FrankLloydMike's comment is spot-on. I like Dwell's imagery too, and I think that they do the trade a service by keeping popular interest in Modernism alive, especially in interiors. Still.. their images - as does all imagery - contain un-evaluated value judgments on society and satire and irony are all tools that we have to impose such an evaluation on those untested base assumptions that they expect us to digest without much questioning.
How do Modernist spaces really get filled out with life? I think occasional pictures that surface of apartments in the Unite d'Habitation offer some clue:
Or the comfortably ad hocish offices of the Stata Center
Or the colorful markets and gardens of Chandigarh (take that hipsters!)
I think the wonderful thing about modernism is that it presents a flexible and open canvas for how spaces can be used.
I read the satire as aimed squarely at the magazine's photographers and editors--the style-mad producers of the images.
The folks in the photos bear the brunt of the joke, but they're innocent bystanders--posed by the photographer, the image then chosen by the editor so keen on invoking a tragically hip sense of ennui, alienation, and insouciance. (Take THAT, hipster ironists!)
how about some Jamaican hipsters
I think the perceived attitude towards hipsters negates the fact that it is a global cultural phenomena. Similarly much of the commentary is more responsive to the attitude the photographers are aiming to catch in the images... versus say for instance the happy socialite at the Hamptons taken for Digest
I agree about the flexibility offered by contemporary space. People walk into my house and say wow because it's rambling open space in a neighborhood of center hall Colonials.
Love that Chandigarh image - I'm a big fan of both the sublime blank wall AND the messy vitality. And trees are always welcome.
Do these people spend all of their time cleaning up after themselves to maintain that perfectly polished and minimalist look, or do they have maids? robots?
i have to say UHH is hilarious imho and i am puzzled by someone who doesn't find it amusing too. "If it weren’t for her nocturnal fantasies, their marriage wouldn’t stand a chance." COME ON!!!!! that's flippin' funny.
LB, she's not a psychologist, she's a branding consultant, despite the masthead. None the less the concern is warranted - there are many out there who see consumption as the only route to happiness.
It is sad to see the irony of the unhappy hipster site co-opted in that way - I think I found it so funny because it tapped in to my own desire to live a minimal life and allowed me to laugh at the remote-ness of the ideal.
i stand by my initial comment [01/28/10 9:31]. if this were an inside-architecture joke, it might be funny, but it's not.
the psychology today article shows how someone can see UHH, make a bunch of assumptions, and run with it - and be (i think) completely wrong.
doesn't do us any favors, unless we aspire to spending the next couple of decades doing renovations that put colonial faces on mid-century houses.
all i really get from UHH is that dwell (who i'm sure have paid attention) would do well to curate their photography a little differently in the future.
personally, I found this thread but illuminating and entertaining... as I tried to point out, modernism comes in many forms. Hipster-inhabited is only one form, and not the truest to the movement. The choice should not be between Hipster modernism and retrofitted neo-colonial facades.
i know i am not hip, but i am white, i'm not hip because i dont fit that chart.
i love that site btw.
every time i look at dwell i am reminded of two things; real people don't live that way, i like modern, but i also like kitsch and oddball stuff, like the pieces i got from grandma and mom. the second thing i know is this, a lot of times magazines and/or architects bring in additional pieces of furniture that are reflective of the residence and might be not so subtle product placement. i mean jesus, how many of those photos have eames pieces in their? christ on shrimp toast, dwell is practically mid-mod central.
oh, i hate pbr, i don't smoke pipes, i dont have an itouch, although i would like i single speed.
Claire Denis' '35 Rhums' ('35 Shots of Rum') - the 2008 French film - provides a good account of people living amidst non-hipster modernism in the Parisien banlieue
Again, I stated it before in this thread and I'll say it again: that blog is more about the pretentions of architectural photography than anything it says about modernism. As shown in a picture from Corbu's Unite that someone posted before, people will use and furnish modernist spaces as they see fit, but you wouldn't know that from most architectural photography.
