new models and modeling as practice
January 2nd, 2013

Viral models

Models of Smallpox, HIV and Flue (shown here) and E-Coli, H1N1 (Swine Flu) and SARS are designed to contemplate the global impact and history of disease. The works were created by Luke Jerram to interrogate our perceptions of how viruses are depicted by science and the media.

October 23rd, 2012

Midterm Follow-Up

I believe my presentation focused too much my process, rather than the final ephemera that I wish to critique.  For instance, the discussion of toys was not meant to show an interest in exploring the notion of play, but instead to demonstrate a range of embedded restrictions of creation within representational tools.  Although this was an important step for me in conceptualizing my work, it perhaps is not important to present as it seemed to take away from the greater subject.   Also, I need to review the vocabulary I use in my project description as I was unaware that some terms I used (specifically “absurd”) may carry a critical definition than I had not intended.

Not only do I need to clarify the written/oral discussion of my work, but also the visual communication (the final execution) of the installation.  After viewing the drawn perspectives and model I had created, I realized that my discussion was perhaps too subtly embedded in the objects — constricting the audience to only those with backgrounds in the building industry who could read the inaccuracies of the artifacts on display.  I plan to explore ways I can at once simplify my display while also making it more extreme – thereby creating an easier and deeper connection with a greater audience.

 

 

 

October 11th, 2012

Case Study

Our built environment is the resultant product of numerous forces, all in play with each other over time — forces of politics, economics, the arts, and the historic residues of each.  The relationships between these are constantly changing in real-time with certain drivers always given priority over others based on the cultural values of a region.  At any given moment there is only a limited range of how our habitat could possibly be conceived while negotiating these parameters.  Our built landscape (urban, suburban, rural, and interior) could then be viewed of a mapping of this constant, ephemeral process with different constructions acting as landmarks (and even forces in themselves) frozen at various times throughout the system.

Above: several decades of drivers display their facades along a Chicago City-Beautiful boulevard.

This project shifts the balance of these forces into, what art historical Carrie Lambert-Beatty defines as, a parafiction — a work that operates in the space between fact and fiction.  Although the drivers of our built environment are artificial (constructs of our own social models), we come to accept them with either little question or even little realization that they are there.  Only by sliding the scales to an exaggerated balance (as parafiction allows), do we have the opportunity to view the objects that actually inform what we accept as our physical reality.  The artifacts displayed in this exhibition will come from a world that doesn’t exist, but that is eerily close to what could be possible within our pedagogical and market-based models towards space as real estate.

Like with the mid-century children’s toy “Girders and Panels” an overly specific and absurdly detailed component is provided under the auspice of a creative tool.  The limitations of this tool, however, allow only for creations that fit with a model of protocol.  In other words, it allows for the illusion of free creation, so long as it occurs within the accepted industry model.  Similar to Henry Ford’s statement of “You can have any color as long as it’s black” here, you can create any environment you like so long as it fits within the grid of the modernist agenda.

Above: Girders and Panels toy set – a model of building industry standards

This condition, is not relegated to the world of toys, however.  The parafiction comes from the fact that it’s engrained as part of the model for habitat representation and construction.  A variety of model making materials exist that come to proscribe what can be built within their over-representation of materials.  Textbooks provide construction details for their realization.

Above (top to bottom): Overly-specific model building materials prescribe creative results, Ching’s Building Construction Illustrated prescribes the building industry for generations

 

In this project, each prototype from Ching’s Building Construction Illustrated is seen as a “character” quintessential to the built environment, similar to the characters of Drama Queen being the status quo precedents of modern art.  They are exaggerations and personifications of themselves — strong in their identity but exaggerated to the point of self questioning.

Above (top to bottom): Pedagogical construction model; modern art characters personified on stage in Elmgreen and Dragset’s ‘Drama Queens’

These constructions will have an ambiguous appearance — their tectonic relationships and simplistic forms will simultaneously appear naive, perhaps arranged by someone lacking technical understanding or formal/critical architectural vision.  However, they could also be viewed as the creation of an architect attempting to subvert the generic.

Above (top to bottom) visual ambiguity between naivety and criticality:  Gehry perverts status quo building assemblies; Herzog and de Meuron reconfigure status quo forms; producers of space arrange building modules.
For more information on the specifics of this project see earlier blog post: http://model.mit.edu/?p=55

 














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