Lecture with Eames

Whew, what a week its been so far.

Not having the van has been a bit of a hardship- nothing too major, but I'm glad I have it back. I picked it up from the body place yesterday. The door looks it came right out of the factory. I threw my bike in the back and drove it home. The manufacturer's "Maintenance Required" light finally went out. I think it gave up on me. I'm still going to take it in to have the "check engine" light taken care of. I'm glad I've got my scholarship check and my paycheck- after paying the deductable, I'll need them to cover rent.

Classes are going fine- except for our studi0. While our studio teacher's intentions are good, its just more hand-holding - with a grade attached. Yesterday, he called us togather and told us to stop what we were working on and do a project for monday. He said he was happy with the efforts of about 1/3rd of us. Yay team. He said that we were focusing way too much on the structural problem of the bridge, and not focusing on the phenomenological aspects (light/shadow, rythm, balance, proportion, rhyme, poetry, harmony, peace, romance, blah blah blah). While I agree that many people in our studio have been focusing mostly on the structural problems, I think that the best way to change the direction people are working to just tell us that we're to focus more on the experiantial properties, and not to worry so much about structure.

Our studio was assigned a project to create two basswood models at 1/2" scale of 20' sections of our model. Then we are to photograph them in ways which highlights the aspects we are trying to convey, and explore the possibilities and opportunites it presents us. We're supposed to focus on everything except the primary structural system (i.e. how the bridge makes the span). This idea is fine unless you want to include the spanning structure as part of the poetry of the project. While I agree that this is a good way to go about thinking about what you want the project to feel like, to make it mandatory and graded I think is a waste of time. None of the other studios will do this project. On the other hand, this will generate more processwork for our final, and the level of craft combined with the basswood (expensive!) should create some sexy models.

Looking over what I'd just written, I realized that few other college students would think about basswood miniatures when hearing the words "sexy model."

Last night, I went to the first spring architecture lecture. I specifically requested that I not work wednesday nights so I would be able to attend these. Last night's lecture was on Charles and Ray Eames, presented by their grandson, Eames Demetrios.

When I got there, the massive lecture hall was packed. I found a few friends from my old studio and we all sat down on the floor in front of the stage. We actually had a great view from the peanut gallery, although the two hours on the ground did nothing for our rears.

The lecture was very interesting. The Eames had a wide range of interests, and were always looking at the serious side of fun. They made about 100 short films, most well known being "powers of ten" which showed an aerial shot of picnicers, then zoomed out to view the entire universe, then zoomed back in to see an atom. They are best known for thier furnature, and probably least known for thier design of the gate seating at Sky Harbor airport. The metal and black seats which have been there since before I've been flying, I've never thought twice about. I'll have to take another look when I head out ot Colorado next month.

Speaking of travel, I'm happy to have finalized my plans for spring break- London, Moscow, and Kiev! STA travel took about ten minutes to arrange everything for me, and they did it cheaper than I would have been able to.

Constant reader, I apologize for this lengthy entry. It's been a busy week.