are you there archinect? it's me, crilly... and it's been seven days since my last confession.

the past week was a blur of studio work with a handful of socialising and some whatnot thrown in for good measure.

with some help from my old friend photoshop, some clippings from old wallpaper* mags, a bit of internet porn, some plexiglass and an orbital sander, i was good to go on my collages. plotted it on the huge epson(?) in the arch computer lab. it cost me 6 bucks and came out magnificently. i'll definitely go this route in the future, even though getting "printer dollars" through the office is a fucking pain in the nuts.

this week we're translating that 2D piece (an exploration of the concept of "threshold" as experienced through opposite concepts, e.g. interior/exterior or public/private, etc.) into a 3D piece. my attempts this weekend met with varied success, the best being a 10-hour modelfest which was full of lovely complex curves and various materials (and promptly trounced for gehryness which, though i could see it, disturbed me), but which could probably have been done much easier and much clearer with "fewer words". further refinement to come this week and next. i was pretty satisfied with the amount of research i put into the conceptual stages of this project, though i'm struggling to manifest that physically at the moment.

along those lines, i'm really finding it tough to integrate outside influences, readings, interests into my work right now. and i wish i could get to that point soon.

in my history class, we've been running through late gothic, renaissance, mannerism, and now baroque with dr. ameri. i've written two summarys for this class so far -- we've got one due every two weeks. didn't score as well as i'd hoped on the first one... keeping up with the reading and then having time to write the papers well is much more difficult for me this semester while faced with studio demands.

on friday afternoons, we've been having "faculty conversations" wherein we cut out at 4:00 and listen to a select professor detail their background and influences for an hour. so far i've been impressed with the people on staff here -- boscanin, shiga, and ameri from personal experience, and from the looks of it, knight and barton are also quality. perhaps PSU is where good profs come to dropout and enjoy the weather?

i went and got myself involved with the architecture student organisation here. initially i volunteered to be a rep from our studio and it's snowballed from there i guess. shiga is the faculty advisor and there are maybe 20 other students selected from various years' studios too. now that it's official that PSU's program will NOT be accredited this year or any other, the department seems to be on the verge of a transitional period with respect to its direction and curriculum. the feeling expressed among the ArchSO is that an arch culture is sorely lacking here and that should be remedied immediately if possible in order to provide a quality experience to the students in spite of non-accreditation and perhaps hope for the outside chance that something really special can begin to be born that makes the tradeoff of going through this program a satisfactory one. obvious stuff like fieldtrips (mt. angel, seattle, etc.), shop, site and firm visits, peer networking between lower and upper division students and continuing realisation of a senior show are early candidates for improving our image and enriching the experience for us collectively.

i also pointed out the fact that the department website is shit. so with another guy i got tasked with looking into creating a student site. i'd love to see something more interactive get assembled, that can be of use not only to current students, but prospective ones as well. having read through the department pages, my initial decision to come here was a leap of faith to say the least.

i also made time this week for some socialising with studiomates at drinking establishments. this was more enriching than i'd anticipated and making personal connections with those around me has to continue to be a priority for me as it exposes me to other thoughts and experiences of the program and um... beer?