loving twenty-somethings.<br /><br />This a long way to get getting to the second site, built for Rachel Kushner's <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://telexfromcuba.com/main.html">Telex from Cuba</a>, released this month. None of the awkward cuteness of July is found here, in fact it's better than most web-art projects we've seen trying to pull off the same thing. The book, we've only read the reviews and the<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/books/chapters/chapter-telex-from-cuba.html?_r=1&oref=slogin"> first chapter accessible at the NY Times</a>, but the site built for the book opens up to a map of Cuba with a simple haunting piano music like the last song at the last bar at the end of the road, where Borscht Belt comedians and Cuban strippers come to die.<br /><br />The site displays a map of Cuba with different locations lined up. Each site, when accessed, gives a brief slide show, like some Gerhard Richter paintings or even some Sebald stories the text/image (and here music) is a little haunting. Snaps of French Nazi Christian de la Maziere mix in with weighted family snaps and glamor shots of some Castro's black bereted female revolutionaries. And the ghostly presence of the images, with Kushner's robust and sometimes sexy prose, brings bout an epiphany. One that maybe attracted Kushner to this space as well. There's a lost world in Cuba.<br /><br />There was place called Cuba, filled with gambling halls packed with government spies and leftist prostitutes, a Cuba of shitty tenements and fields owned by the United Fruit Co., and lorded over by bully Fulgencio Batista (our man in Havana, another painful CIA blunder), with the rebels in the mountains who can never win, or says the American expatriate sipping rum punch at the country club, knowing little that his waiter works for Castro. It's like all these strange in between places that are now gone forever that play on the American imagination, Casablance when the neon lights of Ric's cafe americain blinked into the desert, or the weathered maps and moving red lines Spielberg plays on in the Indiana Jones films. Some exotic place, filled with excess and troubles, where no one is in the right, but the glamor and the danger mingle together in an intoxicating cocktail. Though this kind of lost imaginary is always tinged with romanticism, we expect Kushner's novel punctures it as much as it explores it.<br /><br />The first chapter of Kushner's novel (mentioned earlier on the NY Times website)<br />relates the memories of a man who spent his boyhood as the princely scion of a United Fruit executive, who years later, his exile complete, relates the tales of his lost world. For all its inequity and inequalities that put Castro on the right side of history, is still gone, and the ritual, glamor, and elusive imaginary went with it.<br /><br />A curious piece of the internets in the service of literature, or more likely something separate from the book, a project born from the same imaginary, producing a strange result of its own.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-80058169055437865402008-07-03T21:53:00.005+02:002008-07-04T10:52:36.740+02:00The Singing, Ringing Tree and Panopticons - Not Just for Terrorizing Prisoners Anymore<a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-019430079352099938 visible" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4B0hGyKV9qs&hl=it&fs=1"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-019430079352099938 visible" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4B0hGyKV9qs&hl=it&fs=1"></a><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4B0hGyKV9qs&hl=it&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4B0hGyKV9qs&hl=it&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />We found this video of a rather peculiar public landmark project emerging from the Lancashire midlands, not far from Manchester. Abandoned and depressed since the industrial revolution revolved to Asia, with all the mines and factories shuttering into oblivion, the region has had to start getting creative about how to reinvigorate the local economy.<br /><br />One of their methods of getting creative is by building a series of unusual monuments, readymade landmarks to drive any kind of tourism up into the English hinterlands, dubbed "<a href="http://www.panopticons.uk.net/">Panopticons</a>" with a peculiar interpretation of the word. The "panopticon" we know is the one developed by Jeremy Bentham to provide total isolation and awareness of prisoners, later picked up by Foucault and others to describe the terrorizing surveillance that governments inflict on their citizens. Which is to say, the word coined by Bentham, leaves a bit of a bad taste in our mouths.<br /><br />One of the most peculiar of these "Panopticon" landmarks is the unfortunately named <a href="http://www.burnley.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=12561">"Singing, Ringing Tree."