Look at this In Focus on Luc Roymans: every interior shown is completely stripped of any human appurtenances and objects, except the ubiquitous carefully-placed vases and laptops. These photos are basically lies, architectural porn for architects, except some porn at least stimulates, whereas these leave one cold. I mean, look at the photo of a project by Kove d-sign of the guy in an office staring at his laptop: there are no other objects or work tools to be see, in fact no sign at all, except some papers neatly filed away on the bookshelf, that any work is actually going on in that space. Then look at the picture above it: this is his also his home, his living space, but other than a faucet and stovetop, there is not one object or sign that he actually LIVES there.
And all this is to show what, exactly: that modern people are androids? that a person who lives in a modern house or works in a modern office should be obsessively and frighteningly clean and orderly? that architects can't stand to see real life in their photography?
emilio, have you worked with a professional photographer on a photo shoot of architecture? i ask because i agree with you to a point. it's as much about the photo/photographer and the control of the art/image as it is about the architecture. the photograph is about staging, about pulling the wool over the viewer's eyes, nothing in the image tells the whole truth, in fact i would say it's more fiction, a nicely constructed fiction.
i have seen it first hand, i worked on several shoots with a professional architectural photographer and the spaces i saw first hand, were not the same ones ultimately published.
yes, I have been with a photographer on an architectural photo shoot, and I agree with you that it's totally about staging, and it has more in common with a movie shoot than anything...angle, lighting, etc. All art is a fiction to a great degree, even "realist" art. What bugs me about a certain type of architectural photography is the degree to which it is staged, removing all sign of "messiness" and placing people in fake and unnatural poses, in a sickening effort to strip away all warmth and humanity, and supposedly to show the "architecture" only, whatever that means.
If there was any question about the appropriateness of the term 'hipster' being used as this blog title, today's post should change your mind:
He gently suggested that his friend might consider a tonsorial parlor to remove the Flanders ‘stache.
In the interests of diversity, can we please have a few African-, Asian-, and Latino-American hipsters? I mean, just for good measure? Hipsterdom should reflect the demographic make-up of this great nation.
I once picked lent of carpet while assisting an architectural photographer who did shoots for Gropius....Actually it was a real enjoyable day. Way better than being in the office running diazo prints in an ammonia filled room. Now that I think about it I'm lucky to be alive..
hipsters are nothing more than modern day hippies and grown up emos.
Of course they are lonely...that has been the overarching objective of "modernism" since the beginning... alienate, divide, and conquer the soul from the Divine human within and replace it with a soulless worship of the animal within.
I took part in a drum circle this weekend, my first one, though I've wanted to try it for decades. I felt immediately, completely at home and could have drummed all night. Clearly I'm far more hippie than hipster, yet my house is essentially bare.
depict mr. hanky and family as the hipsters in these images. they also live in a wannabe-antiseptic white minimalist environment..well, for a short while.
or we can work on something a bit more Lynchian, subtly macabre. David Cuthbert's picture above...instead of a dog collar...a discreet throat slit. red carpet and red on red.
unhappy hipsters - it's lonely in the modern world
"WE ARE NOT AMUSED!"
FrankLloydMike's comment is spot-on. I like Dwell's imagery too, and I think that they do the trade a service by keeping popular interest in Modernism alive, especially in interiors. Still.. their images - as does all imagery - contain un-evaluated value judgments on society and satire and irony are all tools that we have to impose such an evaluation on those untested base assumptions that they expect us to digest without much questioning.
How do Modernist spaces really get filled out with life? I think occasional pictures that surface of apartments in the Unite d'Habitation offer some clue:
Or the comfortably ad hocish offices of the Stata Center
Or the colorful markets and gardens of Chandigarh (take that hipsters!)
I think the wonderful thing about modernism is that it presents a flexible and open canvas for how spaces can be used.
oops.. sorry.. sizing issues on that last image
I read the satire as aimed squarely at the magazine's photographers and editors--the style-mad producers of the images.
