The skin and flesh of building fabric.

From 1600 on the 08.12.08 a series of speakers will be speaking on the subject.

01.Prof.Robert Kronenburg, Liverpool University

02.Mark Williams, Arup Facade engineers

03.Jan Wurm, Arup Facade Engineers

This will be the last in the series hosted by Simon Herron and will take place in the Anatomy J Z Young Lecture Theatre,UCL.

Thanksgiving

William Burroughs recites ,12 years ago,  filmed by Gus van Sant.

Mumbai/Bombay

The Times newspaper will as from today be officially calling Bombay, Mumbai from now on. Not being a Times reader, I had not noticed this anomaly.

What has happened in Mumbai is absolutely abhorrent to me and not something I really understand.In addition the acts may have been perpetrated by University students ,something I find alarming. 

On the BBC news site, Pappu Mishra, an eye witness said,

"Their audaciousness was breath-taking." 

I have stayed at the Taj in a room overlooking the Gates, eaten several times at the Cafe Leopold,been to the railway station and even though,it was quite a while ago the memory of those places and India still linger.

To take a qoute from The Times Newspaper today 28.11.08, an understatement,

"By 5am, Peter Keep, a British entrepeneur, had counted at least 40 dead bodies at the St George Hospital. "It's not an experience that will leave me soon," he said."

Spare a few minutes thought for all victims of needless barborous crimes and ask, did it need to be this way.

cuppa tea

They say it's best not to read critical reviews of oneself but I was amused.

"Crazy, wacky, kitch with a critical edge etc etc."

from Safari to Viewpod

I came across this by chance.

Light Fantastic

BBC 4 have had a documentary series called Light Fantastic that might well be worth a look at. Some footage is to be seen on YouTube.

10,000 hours of dedication needed.

Hardwork, dedication + luck = success

According to Malcolm Gladwell that apart from talent you need to spend at least 10,000 hours to be good at something. Which translates into 4 hours/day for 10 years. 

Funnily, George Steiner mentions a similar figure of practice neccessary.

Einstein said it more succinctly - 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. 

so anything new?well MG has a similar hairstyle to E

London Mapping

London profiler - could be of interest.

“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.”

Henri Cartier Bresson

somebody is actually looking

Gill Lambert brought this to my attention.Thank you.

Second Nature.

It brought me onto this.

But  those In London should see this.

that's entertainment

So John Sargeant has quit the 'dance' competition. I can't grasp those who don't seem to understand that the show is about entertainment and not about the best dancer or even dancing. If it were, why do they pick those contestants. There are a number of these shows purporting to be 'real' .The worse are house makeovers which seem to have little grasp of the cost of things.I think they should give the audience a little credit in recognising fiction. Perhaps it should be more like golf and each of the contenders given a handicap.

Don't blame it on the sunshine

....

Blame it on the boogie.

hoax

I came across this while doing some 'research'. Apparently the word hoax came only into use in the 1700s and is said [well at least according to Wikipedia] from the magic incantation 'hocus pocus'.

I need to check these things out not just via the internet for verification and that means doing some legwork myself.

another article on hoax.

read it and weep?

Yesterday's headline for the ghastly Evening Standard was 50,000 estate agents jobs axed.

Today Jonathan Glancey writes for The Guardian of  how architects were effected by the last recession. Actually the figure was worse than I remember and the situation was dire, so much so, some I know killed themselves. The image of Zaha under candlelight I am still picturing. I have to echo Will Allsop's and Nigel Coates' comments. I am no fan of bureaucracy and form filling which to my mind is just timewasting linus blanket etcetera. I'm not sure if anybody reads anything anyway but I guess at least it's wrist action as it's highly unlikely to be eye candy. Also if it puts an end to some of the crass building and that the prevalent idea that the only end to architecture is built form so be it.

“HONESTLY, I NEVER SIT DOWN

TO WRITE ANYTHING WITHOUT

THINKING, THIS IS A WEIRD

THING TO BE DOING!WHY AM

I SITTING HERE WRITING?”

Dave Hickey

I am suffering from a bout of tonsillitis and it is quite a nuisance as I am a bad patient. The source of my 'suffering' is my daughter who is a virus cum germ factory. In addition the builders have put the wrong hinges on all of my windows which means they all [just under a hundred hinges] need replacing - so my mood is BLACK indeed, afterall I don't have money to burn in addition to other losses which have annoyed me too. 

 back of house

Anyway I am amusing myself by looking at things.Dave Hickey always makes me laugh as well as provide food for thought.

being a good ....... is difficult enough

Alec Soth has written this post giving advice to' young' photographers on the Magnum site. 

Magnum

Forbidden fruit

The good news.