</a> Built near a site known for its history of witchcraft, the tree is made of twisted pipes that pick up the wind and thus sing, emitting a truly spooky sound, one that could be easily, and cheaply, used by a horror film for the sound of lost souls. The fanfare and the rhetoric surrounding the project are a bit weird, but the structure itself is so strange and unintentionally beautiful that it doesn't matter. I say unintentionally (given its name and the city <a href="http://www.burnley.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=12561">press release</a>) because seems an odd way to reinvigorate a dying region by giving voice to its lost souls.<br /><br />But it works. We think it's truly worth a road trip to Lancashire.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-14676388287447312122008-07-01T18:05:00.007+02:002008-12-13T07:10:56.595+01:00CIA Transmitting Architecture through partying<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGu69ihPPmI/AAAAAAAADck/8U9fDKaLYUw/s1600-h/aeyes22c1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGu69ihPPmI/AAAAAAAADck/8U9fDKaLYUw/s400/aeyes22c1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218470159639854690" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.uia2008torino.org/">Transmitting Architecture</a> can be pretty boring at times. But we manage to party the congress away. Yesterday night, after an intense day of working and interviewing, the whole CIA crew gathered with lots of other congress visitors and random Turinese bohemians in Piazza Vittorio. As we were sipping on some fresh drinks, different performers livened up the porticos with music. When it got a little late - for the neighbors - we danced to the noiseless beats pumped through wireless headphones directly into our heads, making the Piazza our own silent disco.<br /><br />As the night pushed on, a smaller group of partying nighthawks rallied to a rather bizarre Villa in the outskirts of Turin, a very old building turned into a party that the late Stanley Kubrick would have dug. The tipsy crowd danced to the <a href="http://www.invernomuto.info/">Invernomuto</a> and <a href="http://www.skulldisco.com/people">Shackleton</a> dj sets until rosy-fingered dawn, occasionally climbing the rocky stairs to the bar, where a darker version of Benicio Del Toro - who eventually wanted to beat up our chief editor Fabio - served us a few cocktails.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-49622472679631126832008-07-01T13:33:00.003+02:002008-12-13T07:10:56.759+01:00Making a Country Into a Theme Park<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGpmK15Ea7I/AAAAAAAADcc/lnBgjdmIx5k/s1600-h/Mickey.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGpmK15Ea7I/AAAAAAAADcc/lnBgjdmIx5k/s320/Mickey.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218095454713310130" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Baudrillard once wrote that the purpose of Disneyland was to hide the fact that all of Southern California was a simulacra, or in other words, a replica for which there exists no original, a fake made real because it's not quite faking anything. In researching this project, we've come across all kinds of curious folds in Europe that make us feel that tourism, not the jetsetting lowcosters using a living Europe, but the hordes going to refurbished pallazzos and the childhood homes of semi-obscure medieval celebrities, that coupled with a declining population, threatens to turn Europe into a museum or likely worse, a theme park.<br /><br />In Italy, Mussolini (the seeming father of modern Italy for better or worse), interested in uniting Italy under the brand of nationalism, strongly promoted internal tourism to create a better national cohesion. He encouraged towns to cash in on their history, politically useful for him as the celebration of the past hinted at its continuity with the future, in his mind the interminable Fascist Empire. Tourism both internally, and more profitably, externally has made Italy a curious case study and parts of it in particular are especially susceptible to becoming mere theme parks. What happens when your country becomes a tourist trap?<br /><br />Italy, is not a fake, not a simulacrum, but is still beginning to suffer a fate stranger than even the sunshine noir surreality of Los Angeles. Italy might be becoming a theme park of history and collapsed empires, with the museums and historical centers, like Disneyland, hiding this fact all along. Venice, of which we've done a few missions on, seems a city perpetually in decline, whether it's plague, or conquest, or acqua alta, or the worst yet, tourism eroding the dignity of the city, destroying it in the process of appreciating it. We're loving it to death, and once it's dead, we'll stuff it, mount it, and then love it's well-preserved corpse.