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    French madness!!!!!!!!

    By adrienne
    Jan 16, '06 5:00 PM EST

    HOORAY!

    I am so happy to have gotten my first choice in the studio lottery. I am in Francois Roche's studio. You can check out the work of his firm, R&Sie here, but be warned, the site might give you a siezure. The other choices for the 704 research studios were David Adjaye, Cecil Balmond, Kieran/Timberlake, Ali Rahim and Homa Farjadi. The research studio, for those unfamiliar, is (as quoted from our memo):

    "1.The mission of the research studio is open and explorative, yet providing a substantial intellectual focus on design research. This spans the entire range of architectural design.

    2.Design research is constituted of investigating a design methodology that students can continue to investigate and benefit from beyond their education at Penn.

    3.The specific area of ”˜design research' is interrogated through analysis and design as identified by each Research Studio Advisor."


    It's sort of like doing a thesis project, but using the instructor's initial thoughts and interests, to generate the project. They are usually fairly experimental. Research studios at Penn have almost replaced the thesis, although several students are pursuing their own independent thesis projects this semester.

    I think my studio is going to be lots of fun, and a welcome change from last semester. Our first assignment, besides research on various topics (ie swarm, robots, nanotechnology, etc.) is to construct a pile of tangled bio-noodles. (Easy right?)

    Our reading list consists of:

    - The Savage Anomaly: Tony Negri with the introduction of Gilles Deleuze
    - The Three ecologies: Felix Guattari, Galileo,
    - Utopia and Heterotopy, radiophonic conference: Michel Foucault
    - Ecumes 3 / Peter Sloterdick, 2005
    - The Society of the Spectacle: Guy Debord
    - Mysticism and Anthroposophy: Rudolph Steiner
    - Utopia: Thomas More
    -Dead City: Mike Davis
    -Tomorrow now, Bruce Sterling
    -Life of Termites: Maurice Maeterlink

    Our movie list includes:
    -Alpha ville: JL Godart
    -Fitzcaraldo: Werner Herzog
    -Old and New / La ligne general: Eisenstein
    -Pepe le moko / Jean Duvivier 1937 (avec Gabin et la Casbah)
    -Two or three thing I know about her / Deux trios chose que je sais d'elle : JL Godart 1966
    -Castle in the sky / Le château dans le ciel: Hayao Miyazaki
    -Faust: Murnau (architect Poelzig)
    -Existenz: Cronenberg
    -Kingdom 1/2/3: Lars von Trears
    -Punishment Park: Peter Watkins
    -ABCdaire: Gilles Deleuze
    -Abyss / Terminator 2 / Predator 1 / Dark City /....sub culture 3D effects

    Here is a little snippit from our syllabus.

    Title of the course
    “....”

    Preliminary hypothesis
    The studio is targeted by the hypothesis of transforming the “social contract” confronted to the mass media culture biotope _ and to define the morphologies of “....”.

    “.....” is an unknown urbanism fragment described by the following text.

    The research is to define the shape, the social organisation, even the smelling of “....”.





     
    • 5 Comments

    • MMatt

      I saw Francois Roche lecture a year ago, that many is absolutely loopy, but in a really really fantastic way. The scattered, almost schizo nature of the website is really a reflection of his lecture style and the projects he has taken on.

      The studio sounds like a blast, enjoy.

      .mm

      Jan 16, 06 9:17 pm  · 
       · 

      thank you for the readings and movies. as much as i admire david adjay, having francois roche as a prof is enviable. i hope it turns out to be fantastic

      Jan 16, 06 11:06 pm  · 
       · 
      Appleseed

      They're lecture last year was pretty nuts. Half the time I was laughing with them, and the other half, at them.

      Jan 17, 06 12:31 am  · 
       · 
      chandani
      singhalaya
      Aug 14, 08 11:19 pm  · 
       · 
      Nayomi

      Universities are all around, it looks very interesting, these universities are very important.
      -----------------
      Chandani
      Pennsylvania Treatment Centers

      Aug 14, 08 11:26 pm  · 
       · 

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