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    Breaking the Silence

    Matthew Messner
    Jun 14, '13 1:11 AM EST

    Please do not misconstrue my long silence as a lack of activity.

     

    Among other things since the end of the school year, about 4 weeks ago, I have moved to LA for the summer to work with a friend.  I am enjoying the sun (I work outside in everyday).  Especially considering that it looks like summer might just take a pass on Chicago this year.  I will be back to UIC in the fall to finish my Masters of Art and Design Criticism.

     

    As far as this blog goes, I do have a great deal of work to post.  I need to get write ups from my, now former, classmates, but everyone is just a little burnt.   As for my own final project (it was actually a team project)  I have had to hold up on publishing it as it was up for certain awards, and I did not want to in inadvertently disqualify our entry.  I will still be holding it back for a moment while we get it all in order for a true debut.   I will give one look at it though, but that's all I'm going to give you.

     

    Most likely due to my MAD-Crit curriculum, I have found my self thinking a great deal about the roll of blogs.  I have all but abandoned my other blog, The Operable Window, as its roll as a sounding board to share things with my peers has been nipped by facebook.  It never necessarily aspired to be for the world outside the circle of my acquaintances  so I don't really have a need for it.

    I have been doing a ton of writing.  Much of it has been very appropriate for the "blogosphere", but as I am often submitting pieces for print publication I hold back on posting them here.  I am one of the believers in blogs as a powerful medium that has not reached its full potential, even though the number of blogs seems to have simmered down over the years.  I hope to find a balance between my design work, my work for publication and my blog writing at some point.  Hopefully soon.  Don't worry, Archinect will be the first to know.

     

    Cheers

    matthew



     
    • 2 Comments

    • are the pieces specifically re: criticism/are pieces of criticism? If so would love to read some if/when they are published...

      one issue re: blogging is that in some cases I feel blogs have sort of been folded into/become an extension of an firm or academic's website and this raises the question is blogging more about form, platform or what?...

      Jun 18, 13 8:46 pm  · 
       · 

      A bit of both, if I understand your comment.  Generally I have written many pieces in the form of blog style articles.  Short, informal, accessible.  

      Also the conversation about blogging as a medium has come up.  I have not written specifically about blogging, but have written a great deal about the roll of amateur photography deployed and distributed through flickr and instagram, and its affect, or lack there of, on Architecture as a discipline.  Those pieces are in the same vain as the blog discussion.   Watch for one of those article to be published soon.

      As a general observation, I believe that the roll of blogs, though just as broad or broader than in the past, has become much more refined.  That zeroing in on different forms of blogging I find very interesting.  

      As for this blog, it has always been, shamelessly so, a "web log" of the work coming out of my school.  The pieces of criticism that have appeared, by me or my peers, are just that as well.  My goal has always been, shamelessly, to promote the work of my peers and the general community around me, of which I am proud to be a part of.   It is by no means an official outlet for the school.  They have their own Architect page. 

      With that said, this blog, or one like it, may start to transform as my focus turns more completely, at least in academia, to criticism.  I may take the advice of Alexandra Lang, and write a piece of criticism everyday (I doubt I will be able to keep that going, but something along those lines).

      Stay tuned. 

      Jun 19, 13 1:08 am  · 
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