<br /><br />Like Disneyland, maybe Italy should start charging an admission fee to enter the country, matinee prices in the winter, full price during the high season. Or it should manage its economy to try and become less dependent on tourism as the primary form of industry. Venice is becoming a very fragile place, other fragile places have limited tourism, Bhutan as an example, certain national parks and land art. This is a problem perhaps bigger than I've a solution for, even a joking one. But Venice especially and Italy at large, needs to find an answer, or Italians risk becoming only theme actors, security guards, and guides to their own dead history.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-12420124328019721962008-06-30T19:08:00.010+02:002008-12-13T07:10:56.978+01:00CIA Transmitting Architecture with Invernomuto<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGpjtaQjEmI/AAAAAAAADcU/5PopAOOpTUE/s1600-h/IMG_1917.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGpjtaQjEmI/AAAAAAAADcU/5PopAOOpTUE/s320/IMG_1917.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218092750056133218" border="0" /></a><br />Day one in Turin and significant representatives of the CIA crew have now gathered with us for <a href="http://www.uia2008torino.org/">Transmitting Architecture</a>. As we stroll through the pavilions, interviewing interesting people as we go, we've got a few interesting things going on ourselves in the CIA outpost in the Oval.<br /><br />Our friends Simone and Simone, better known as <a href="http://www.invernomuto.info/">Invernomuto</a>, performed the first of a series of audio/video sessions, mixing live music and images from the remainders out of the Check-in Architecture footage. An intense experience for those lucky enough (as we feel) to be in attendance. The same formula - not the same performance, since it's going to be different every time - is going to take place twice a day. Don't miss the next one.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-87958126943286040272008-06-30T17:13:00.016+02:002008-07-09T15:25:11.625+02:00Architecture is not building<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VbdFOGIYeyA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VbdFOGIYeyA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Aaron Betsky makes it pretty clear: it's not the buildings that make architecture, it's the architects, and they don't even really need to build. In fact, architecture is more about unbuilding than building, or so says Betsky.<br /><br />Betsky talks about architecture like someone who is not only passionate about the building-lingo, but about life in general. It's no surprise he wrote a lot about architecture and sex, also becoming one of the main contributors to a spatial interpretation of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Queer-Space-Architecture-Same-Desire/dp/0688143016">queer theory</a>.<br />During his conference at <a href="http://www.uia2008torino.org/">Transmitting Architecture</a> in Turin, he explained how architecture is the whole process <span style="font-style: italic;">around</span> building, not necessary including it. Thinking, talking, experimenting with an environment's geography, landscape, history, people, relationships, culture, beauty.<br />The exhibition he's curating, taking place at the Venice Biennale and titled <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/exhibition/en/62180.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Out There: Architecture Beyond Building</span></a>, deals with interventions in space and landscapes aiming to make our world feel like home, without covering it with the "architecture graves." That is, the buildings. Betsky's vision is rather minimal: he looks for beauty in simple and subtle things rather than in grand celebrations of wealthy clients that only house bureaucrats.<br />Making the people feel at home in their world is the mission of the architect, but by people Betsky means the widest range possible. When we interviewed him and asked him about low-cost traveling, he believes that what we call "low-cost" is not properly "low" for the environment, and it's available only to high-end customers and not to the much bigger crowds of the poor of the world, who can't afford to satisfy their most basic needs. We're not so sure.<br /><br />But enough with the babble, the video interview we made speaks for itself. Check it out.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-14721564209847219252008-06-27T16:18:00.007+02:002008-12-13T07:10:57.360+01:00The research is on!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGUQkAOV9pI/AAAAAAAADbk/KqA8MrfORHs/s1600-h/photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGUQkAOV9pI/AAAAAAAADbk/KqA8MrfORHs/s320/photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216593954100082322" border="0" /></a><br />Unluckily, we're not always partying. We at Check-in Architecture have a mission too: <a href="http://www.uia2008torino.org/U8T/Engine/RAServePG.php">Transmitting Architecture</a>.<br />Next week we're going to be in Turin, in the lounge area at the Oval. There are three spaces you should check-out:<br />- the interactive area, where you can access the internet to check out our website,<br />- the video exhibitions, where you can watch the Carlos Casas and Invernomuto videos and a selection of missions,<br />- the upstairs balcony where we'll be working hard as usual - and taking some video interviews - in case you want to pay a visit.