The folks in the photos bear the brunt of the joke, but they're innocent bystanders--posed by the photographer, the image then chosen by the editor so keen on invoking a tragically hip sense of ennui, alienation, and insouciance. (Take THAT, hipster ironists!)
how about some Jamaican hipsters
I think the perceived attitude towards hipsters negates the fact that it is a global cultural phenomena. Similarly much of the commentary is more responsive to the attitude the photographers are aiming to catch in the images... versus say for instance the happy socialite at the Hamptons taken for Digest
Evoluton of the Hipster:
in readable high resolution:
http://monospectra.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screenshot-1.png
techno, those jamaican hipsters are infinitely cooler than any of the silverlake variety could ever hope to be.
Wow, great pictures, Urbanist.
I agree about the flexibility offered by contemporary space. People walk into my house and say wow because it's rambling open space in a neighborhood of center hall Colonials.
Love that Chandigarh image - I'm a big fan of both the sublime blank wall AND the messy vitality. And trees are always welcome.
"edificial suicide"
That phrase alone deserves an award.
Archie...I think I know that lady but she doesn't live in the Hamptons. She is Bill Clintons neighbor, and an interior designer.
I luv that website. It makes me realize how designers take themselves too seriously. Stupid idiots we are!
<img src="http://media.dwell.com/images/518*643/kingston-house-kitchen.jpg">
Okay,
Do these people spend all of their time cleaning up after themselves to maintain that perfectly polished and minimalist look, or do they have maids? robots?
i have to say UHH is hilarious imho and i am puzzled by someone who doesn't find it amusing too. "If it weren’t for her nocturnal fantasies, their marriage wouldn’t stand a chance." COME ON!!!!! that's flippin' funny.
Urbanist - you should post old pictures of the interior of the Eames' house... that's perhaps the most cluttered modernist space I've ever seen.
Modernism after the fall:
They came for the last hipster before dawn...
LB, she's not a psychologist, she's a branding consultant, despite the masthead. None the less the concern is warranted - there are many out there who see consumption as the only route to happiness.
It is sad to see the irony of the unhappy hipster site co-opted in that way - I think I found it so funny because it tapped in to my own desire to live a minimal life and allowed me to laugh at the remote-ness of the ideal.
solo poetry slam - it's my new fave.
i stand by my initial comment [01/28/10 9:31]. if this were an inside-architecture joke, it might be funny, but it's not.
the psychology today article shows how someone can see UHH, make a bunch of assumptions, and run with it - and be (i think) completely wrong.
doesn't do us any favors, unless we aspire to spending the next couple of decades doing renovations that put colonial faces on mid-century houses.
all i really get from UHH is that dwell (who i'm sure have paid attention) would do well to curate their photography a little differently in the future.
personally, I found this thread but illuminating and entertaining... as I tried to point out, modernism comes in many forms. Hipster-inhabited is only one form, and not the truest to the movement. The choice should not be between Hipster modernism and retrofitted neo-colonial facades.
Oh, please, Dwell for the masses, no way!
Remember, the "functionalism" implicit in the Athens Charter and CIAM IV was all about mass housing for the masses ;-)
Brasilia was never intended for da hipsters.... neither was Chandigarh
i know i am not hip, but i am white, i'm not hip because i dont fit that chart.
i love that site btw.
every time i look at dwell i am reminded of two things; real people don't live that way, i like modern, but i also like kitsch and oddball stuff, like the pieces i got from grandma and mom. the second thing i know is this, a lot of times magazines and/or architects bring in additional pieces of furniture that are reflective of the residence and might be not so subtle product placement. i mean jesus, how many of those photos have eames pieces in their? christ on shrimp toast, dwell is practically mid-mod central.
oh, i hate pbr, i don't smoke pipes, i dont have an itouch, although i would like i single speed.
ps. white people suck.
Claire Denis' '35 Rhums' ('35 Shots of Rum') - the 2008 French film - provides a good account of people living amidst non-hipster modernism in the Parisien banlieue
Again, I stated it before in this thread and I'll say it again: that blog is more about the pretentions of architectural photography than anything it says about modernism. As shown in a picture from Corbu's Unite that someone posted before, people will use and furnish modernist spaces as they see fit, but you wouldn't know that from most architectural photography.
