Home 6.0, Context 2.0

This week, we had two major presentations about the House of the Future design that we’re supposed to be making. Over the weeks, we’ve perfected our spiral concept, the transition between private and public, and the size of the windows.  This is the version we called Home 6.0.  In it, we also integrated the car (at my insistence), we got the garden right we introduced a void connecting the sleeping quarters with the living room, and speculated about a sloping roof, which is the often seen as the formally archetypal sign of a home. The design is by Ceciel and I.

 

Home 6.0, Photo by Ceciel van Rinsum

We’ve also started a little sketchbook in which we record principles and detail-sketches of things that we believe can accommodate the feeling of a home (in Dutch: thuisgevoel). Home 6.0 would be really located in a sort of suburbia that everyone who doesn’t live there despises. When we presented this, Jack Breen (the associate professor who’s running the minor) said: “That’s all good and well, but how is this a contribution to the future”. The point was, as another instructor pointed out that it could very well be a very good house, a third generation of a Frank Lloyd Wright house, but it is not per se future in anything.

Therefore, Ceciel and I had a week to come up with something that would fall into a non-Utopian future. We finally thought up of a scenario for the future, in which we could carry out our home concept without  making the context more important than the concept. We finally came up with the  following future scenario:

In the future, due to the rise in sea levels and further sinking of the ground in the Netherlands, a choice will have to be made. Ultimately, only the larger cities and the land that is used for agriculture will be still kept dry, with the other land being flooded. This will mean that suburbs like Ypenburg will have to go. All these people will migrate to the cities, as the other land is only reserved for agriculture.

 

Future Scenario

 

The cities will become more populated. But rather than building sophisticated, high-tech, super compact, super high-rise dwelling machines, we believe that people will first try to fill up all the unused spaces in the city. Below elevated highways, above railway tracks, or above light-industrial sites, like this:

Before, and after: Increasing density without decreasing dwelling size

So, in the city of the future, people will live in the places that most people now would not. Also, due to certain technological developments, such as the wide introduction of the electrical car, noise near roads will be reduced. Also, traffic won’t increase too much, since almost everyone lives in the city, commuting is no longer necessary, while most can and do use public transport. Therefore, spaces like this:

 

Beneath an elevated highway, The Hague (Google street view)

 

Can in theory become a place like this:

A Semi-Detached House of the Future (Google street view)

Many people thought this was an OK idea. Dick van Gameren, the professor of Dwelling who commented on everyone’s presentation today, said that ours was promising, but needed to be worked out better (no, really). We can actually use everything we learnt in the preliminary stages in making this design. Making a home in an ‘unhomely’ setting.

Our own instructor (Onno) said that he actually thought that our first context was OK, and that we needed to communicate our work better in our presentation (which is true), but even then, we’d end up with a good house, not a good house OF THE FUTURE. So we’ll see how things will work out.

That’s all folks!

Peter S

 

Disgusting Things

There are two things in life that are not to be doubted. One is the innocence of a child, the other one political correctness of the BBC. I saw a news item on BBC breakfast yesterday morning that caught my attention, and I will share the following thoughts with you.

So the BBC found out something shocking. You might not have known this, or might not have cared, but apparently, there are those cheap rubber bracelets in different colors, with each color representing how far a person is willing to go (sexually). It starts at yellow and goes all the way to God-only-knows-what color. As the presenter (Sian Williams) put it, the first two represent “kisses, then hugs… and then things which are too explicit to say on television” and added that “children as young as 8 are wearing the bracelets”. I thought: “Big deal, it’s not like those kids know that, they’re just wearing those things because they think it looks nice”, or as it often happens, out of peer pressure.

The funny thing was the kids did know that those bands means everything, from your XOXO’s to the XXXs. I was especially touched when one of the children interviewed said he knew what they means (hugs and kisses), but that he also knew of, but would not do those other “disgusting things”. I bet that in ten years, if he’s not doing those “disgusting” things, he’ll be at least be wanting to do them.

I am not for people to be all sexed up at young age, but there are two things that we need to clarify.

One: Who the hell gives these “darker connotations” to such stupid cheap items?

Two: Is this newsworthy? There must be tens of thousands of items in schools with sexual undertones. Beginning with tables…

Peter S

Covers That Made It (partially by me) September-November ‘09

Miraculously, despite my lack of real Photoshop/ Illustrator/ Indesign skills, I have been involved with all three covers of our faculty’s monthly this year. The September issue, the October issue, and as of now, the November issue as well. Working for a magazine actually de-mystifies the whole experience, and making covers does the same. While it does take skill and time (I’m not that skillful and very impatient), I think that the covers have turned out quite well.

The first one is the September issue cover. I have actually have that in my mind for quite some time. We wanted to make more “interactive” cover art. I proposed that we should make a coloring picture. This was more appropriate to do in September, as one of the first thins you learn in the first year is drawing and coloring in. I had made a photograph of our faculty, which we traced in Illustrator. Then we redistributed the headlines in a way that would compromise the “wholeness” of the image. I added the blue spot to bring in extra color, which was needed as the cover would be very blank and bland otherwise (the roof actually has that dark-blue-grey color, so it was OK). The Color sequence was made by Daan de Leeuw, who insisted we follow it. He also sorted out the headlines…

September 2009 cover

This was actually OK. We knew what we wanted and went for it. It was a bit of a joke, but it was well-meant and didn’t get any complaints.