<br />Transmitting Architecture is one of the most important moments in our Check-in Architecture research, so make sure you pass by.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-25520536056053665792008-06-27T11:34:00.005+02:002008-06-30T13:32:45.788+02:00NYC Waterfalls<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://architecture.myninjaplease.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/nyc_waterfall-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://architecture.myninjaplease.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/nyc_waterfall-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Summer in the City can be pretty damn hot, so a couple of waterfalls might just do. Although it looks a little like shaman material by someone from the rain forest or Niagara, it actually took a Dane to provide the Big Apple with this spectacular - and refreshing - kick to its already iconical Brooklyn Bridge. New York's last public art piece, commissioned by the <a href="http://publicartfund.org/">Public Art Fund</a> to artist <a href="http://www.olafureliasson.net/">Olafur Eliasson</a>, consists in this one waterfall in the picture and three more, falling from free-standing scaffolding towers on the East river. The artist is known for its past success at London's Tate Modern, the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/eliasson/default.htm">Weather Project</a>, worth the museum 2 million visits, and has had the kind of meteori rise softened by green credentials that makes him almost smug seeming to other artists.<br /><br />Being as tall as the Statue of Liberty, his new public installations will be temporary landmarks and, since the only thing more powerful than water in shifting our perception of a place is moving water, they're granted to shape the nearby area and its relationship with the passers-by. Rivers are the coolest thing ever, and there's no doubt vertical ones have a special appeal of their own.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-81366123114243849892008-06-25T16:03:00.006+02:002008-06-25T17:05:21.755+02:00Genre, art and architecture<object height="350" width="425"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7zbE9ZGpob8"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7zbE9ZGpob8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"></embed> </object><br /><br />In order to accomplish <a href="http://checkinarchitecture.com/mission/109">this</a> mission we went to Venice for <span style="font-style: italic;">Multiversity</span> and had the chance to interview a bunch of interesting people. Here's some of the talk we had with curator Giovanna Zapperi about the relationship between gender and its representation in art.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-62158373227346529922008-06-24T11:11:00.006+02:002008-12-13T07:10:57.566+01:00CIA back in Turin!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGDBWXElwgI/AAAAAAAADbc/gykuT35n6hc/s1600-h/invito_torino_screen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SGDBWXElwgI/AAAAAAAADbc/gykuT35n6hc/s320/invito_torino_screen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5215380958389584386" border="0" /></a><br />Turin loves us and we love Turin. Once again the Check-in Architecture crew will move to the Piedmontese capital for a gaggle of good reasons: the UIA World Congress, the Transmitting Architecture exhibition and yet another party - details about it in the flyer above.<br />It's a good chance to witness the Check-in Architecture spirit both in video and in the flesh, we're three dimensional and rocking good dancers.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-13452209780347746252008-06-17T16:28:00.012+02:002008-12-13T07:10:58.043+01:00Great Man and Poet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SFhC3Ki_9rI/AAAAAAAADbE/x07yzWfgqV8/s1600-h/IMG_8536.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SFhC3Ki_9rI/AAAAAAAADbE/x07yzWfgqV8/s320/IMG_8536.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212990084172740274" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SFhDHbyMh0I/AAAAAAAADbM/Tumhw5CDP9M/s1600-h/VERBALE.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SFhDHbyMh0I/AAAAAAAADbM/Tumhw5CDP9M/s320/VERBALE.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212990363677787970" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SFhDg8NVuUI/AAAAAAAADbU/XCYkKYZ84zE/s1600-h/17062008019.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k6gkjtyzeZY/SFhDg8NVuUI/AAAAAAAADbU/XCYkKYZ84zE/s320/17062008019.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212990801878300994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />You know a party was a success when the police shows up, and the goodbye party for our editor and friend Andrew Berardini was definitely one. The second of the images above shows how project manager and party animal Luca Legnani Jr. explained the cops what was going on.