last entry i mentioned a venture into the world of 'communication design'... or graphic design to most people. being the idiot (and possible sadomasochist) that i am, i re-entered the undergraduate arena, the BFA in communication design at the University of North Texas. it started out cool. i felt like a spy - the rogue architecture grad subversively observing art students who are just discovering the design discipline.

i laughed when the professors told us the program would kill us. "you won't sleep. you'll have no friends, blah blah." i remembered the long nights, the basswood, stabbing myself with piano wire, cutting off part of a finger with an xacto-blade, etc. i thought to myself "you kids are in for a real treat." i feel like wearing a badge that says 'get real - i survived architecture school'.

what's been really nice is having to take drawing again. i felt disconnected from drawing as i became more and more reliant on the computer as architecture school wore on. i hadn't done a manual perspective or rendering in years. so using my hands again - that has been quite enjoyable.


this semester i'm taking design II, which for most art students is the first foray into the third dimension. i wouldn't have taken it were it not absolutely required. and let me tell you... some of them are really scared of that dimension. our first assignment - to dismantle an extension cord into its vital components and use the wiring to delineate an abstract form. pretty cool. when i get the models back i'll post pics.

our next assignment is to construct a series of spatial variations using three intersecting planes. pretty simple. i nearly threw up in class after the instructor suggested the work of 'that architect frank gehry'. needless to say i'm not a fan of his.



a project that came about last semester - the 'body book'. we had to make a book using an accordion structure (which i applied to the spine rather than having the pages fold out like an accordion, like everyone else was doing). i cut the pages in half and had them cross over each other. as to the 'body' reference.. we were instructed to take photographs of our skin in various lighting conditions and use them as swatches to be color-matched and reproduced with acrylic paint. my classmates smothered their books. every surface was covered. i guess i like clean white pages. i also drew diagrammatically over top of the painting.... somewhat of a reference to skin manipulations like grafting and cosmetic surgery.

anyway i hope to keep updating as things unfold.
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i had all but forgotten about this thing until i got an email notification that someone had commented my post called 'narratives that never say the word' (by the way, that comment was quite rude, 'ajkoog'). there's an irony in what this disgruntled archinector said... that i 'are are not a graphic... View full entry

inspiration is the only thing that passes faster than time. and it sneaks up on you too. i've been watching a lot of project runway and find myself captivated by the whole process. draping is by far one of the most intimate interactions with the body. the texture and flow of fabric, the... View full entry

2 minute mini film in collaboration with chris hall various fluid mediawater is the mechanism of wounding View full entry

see previous entry on assignment classmates' entries as promised:i still need to get all the names so i can give proper credit for the work View full entry

digital fabrication projects have come to a close. many schools already use laser cutters like it's second nature, but around here this is new ground. the investigations provoked by the digital process and physical manifestions of the lighting devices proved to be quite interesting. i'll try to... View full entry

for our digital construction workshop the film memento became a resource of cinematic structure: an editing methodology that utilizes the loop and conditioned sequencing. my diagrams break down the filmic structure as a constant repetition of reference objects. for those of you familiar with the... View full entry

"is this to say that, in life, everything is a matter of forces? yes, if it is understood that the relation of forces is not quantitative, but necessarily implies certain 'qualities'. there are forces which are now able to respond to others only in a single, uniform and invariable way: the... View full entry

from urbandictionary.com:The term "otaku" seems to have been introduced to anime fans in the US and other countries via Studio Gainax's "Otaku no Video 1985," a self-parody film. Otaku, meaning probably "venerable house," refers to someone who has a devotion to a subject or hobby (not necessarily... View full entry

huge congratulations to jesse rodriguez and alexis flores, two alumni and friends from UTA. third place in the urban reserve student design competition. nicely done. View full entry

i'm off to frolic in the sea of stumps. (that means the working world)... it's a job not even remotely related to architecture. go figure. but a welcome change nonetheless. this coming fall finds me without a studio. what the hell am i going to do with myself? perhaps some outside competitions... View full entry

during a recent conversation with my friend chris, he brought up an interesting point - the possibility that design is pulled from a collection of thoughts that are already in place, that all ideas already exist. this relates heavily to all the discussion of memes in my studies this semester. what... View full entry

our studio critics have offered an interesting approach to site documentation and analysis. we were asked to film our site, utilizing cinematography as a framework for the architectural project we will inflict there. this is building in a cinematic context. the architecture becomes a character, or... View full entry

the following are some layout samples for the book i had to write for theory seminar. it was a reflection of cognitive process and personal experiences with education. -unfortunately, they're not legible at this size- one thing i tried to accomplish was to write about my passion without giving it... View full entry

i'm trying to work up a website for digital portfolio that covers a collaborative project i participated in last year. the digital design process done by UTA and the physical milling done by UA were part of an online design initiave coined under the name 'collab'. the site is still rather basic... View full entry

we have moved forward from our own school building to the iconographic medium of the dallas postcard. the postcard is essentially the image of dallas, that which is mailed out to the other locations of the world. we were tasked with a series of critiques about dallas and how it is... View full entry

the dead-tech is what's left of the decay. the ideal-tech once generated the image. certain mechanisms escalated the rapid decline: -bloat -explode -creep -latch -grapple -trap -penetrate -probe -rip -scar -incubate next step: where did we/they go wrong? View full entry

studio now ventures forth using interventionist strategy. we are tasked with conducting a series of 'insinuations' within our own building. we will later move to the larger context of dallas with these concepts in mind. these insinuations are in fact critiques of the space in which we are expected... View full entry

in case you secretly yearned for a glimpse of the facilities here: this is the 4th (top) floor of the architecture building. you only get to see the sun if you're a senior or a grad student. the main stairwell, which suprisingly is a faster route than the 'am i gonna make it out of here alive'... View full entry

we present our films to the studio tomorrow. i have completed one of the two, dealing with the meme as a 'machine' or generator. what i am left with is a simple curvature, a spine if you will, that propagates into a complicated system. the meme infects the mind, it duplicates itself... View full entry

apart from a bout of illness over the weekend, things have been operating smoothly. each of my courses is serving to inspire me in ways i never imagined. currently i am undertaking film production as a conceptualization tool in the pulparchitecture studio. our encounters with the 'meme' have been... View full entry

i believe it has only been two weeks since the semester began. through some type of time lapse it seems more like a month. whatever the case i currently find myself already behind. my schedule consists of an advanced design studio with critics john maruszczak and roger connah. roger is also... View full entry