Look at this In Focus on Luc Roymans: every interior shown is completely stripped of any human appurtenances and objects, except the ubiquitous carefully-placed vases and laptops. These photos are basically lies, architectural porn for architects, except some porn at least stimulates, whereas these leave one cold. I mean, look at the photo of a project by Kove d-sign of the guy in an office staring at his laptop: there are no other objects or work tools to be see, in fact no sign at all, except some papers neatly filed away on the bookshelf, that any work is actually going on in that space. Then look at the picture above it: this is his also his home, his living space, but other than a faucet and stovetop, there is not one object or sign that he actually LIVES there.
And all this is to show what, exactly: that modern people are androids? that a person who lives in a modern house or works in a modern office should be obsessively and frighteningly clean and orderly? that architects can't stand to see real life in their photography?
emilio, have you worked with a professional photographer on a photo shoot of architecture? i ask because i agree with you to a point. it's as much about the photo/photographer and the control of the art/image as it is about the architecture. the photograph is about staging, about pulling the wool over the viewer's eyes, nothing in the image tells the whole truth, in fact i would say it's more fiction, a nicely constructed fiction.
i have seen it first hand, i worked on several shoots with a professional architectural photographer and the spaces i saw first hand, were not the same ones ultimately published.
yes, I have been with a photographer on an architectural photo shoot, and I agree with you that it's totally about staging, and it has more in common with a movie shoot than anything...angle, lighting, etc. All art is a fiction to a great degree, even "realist" art. What bugs me about a certain type of architectural photography is the degree to which it is staged, removing all sign of "messiness" and placing people in fake and unnatural poses, in a sickening effort to strip away all warmth and humanity, and supposedly to show the "architecture" only, whatever that means.
If there was any question about the appropriateness of the term 'hipster' being used as this blog title, today's post should change your mind:
He gently suggested that his friend might consider a tonsorial parlor to remove the Flanders ‘stache.
In the interests of diversity, can we please have a few African-, Asian-, and Latino-American hipsters? I mean, just for good measure? Hipsterdom should reflect the demographic make-up of this great nation.
I once picked lent of carpet while assisting an architectural photographer who did shoots for Gropius....Actually it was a real enjoyable day. Way better than being in the office running diazo prints in an ammonia filled room. Now that I think about it I'm lucky to be alive..
The unhappy hipsters, unable to continue face their repressed and lonely lives and their meaningless futures, finally erupt into open unrest:
unrest that prompts, in turn, the great modern edifice of their world to show its true face:
mdler's project made it!
The stools huddled together, braced for another one of his incoherent solo poetry slams.
Yay mdler!
hipsters are nothing more than modern day hippies and grown up emos.
Of course they are lonely...that has been the overarching objective of "modernism" since the beginning... alienate, divide, and conquer the soul from the Divine human within and replace it with a soulless worship of the animal within.
The "Hipster: The Dead End to Western Civ" is a good article
okay tried to publish this earlier
my number one Hipster! Zippy!
I took part in a drum circle this weekend, my first one, though I've wanted to try it for decades. I felt immediately, completely at home and could have drummed all night. Clearly I'm far more hippie than hipster, yet my house is essentially bare.
Also: I love Zippy.
hey david adjaye made the unhappy hipsterereres
If houses could get punched, this one would have cauliflower ears.
yea! my favorite thread is back!
your favorite thread is now a book ->
omgwillikers !!
I love it that this thread is back. Although I confess I still haven't figured out how to be a hipster yet.
these hip-stirs don't believe you, urby!
depict mr. hanky and family as the hipsters in these images. they also live in a wannabe-antiseptic white minimalist environment..well, for a short while.
or we can work on something a bit more Lynchian, subtly macabre. David Cuthbert's picture above...instead of a dog collar...a discreet throat slit. red carpet and red on red.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.