<br />A rough translation from Italian would be:<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">The party was in honor of Andrew Berardini,<br />great man and poet.<br />And the music was of excellent quality."</span><br /><br />We already miss Andrew's editorial statements and mid-afternoon blitz-naps and wish him a nice trip back home in LA (he's probably there right now). As for you guys, stay tuned for more Check-in Architecture adventures and videos.Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-63562190377655335692008-06-12T15:03:00.006+02:002008-06-13T16:40:19.554+02:00The Architecture of Alfred Hitchock<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.010publishers.nl/images/book/groot/637.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.010publishers.nl/images/book/groot/637.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>One cannot watch the films of Alfred Hitchcock without some sense of space. When we first heard about this book, <a href="http://www.010publishers.nl/catalogue/book.php?id=637#"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock</span></a> (published by 010), we thought back to all the films we'd seen and in quite a few, the space, the structures, the architecture plays a primary role in the construction of the tales. In <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s72nYn98e50&feature=related"><span style="font-style: italic;">Rear Window</span></a>, L.B. Jeffries (played by James Stewart) confined to a wheelchair due to a broken leg, peeks from the back window of his apartment house, the structure of the building, and where the tenants live defining the story. Or in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfmTpmIUwo"><span style="font-style: italic;">North by Northwest</span></a> the famous scene, where villains go toppling off the largest strangest monument in America, Mount Rushmore, or even in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Wm1xFu2P0"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Birds</span></a>, houses are the only flimsy protections against the fatal attacks by nature.<br /><br />In all of these movies, and quite a few more, Hitchcock, who worked as a set designer in the 20s, paid very close attention to the structures his stories played out in, often making them not merely plot devices, but strange and haunting characters, the Bates Motel looming at the top of the hill in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzAnE4zuYuA"><span style="font-style: italic;">Psycho</span></a>; its crazed occupant leering down onto the rooms with a murderous gaze.<br /><br />But if we can be momentarily expansive about the role of architecture, at the recent <a href="http://www.festarch.it/">Festarch</a> conference, artist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci">Vito Acconci </a>at a conference on the relationship between writing and architecture, simply stated that the two disparate disciplines both have a structure, both as sentences and in totality. We even use this phrase in discussing grammar: a "sentence structure." Cinema as well has a structure, one that Hitchcock was masterfully aware of, watching the below interview with Hitchcock, his sense of direction, and careful consideration of each shot, with who and where, plays directly on the psychology of the characters and the viewers, but also on a poetics of space, perhaps less emotive and nostalgic than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelard">Bachelard</a>, but a sense of the poetic potential of not only the physical space of a story, but also the cinematic space from whence is the camera pointed and from there, where will it go, how is it showing the interior spaces filled with, a favorite Hitchcock word, suspense. Below is a clip from a very good interview, where Hitchcock, with the illustrative aid of clips, explains how he built some of the most potent scenes in Psycho.<br /><br />Before that though, in case you missed it earlier, <a href="http://www.010publishers.nl/catalogue/book.php?id=637#">here's is the publisher's site</a> for the book that sparked our musing. And click on the movie links, they all lead to the best Hitchcock trailers, where he personally tries to pitch the movie to the audience.<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-07313109027829692 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/lmRdOYsib2A&hl=en"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 0px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-07313109027829692 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/lmRdOYsib2A&hl=en"></a><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lmRdOYsib2A&hl=en"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lmRdOYsib2A&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-14637773907462770042008-06-11T11:00:00.011+02:002008-06-12T02:41:17.977+02:00The Festarch Report<a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-07313109027829692 