The following fruit have had the rule book torn by the EU :

apricots, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, avocadoes, beans, brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflowers, cherries, courgettes, cucumbers, cultivated mushrooms, garlic, hazelnuts in shell, headed cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums, ribbed celery, spinach, walnuts in shell, water melons and witloof/chicory.

The following 10 fruit are still under regulation, therefore need to comply with requirements, and represent approximately 75% of the EU fruit and vegetable market :

apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes and tomatoes.

The bad news.

The new regulations don't come into effect until 01.07.09

The International Herald Tribune

Boredom

It's been almost a month and I have been quite busy. I wish there were 48 hours in a day as I could certainly fill them as I always seem to find things to do.

Which brings me on to the topic of BOREDOM, which apparently is a recent word/condition first mentioned by Dickens in Bleak House  written in 1852, although the expression 'to be a bore' has been around for much longer. Wikipedia has an interesting entry for this and if you are interested you should look it up - sorry I'm not going to provide the link as you are more than capable of doing this yourself :)

Boredom can have a positive effect if the person is able to use it as a tool to stimulate interest themselves. Today, my daughter asked me if I found my work boring - I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Thinking about weight and other matters.

image taken from The international Bureau of Weight and Measures

The kilogram is the last remaining base unit of the SI that is defined by a physical object and although there are many copies of it, the one that matters is housed at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures [or to be correct - Bureau International des Poids et Measures] in Serves, south west of Paris.

The international prototype and it's six official copies are kept in a vault there under lock and key.Made in 1880s the original and four of it's copies stem from that date [for some reason the Bureau does not know or reveal their precise birth dates].From these copies a further 80 copies have been made and been distributed internationally for all to measure against.

To dispel ambiguities concerning the kilogram a resolution was passed at the 3rd meeting of the CGPM [General Congress of Weight and Measure] in 1901 concerning the meaning of weight which was used sometimes for mass or as a mechanical force.

So to be clear the CGPM declared,

"1.The kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram;

2.The word "weight" denotes a quantity of the same nature as a "force": the weight of a body is the product of its mass and the acceleration due to gravity; in particular, the standard weight of a body is the product of its mass and the standard acceleration due to gravity;

3.The value adopted in the International Service of Weights and Measures for the standard acceleration due to gravity is 980.665 cm/s², value already stated in the laws of some countries."

Needless to say the maintenance of the kilogram and therefore the cleaning and accumulation of surface contaminants are of concern.Curiously all seven have been treated the same and kept in similar conditions yet the masses amongst them are drifting apart.The result is that the kilogram has on an average lost weight by roughly 50 micrograms or the weight of a fingerprint.The trouble is no one knows exactly why.

This 'news' was revealed to me by The Guardian.

Which takes me onto Buckminster Fuller and Cedric Price and the interest in the lightweight but I think I'll save that for another post.

Richard Serra

Richard Serra at the Gargosian London is a must see.The sheer weight of the pieces is mind boggling.Even the smaller wall pieces weigh a mere 300 kg,now just try lifting that up. Afterall it is comparable to the weight of between 14-15 suitcases based on standard airline baggage allowance. [I have travel on the mind]

To get the larger sculptures in, the gallery had to close the road for two weeks and modify the gallery by both strengthening it and knocking down walls , which have since been rebuilt. 

No doubt Serra has his detractors and his work is not for the faint hearted, the show weighs physically around 300 tonnes.

1 tonne = 1000 kg

If interested please check out Richard Serra on PBS Art:21 

not just sheep

My cat Humphrey is a serious shedder of fur, made worse recently due to stress from builders, so I've frequently wondered what he would look like as a sweater.In fact, I sometimes wish he knew how to use the vacuum cleaner.

Clearly I'm not the first with these thoughts so it was a delight to come across the photographer Erwan Fichou Dogwool series and the blog  on the site if it's hip, it's here

Dominic Harris and the UFO

With all the recent newspaper articles on UFO's I thought I might put up a piece of work done by a former student which I just think is great.

and on youtube

He will be giving a talk at the Bartlett for Simon Herron on the 3rd of November 2008, as will Max Fordham a seminal environmental engineer.The talks will take place in the Anatomy J Z Young Lecture Theatre or maybe I should write the Anatomy Etcetera Theatre starting at 16.00.

what's in a word

The word etcetera is one I am fond of.I remember first hearing it as a child when the King of Siam or rather Yul Bryner repeated it endlessly in the movie 'The King & I'.

I particularly like the idea of it's inclusive nature if not entirely specific,it is implied. I hadn't realised that it was common practice for royalty to use this word to effectively save on reciting all their titles and that even Oliver Cromwell had put it on a coin.

I found this out courtesy of Wikipedia which in many ways is a marvelous free resource. 

Now, I just need to check this out to see if it is true :) In any case I like it.

a place for etcetera

I'm going to think of this as a place of etcetera.