Things were tougher for the October issue. We had a big piece about Pieterskerk, a church in Leiden, that was restored with the help of good folks from RMiT (one of the departments of the faculty). We had a great photograph of the organ, which would be a departure from the traditional covers that usually depict either something modern, something abstract or something fun. Unfortunately, the picture wasn’t sharp enough, so we got rid of that and had another one of our big stories, Bob Allies (from Morrison & Allies) interview about his upcoming lecture about “cultivating the city”. He sent us some pictures in the hope that we will use them for the article. We did, but we also chose it for the cover. However, we had a dilemma. How do you put in the headlines without disrupting the image. After some time, we decided to place them vertically rather than horizontally. I put down the basic structure, Marcello Soeleman than changed the color of the letters (from grey to light-green) which turned out really nicely. Because our “interference” was so minimal, the cover art was credited to Bob Allies.

October 2009 cover

For the November issue, well, you can read all about it here. We then decided to use a picture by Anna Ghijs, my colleague who was covering all things Biennale (IABR). It was from the Parallel Cases @ RDM, which will be reviewed in the magazine this month. The photo is one of the winning proposals of the student exhibition (which is what Parallel Cases is). We wanted to keep the cover quite minimal, and the image was not large enough by itself, so I cut out the competition entry model, which we placed in the middle of the page. First, we had the headlines running through the image, but Anna did not like it, so we tried to see what would happen if we put the text above the image. This worked well. Since the headlines are actually a flowing paragraph of text, we differentiated these by changing the size of the font, and we used an “old school” font just to keep things classy. This was really more Anna’s work (intellectually, that is) than mine, but I guess since I did the dirty work, I guess I deserve some credit. So this is a collaboration with Anna Ghijs, and Marcello also changed one or two things (as the end-editor of that issue).

November 2009 cover

 

Peter S.

November…

It’s been 20 years.

20 years since my freedom has been fought for. 20 years since people in Czechoslovakia freed themselves from the Communist regime. While I don’t remember it at all (would you, if you were 7 months old), I guess it has a powerful message. A child. All the Eastern European children of ‘89 were given a chance to grow up in a democratic society. Where they could write what they want to write. Say what they want to say. Go where they want to go. We weren’t revolutionaries. Our parents, uncles, their friends, and students were. They risked their lives to give us and themselves a better one. One with choice. One with freedom of speech. One where you did not need to stand in line for oranges. Or bananas. Or anything.

They had ideals back then. Do they have them now? How many things did not turn out the way they wanted them to? How many people are still poor? How many others are richer still due to corruption, crime, backhand politics. No, things are not ideal.

But we’re here. A new generation. We are just coming of age. I can’t speak for others, but I try to use the opportunities given to me. I write, I speak, I shop and I travel. I think. I want to make their time and effort worthwhile. I want them to see that they created opportunities for a better world for all their countrymen, past, present and future. And eventually, I also want to be able to inspire and fight for the freedom of others. So that they will receive that gift, just as I did, and they can do with it as they please. Just as I did.

I can’t remember November 1989. But I can’t forget about it. I’ve had opportunities, met people, and experienced things that I might never have had otherwise. And for that, above all, I want to thank them.

Peter S.

Are Sweet Dreams made of This? The Sequel

Autumn seems generally a good time to have disturbing dreams, mainly because a lot of things happen in a very short period of time. Days start getting darker, school and stress kick in, the weather turns miserable, and the time shifted by one hour. No wonder my brain gets soft and I start having weird dreams. While some dreams are not worth remembering, and some are worth forgetting, the one I had lats night was extremely bizarre.

As some of you might know, there is a resistance group at our faculty, they’re anonymous, so I’ll just call them PURSE. Anyway, last week, on of the PURSE activist googled the name of their organisation and got to my blog. While I won’t repeat the whole story, let’s just say they took something without my permission and misinterpreted something I wrote. This was all fine, though I thought it rather embarrassing. Then yesterday, I wrote a piece about PURSE (which is password protected, ha)… That’s where my dreams began… (The dream sequence that follows was a DREAM, NOT REAL, I am NOT ACCUSING anyone, I am recounting the workings of my bizarre mind).

While the piece was very impartial, un-serious and uncritical toward them, I know that ‘fuck context’ attitude can also be applied to the written word. Nevertheless, the nightmare started when one of he PURSE people got hold of it, and basically started ranting on their blog (they are anonymous and have a blog) against my a-political stance and using the ‘if you’re not with us, you’re against us’ rhetoric.

This hurt me, especially since they got hold of a nude picture of me, that they posted on that site (I haven’t any nude pictures of myself, just that you know, and btw, you could just see my face and bare shoulders.). Somehow, they managed to conclude I was twelve, and all the comments (there were lots), posted their nude childhood pictures. This was especially disturbing, because their comments carried the same tone as the article.