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/BUhk1nvD1ns"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BUhk1nvD1ns"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BUhk1nvD1ns" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425"></embed><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.festarch.it/">Festarch</a> has been a pretty fertile ground for us Check-in Architecture guys and we came back to our headquarters in the Lambrate district in Milan with plenty of new material for your viewing pleasure. For starters, we're giving you a taste in this small trailer, just to give you a hint of all the mission videos yet to come. <a href="http://checkinarchitecture.com/mission/107">Rick Moody</a> and <a href="http://checkinarchitecture.com/mission/143">Oliviero Toscani</a> interviewed, the mysteries of the <a href="http://checkinarchitecture.com/mission/154">Buggerru</a> surfers unveiled, our friends José and Nico's Festarch experience displayed. All of this will soon await you on a video blog near yours. Make sure to pass by.<br /></object>Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111496289425460158.post-16947428673610987372008-06-09T01:17:00.000+02:002008-06-09T10:27:16.328+02:00"For Sale: The Arctic?" or Shifting Maps<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megavolcano/images/shin-nasa-gfsc-meltwater-l.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megavolcano/images/shin-nasa-gfsc-meltwater-l.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />With global warming jumping off everyone's tongues these days, you better be sure that the administrations that fervently deny it are gearing up to capitalize on its benefits. The world map we felt, had largely been decided, a few pockets here and there with shifting boundaries: Kashmir, Palestine, the Balkans, the occasional Pacific island, mere pockets in the sweeping map of the world. But with the Arctic ice caps melted: a whole new, massively difficult territorial conflict is cooking in the waters that are melting the glaciers and permafrost. The northern countries with claims near the Arctic circle: Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark (through Greenland) are doing the kind of aggressive maneuvers and territorial disputes not seen in this part of the world since the Vikings and with these countries with each other in a long time. Substantial hydrocarbon reserves beneath the ice as well as shipping rights through the strait, that a few short years ago seemed forever out of reach are now up for serious discussion and substantial posturing. Who owns the land under the Arctic, currently not claimed under any international treaties?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Northwest_passage.jpg/800px-Northwest_passage.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Northwest_passage.jpg/800px-Northwest_passage.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />So far the Northwest Passage above Canada (once a myth of adventures, now quickly becoming a reality) is not yet fully operational, but it's damn close and who lays claim to the minerals and oil lay is going to lead for sure to diplomatic spats and perhaps to a bit of saber rattling, to which the Russians have already started planting a Russian flag on the bottom of the sea in what Canada sees as it's territory.<br /><br />In 2007, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister had this to say:<br /><br /><table style="border-style: none; margin: auto; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: transparent;" class="cquote"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 4px 10px;" valign="top">This is posturing. This is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada" title="O Canada">the true north strong and free</a>, and they're fooling themselves if they think dropping a flag on the ocean floor is going to change anything. There is no question over Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. We've made that very clear. We've established - a long time ago - that these are Canadian waters and this is Canadian property. You can't go around the world these days dropping a flag somewhere. This isn't the 14th or 15th century.</td> <td style="padding: 10px; color: rgb(178, 183, 242); font-size: 36px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: right;" valign="bottom" width="20">”</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" style="padding-right: 4%;"> <p style="font-size: smaller; text-align: right;"><cite style="font-style: normal;">—<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_MacKay" title="Peter MacKay">Peter MacKay</a>, former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs</cite></p></td></tr></tbody></table>Or is it?<br /><br />Read more on wikipedia about the bureaucratic mess and potential problems the Arctic will pose as global warming speeds up...<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_claims_in_the_Arctic">Territorial claims in the Arctic</a><br /><br /><span id="fullpost"> </span>Check In Architecturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03523685621538000842noreply@blogger.com0