Then I woke up, I actually went to check the internet, if everything was OK. It was.

This is this year’s nominee for my weirdest dream award.

Peter

How to debate anonymously or The Wizard of Oz

Hey, y’all.

First of all, I need to clear the air of few things. Let us assume that I am me, and not who I work for, what I do in my free time, what political systems I prefer, or any of that really irrelevant nonsense. Let my person be dematerialized, until only my name (Peter S.) and my thoughts (and writings remain). As Rem Koolhaas would say: fuck context!!!

Let us assume that I need to construct a tale, in order to get my point across, for anyone who reads this is neither so finely attuned to my thoughts as to get my subtle hints and place them in a context relevant for him/her, and people generally empathise with the human experience.

Now, let us assume there is a school. A faculty at a university, if you will. Now, it’s not such a bad school, but it’s not all that great either. Let us say that this faculty has been experiencing some financial problems lately, problems whose source is irrelevant for the solution that I shall propose.

Now let us also imagine that there is a group of people, its size, composition and identity are irrelevant, who believe that they can find the ones who are to blame for the situation the faculty is in. They form an anonymous group, let us call them PURSE (I know, what a thinly veiled reference), hang up posters and write a manifesto against those who are to blame for the unhappy financial situation at the faculty.

So, PURSE wants to remain anonymous, in order to face those who are to blame to address the whole student body, and in order to prevent the debate from getting personal. The fact is that while people do voice their support, there is really not much of a debate. There seems to be no-one who is capable of taking the daunting task of actually debating and solving problems together with those that are to blame (according to PURSE).

How to solve this? I believe that PURSE should debate with those who they believe are to blame. But how can one enter on that stage and remain anonymous? Enter the Wizard of Oz.

Anyone who has seen the classic tale, will know that the Wizard, is just like anyone, except he hides in a big box, in order to keep his identity secret. Yet, he manages to talk to people head-to-head. A perfect solution!!!

Please take what you’ve just read with a grain of salt. I am a-political. Politics is far too dirty for me to concern myself with it. All I want is that people use their heads. So far, humanity has shown me plenty low-points, and some high points. If PURSE do not like the Wizard of Oz approach, let someone come forward, who will debate and ask, but have their mind not only clear of the neo-liberal agenda of those who are to blame (according to PURSE), but also be clear of the neo-marxist agenda of PURSE. We need someone ho thinks for themselves, and does not let philosophers (who are already dead) do it for them. We need someone… Or else Imma gonna have to do this shit myself. Again.

Oh My God, Someone Killed my iPod! Bastards!!!

While I would have thought that things have calmed down by now, that my turbulent episodes with ‘evil corporations’ stealing my iPod were long gone, a disaster has struck. I was so keen to walk off into the sunset with my iPod, to spend our honeymoon on the tropical beaches of bad pop music, this is not likely to happen anymore.

For my iPod was killed. Well, not really. It still plays music, but I somehow managed to break the screen. Don’t ask me how, but I have my suspicions. I always leave my iPod in my jacket pocket, and during the day, I hang the coat on the nearest chair, because I move around a lot. That said, we had a round of presentations the other day (well, a couple of weeks ago). The room was full of people, going somewhere, etc… Therefore, anyone (including me), could have stepped on the jacket pocket, hanging from the chair, killing the screen.

Needless to say, if I wanted an iPod without a functioning screen, I would have bought the Shuffle. But fear not, I have a sneaking suspicion that a family member (whom I’ve told all about my iPod problem, will buy me a new one, the one for the upcoming Christmas. This is how my favorite piece of gadgetry looks now ->

So, it’s been almost two years, and I’m really sorry to see you go. But as long as machines don’t have feelings and human rights, it’s off to the recycling plant.

Peter S.

Over…

I just remembered something this Thursday, after my fingerprints were being taken. I am not a teenager anymore, I’m now in my early twenties.

For me, this means a lot. I finally go out of my awkward teenage years, and entered the slightly less awkward realm of being twenty-something (twenty at the moment actually). I remember, that my photos started to look very awkward after the age of 12 or so. And not just vacation photos, but mainly passport and official documents photos. For a long time, I was too thin, somewhat hunched, spotty, etc…

This was not a good thing. even as an 18-year-old, when I had my TU Delft picture taken (for the campus card), I looked like a mass murderer (I was quite tanned and my skin was greasy and all shiny). Recently, I had a new campus card made, because I lost the first one. There, I am smiling, looking like I always wanted to. Even my driver’s license photo sucks a bit, because I was 19 at the time.

So they took my picture and fingerprints. I am having a new passport made (what did you think?). I saw the passport picture and it was surprisingly very good. I was mucho satisfied with it. And that’s all because I ain’t a teenager no more. See, if I were 19 in that picture, I would have looked really horrible, but at this early stage, aging is actually something good.

Some people are good-looking through their entire lives, some only in their childhood. For me, I looked good as kid, but my teenage years were awful. It’s never going to be great, I’ll never look like George Clooney, but I certainly ain’t going back to that teenage nightmare. Yes…

Peter S.